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Issue 14
LVMI
Series 15 LVMI Issue Vol 4

H o f z i n s e r s
A r i s t o c r at s
not the patter, but the spirit
B y S y d S e g a l
and Ko s t ya K i m l at
It is said that mysteries are unraveled, So as
magicians and creators of mysteries, we are
the spiders the ravelers. But immersed in
the act of weaving, we neglect the birds-eye
view. Our webs lose symmetry and majesty.
Obsessed with technique and lost in endless
modication, we forget about the affect of the
effect on our audiences. Such has become of
the Hofzinser Ace Problem, which through
hundreds of published variations has left the
realm of poetry and more closely resembles a
Rorschach print.
Most published variations of Hofzinsers prob-
lem (13 great ones along with a bibliography
appearing in the second issue of Antinomy
magazine) have focused on improvements of
method, but not of strength, artistry or mys-
tery. This version of Hofzinsers problem is
our attempt to harmonize method with magic
and to introduce Mr.Hofzinser to polite lay
society.
The method would never have been raveled
up if it wasnt for my friend, Syd Segal, calling
with the brilliant suggestion: Why not use
the Ackerman palm unloading move for the
Hofzinser problem? This was a wonderful be-
ginning. Adding an introductory phase to the
routine was also a signicant improvement
the rst phase sets the standard for what the
audience is about to see and it conditions the
audience to fully appreciate the magic when
it happens. The method is sound; the effect
technically solid. But more important, after
much tweaking and many performances for
the general public, this is also a strong piece
of performance card magic one that fools
and entertains.
10 Channel One Magazine Issue 14
The technique is difcult, but direct. Ill run
through it briey so that you feel comfortable
with the method and can then take on the full
web of the effect:
Four aces are taken out of the deck. Before
they are tabled, one of them is stolen back to
the top of the deck, face-down. The suit of that
ace is mentally noted. The other three aces are
squared up and laid face-up onto the table.
A card is selected the only requirement is
that it matches the stolen ace by suit. (I pre-
fer to turn the deck face-up for the selection
process, carefully noting which ace is on the
bottom via a buckle, and then classic forc-
ing a card of the same suit.) Once the card
is selected, the magician takes it back in his
right hand as the deck is ipped face-down
in the left. A spectator is asked to place her
hand out. As she does so, the selection is top
changed for the ace. The spectator is given the
ace to hold onto, believing it to be the selec-
tion. The selection is top-palmed off of the top
of the deck into the right hand. This hand,
still palming the card, tables the deck.
Syds Choreography
of the Ackerman move
(The Esoterist 1971, pp40-41):
Both hands, palm-down, now move toward
the tabled aces. The left hand goes rst, the
ngertips contacting the top ace and moving
it to the left. (Fig.1) The right hand immedi-
ately comes over and the ngertips contact the
second ace, moving it to the right. The instant
the ngertips touch the ace, the palmed card
is dropped off, landing face-down onto the
remaining ace. (Fig.2) The left hand comes
over and moves the face-down card slightly
to the left, now all four cards are spread out
in a row. (Fig.3) Point out that the face-down
ace shares suit with their selection.
Then snap your ngers, and turn over the
ace to show it has changed into their selec-
tion. Allow them to ip the card in their hand
over and discover the ace!
Great method, great trick. But there is one
great problem: the magic happens too fast
Fig.1

