Magic Stories

Two Magic Tricks In Common: Red See Passover and Web of Distraction
Simon Aronson

Color Changing Knives are usually used for exactly that: to have knives change colors. Two decks of cards are usually used for a “you do as I do” or some sort of revelation. In Whit Haydn’s Intricate Web of Deception, Mr. Haydn has used the color changing knives to perform a miraculous vanish of an item held in his hand — it just happens to be a knife.

In Simon Aronson’s incredible Red See Passover, two decks of cards are used apparently simply to record and verify a spectator’s mental selection.

I’ll give the bottom line to my review up front. They are both wonderful effects and stand out as a great combination of staging and audience participation.

Simon Aronson’s Red See Passover’s effect is remarkable in its simplicity. Each guest is given twelve cards off a blue deck or a red deck. One guest looks at the cards dealt to her, and simply memorizes a card — no force. The 12 cards are closed into a neat pile and the guest is asked to put her hand over the pile. The other guest is asked fan the cards out to ensure that they are all blue backed.

The first guest is now shown the fan of cards and her card is gone — yet she has not yet mentioned its value. In the blue deck, there are now 13 cards and one of the cards has a red back. The first guest is asked to name her card for the first time — she does and it is shown to be the red backed card in the blue deck.

The effect is simple in presentation and I think that is what adds to its impressive effect on the audience. There are no false moves — not one. Yet the impossible happens. I contend that this is not a “card trick.” The cards are used only to document the impossible mindreading experiment.

Similarly, Whit Haydn’s The Intricate Web of Distraction uses a prop to demonstrate not that the prop is magic but that by creating “an Intricate Web of Distraction.”
I can’t do justice to the remarkable routine that Whit provides but it takes a very simple, slow process to demonstrate that one of the toughest effects a magician can do is to make an object vanish under test conditions.

The only way it could be done — in this case, a knife placed fairly in the palm of the magician’s hand and that hand secured by a spectator — is by causing the audience to see what the magician wants them to see.

The moves that Mr. Haydn provides obviously work for any color changing knife routine but as assembled here, they make for the perfect non-color changing knife routine.

The knives provided are from Joe Mogar and have the perfect weight and surface. You can’t make a mistake in pulling out a knife the wrong side up.

I’ve purchased two sets because one was confiscated by the security folks at the L.A. Airport. But I think it is well-worth purchasing it twice.

If you do a color changing knife routine, you must have this. If you do close-up, you must get it. If you’re interested in learning how to script an act with perfection, this is an essential piece.


Simon Aronson

Color Changing Knives are usually used for exactly that: to have knives change colors. Two decks of cards are usually used for a “you do as I do” or some sort of revelation. In Whit Haydn’s Intricate Web of Deception, Mr. Haydn has used the color changing knives to perform a miraculous vanish of an item held in his hand — it just happens to be a knife.

In Simon Aronson’s incredible Red See Passover, two decks of cards are used apparently simply to record and verify a spectator’s mental selection.

I’ll give the bottom line to my review up front. They are both wonderful effects and stand out as a great combination of staging and audience participation.

Simon Aronson’s Red See Passover’s effect is remarkable in its simplicity. Each guest is given twelve cards off a blue deck or a red deck. One guest looks at the cards dealt to her, and simply memorizes a card — no force. The 12 cards are closed into a neat pile and the guest is asked to put her hand over the pile. The other guest is asked fan the cards out to ensure that they are all blue backed.

The first guest is now shown the fan of cards and her card is gone — yet she has not yet mentioned its value. In the blue deck, there are now 13 cards and one of the cards has a red back. The first guest is asked to name her card for the first time — she does and it is shown to be the red backed card in the blue deck.

The effect is simple in presentation and I think that is what adds to its impressive effect on the audience. There are no false moves — not one. Yet the impossible happens. I contend that this is not a “card trick.” The cards are used only to document the impossible mindreading experiment.

Similarly, Whit Haydn’s The Intricate Web of Distraction uses a prop to demonstrate not that the prop is magic but that by creating “an Intricate Web of Distraction.”
I can’t do justice to the remarkable routine that Whit provides but it takes a very simple, slow process to demonstrate that one of the toughest effects a magician can do is to make an object vanish under test conditions.

The only way it could be done — in this case, a knife placed fairly in the palm of the magician’s hand and that hand secured by a spectator — is by causing the audience to see what the magician wants them to see.

The moves that Mr. Haydn provides obviously work for any color changing knife routine but as assembled here, they make for the perfect non-color changing knife routine.

The knives provided are from Joe Mogar and have the perfect weight and surface. You can’t make a mistake in pulling out a knife the wrong side up.

I’ve purchased two sets because one was confiscated by the security folks at the L.A. Airport. But I think it is well-worth purchasing it twice.

If you do a color changing knife routine, you must have this. If you do close-up, you must get it. If you’re interested in learning how to script an act with perfection, this is an essential piece.

Related Posts

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.