Some magic tricks are so neatly executed that no matter how many times we see them, they never get old.
Take the basic pick-a-card trick, for instance. Most magicians will ask a member of their audience to pick any card in the middle of a deck then return it anywhere within that deck and after a few shuffles; the magician will pick the exact same card that the audience member picked.
English magician Ali Cook, one of the six performers that will headline the “Impossible” magic touring show scheduled at the Smart Araneta Coliseum starting this Christmas Day, performed two variations of the classic card trick during the press conference to promote the anticipated Christmas attraction.
In the first trick, Cook asked a member of media to help him out with what he called a “psychological magic” trick. He then showed an “invisible” deck of cards, passed it to the guy named Andres to carefully shuffle it and then asked a lady to reach in and take any “card.”
Cook then asked the lady to think of any card she had in mind; she was really not holding any card at all. He then asked her to return the “card” face down in the deck. After asking Andres to throw the “cards” up in the air, Cook then revealed a real deck of cards. He then asked the lady what particular card she was thinking about when he asked her to pick any invisible “card.”
The lady said it was the ace of hearts.
Taking the deck of cards away from its box, Cook then revealed only one card that had its face down. The card was revealed to be… the ace of hearts.
He then followed this trick up with another popular trick — that of a disappearing ring. After borrowing a ring from another female member of media, Cook then asked her to swap the ring for the two walnuts that he had asked her to hold. The magician then covered her ring with his “handkerchief of doom” which he asked a guy to hold. After asking the guy to let go of the hanky, the ring disappeared.
The ring as it turned out was inside one of the two walnuts that the lady was holding all along which Cook revealed, using a nut cracker.
For his final trick, Cook went back to the pick-a-card trick, this time taking a slightly more conventional approach to it.
This time, he asked a gentleman to shuffle another deck of cards. He then asked the volunteer to show it to the audience and asked another guy to pick any card. Turning his back, Cook then asked the guy to show to everyone the card he picked, which was an ace of clubs or as more popular to Filipinos, ace of flowers.
After the card was returned to the deck, Cook then proceeded to leave the deck on the floor. To everyone’s amazement, a card separated itself from the deck and was later revealed to be the exact card that the volunteer had picked.
Known as a master of multiple magical trades, Ali Cook is a daring escapologist, sleight of hand expert, stage illusionist and performer of thought control. He is expected to bring his innovative magic shows to the Big Dome along with equally acclaimed magicians Ben Hart, Magical Bones, Chris Cox, Josephine Lee and Bello Nock in “Impossible.”
Dubbed as the “World’s Greatest Magic Show,” “Impossible” is presented by Wilbros Live.
Tickets for as low as P160 are available at ticketnet.com.ph.
Watch Ali Cook perform his neat magic tricks in this video by Yummie Dingding:
(With a report by Yummie Dingding)