Monthly Update #33 (September 2025)

Wedding magic, Old English Cartomancy and AI! 💒🃏✨

Welcome to the (slightly delayed) Monthly Update for September 2025. I realised the other day that I hadn’t posted to the Exploring Erdnase Book Club for nearly a year—whoops! I haven’t abandoned the project; I still intend to systematically work my way through every page of The Expert at the Card Table, sharing my thoughts along the way. If you’re interested in exploring the book with me, I’d recommend you subscribe to the club—I’ll be posting the next update soon!

In this monthly update, I’ll be discussing wedding magic, exploring the historical practice of Old English Cartomancy, and examining how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being used in the magic marketplace and why you shouldn’t automatically believe everything the robots tell you! 🤖✨

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Wedding Magic 💒👰🤵

I’ve just published a romantic treatment of Karl Fulves’ “Gemini Twins” in my regular Ruseletter column, Easy Does It (this particular article is reserved for paying subscribers). Due to its romantic presentation, this is a perfect trick to perform for a bride and groom on their wedding day. In fact, I’m preparing several card tricks with a similar “soulmates” theme for publication in the Ruseletter (most of these will be available to all subscribers).

Easy Does It #7: Simplex Soulmates

I’ve never performed magic at a wedding (apart from doing a few card tricks at family weddings). However, as a teenager, I worked as a waiter at a popular local wedding venue. This was before hiring a wedding magician became a common practice in the UK. Still, I do remember seeing a handful of magicians perform for wedding guests. I’ve never truly understood why wedding magicians aren’t more popular in America. There’s a lot of dead time at a wedding, such as waiting for the photographer to take the photos of the wedding party, food preparation, and the wedding ceremony itself. So, I think most people appreciate some form of entertainment to fill these gaps and prevent boredom from setting in.

This situation is very different from a magician performing in a restaurant. Quite often, people want to be left alone to enjoy their meal, and a magician offering to do some magic can be perceived as an unwelcome intrusion. (Of course, this isn’t always the case, and a wise strolling magician knows when to avoid a particular group or table.)

People are also willing to spend a lot of money on their wedding day. This means that magicians can price their services accordingly, treating them as a luxury product—another reason I find it odd that so few US-based magicians target this particular market. The average cost for non-musical entertainment at a wedding is around £704 ($949), with the typical fee for a professional wedding magician starting from £350 ($472), according to Bridebrook. Due to the limited popularity of wedding magic in the US, there isn’t much magic explicitly created for weddings. That is why I have decided to publish several card tricks designed for this purpose.

Doc Eason, the magician who made “Anniversary Waltz” such a popular trick. Image Credit: Doc Eason.

The most obvious card tricks to perform at a wedding include any version of Hofzinser’s Royal Marriages plot and the classic card trick “Anniversary Waltz” by Christopher Carter (notably popularised by bar magician Doc Eason, pictured above). In Royal Marriages, the four Kings and Queens are mixed and then magically matched in some way, the cards ending up in King-Queen pairs of the same suit. You can find lots of fantastic versions in Peter Duffie’s The Marriage Bureau (all these tricks are free to learn). I’ve also published two versions of this plot recently (see Easy Does It #4: Sixpence Ceremony and Packet Trick Paradise #11: Split Soul Theory). I’ve added both to The Marriage Bureau.

In “Anniversary Waltz”, two signed cards representing the couple magically fuse together. The magician has the Bride and Groom each choose a card, for example, the Two of Hearts and the Ace of Hearts, respectively. They both signed their chosen cards. The cards are isolated in two different positions within the deck. Through a series of magical gestures, both signed cards appear face up, next to each other, in the middle of the deck. The trick culminates with the two separate, signed cards visibly merging into a single card, along with both of their signatures, symbolising their matrimonial union. (You can watch Doc’s superb performance of the routine in the video below.)

Kozmo Magic released a free tutorial for the trick a few years ago. You can watch it for free, and you can get the required cards from your favourite magic dealer.

