The Little King Who Wasn't There
This is a cute packet trick set to rhyming prose. The trick uses a modified version of the poem “Antigonish” by Hughes Mearns, commonly known as “The Little Man Who Wasn’t There”:
Yesterday, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn’t there.
He wasn’t there again today,
I wish, I wish he’d go away…When I came home last night at three,
The man was waiting there for me.
But when I looked around the hall,
I couldn’t see him there at all!
Go away, go away, don’t you come back any more!
Go away, go away, and please don’t slam the door…Last night I saw upon the stair,
A little man who wasn’t there.
He wasn’t there again today,
Oh, how I wish he’d go away…
The description of the routine makes it seem unnecessarily lengthy and complicated. However, the trick is designed to last as long as it takes to recite the poem slowly. It incorporates standard sleight-of-hand techniques, so if you’re already familiar with one or two packet tricks, this routine should not present too much of a challenge.
JUMP AHEAD
On This Page
Effect
Background & Credits
Requirements & Preparation
Method & Presentation
Cleanup & Reset
Performance Tips & Additional Ideas
Final Thoughts
Effect
You display four blank-faced playing cards, explaining that they’re “factory misprints”. You tell your audience you will recite one of your favourite poems, “Antigonish” by Hughes Mearns, and illustrate it by manipulating the four blank cards.
As you recite the poem, one of the cards visually transforms into the King of Clubs. It disappears and then reappears before turning into the Three of Clubs.
Finally, all four blank-faced cards change into the King of Clubs!
Background & Credits
The inspiration for this routine was “Poetry in Motion” by Roy Walton, which can be found in The Complete Walton Vol. 3 (2016, page 204-206). In Walton’s trick, four indifferent spot cards are used. One turns face up and transforms into a King. After disappearing and reappearing (the card turns face down, then face up again), the other three cards also transform into Kings. “Poetry in Motion” is based on a similar trick by Bob Neale from The Crimp Issue #5, the underground magic zine written and published by Jerry Sadowitz (I’m unsure of the trick’s title because I don’t own a copy of this magazine). “Poetry in Motion” was first published in The Crimp Issue #8.
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| Photograph of Hughes Mearns. Photo Credit: The University of Chicago Divinity School. |
The presentation for both tricks uses a version of the popular poem “Antigonish” by the American educator and poet William Hughes Mearns (1875-1965). The poem, with its theme of an unseen ghostly presence, perfectly complements the mysterious nature of a magic trick. Mearns was inspired to write the poem by reports of an invisible spirit haunting a house in the small, picturesque Canadian city of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, hence the somewhat odd-sounding title of the poem. It was originally part of a play called “The Psycho-Ed”, which he had written for an English class at Harvard University circa 1899. Hearing the passage more than twenty years later, Franklin P. Adams printed it on March 27th, 1922, in his New York World newspaper column under Mearn’s title of “Antigonish”. Mearns went on to write many humorous parodies of it, which he called “Later Antigonishes”.
The poem, which has become deeply embedded in popular culture, is more often called “The Little Man Who Wasn’t There”, thanks to a musical version by the Glenn Miller Orchestra, featuring vocals by Tex Beneke, that was a big hit in 1939.
In 2016, an electro-swing artist from New Zealand named The Odd Chap released a version that used samples from the Glenn Miller Band recording. The song is a bona fide banger! 😉
Additionally, the poem inspired the title of the neo-noir crime film The Man Who Wasn’t There, directed by the Coen Brothers. A version of the poem also appeared in the 2003 American psychological thriller Identity, directed by James Mangold.
While I appreciate the simplicity and elegance of Roy Walton’s routine, it only incorporates the poem’s first verse. I assume that Bob Neale did not use the second and third verses either. This is my attempt to create a routine that can be performed while reciting all three verses of the original poem, culminating with Roy’s additional final line to coincide with the transformation of all four cards into duplicate Kings.
Requirements & Preparation
To perform “The Little King Who Wasn’t There”, you’ll need four cards: The King of Clubs, Three of Clubs and two blank-faced playing cards with matching back designs.
Arrange the cards in the following order (where BF is a blank-faced card): KC-3C-BF-BF. The King of Clubs is the top card of the face-down packet. Put these cards in your shirt or jacket breast pocket, or in a wallet or envelope. You’re now ready to begin.
