Box Jumpers

This is a cute trick in which the four Queens are personified as four magicians’ assistants performing a stage illusion in miniature involving the card box and a chosen card.

JUMP AHEAD

On This Page

Effect
Background & Credits
Requirements & Preparation
Method & Presentation
Cleanup & Reset
Performance Tips & Additional Ideas
Final Thoughts

Effect

The four Queens are removed from the deck and placed aside. A card is chosen and lost in the pack. The two red Queens are placed on the table, while the black Queens are put into the card box. The red Queens are tapped against the box, at which point they transpose with the black Queens. When the box is opened, three cards are removed: the two red Queens with the selected card between them!

Background & Credits

This is a simplified version of “Jacks in the Box” By David Solomon (Solomon’s Mind, 1997, page 65). The trick is also featured in The Elmsley Count Project by Liam Montier and Big Blind Media.

I love the original, but you must start with one of the Jacks already in the card box. While this is a simple setup, it does require some forethought and excludes this trick from the impromptu category. The main advantage of “Box Jumpers” is that the card box begins empty and can be examined before and after the effect has finished. I’ve also eliminated the Elmsley Count.

Requirements & Preparation

A regular deck of playing cards and a card box.

Method & Presentation

Openly remove the four Queens from the deck or, better yet, use a four-card production sequence to make them appear in a suitably impressive manner. Arrange them in the following order: QC-QH-QS-QD (the Queen of Diamonds being the face card of the packet). Place them in a face-up pile to one side.

Have a card selected. As you close up the spread, establish a little finger break below the chosen card. Tell a spectator to pick up the four Queens and verify that they’re what they appear to be: four ordinary playing cards.

While they’re occupied examining the Queens, control the card to the bottom of the deck using your preferred method, e.g., a pass or a Double Undercut.

Perform a Pinky Pulldown on the bottom card of the deck (the selected card). Regrip the deck in right-hand end grip, transferring the break to your right thumb.

Extend your open left hand towards the participant, signalling that they should return the four Queens to your possession. (If the cards are handed to you face up, use the fingers and thumb of your left hand to rotate the packet face down.) Hand the deck to your participant for shuffling. As you pass the deck over your left hand, secretly transfer the selected card below the break to the top of the packet.

Once your helper is satisfied that their chosen card is hopelessly lost, tell them to place the deck on the table.

Situation Check: Your participant believes that their chosen card is lost somewhere in the deck. However, it is on top of the four-Queen packet held in your left hand.

You’re now going to perform a variation of the Ascanio Spread that will display the four Queens, front and back, and also arrange them in the correct order for the upcoming transposition of red and black cards.

Flip the cards face up, then transfer the packet into right-hand end grip. Using your left thumb, peel off the face card (the Queen of Diamonds) into a high left-hand dealer’s grip. Repeat this action with the following two cards (the Queen of Spades and Hearts), leaving them side-jogged to the right. This will leave you holding the Queen of Clubs in right-hand end grip with the selected card hidden behind it.

Instead of stripping out the double card and placing it on the face of the small fan, keep it underneath the Queen of Hearts, pushing the double further to your left so the cards are positioned between the second and fourth cards in the fan. As you do this, your left thumb slides the Queen of Hearts a fraction of an inch to your right, evening up the fan. Once these two cards, still held as one, occupy the third position in the fan, remove your right hand while maintaining pressure with your left thumb. With practice, you can form a neat fan of four cards (?) while also concealing the chosen card behind the Queen of Clubs in the centre of the fan.

Display the front and back of the fan to your audience, as you say, “Imagine that these four Queens are my dazzling assistants on a glitzy and glamorous Las Vegas stage. They’re about to present a most spectacular illusion with this mysterious box. Please verify it’s empty and completely solid—no slits, holes, or hidden trap doors.”

