Jack McMillen by Michael Landes & Jack McMillen

Jack McMillen is famous for his (plunger) card rise. Seventy-five years after first appearing in print, it remains the preferred pure sleight of hand method for the rising cards, as well as a powerful more general concept that can be used as a force or a switch for example. If you are an avid reader of card magic literature you will no doubt have encountered other effects credited to Jack McMillen – for example in  but his name tends to slip through and very little is known about him although he is without a doubt one of the great card men of all time.

We have to thank Michael Landes who, starting more than 20 years ago on a suggestion by Paul Chosse, sat down with Jack McMillen and recorded his most important contributions to magic. Michael Landes meticulously and carefully studied every nuance and every detail to share with all of us Jack McMillen’s legacy. This is THE book on Jack McMillen. There will never be anything more authoritative on Jack than this book. The late Paul Chosse, another student of Jack McMillen, did not only suggest this book, but also generously offered to supply any material of his own that Jack and/or Mr. Landes thought appropriate. If you find any references to a ‘Jack McMillen book’ by Paul Chosse – this is it. This is the book he was referring to.

Who was Jack McMillen? Jack was an all-rounder, a technician, creator and performer, and he excelled in all three realms. Blessed with prodigious skill, he was already one of the top card men in the country while still in high school (1925-1929). Due to his widening reputation, Charlie Miller, living on the other side of the country, sought him out in 1929. They were to remain close friends for sixty years.

Blessed with a strong creative bent and an analytical mind, Jack was a superb problem solver, talented at refining the ideas of others as well as with coming up with original tricks and methods of his own. The measure of his talent lay not in the quantity of his ideas, but in their seminal quality. A startling number of his ideas continue to inspire new thinking even today. Blessed with an affable nature, gregarious personality and a fascination with the problem of making tricks entertaining, Jack evolved into a top performer. He really was truly charming, an ideal close-up magician. In spite of the miraculous impact of his tricks, the spectators primarily remembered him.

Despite his status as one of the top card magician – friend and confident to legends like Charlie Miller and - Jack never put a lot of his creations on paper. Other than the lecture notes he wrote for his Magic Castle lecture in the seventies and a single contribution to Charlie Miller’s Magicana, he never wrote up any of his material. The articles that appeared in print bearing his name were invariably written by others, with only minimal cooperation from Jack at best, and sometimes without even his knowledge or permission. As a result the descriptions usually missed salient details and were often downright inaccurate.

This ebook will set the record straight. It will describe the most important contributions of Jack McMillen in minute detail. Mixed into the technical descriptions are some wonderful anecdotes and stories which will bring the person to life.

One note of caution: This ebook does not have illustrations. We believe that the meticulous textual description allows for a more detailed and more accurate communication of method and their nuances than illustrations could provide. If you are the kind of person that quickly flies through a book glancing at a few illustrations to pick out what you think are the main nuggets of information, you will be disappointed. This is a book for the serious student of card magic. Take a deck of cards and follow along the descriptions of what you will find to be some of the most efficient and clever techniques with cards ever created.

Paul Chosse: "Jack McMillen taught me to 'Go Slow! and be sure the audience understands the plot. Jack was the most unaffected, affable, charming guy you would ever meet. An old country preacher sort of a fellow, always a smile, soft-spoken, and gentle. He epitomized the card-handling techniques that Vernon espoused: he held the pack like a little bird, gently, softly. There were no hurried movements, no "big move covers the little move" actions. Just great timing, perfect excecution, and a pleasant personality and presentation that charmed people into submission! No one wanted to catch Jack - they wanted to be fooled! They like him and wanted him to succeed - that makes a huge difference. Jack's favorite text was Erdnase, though he studied all the classics. He was always trying to be better. Jack was never quite satisfied. Even his signature tricks, things he'd done for 50 years, could be altered if he found a better way. I remember him making a change in a trick he'd been doing since the forties, because Roger Klause showed him a little thing that fit, just right, in the trick. I don't even know that it made any difference to anyone else, but it made a difference to Jack, it brought the trick just an iota closer to perfection, so he used it. In fact, it was so small a thing that the first time Jack did the "new" version of this trick for me, I didn't notice the change. But like I say, Jack didn't do it for me, he did it for himself. He was an artist, a master, and he knew that this little change made his work a bit better, for him if not for anyone else. I learned a lot about magic from Jack, and a lot about human nature, and since his tools were cards I'd have to say he was the single most influential person in my card magic education. ......."

1st edition 2011; 263 pages.