Method & Presentation
Remove the cards, as you say, “The great Austro-Hungarian magician Johann Nepomuk Hofzinser believed that conjuring with cards was the poetry of magic. Let’s see if he was right, shall we?”
Continue by saying, “Here I have four very peculiar pasteboards. They have backs but no faces!” As you deliver this line, perform the following diminishing lift sequence: establish a break below the top three cards of the packet, then perform a triple turnover to display the first blank face to your audience. Repeat the block turnover of three cards, then take the top card of the packet in your right hand, thumb on top, fingers below. Next, using the fingers of your right hand, perform a double turnover to display another blank face on top of the three-card packet in your left hand. Repeat the turnover, then slide the top card underneath the one already held by your right fingers and thumb. Push the top card of those in your left hand to your right and, using the two cards held in your right hand, lever it face up to display a third blank face. Repeat flipping the card face down, then slide it under the two in your right hand. Finally, use these three cards to flip the final card face up. Pause a beat, then place this card on top of the three in your right hand, replacing all four cards into left-hand dealer’s grip. Flip the top card face down to complete the diminishing lift sequence.
To further convince your audience that all four cards have blank faces, perform a Flushtration Count on the packet, reversing the order of the cards. As there is a blank-faced playing card on the top and bottom of the packet, you can turn your left hand palm down as you turn your right-hand palm up to display two blank faces simultaneously.
Next, slip cut the top card—a blank facer—to second from the bottom. Alternatively, you can thumb the top card to the bottom of the packet.
Situation Check: After this small adjustment, the cards should be in the following order, from the top down: 3C-KC-BF-BF. The cards are now in the correct order to perform the Tongue Change—the first of six colour changes in a row!
To transform one of the cards into the King, first turn the packet face up and perform the Vernon-Christ-Annemann Alignment Move to outjog the second card from the face of the packet by about an inch or so. Next, grip the packet at its near short edge with your right hand, fingers on top, thumb below. Rotate your right hand at the wrist, turning the packet face down, replacing it in left-hand dealer’s grip. Make sure the pad of your left thumb rests on the left upper corner of the outjogged card. Contact the face card of the packet with the fingertips of your right hand. Gently push the top card flush with the outjogged card. Keep pushing until the card hits the pad of your left thumb. In this way, your left thumb acts as a stopper, ensuring the top card and outjogged card are perfectly aligned.
Rotate your left hand palm down and, at the same time, turn your right hand palm up. As you do this, maintain contact with the top card of the packet with your right fingertips. This synchronised rotation of both your hands will correctly position the packet so that you can easily grip it by its short near end with your right hand, thumb on top and fingers below. Turn your left hand palm up again, moving it under the packet, returning the cards to left-hand dealer’s grip. With practice, the sequence can be performed quickly, smoothly, and as one continuous motion.
Situation Check: The second and fourth cards from the top of the face-up packet are injogged by about half their length and are perfectly aligned. The King of Clubs is face up third from the top, hidden beneath the top card of the packet.
To activate the colour change, push down on the packet with the second finger of your right hand. Rest the pad of your right thumb on the two injogged cards. Then, in one swift, sharp movement, firmly push the two cards flush with the rest of the packet. This will cause the King of Clubs to pop out of the opposite side of the packet (like a tongue sticking out of a mouth, hence the name of the colour change). The illusion created is that one of the blank cards is pushed through the packet, transforming into the King in the process. The injogged cards must be pushed flush quickly because the change is a little discrepant.
As you perform the Tongue Change, deliver the first line of the first verse of the poem: “Yesterday, upon the stair, I met a man who wasn’t there.”
Turn your right hand palm down and extend your right index finger. Contact the leftmost edge of the outjogged King with this finger and spin it out of the packet into your right hand, gripping it between fingers and thumb.
Using the fingers and thumb of your left hand, flip the three remaining cards in left-hand dealer’s grip face down. Temporarily turn your right hand palm down to flash the back of the King (to prove that it is a regular card) before dropping the card face up on top of the three face-down cards held in your left hand.
Create a left little finger break above the bottom card of the packet (I use a Pinky Pulldown to do this, but you could also use a buckle). Regrip the packet in right-hand end grip, transferring the break to the pad of your right thumb. Next, pull the King off the packet with your left thumb, allowing it to rotate face down and drop into left-hand dealer’s grip. In one continuous action, move the King under the packet and secretly load the card below the break on top of it, ensuring that the two cards are perfectly aligned with one another. Immediately rotate your left hand palm down to flash the face of the King one last time.
