Swindles, Scams & Kahns: Further Deceptive Practices with Playing Cards is Scott Kahn’s third full-length publication on card magic.
It is a 396 page soft-covered photo-illustrated book featuring twelve audience-tested performance pieces for magicians with intermediate to advanced card handling skills. Each routine is described with Scott’s intricate attention to detail and includes fully-scripted and engaging presentations. Three hundred twenty-five photos accompany the text to highlight all of the intricate handling details.
What Are the Odds?!
Three spectators. Three shuffled decks. Each reverses a single card in their pack sight unseen. Despite the odds, all three decks are spread to show that each spectator has reversed the exact same card. A stunning coincidence!
Wax On, Wax Off
A classic of magic with a new twist and a new presentational hook. A spectator locates their freely chosen card by stabbing an indifferent card into the deck while the cards are held behind their back. The selection then proves to be the only odd-backed card in the entire deck. No forces!
Thinkchronicity
A random mystery card is placed aside. Two spectators each think of a playing card. The first selection is signed and used for an extremely visual transposition sequence in the first spectator’s hands. The mystery card is then revealed to be the second spectator’s thought-of card!
The Time Travel Paradox
A progressive, four-phased demonstration of time travel that revolves around the Back to the Future storyline. With the aid of the iconic Flux Capacitor, two spectator-signed cards move along the space-time continuum, transposing with each other several times. The signatures fade away and the selections vanish altogether as the past is altered. Ultimately, the space-time continuum is restored, leaving the audience with tangible proof of Doc Brown’s now famous Theory of Temporal Displacement.
KAHNACAN
An exploration of the Any Card At Number plot. The spectator counts down to a selected number in a deck that they have had in their pocket from the onset and finds their freely named card. A devastating fooler!
Poker Stab
A new variation of head-to-head poker is demonstrated. Although designed to prevent any form of cheating at the card table, the magician is somehow able to beat the odds in this game every time. A beautifully designed swindle!
Intuition Poker
Five face-down cards are removed from a shuffled deck. The spectator imagines that these cards form a perfect poker hand – all except for one card that ruins it. They blindly exchange one card for another. When the final hand is revealed, it is a perfect royal flush. Such a simple scam!
Crossover Triumph
Fate and serendipity are explored in this three-phase routine that combines a unique solution to the two-card transposition plot and Dai Vernon’s classic Triumph plot. An ideal effect to perform for a dating or married couple.
Let’s Cut A Deal
A red deck and a blue deck are shuffled by a spectator. They randomly cut to a card in the blue deck. Without looking at the faces, the magician dead cuts to the same card in the spectator-shuffled red deck. A completely hands-off wonder!
Cutting the Spades
A behind-the-scenes demonstration that allows the audience to see how the magician warms up for a performance. The thirteen Spades are produced in order from Ace to King from a thoroughly shuffled deck of cards, using a different and progressively more impressive revelation each time. The routine concludes with a kicker that no one will see coming.
The Cartomancy Con
A demonstration of fortune telling with playing cards. The spectator freely selects three cards representing the past, present and future. After a brief cold reading using these cards, the spectator’s Card of Fortune is determined by first adding up the values of the three cards and then counting down to the card at that numerical position in the shuffled deck. The Card of Fortune is then proven to have been preordained – it is the only odd-backed card in the deck. A final kicker then confirms this card was destined to be chosen even before the demonstration began.
In-The-Hands Open Prediction (IHOP) Revisited
A new-and-improved handling of the most popular routine from Kahnceptual Card Magic. This is a two-deck solution to Paul Curry’s classic Open Prediction Problem. An inexplicable miracle with a new presentation!
***FROM THE FOREWORD (BY SHANNON CLARK)***
Magic has been left with a true void since the passing of Eugene Burger, one of our true masters and most insightful teachers. As I write this, I can’t help but be reminded of something Eugene was quite fond of saying:
“The House of Magic has many rooms.”
My friends, I’m happy to say you’re fortunate to happen into such a room where Scott Kahn is sharing his hard work and efforts. I mean to say, not only do we get to experience Scott’s wonderful brand of magic, but we’ve been invited to peek behind a curtain which seldom parts; to an area where “whys” are discussed, motivations questioned, and difficult decisions are embraced rather than avoided.
This, to me, is where the true value of this book is to be found. Sure, there are many brilliant, fun, magical routines to be adopted from within these pages. And if that were indeed all you gained, you’ll still have gotten well more than the asking price. But for the perpetual student of magic who scours our literature for lessons to assimilate into their own creative process, you’ve been welcomed deeper into this room.
Over the past few years, I’ve been privileged to hang here long enough to become best of friends with Scott. Subsequently, I’ve learned some fantastic routines to add to my performances. But more importantly my own magic, as well as my personal life, has grown immensely. I sincerely believe this is precisely the type of room Eugene so fondly alluded to. Please allow me to be the first to welcome you in.
—Shannon Clark
“If you’ve never read any of Scott’s work, I think this is a good place to start. His material is always practical and very efficient. He does a great job of weaving effects together to create additional kickers, and his presentations are always engaging. I didn’t speak much about the presentations in each of the routines above, but all of the presentations shine in this release. It’s always a breath of fresh air when creators have taken the time to script their routines and put thought into their routines beyond just how it works.”
—Madison Hagler