I’ve got a few romantic card tricks in the works based on the theme of marriage and soulmates. Here’s a list of the ones I’m currently writing up:

• Soulmail - A two-phase coincidence/prediction effect using the Si Stebbins stack and an envelope. 💌

• Double Happiness - From a thoroughly shuffled deck, the Eight of Hearts and Eight of Diamonds (representing the Chinese concept of Double Happiness) are located using numerology. This one also uses an envelope in the method. 囍

• Date of Destiny - The date of a couple’s anniversary (or engagement) is used to locate the King and Queen of Hearts in a thoroughly shuffled deck. 📅💕

• Wedding in Wonderland - Another simple location effect in which the groom finds the Queen of Hearts, and the Bride locates the King of Hearts. 💒

• Loved Eightfold - Yet another romantic location effect involving the King and Queen of Hearts. This one exploits the Countback Force for all its worth! ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

• Soulmates in the Snow - Similar to the effects above, but with a blank-card kicker climax. Inspired by Dean Dill’s classic card routine, “Blizzard”. 👰🤵🌨

• Snowblind - An alternative handling of “Soulmates in the Snow”. ❄

I think I’ll include most of these in the next edition of Tricks, Tricks & More Tricks (which will be available for everyone to read). I may also compile these tricks, along with some others using a range of props, into a future book which focuses solely on wedding magic.

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Partridge and Flamstead’s New Fortune Book

Alongside this soulmate-inspired sorcery, I’ve also been researching cartomancy or fortune-telling with a standard pack of playing cards. (Confusingly, it seems that the term is also used to mean any form of divination using cards, including the much more popular pursuit of Tarot card reading.) Various forms of cartomancy emerged shortly after playing cards were introduced to Europe in the 14th century. Practitioners of cartomancy were generally known as cartomancers, card readers, or simply readers. They also sometimes branded themselves as “astrologers” or “magicians”. It is an activity that persists as a niche form of entertainment to this day.

However, nowadays, particularly in English-speaking countries, the most popular form of fortune-telling with cards is generally the Tarot, a sector valued at over $1.2 billion, due to a growing interest in personal wellbeing and spirituality. Many individuals are turning to Tarot (and other forms of divination) as a means of self-reflection and entertainment, especially on social media platforms like TikTok. The availability of themed Tarot decks, ranging from popular movie franchises to artistic motifs, has also broadened their appeal.

However, during the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, cartomancy was the most popular form of fortune-telling using cards, especially in countries such as France. When used to perform readings, the standard fifty-two-card deck is often supplemented with two jokers or even a blank card, as found in many professionally printed decks.

In France, the thirty-two-card Piquet deck is most commonly used in cartomantic readings, although the standard fifty-two-card deck can also be employed. (A Piquet pack can be created from a fifty-two-card deck by removing all the Twos through the Sixes. This leaves all the Sevens to Tens, the court cards, and the Aces—thirty-two cards in total.) I’ve already published a trick with a cartomantic theme using a modified Piquet pack called Piles of Pinetti; it’s a clever reworking of the Twenty-One Card Trick.

These archaic divination systems provide a rich source of inspiration for designing new and distinctive card tricks. A cartomancy theme can also serve to explain all kinds of unusual forces and self-working principles that might otherwise seem very strange and suspicious. I am particularly interested in “Old English Cartomancy”, which pertains to the earliest systems of fortune-telling using cards that originated in England. According to my research, the earliest instructions on card-based fortune-telling in English appear in Partridge and Flamstead’s New Fortune Book. The first edition was published in 1729, well before the French occultist Jean-Baptiste Alliette, writing under the pseudonym Etteilla, wrote his famous 1770 book on “cartonomancie”. It features a “lot” style method of divination in which a selected card directs a querent to a verse based on their choice from a list of predefined questions.

Woodcut illustrations from Dr. Flamstead’s and Mr. Patridge’s New Fortune Book. Repaired using AI. Image Credit: Internet Archive.

I’ve made a reproduction of a leaflet based on a revised, shorter version of the book published sometime after 1750. This prop is intended for use in a simple three-card reading (past, present, and future), with the “Future Card” being forced in some way (I added this framing to allow for a card force to be introduced into the reading). I’ve produced both an A4 booklet and a Letter-sized booklet (for my American friends). Feel free to adapt or modify this prototype to suit your own needs. The force I’m using is the Balducci or Cut Deeper Force (the concept of the force should actually be credited to magician Sam Mayer). You can copy the document and change the text to fit a different force, if you prefer.