Table of Contents

4. INTRODUCTION
6. ORIGIN OF THE PROJECT
9. ADDITIONAL NOTES

   SECTION ONE: LOS ANGELES: 1925-1929

    

16. 1. STARTING OUT
16. CONTROL I
18. A BARBARY COAST SCAM
20. CONTROL II
22. THE STILL THUMB

     

26. 2. TAKE A CARD
26. Controls
26. AN INSTANTANEOUS DETECTION (Judson Brown)
28. A RIFFLE SHUFFLE CONTROL
30. Locations
30. END FOR END
31. THE RIFFLE GLIMPSE (McMillen/Brown)
33. GLIMPSE FROM THE PEEK
34. FIVE CARD FAN SELECTION
34. SHUFFLE CODE (McMillen/Brown)
35. Forces
35. SPREAD FORCE (Larsen)
36. THE CUT FORCE
37. KNIFE FORCE

     

39. 3. REVELATIONS
39. UPSIDE DOWN (Judson Brown)
40. A RETRIEVED ERROR
41. FROM ANOTHER PACK
43. THE SPECTATOR FINDS A CARD
48. REVERSED AT ANY NUMBER
49. A QUICK REVERSE
50. THE JOKER FINDS A CARD
51. THE BIDDLE COLOR CHANGE
52. A MENTAL SPELL
54. THE VOODOO CARD RISE

     

56. 4. CHARLES JORDAN
56. THE UNKNOWN LEAPER
60. EDGE MARK PREMO
61. SENSITIVE FINGERS
63. THE PAIRS POKER STACK
64. PAUL CHOSSE ON THE PAIRS POKER STACK

     

67. 5. THE J. M. CARD RISE
68. FIRST METHOD (for a single selection)
70. SECOND METHOD (two card rise)
72. THIRD METHOD (one selection)
72. FOURTH METHOD
73. PAUL CHOSSE ON THE J. M. CARD RISE

    SECTION TWO: SAN FRANCISCO: 1933-1953

     

76. 6. THE BRAUE CONNECTION
77. CONTINUOUS SPELLER
79. THE DOUBLE LIFT
82. Jack’s CENTER DEAL
83. THE PSYCHIC STOP
85. MIND MIRROR
86. THE WITCHCRAFT CARD RISE

     

89. 7. SAN FRANCISCO DAYS
91. THE VANISHING DECK
96. Jack’s SAN FRANCISCO SECOND
102. Senor Mardo’s RING, COIN, AND HANDKERCHIEF

      

105. 8. THE COLOR CHANGES
106. THE SNAP COLOR CHANGE
107. PUSH OFF COLOR CHANGE
110. THE ERDNASE STEAL
111. THE EYE TEST

      

113. 9. THE COLLINS’ ACES

      

121. 10. VERNONIANA
121. THE FIRST MEETING
123. THE DOUBLE LIFT GET-SET
125. THE THUMBPRINT TRICK
128. TRIUMPH
130. A HAND-TO-HAND TRANSFER
133. THE AMBITIOUS CARD SEQUENCE
134. A QUICK TRICK
135. THE GAMBLER'S SECRET
138. A PROBLEM WITH THE ACES

      

140. 11. MAGICANA
140. THE ONE SHUFFLE POKER STACK
142. THE ORIGIN OF THE TEN CARD DEAL
143. THE NYQUIST POKER DEAL
144. THE SECRET OF HENRY SING
146. THE TAP THROUGH CONTROL
148. NYQUIST RADIO CONTROL
149. CARD TO POCKET WITH A KICKER
150. THE POWER OF THOUGHT
151. THE STOP TRICK

     SECTION THREE: SANTA ROSA: 1954-1990

      

154. 12. COMING TO SANTA ROSA
156. THE OLD GAMBLER
158. SHADE WORK
160. BLACKJACK ROUTINE
166. THE BLUFF ACES

      

171. 13. THE SAN FRANCISCO SHUFFLE

      

180. 14. NEVER BET ON A SURE THING

      

190. 15. THE PURSE FRAME
190. THE PURSE FRAME
192. WINGED SILVER
194. QUICK SILVER
196. CROSSED HANDS
198. ONE COIN

      

200. 16. MORE TRICKS
200. PSYCHIC STOP II: THE SPREAD
202. DIAMOND CUT DIAMOND
203. THE BIDDLE TRICK
205. RING, ROPE AND STICK
210. EXPANSION OF TEXTURE
211. THE CHALLENGE POKER DEAL

      

216. 17. ODDS & ENDINGS
216. AN OPENING
217. COINS
218. THE LINKING RINGS
219. AMBITIOUS CARD MANEUVERS
221. THE CUPS & BALLS
223. Bob Madison's CARDS TO POCKET

     ADDENDUM: AT THE CARD TABLE

      

226. 18. BOTTOM DEALS
229. Jack’s SOFT BOTTOM DEAL
234. ANOTHER BOTTOM
237. FINAL NOTES ON BOTTOM DEALS

      

239. 19. MORE SLEIGHTS
239. RIFFLE SHUFFLE SEQUENCE I. To Retain The Order Of The Entire Deck
240. RIFFLE SHUFFLE SEQUENCE II. To Retain Top Stock At The Bottom
241. Martin’s FALSE CUT
242. Dr. Elliot’s SECOND DEAL
242. SIMPLICITY BOTTOM PALM
243. SIMPLICITY BOTTOM DEAL
244. MIRAGE (THE NO-SWITCH SWITCH)
245. HOLE CARD SWITCH
245. Gene Matsuura's ONE-HANDED SWITCH

      

248. 20. NOTES ON CARDS
249. Notes On THE BOTTOM PALM - FIRST METHOD
251. Notes On THE BOTTOM CARD REPLACEMENT
252. Paul Chosse on THE DIAGONAL PALM SHIFT
255. Notes On FALSE DEALS
257. MORE TIPS & DETAILS
260. APPENDIX

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  word count: 110529 which is equivalent to 442 standard pages of text