Project 365 (150/365): Cardtoon

.:150/365: Cardtoon:.

Dan Harlan’s Cardtoon routine is one of the most interesting bits of closeup card magic for its simplicity and its visual impact.

Imagine picking a card, any card (Here we go again!). The magician sets the card aside, then promptly shows you that behind the deck is a drawing of a magician who appears to be pulling a rabbit from a hat, only for it to turn out to be your selected card. Is it mind-reading? Probably not. Is it sleight of hand? Even less so, and that’s the beauty of it.

Cardtoon is one of those routines that you bring out when you plan to do one and only one card routine because you want something that would really take people by surprise and would instantly catch their attention from thereon. It’s not something you want to open a closeup set with, unless you are sure that your next successive routines will be strictly superior to Cardtoon, because despite its simplicity, it’s one of the routines that, as a layman, left a very lasting impression on me, along with the Lightning Box, which I would probably tackle during street magic month.