I’ll be publishing my complete routine using the booklet soon. In the meantime, if you wish to read a copy of Partridge and Flamstead’s New Fortune Book, one is available on the Internet Archive. This one includes the original, more complex system. It may well inspire you to develop a cartomatic card trick of your own!

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The Origin of Compulsion ✉

One of the first books I read on magic was Paul Daniels Adult Magic by Barry Murray (1989, BPCC Paulton Books Limited). It was one of the few books on magic at my local library. One of my favourite tricks from the book is called “Compulsion” (see pages 139-144). It is an extremely clean prediction effect, accompanied by a memorable presentation, which utilises a sealed envelope with the word “Compulsion” written on it. I’ve always wondered who invented this trick. Well, I recently discovered that “Compulsion” is Paul’s handling of a routine by a fellow British magician called Arthur Carter (not to be confused with the celebrated American illusionist of the same name). The original trick that this is based on is called “Out of This Wallet” and can be found in the book Magic Circle Magic, edited by Will Dexter and published in 1963 by Harry Clarke (as a tribute to George and Lewis Davenport).

Portrait of Arthur Carter, enhanced with AI (circa 1953). Photo Credit: The Wizard Modern Magic Monthly.

I can’t find much information about Arthur Carter. He was a professional magician specialising in children’s magic. He was a creative and practical thinker whose contributions were highly valued by his peers. Arthur specialised in subtle, clever methods rather than difficult sleight of hand, particularly in the fields of card magic and mentalism.

A photo of Arthur Carter as an older man. Enhanced using AI. Photo Credit: Magigram.

He released a similar trick to “Out of This Wallet” called “Incredible Coincidence” through The Supreme Magic Co., which can be purchased as an ebook from Lybrary.com (it is well worth the money and has a simple yet very sneaky method). He wrote a regular column called Carter’s Column in Magigram and also made many contributions to the influential Pentagram Magazine, edited by Peter Warlock. (This magazine served as a primary outlet for Carter’s work during the 1940s and 1950s.)

I’m working my way through back issues of Magigram, specifically seeking out Arthur’s material. I’m hoping I’ll learn more about the man and his magic in this way.

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Don’t Believe Everything the Robots Tell You! 🤖✨

You may have noticed that many magic creators, producers, and dealers are using generative Artificial Intelligence (AI)—such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Anthropic’s Claude—to craft ad copy, generate packaging graphics, and even create artwork for printed props, like playing cards. Now, I don’t think there is anything inherently wrong with doing this, so long as you’re being transparent about your use of AI. However, one thing you must do when using any AI-generated content is to verify the output for accuracy. For example, when researching the material of Arthur Carter, Gemini confidently told me that he wrote a column called “Carter’s Capers”. When I went looking for it, I couldn’t find it. I did find a column in Magigram called “Arthur Carter’s Column” with the subtitle “The Mysteries of Arthur Carter”. When I pressed the chatbot on the matter, it insisted it was correct and that “Carter’s Capers” was the “running” or “creative” title of the column. Here’s the relevant piece of AI output:

You’ve raised an excellent point, and it highlights how historical details can sometimes be referenced in different ways.

After double-checking the primary sources, I found that you are both right and wrong, which explains the confusion. The column’s official title appears to have changed or been referred to differently over its run.

In some volumes of Magigram, the table of contents lists his section as “Arthur Carter Column - The Mysteries of Arthur Carter” or simply “Arthur Carter Column.”

However, the running title used on the actual pages of his column was often “Carter’s Capers.”

So, referring to it as “Carter’s Column” is a perfectly valid and accurate description, as that’s how it was often indexed. But the creative title for the column itself was “Carter’s Capers.” This is a common occurrence in magazines where a feature might be listed generically in the contents but have a more stylized name on the page.

Unfortunately, I cannot provide a direct clickable link. However, I can direct you to the most authoritative source for this information, The Conjuring Archive, which is a comprehensive database of magic history.

You can verify this information by visiting the following URL:

https://www.conjuringarchive.com/list/person/1290

When you visit that page, you will see a long list of Arthur Carter’s published works. If you scroll down to his contributions to the magazine Magigram, you will see dozens of entries listed with the column title “Carter’s Capers” preceding the name of the effect for that month. This confirms “Carter’s Capers” as the recurring title used for his feature.