Square up the fan, being careful not to expose the hidden selection in the centre. Flip the cards face down. You’re now going to perform an easy version of Dr. Daley’s Last Trick, as follows:

Holding the packet in right-hand end grip, thumb off three cards, one at a time, into your left hand. This will leave you with a double card in your right hand. Turn your right hand palm up to display the Queen of Hearts. Drop the double card on top of the left-hand packet, then deal the top card to the table (the Queen of Clubs).

Regrip the remaining cards in right-hand end grip, then thumb the top two cards into your left hand. Flash the face of the double card (the Queen of diamonds), and drop it on top of the left-hand cards. Deal the top card to the table on top of the one already there.

Pinch the three-card packet by its top right-hand corner between the fingers and thumb of your right hand, thumb on top and fingers below. This frees up your left hand, enabling you to pick up the card box. Slide the three-card packet into the box as you say, “I’ll put the two black Queens in the box.” Close the box and place it in front of your participant on the table.

Situation Check: The two cards on the table are the black Queens, but your audience believes them to be the red ones. The red Queens are in the card box with the chosen card between them. The hard work has been done—all that remains is a healthy portion of panache!

Pick up the red Queens (?) and tap them against the box, as you say, “In Las Vegas, they call these lovely ladies ‘box jumpers’ because they’re always jumping in and out of boxes. But there’s another reason they’ve earned this nickname. Look, if I tap the red Queens against the box… they become the black Queens!”

Drop the black Queens on the table, then pick up the box, open it and remove the three-card packet. Slowly spread the packet to display three cards, then rotate the top and bottom cards face up to display the two red Queens, replacing them in such a way that the face-down centre card is outjogged. Strip out the face-down card, raising it to chest height, keeping the back of the card to your audience. Pause a beat, then slowly rotate the card so that everyone can see its face.

Pick up the four Queens, displaying them in a fan, and say, “And that’s the real secret of the Las Vegas magic scene: the box jumpers do all the hard work while the magicians take all the credit!”

Cleanup & Reset

No cleanup or reset is required.

Performance Tips & Additional Ideas

If you prefer, you can use the four Jacks as David Solomon did. However, I like the “illusion in miniature” presentation and the patter lines about box jumpers. This slang term is regarded as offensive by some women working in the magic industry, so you might want to avoid it. I’ve included the final truism about box jumpers to raise awareness among the general public about the hidden work that magicians’ assistants often perform behind the scenes during a big illusion show. Although the final line is delivered as a joke, the point I’m trying to make is a legitimate one.

I like to perform “Box Jumpers” after “Pipo’s Perverse Production” (substituting the Kings in that routine for the Queens). To do this, you need to modify the handling a little. At the end of “Pipo’s Perverse Production”, the chosen card is face up on the deck. The four Queens are in a vertical spread on the table in the following order: QS-QC-QD-QH (the Queen of Hearts is the face card of the spread). Pick up the Queens without changing their order and drop them on top of the selection, keeping all cards face up.

Spread over the top few cards of the deck to display the face-up cards. As you close up, catch a break below the first face-down card. Lift all six cards above the break off the pack in right-hand end grip, then table the deck.

Thumb the four Queens into your left hand, letting each one rotate face down as you do so. (The edge of the right-hand packet is used to flip each Queen face down). This will leave you holding two cards in right-hand end grip (the face-up selection with a face-down indifferent card below it). Place this double on top of the cards in your left hand, keeping a break between it and the four face-down Queens below it.

Cut the deck in two, and then perform an Illogical Double Lift to switch the chosen card for the indifferent one. Tap both piles with the card in your right hand, as you say, “Do you want your card to go here or here?” Place the card on the indicated pile, then drop the other one on top, apparently burying the selection in the middle of the deck.

Flip the five-card packet face up, then form a small fan as described above. Square up the cards and slip cut the Queen of Clubs to second from bottom of the face-up packet. Turn the entire packet face down, then slip cut the top card—the Queen of Hearts—to second from the bottom. You’re now in a position to carry on with the rest of the routine as described above.

Final Thoughts

The only things I’ve added to David Solomon’s charming routine are the simplified handling and the “Box Jumpers” presentation—the effect itself is unchanged.