Issue #22 opens fresh from the IBM convention, where a Toledo burglar declined the key to the city on professional grounds and proceeded to pick everyone's locks anyway. Annemann makes a career-defining argument about signature effects, surfaces a federal model for stopping piracy, and delivers a number total that spells the helper's name, a joker that keeps returning, and a coin routine where the half dollar quietly becomes loose change.

Effects Covered

[1:12] Editorial — Theodore Annemann One good trick can make a career, and it's almost never a new one — Annemann runs through a list of working performers each built on a single signature effect found in older literature. Also: attorney Jacob Steisel's account of stopping piracy by going directly to the U.S. Attorney's Office, and Bob Geisel of Toledo picking his way through every locked and bolted door at the convention. Max Holden hadn't laughed that hard in ten years.

[3:59] Numero — Al Baker A helper's rows of freely written figures produce a total that matches a prediction — then the digits of that total, run through an alphabet chart on the back of the slate, spell out the helper's own name.

[5:19] Business Cards and Notes of the Notables — Theodore Annemann Period business cards and newspaper clippings from the era — both at jinxnavigator.com under Issue #22.

[5:32] A Question of Power — Dr. L. Vosberg Lyons A joker shown at the top of the deck gets replaced by each of three chosen cards in turn when the deck is snapped — and at the end, turns back into the joker one final time. Three repetitions that actually earn it.

[6:46] The Card Phenomenon — Oddly Walsh A helper secretly counts cards, pockets some, notes a card, and returns the rest — the performer never knows the card or the count, yet the helper spells out their card and lands on it exactly. Walsh notes the performer's genuine ignorance is what fools people who think they've spotted the method.

[8:06] Here's Your Change? — Lou Brent A borrowed half dollar travels hand to hand — until the final transfer produces three nickels and a quarter instead. The missing dime turns up behind the knee. Brent's observation: a casual coin sequence as byplay before the main routine often impresses more than the main trick.

[9:22] Outro Links and a preview of Issue #23 — featuring Dr. Jacob Daley's Death Divination.