McFayne’s Aces by Chuck Fayne

I explained my method of MacDonald’s Aces only once before. It was on my videotape, which comes which is included in my show in a box “Instant Miracles”. I have guarded the method for many years. It is so simple that it makes all other methods obsolete. For those of you who may not be familiar with the effect, this is it. A common theme….The four aces are shown and placed face up on the table. They are covered with three other face down cards. One by one they vanish from three of the piles and appear altogether in one. There are really only 12 cards. The beauty of the method has also been one of the biggest drawbacks. Three of the aces are double faced and that has produced the problem. Many magicians spend so much time proving that they are normal cards that they do just the opposite. By calling attention to showing the backs and fronts of the double faced cards, all they succeed in doing is calling attention to the fact that something must be wrong otherwise why would the magician go to all that trouble. Vernon used to be fond of the expression,” They may not know what you did, but they know you did something.” If you want to know how over-proving can kill an effect, place a playing card face down on the table and ask a layperson what it is. They will all say a playing card. They should say a playing card; you have given them no reason to suspect it is anything else. However, if you show both sides, especially if it is in a packet of more than one and you have to do some kind of sneaky dealing, they will also say a playing card, however their level of acceptance and relaxation is not the same. They are on guard…they don’t know what they are on guard against but they are now tuned in…. They have seen something that just doesn’t seem right and somewhere down deep inside, when you have to do some sneaky stuff, they will sniff it out. Remember, it is suppose to be entertaining magic, not sneaky stuff.