The Blurb
Now, one of the mentalism’s greatest “self-working” effects
has been simplified to the point where it really is
self-working ! One early reviewer referred to Mirabill as
“Miraskill minus the skill.”
“He told me to bring a deck of cards and we’d play a
friendly game. Never trust a man who calls a game friendly.”
I still can’t fathom how it happened. They were my cards. I
shuffled. I dealt. Yet somehow he still knew ahead of time
exactly how things would turn out.
If it had happened once I might have convinced myself he
just got lucky. But the second time destroyed any such
thoughts. How could he have known precisely how the cards
would fall?
My every decision, the play of random cards, twists of fate
only Dame Fortune should have had a clue about; did he
foresee or control them?”
Stuart James Miraskill, first published in the September
1936 edition of The Jinx, has rightfully earned its place as
a classic effect of mentalism. It is one of the most famous
contributions to The Jinx and has certainly enjoyed its
share of attention and variations.
Though often hailed as “self-working” some sleight of hand
was required. Ingenious alternatives have been explored but
none quite like Mirabill.
The premise remains the same. The mentalist predicts how the
red and black cards will fall when dealt from a borrowed and
shuffled deck. And then, just to prove it wasn’t luck, does
it again with an entirely different and even more
mind-blowing outcome.
There is no palming, no extra props, no sleights whatsoever
and Mirabill is totally impromptu and can be done with any
borrowed deck at any time. The entire effect takes place in
your guest’s hands and has been streamlined so it plays more
quickly and with even more punch than the original!
In addition The Twist is taught, pitting two guests against
one another in a unique way that drastically changes the
appearance of the game while maintaining all of the
advantages of Mirabill.
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“Bill has taken a modern classic and put some nice touches
into it. He’s made it into an ‘untouched’ routine… it all
happens in the spectator’s hands. It’s a kind of remote
viewing experiment with almost laboratory conditions. It’s
always the simple ideas like this one that become the true
stunners.”
— Greg Arce
“I’ve always avoided this effect because I felt that it was
too easy to explain and reason out. But in your
presentation, you have breathed new life into it and
rekindled my interest in it. This is a wonderful
modification, and is superbly written.”
— Tony Eye
My Comments
I first became acquainted with Stewart James' classic
Miraskill with the version printed in Scarne on Card Tricks,
a book that was my father's favorite on magic (he had an old
hardbound copy). Interestingly, I didn't realize until now
that the version in the Scarne book is not the original.
Even though it did appear in Annemann's The Jinx, I skipped
past it because I thought I was familiar with it.
Apparently, the original has some card sleights involved.
The Scarne version uses no sleights, but does use some
actions which are easy, but seem a bit contrived. If you're
not familiar with the effect, a participant deals pairs of
cards, and sorts them into piles of red cards, black cards,
and mixed pairs. The performer, who has written down
something, shows after the sorting that he knew in advance
the specific amounts of red and black pairs.
Dr. Bill has elegantly addressed the aforementioned issues
and come up with a very workable, impressive version of this
classic effect. The whole deck is not used, there are no
difficult sleights, and, unlike the Scarne version, there
are no "forced" or illogical moves. Also, Dr. Bill has
included a clever hands-off presentation in which two
participants handle the cards and even change the order of
the cards to prove that the performer has absolutely no
control over the results. Dr. Bill presents this as a
unique children's card game. For those who are fans of the
classic Miraskill, or who like doing mentalism with cards,
this very reasonably priced nine page e-book is a
delightful, elegant, and easy-to-do version of a classic.
Unquestionably recommended.