Ricochet! by R. Paul Wilson

Effect: Prepare to be blown away! Four court cards and four spot cards are removed from the deck. The performer isolates the court cards face down in front of the audience. The four spot cards are cleanly shown before, one at a time, they transform into the four court cards! Suddenly, just when they think it’s all over, the cards deliver a remarkable double whammy, leaving the audience gasping for breath and shaking their heads in disbelief. This visual knockout will fast become one of your favorite effects.

Manufacturer Says:

• Extremely Visual
• Easy To Do
• No False Counts or Difficult Sleights
• Includes Complete, Illustrated Instructions and Custom Made Gaffs

Here’s what happens. The magician brings out an opaque handkerchief and asks two spectators to hold it by the corners, forming an impromptu platform. The magician removes the aces and the kings from a deck of cards. Only these eight cards are used. The kings are placed face down onto the handkerchief. The magician holds the aces face up. One at a time each ace turns into the king of the corresponding suit. This continues until the magician holds four face up kings. The magician reaches for the four face down cards that rest on the handkerchief and says, “If these are now the kings, then these must be the…” He flips over the face down cards with his right hand. They are the kings! By the time the spectator looks back at the cards in the magician’s left hand they have changed back into the aces. The cards are tossed to the spectators. They can be examined.

Ricochet is a variation of Paul Harris’ very popular trick Reset. Paul Wilson offers two different handlings. One handling requires intermediate level sleight-of-hand. The second handling is sleight free. Curiously, both handlings play equally well for a lay audience. This means that regardless of your skill level you can perform this very strong piece of magic. In addition, the clean up is very simple and very deceptive. The spectators have eight genuine cards in their hands at the end, leaving no possibility that the method will be discovered.

Ricochet is a really fine trick. It is a fooler for both laymen and magicians. It will require some planning to incorporate it into a series of tricks, but this is always the case when you perform a trick that uses gaffed cards. I had the opportunity to watch Paul perform this on several occasions, and the reaction left nothing to be desired. Ricochet gets my vote as one of the hot card tricks of 2001. Highly recommended.

(Michael Close – Magic Magazine, July 2001)
Text Source: michaelclose.com – click for details

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