Fig.1.1

Fig.2

Fig.3

Issue 14 Channel One Magazine 11

and the effect is not clear. Why the ace turns
face-down is never explained and the magic
of it turning over is instantly overshadowed
by the transposition of the cards. Here, then,
is the full method via two phases that has
been developed:
P h a s e I :
The Bold Conditioning Phase
Take the shufed deck and spread the cards
face-up. As you out-jog the four Kings (or
queens or jacks), cull all the cards of one suit,
lets say spades, to the bottom of the deck.
(this, coincidentally, appears in Racherbau-
mers column in Antinomy 2) Strip out the
four kings with the right hand. As you fan
them out with the right hand, the left hand
performs a Charlier cut to center the twelve
spade cards.
Explain to the spectators why the Kings are
important. You can talk about the Kings pow-
er and omnipotence in relation to the deck.
Or you can tell them that it is the four queens
who, like the mothers of the deck, know where
each of their children is hiding at any point in
time. You can talk about Alexander the man
who knows, about the fantastic four, the ris-
ing cost of oil, your rousing need for Tequila,
Jungian archetypes, lamps or not a thing at
all. Here are four Jacks is oft as dramatic
as us, card-men, can be. Whatever you say,
involving the audience never hurts (except
for bullet-catching). Allow them to get excited
about this once in a lifetime opportunity to
see the handsome group of fantastic-four in
action.
As you talk, perform a half-pass with the bot-
tom king, noting its suit before you do. Well
use a king of hearts.
Turn the deck face-up and spread it so the
faces are toward you. Find the two or the
three whose suit matches the face-down king
and get a pinky break below it. This is done
semi-casually as you explain that you will
have one card selected and the Kings will be
able to identify its exact identity.
12 Channel One Magazine Issue 14
Bring the cards down so the audience can
see the faces and ask someone to just touch
a card. Just touch any card, it doesnt really
matter at all. Classic force the card onto the
spectator. If they dont go for the classic force,
then just ignore the card they touch, continue
spreading, say we can use any one, really
and up-jog your card. Its a funny moment
if this happens, but it is actually not a bad
thing. The fact that you openly ignored the
spectators choice will later be the reason for
going into the second phase.
Ask the spec-
Fig.4 tator to place
their hand out
and take the se-
lection between
their nger and
thumb, face-
down. Have
them hold the
selection above
the kings, es-
sentially show-
ing the selection
to the kings.
(Fig.4) I know
they seem like
simple card-
board creatures, but youll be amazed at what
theyre about to do.
Spread out the tabled kings, mimicking the
Ackerman move which will be used in the sec-
ond phase: use your left hand to move the top
king to your far left, the right hand to move
the second king to the right and come back
with the right hand to move the third king a
bit to the left, exposing the face-down king,
leaving it in its spot. (See Fig.3) Notice that
the king that has turned face-down has the
same suit that your card has! And not only
thatbut its the second King in position (in
the row), therefore it knows exactly what your
cards is! The two of hearts! How incredible
is that!?! The spectators will be completely
unimpressed. The more excited you act about
the weak magic that just occurred, the funnier
the situation will be.

Fig.5 Magis view
As the spectators mumble their approval of
the incredible powers that the kings possess,
you casually pick up the four kings, bringing
the king of spades (the one that matches the
suit of the 12 card block in the deck) to the
bottom. Get the king in gamblers cop as you
drop the other three face-up as a stack onto
the table.
I prefer to tip my shoulders back and grin
here, as if Im still really impressed by what
happened. Then, realizing what the specta-
tors are thinking, my facial expression slowly
changes, and I verbally admit that perhaps it
wasnt that impressive yet!
With your right
hand pick up
the face-down
selection that
the spectator
had been hold-
ing, and bring
it over to the
left hand. (Fig.
5) The copped
king, face-up,
gets aligned with
the face-down se-
lection. The two
Fig.5 Spectators view
cards, as one,
are taken by the
right hand in Biddle grip and replaced onto
the face-down deck that has been sitting on
the table.
Phase II: Where all the
magic happens slowly,
clearly, deliberately...
Now pick up the deck and tell the spectators
that this time, they get to choose which card
is to be picked. (Now you can see why it is
okay if you blatantly miss the face-up clas-
sic force earlier). This time, they will surely
be impressed! Spread the cards face-down.
Break the spread approximately above where
your block of spade-cards should be, taking
half of the spread in each hand. Turn your
hands palm-down so you can see the faces
(this is actually a technique used by British
magician, Mark Mason, for his classic force).
Breaking the spread allows you to see where
you are in relation to your block. A quick
glance is all you need. Turn your hands back
up, and spread the cards so that the block
of spades is spread out wide, allowing the
spectator to freely choose one of only those
twelve cards.
Square up the cards and get a break below
the second card from the top. Take back the
selection from the spectator with the right
hand. You are now going to execute the
Undercover Turnover (Kimlat, Card Work
Card Play, 2002). This is a move based on
Ken Krenzels Slide-Under Switch or Barry
Issue 14 Channel One Magazine 13
Prices Stealth Switch, except that it uses
only one card. While it may seem difcult to
execute at rst, you will nd it requires just
the right touch to ensure that the cards are
aligned perfectly during the turnover.

Undercover Turnover
What essentially happens is, as the right
hand brings the face-up selection over to the
deck, the left hands pinky kicks the face-up
king out to the right. This kick-out happens
under the cover of the top face-down card.
Fig. 6 The face-up king gets aligned with
the face-up selection and they are turned
over face-down onto the deck. The top card
is thumbed off and the spectator is asked to
extend his hand as before. The selection has
now been cleanly switched out for a king,
which is handed to the spectator to hold.

