🃏🌴 Packet Trick Paradise #10: Colourful Hijinks
Learn a comedic card trick using only four Jokers. 🃏🃏🃏🃏🌈
Difficulty: ⭐⭐ (Easy)
Duration: ⏱️⏱️ (3-5 minutes)
Setup Time: 🎯 (Minimal)
Welcome to another edition of Packet Trick Paradise, my regular Ruseletter column in which I share an original packet trick with the magical fraternity. Today, I’m sharing a comical four-card routine inspired by Gordon Bean—one of my all-time favourite packet-trick creators.
I have a deep affection for Gordon Bean’s packet tricks, having purchased many of them in the early 2000s while exploring this genre of magic. One of his best is “Jinks”; a group of standard, blue-backed Bicycle Jokers suddenly bloom into glorious colour on both their backs and fronts. Sadly, “Jinks” is no longer available. However, if you’re lucky enough to own this trick, I’ve developed a comical four-card routine that uses one of the cards from the “Jinks” set as a surprising climax (see image below). You’ll also need a red-backed, blue-backed, and yellow-backed Bicycle 808-style Joker. If you don’t have the Jinks card, you can also perform the trick with a green-backed Joker, which is much easier to find.
I’ve called the trick “Colorful Hijinks” due to its connection with “Jinks” and because the backs of the four Jokers repeatedly change colour while you tell your audience a series of terrible colour-based jokes and puns. As well as packet tricks, I also have an unhealthy fondness for “dad jokes” and, although these gags are genuinely awful, I find that people still laugh at them!
The trick was also heavily influenced by another, similar trick, “Spectrum” by Wayne Dobson, which was released over ten years ago by Alakazam Magic (it was recently rereleased but appears to have sold out almost everywhere).
While the method has more in common with “NFW” by Gary Freed or “ACE” by Richard Sanders, the effect is similar to “Jinks” because of the startling colour changes that take place on the backs of the cards.
Here’s what happens in “Colourful Hijinks”: You display four red-backed Jokers. One by one, the backs of the cards change from red to blue. Next, one card transforms from blue to yellow, and another reverts from blue to red. Finally, one card becomes a mix of red, blue, and yellow! Throughout the routine, you tell a series of silly colour-based jokes!
While researching the presentation, I also discovered a genuine neurological condition called Witzelsucht, which is characterised by an overwhelming compulsion to make bad jokes, terrible puns, and socially inappropriate wisecracks. The term is derived from the German words “witzeln” (to make jokes or wisecracks) and “suchen” (an intense yearning or addiction). The condition is usually caused by damage to the frontal lobe of the brain and is incredibly rare. You can learn more about Witzelsucht by reading “The curse of the people who can’t stop making puns” by BBC Future.
Even though finding the colourful Jokers required for this routine isn’t easy, I hope some of you will make the effort to track them down. “Colourful Hijinks” is a playful packet effect that is reasonably simple to perform. I’m sure you’ll have a great time with it.
Yours Magically,
Marty
P.S. Here are five of my favourite dad jokes:
Why can’t you hear a Pterodactyl go to the bathroom? Because the pee is silent. 🚽🧻
I once bought shoes from a drug dealer—big mistake. I don’t know what he laced them with, but I was tripping all day. 👟
I’m terrified of elevators, so I’m taking steps to avoid them. 🛗
What did the buffalo say to his son when he left for university? Bison. 🦬
I just watched a programme about beavers. You know what, it was the best dam programme I’ve ever seen! 📺🦫