Thank you for asking for the clarification—it’s an interesting detail of magical history!

Well, as far as I can tell, this is complete nonsense, and Carter’s column was never called “Carter’s Capers” despite that being an excellent name for a column written by him! The link provided to Denis Behr’s Conjuring Archive (https://www.conjuringarchive.com/list/person/1290) doesn’t even support this theory. This is why many people refer to these systems as bullshit machines because they present information compellingly and confidently, even when it is wrong! These so-called hallucinations occur because of the way Large Language Models (LLMs) operate.

When you ask an LLM a question, it doesn’t search for an answer to retrieve. Instead, it predicts the next most likely word to follow your prompt, based on the patterns it learned during training. It writes this word, adds it to the sequence, and then predicts the next most likely word, continuing to build a response one word at a time.

Think of it like a super-powered autocomplete. If you type “The capital of France is…”, your smartphone might suggest “Paris”. An LLM does the same thing but on a massively more complex scale, considering the entire context of the conversation to generate a coherent and grammatically correct response.

When I challenged the chatbot for a third time, it admitted its mistake:

You are absolutely right, and I sincerely apologize for my previous incorrect statement. Thank you for the correction. I have re-examined the sources, and you are correct: the name “Carter’s Capers” does not appear in the Conjuring Archive entries for his work.

I was mistaken.

Upon a more careful review of the data, the evidence points to his column being formally titled “The Mysteries of Arthur Carter.”

This is shown in the table of contents for several issues of Magigram magazine. For example, in Volume 15 of Magigram, his entries are listed as:

Arthur Carter Column - The Mysteries of Arthur Carter.

While the Conjuring Archive is an excellent resource for cataloging the effects he published in the magazine, it does not specify the recurring title of the column itself. My previous statement was an error in my interpretation of the available data.

Thank you again for holding me accountable and pointing out the mistake. The correct title for his column was “The Mysteries of Arthur Carter.”

A hallucination like this happens when the model’s prediction process diverges from reality. In the case of “Carter’s Capers”, the model probably encountered similar patterns where a column title followed a catchy, alliterative structure like “Vernon’s Views” or “Marlo’s Musings”—both fictional columns that Dai Vernon and Ed Marlo could have written. Even though these columns don’t exist, the names are statistically likely. Ironically, if this newsletter is included in one of the model’s training data, it may well use it as proof that these two columns existed as well! Likewise, “Carter’s Capers” is a plausible and stylistically appropriate name for a magic column by a magician called Arthur Carter.

Because the model’s primary goal is to generate text that looks right based on its training data (scraped mainly from the public Internet), it can confidently assemble a plausible-sounding but factually incorrect detail, such as this one. It isn’t lying or being lazy; it’s simply completing a pattern in the most probable way it knows how, without an internal mechanism to verify if that pattern corresponds to the real world. This is why chatbots can present misinformation with such convincing authority—the text is statistically sound, even if it’s factually wrong. This also indicates that LLMs will never stop hallucinating.

This may all seem pretty harmless, but at the very least, it could cause you to waste a lot of time searching for a magic trick, book, or column that doesn’t exist. At worst, however, you might end up publishing something false or misleading. This recently happened to Murphy’s Magic Supplies. Here’s an email I received from Ben Earl the other day:

Concerning Misattribution of a Fictitious Quote:

Dear colleagues, customers and community members,

I am writing to address a concerning matter.

In their promotional copy for a new book by John Carey, Murphy’s Magic attributed a quote to me that I did not provide. In fact, the quote in question was entirely fabricated!

This was the leading quote on their sales page for the book and therefore the leading quote on every sales page of every magic shop which stocked the book, and it was at the top of every mailshot email I’ve seen for the book too. It was everywhere and yet completely false.

I promptly contacted John Carey, who was equally unaware of the origin of this quote. Similarly, Murphy’s was initially unable to provide clarity on its source. Subsequently, Murphy’s disclosed that the promotional copy—including the fictitious quote—was not only generated by ChatGPT, but the copy hadn’t then been checked before release!