Because you conditioned the spectator to

hold the selection in the rst phase, you can
have no worries as she shows the selection to
the four kings sitting on the table. (See Fig.
4) Once she has done so, focus all of your at-
tention on the kings for the rest of the phase
and you can rest assured that the spectator
will not jump ahead of you, and you will cli-
max together.

As the spectator waves the selection, you can Fig.6

exclaim Yes, theyve got it! and move your
hands forward to the tabled packet just as
in phase I. This time, however, you actually
execute the Ackerman move. Remember: the
left hand moves its king to the left, then
the right hand follows. As soon as the right
hands ngertips contact the face of the
tabled king, the palmed card is released
onto the table. As the card falls, the right
hand moves the King to the right. This
simultaneous action creates the illusion
that the face-down card was underneath
the king and came into view the second
that the King was moved. (See Fig.1-3)
Once the move has been done you should
have four cards in a row, the spectators
selection face-down among the other three
face-up kings.
Do not rush the nal revelation. Actually
allow the spectators to be impressed by the
fact that they could have picked any card they
wanted, and the king that matches that suit
has now turned face-down. Allow them to be
impressed because it is impressive. Then
add a bit of comedy, if you wish, thus:
Start counting up to the value of the selec-
tion, pointing to the kings one at a time.
Since in phase I the selection was a two or a
three and the face-down king was in second
or third position, respectively, then logically
the same thing should happen now. As you
count out loud and point, you can mentally
jump ahead and see whether youre going to
land on the face-down card at the end or not.
If you do land on it, as you nish counting

14 Channel One Magazine Issue 14

up to the value of the selection, the magic
is even stronger. If you think ahead and see
that you will be off by one, then pause a few
beats before you nish counting, re-arrange
the cards accordingly, and proceed with the
counting. Doing this in the open is quite
funny, and although it is disarming at this
point in the routine, if presented at the right
time, it acts as a nice set-up for the climax
about to come.
Once youve counted and impressed the
spectators even more, let just enough seconds
go by before you go for the nal revelation.
This is crucial: you dont want to step on the
magic that just occurred, but you dont want
to lose their attention. After performing this
a few dozen times, youll get a sense of the
right timing.
I know youre not completely impressedI
can see doubt in your eyes. So here, the
kings will prove for certain how they know
the identity of your card. Snap your ngers
and turn over the king to show it has trans-
formed into the selection. Allow them to turn
the card in their hand over and see the king.
They will freak.
This is a very strong and magical moment.
Although there is a lot of by-play before the
nal climax occurs, the play is not wasteful: it
has magic, comedy, and psychological condi-
tioning that strengthens the second phase.
A f t e r t h o u g h t :
I can tell you right now one thing that would
make this method even better: if the second
card were not to be seen by the magician.
The fact that not even the magician knows
the identity of the selection would certainly
add to the impossibility of the king turning
face-down. Howeverthis would require a
top change, and I dont think there is a good
time for that in the routine. I believe the Un-
dercover Turnover is a much cleaner method,
albeit more difcult. Theres no doubt you can
get away with forcing the card face-down and
then top changing it, but if the top change
is not done on a total off-beat, I believe the
spectators, doubting its identity, would want
to turn the card over before it was time for
the revelation. Its always worth a try, though,
isnt it?
H i s t o r y :
The Ackerman move was taught to me by
Jon Armstrong and B.J.Bueno. The way the
move is used here, it more closely resembles
a gamblers move, shown to me by Jason
England and mentioned by Vernon on the
Revelation tapes.
Syd had the brilliant idea of using the palm
unloading to solve the Hofzinser problem.
The method was worked out with Syd at the
Magic Castle in the summer of 2004.
It was further tweaked through performances
over the next year.
Credit goes to my great friend, Olga, for the
title.
P.S. Call us, Allen! We need the name of that
move!
Biography
Kostya and Syd are ac-
tually two of the more
unique performing teams
in magic. Yes I said teams.
While most know them for
their innovative close up
magic, they are far better
known in the world of Pro-
fessional Wresling!
Yes! They are FreeByrd! The WLW Wrestling cham-
pions! Seen here after they defeated the Czech team
of Patrick and the Mauler.
Issue 14 Channel One Magazine 15