As you turn your hand palm up, replace the double card below the packet and perform the Alignment Move on it, outjogging the blank-faced card while also aligning the King with the other two cards in the packet.
To complete the switch, spin the card out as you did previously, taking the face-down King (?) in your right hand. Snap the card (or rotate it 180 degrees) then turn it face up to reveal that the face of the King has vanished almost as quickly as it appeared. As this takes place, say, “He wasn’t there again today,” and drop the face up card on top of the packet.
As you deliver the fourth and final line of the first verse of the poem (“I wish, I wish he’d go away…”), perform two rapid Through the Fist Flourishes on the packet as you say “I wish, I wish…”. Immediately follow this with Vernon’s alternative through-the-fist motion, secretly turning the packet over, causing the King to reappear.
🔥Hot Tip: Instead of using Vernon’s Through-the-Fist Flourish, you can perform a standard Twirl Change to transform the blank-faced card back into a King.
You’ve now going to transform the King into a Three to match the words of the poem.
Situation Check: The King of Clubs is face up on top of the packet. Below it is a face-up blank-faced card followed by the Three of Clubs, also face up. The other blank card is face down on the bottom of the packet.
As you begin the second verse of the poem—“When I came home last night at three,”—perform a triple turnover, then take the top card in your right hand, give it a flick, then drop it on top of the packet, allowing the card to flip face up as you do so. (Alternatively, you can rotate the card 180 degrees again, then turn it face up end-for-end and then drop it on top of the cards in your left hand.) It is important that you time the reveal of the Three of Clubs to coincide with the moment you say the word “three” in the poem.
Establish a little finger break above the bottom card of the packet and immediately lift all three cards above it off the packet. Keeping the cards squared as one, perform Marc DeSouza’s Shapeshifter Change on the three-card block to quickly transform the Three into the King. This colour change must be timed correctly to happen as you deliver the second line of the second verse: “The man was waiting there for me.”
🔥Hot Tip: Rather than using DeSouza’s Shapeshifter Change, again you can perform a standard Twirl Change to turn the Three back into a King.
Again, create a little finger break above the bottom card of the packet and cut all three cards above it to the bottom of the packet. Recite the third and fourth lines of the second verse (“But when I looked around the hall, I couldn’t see him there at all!”) and perform a standard Elmsley Count immediately followed by an Underground Elmsley Count to make the King disappear (in an Underground Elmsley Count, the last card of the count goes to the bottom of the packet). Turn the top card of the packet face down and perform another standard Elmsley Count to display four face-down cards as you say, “Go away, go away, don’t you come back any more!”
Repeat the Elmsley Count to make the King reappear face-up in the packet, as you say, “Go away, go away, and please don’t slam the door…” As you perform this second false count, outjog the King as he appears by approximately half his length. Spin the King out of the packet and drop him, still face up, on top of the packet.
Once again, get a break above the bottom card of the packet. Clamp your left thumb on top of the packet as you regrip the top three cards in right-hand end grip. Strip out the two middle cards, keeping the King in place with the aid of your left thumb. Immediately side jog the King and use the two cards in your right hand to flip it face down. Without any hesitation, drop the two cards in your right hand on top of the King and square up.
If you want to be theatrical in your delivery, you can slap the cards on the table to simulate the slamming of an imaginary door. This creates a dramatic pause before you begin the third and final verse of “Antigonish”:
Last night I saw upon the stair,
A little man who wasn’t there.
He wasn’t there again today,
Oh, how I wish he’d go away…
Too many men, I hear you say!
As you recite these lines, you will perform another diminishing lift sequence, similar to the one you performed at the beginning of the routine, to display four Kings (?). Begin by performing two consecutive triples turnovers, then two double turnovers and then a single turnover to apparently display three duplicate Kings to your audience.
As you flip the King face down, contact the bottom card of the packet from below with the fingertips of your right hand. Place the pad of your left thumb on the back of the King (the card third from the top of the packet). In one smooth motion, pull the packet’s top, second and bottom cards to your right, and simultaneously, drag the King into the left-hand dealer’s grip. Immediately flip this card face up to display the King for a fourth consecutive time. Turn the King face down and replace the card on the bottom of the packet.
Finally, perform another Flushtration Count to display four Kings once more before you square up the cards and either pocket the packet or replace it in the envelope or wallet. As you execute this final false count, say, “Too many men, I hear you say!” to conclude the routine with a well-needed dollop of dramatic flair! While this line is not part of the original poem, it makes the final four-card transformation more impactful.