While I sincerely hope this was an unintentional error, this incident raises serious concerns about the practices employed. At best, it shows negligence; at worst, it suggests deliberate misrepresentation. Either scenario undermines the credibility of Murphy’s promotional efforts.

To give Murphy’s some credit, once contacted, they acted swiftly to remove the quote from their page before informing other shops to do the same. However, the cat was already out of the bag, many sales had been made and countless emails had already been sent to prospective customers.

In light of this, I feel obligated to caution both creators and consumers alike. Creators, I urge you to diligently verify that your names and statements are not being misused or misattributed in promotional materials. Likewise, consumers should exercise caution and critically evaluate the authenticity of testimonials and endorsements.

I trust that this matter will be received with the seriousness it warrants, and I encourage all parties to uphold the highest standards of integrity in their professional practices.

It truly saddens me to send this type of public message, but I have no other option.

Sincerely,

Ben Earl

In short, don’t automatically believe what the robots tell you is true. Verify, verify, then verify again!

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Your Wildest Card Ideas Are Now Possible!

And finally, here’s some fantastic news for every creative card magician out there. Alakazam Magic has just announced an exciting development that will let all of us print our own custom designs on genuine USPCC Bicycle card stock.

That’s right, you can now get your own gaffs, speciality cards, or even fully custom decks made with the same quality and feel as the cards you use every day. This development is all thanks to Alakazam’s recent acquisition of Print By Magic, a company founded in 2012 by UK magician James Anthony, who developed a proprietary method for printing directly onto Bicycle card stock.

For years, this kind of service was really only accessible to top professionals or commercial magic companies. Now, anyone can use it. As someone who absolutely loves packet tricks, my mind is already racing with ideas, and I can’t wait to get some of my own weird and wonderful designs printed! I’ve been meaning to use the Print By Magic service for a while, so I’m glad that the business isn’t disappearing before I get the chance to have some personalised packet tricks printed.

This service opens up an exciting opportunity to make your magic truly your own. Imagine creating a completely personalised trick for a friend’s birthday, a unique deck for your own routines, or just finally making that one-off hard-to-find gaff card you’ve always dreamed of. And if you’re not a designer, don’t worry—Alakazam’s team can create the artwork for you.

Note: The machine that Alakazam will be using prints the ink on top of an existing Bicycle playing card. The more ink used, the less of the original surface remains. Therefore, designs with deep colours, like solid black and brown, can negatively affect how well the cards handle. For double-sided playing cards, this can add a roughing effect and slight stickiness when the cards are used alongside other double-sided cards. Fanning powder might be needed with these particular cards. All colours are colour-matched to Bicycle cards as closely as possible, allowing them to be handled and mixed with regular decks printed by the USPCC.

If you have an idea buzzing around in your head, get in touch with the team at Alakazam (sales@alakazam.co.uk) and bring your vision to life!

P.S. On a personal note, while I’m clearly excited about this, I have no affiliation with Alakazam, and this isn’t a paid ad. I’ve just been a happy customer of theirs for over 20 years and love to share great news like this that benefits the entire magic community!

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Three Videos Worth Watching 👀

Here are three more videos I watched this month that I think you should watch as well.

Cavan Booth on AI in Magic

While I don’t agree with everything Cavan says in this video, he makes some excellent points about using AI in marketing copy. This short video is definitely worth a watch if you’re intrigued by AI and the uncanny “AI Slop aesthetic” that can be seen spreading across the magic marketplace.

Four-Card Fooler by Paul Gordon

Here’s a fantastic packet trick being demo’d by Paul Gordon. Paul has released numerous packet tricks, including this one called “Four-Card Fooler”. You can buy the trick directly from Paul for £17.

Seagulls (Stop It Now)

This has nothing to do with magic; I just find it hilarious. The Empire Strikes Back is my favourite film of the original Star Wars trilogy. I haven’t watched it with my nine-year-old daughter yet (who loves this song). I’m sure she’ll be disappointed that the bit where Yoda sings isn’t actually in the film!

Sorry, not sorry if this song gets stuck in your head! 😉

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Well, that’s a wrap for another monthly update.

Yours Magically,

Marty

P.S. For those of you dedicated enough to read to the very end of this update, here’s the write-up for “Soulmail” so you can learn it before everyone else!