Cleanup & Reset
The reset occurs instantly; the cards end up in the right order for you to repeat the routine without any adjustments to the packet.
Performance Tips & Additional Ideas
- Tongue Change
- Alignment Move Switch Change
- Through-the-Fist Flourish Change
- Triple Turnover Change
- Shapeshifter Change
- Elmsley Count Change
To prevent people from asking to examine the cards, you should place them in your pocket, envelope, or wallet as you deliver the final line of the poem: “Too many men, I hear you say.” However, the main drawback of this routine is that the multiple colour changes might lead a lay audience to believe you are using “trick cards” of some kind. To address this, you can use a Himber Wallet or a switching envelope to swap the four-card packet with four duplicate Kings as you put the cards away. If someone appears skeptical, you can take the cards out of the wallet or envelope and hand them over for examination.
Instead of swapping in a packet of four Kings that all have matching back designs, use four Kings with different coloured back designs. You can then remove the cards and perform a Flushtration, Orion, Rhumba or Kiss Count to display four blue-backed cards, for example. Finally, reveal that the four cards actually have different coloured backs. Here’s a final verse that you might want to use with this colourful kicker ending:
Last night upon the creaking stair,
Four ghostly men gave me a scare.
They spoke no words, these spirits few,
Their robes of red, green, yellow, blue!
Another way to strengthen the overall effect is to hand out four blank-faced playing cards at the beginning of the routine. Most lay people have never seen blank card stock, so they almost always want to look at the card more closely.
To do this, put the King and Three of Clubs on top of the deck (King on top). Next, distribute four blank-faced cards in the pack. In your left jacket pocket, put three duplicate Kings (with or without colourful back designs; the choice is yours). The faces of the Kings must face the interior of your pocket.
Begin the trick by shuffling the deck, retaining your two-card setup. Ribbon spread the cards across the table, calling attention to the blank-faced cards. Take them out of the spread and allow your audience to examine them closely.
As this happens, gather up the cards and establish a little finger break below the top two cards of the deck. Take back the four blanks, drop them face up on top of the deck and perform a standard Braue Addition, secretly switching out two blank cards for the King and Three.
Put the rest of the deck in your pocket, secretly loading the three face-up duplicate Kings on the bottom of the pack. When you place the deck in your pocket, you must push it between the lining of your pocket closest to your bosy and the packet of Kings; doing so will ensure that they’re added face up to the bottom of the deck.
Starting with the first Flushtration Count, pick up the four-card packet and perform the trick as outlined above. Finish by performing another Flushtration Count to display four Kings. When you reach the final card of the count, hold a break below it. Turn the King face up with your right fingers and thumb without using your left thumb to oush the card to your right as you usually would. The break will prevent you from accidentally revealing the three face-down cards below the King as you turn it over.
At the same time, rotate your left hand palm down. Without pausing, grasp the short end of the packet closest to your body between your right index finger and thumb, finger on top and your thumb below. Immediately release the packet with your left hand and adjust your grip so that the cards return to a left-hand dealer’s grip.
If executed correctly and as one smooth, continuous action, this motion will create the illusion that you’ve turned the entire packet of four Kings face up end-for-end. In reality, you have only turned the top card over.
Transfer the packet to right-hand end grip, to free up your left hand to retreive the deck from your pocket. Drop the packet on top of the deck and Cut the cards. The switch is complete. Ribbon spread the cards across the table to show four face-up Kings in the middle of the face-down deck.
Final Thoughts
This is a potent little packet trick! The rapid sequence of six colour changes creates multiple moments of magic in quick succession. All four cards suddenly transforming into matching Kings delivers a stunning climax to an already impressive effect. The accompanying poem enhances these magical transformations, weaving them into a haunting narrative that adds deeper meaning to the routine.
The routine itself is reminiscent of “The Four Card Trick” by Alex Elmsley and, in some ways, “Jumping Gemini” by Darwin Ortiz. Therefore, you could develop a different handling using either of these classic packet tricks as your starting point. You could also write “GO AWAY!” on the odd-backed card revealed at the end of Elmsley’s “The Four Card Trick”.
Even if you’re not particularly fond of poetry, I encourage you to give this poetic packet trick a chance before dismissing it. It’s a lot of fun to perform!
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