Story Deck

68 entries in Cards / Effect Themes / Gags & Curiousities / Story Deck
Creators Title Comments & References Year Source Page AA Categories
The Queens digging for Diamonds hotel trick with eight cards each and story presentation
Also published here
 1889
Tricks with Cards
82
Eduard Hensel Das Hexen-Einmaleins using Goethe's poem from Faust I, illustrated with Ace through Ten which are produced in mixed suits as the values are mentioned, some transform or vanish
 		June 1904
Der Zauberspiegel (Vol. 4 No. 6)
88
W. F. "Rufus" Steele Your Opening
1928
Card Tricks You Will Do
3
The Devil's Ticket No. 22
 		1935
Card Tricks that are Easy to Learn, Easy to Do
24
W. F. "Rufus" Steele, Earl De Forrest Son John Story No. 38, apparently by Earl de Forrest according to a letter of his to Stewart James (about Charles T. Jordan)
 		1935
Card Tricks that are Easy to Learn, Easy to Do
35
Jean Hugard Spelling Trick spelling trick with thirteen cards of a suit and story
 		1937
Encyclopedia of Card Tricks
41
Namreh The Adventures of Diamond Jack
1937
Encyclopedia of Card Tricks
242
The Perpetual Almanac or Gentleman Soldier's Prayer Book story
 		1937
Encyclopedia of Card Tricks
374
Jean Hugard A Card Fairy Tale and Automatic Spelling two riffle shuffles, suits are separated and used to tell story, match values, spell to values, ...
  • a. The Fairy Tale
  • b. Matching Cards
  • c. Automatic Spelling
  • d. Super-Spelling
 		1938
Greater Magic
320
Silas and the Slickers rhyming patter, ballad by Elmer Applegit
Variations
 1939
More Card Manipulations (Issue 2)
26
A Color Change Story story presentation in which face-card changes multiple times to fit story
 		1939
The Magic Annual for 1938 and 1939
48
Jack Vosburgh Love Conquers All "A New Card Story"
 		1940
The Jinx (Issue 109)
650
Herb Runge A Story
1941
The Jinx (Issue 125)
725
Val Evans* The Story of Jack Hartz
1941
Stacks and Stacks Of Cards
31
Jean Hugard The Automatic Deck and Opening Routine complete routine, deck rises from case, then cards are riffle shuffled twice, Hearts are removes and story told matching the cards, then second suit is removed and performer turns over same card spectator, as climax cards are spelled and turned over in an other suit, interlocking chains principle

  • I. The Rising Deck
The Automatic Deck - Routine
  • II. A Card Fairy Tale
  • III. Matching Cards
  • IV. Spelling Extraordinary
 		Apr. 1946
Hugard's Magic Monthly (Vol. 3 No. 11)
209
Ed Miller The Deck of Cards Story
1949
52 Amazing Card Tricks
63
Nick Navarino Jack Goes to Town No. 87, Story deck trick about a farmer's son
 		1950
Scarne on Card Tricks
160
John Scarne, Bruce Elliott* The Odd Will No. 127, story trick
 		1950
Scarne on Card Tricks
244
Moe and Sam
1952
The Last Word on Cards
53
Stewart James A Girl's Best Friend story with all cards of one suit, a selection shows up at the end
 		1954
First Call To Cards
13
Russell "Rusduck" Duck Sermonette! using words with the initial letters of the 52 cards
 		June 1957
The Cardiste (Issue 3)
11
Laurie Ireland, Carlton King Kidnapped top eleven cards are stacked to tell a story involving a card in an envelope that later shows up elsewhere and transposition and sandwich of various cards, and cards traveling to the performer's pocket
Also published here
  • Exclusive Magic from our Notebook, Ireland & King, ca. 1933
 1957
1957 Card Annual
18
Laurie Ireland, Carlton King Kidnapped top eleven cards are stacked to tell a story involving a card in an envelope that later shows up elsewhere and transposition and sandwich of various cards, and cards traveling to the performer's pocket
Also published here
  • Exclusive Magic from our Notebook, Ireland & King, ca. 1933
 1967
Top Secrets of Magic — Volume 2
238
Roger Smith John King and the Twelve Spades story trick with only one suit used, two riffle shuffles
 		Jan. 1971
Necromancer (Vol. 1 No. 6)
6
Fred Lowe Der Filou
Also published here
  • New Pentagram, Dec. 1972
 Oct. 1978
Intermagic (Vol. 5 No. 3)
82
Hippie Torrales The Perils of Jack using Jack to Ten
 		Feb. 1985
Apocalypse (Vol. 8 No. 2)
1031
Eric Mead "A Night At The Improv..."
1988
Magical Arts Journal (Vol. 2 No. 9-12 Paul Harris: The Act)
58
T. Page Wright A Love Poem face card changes multiple times to accompany recited poem
 		1991
Page Wright's Manuscript
311
Karl Fulves* Diamond Jack Jr. selection in one half is at same position as detective card in other half, story really improvised with eight cards
 		1992
Deceptive Practices
39
Karl Fulves* Background
1992
Deceptive Practices
41
Robert L. Brooks Saga of Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid
Feb. 1993
Apocalypse (Vol. 16 No. 2)
2180
Chuck Smith King of Club Entertainers
1994
What If?
2
Walter Rollins One For The Boys (Of Summer)
Sep. 1994
MAGIC (Vol. 4 No. 1)
59
Curtis Kam Hard Boiled Detective
1996
Professional Close-up of Curtis Kam
71
Simon Lovell Who Killed Lilly Longlegs?
1997
Simon Says!
83
David "Fu Manchu" Bamberg Das Orakel card reading routine with layout which coincides with what the performer says, current time shows up as well
 		1997
Intermagic (Vol. 21 No. 3)
118
Martin Joyal An Overview of Complete Deck Stacks
  • New Deck Stacks
  • Ordered Values Stacks
  • Ordered Suit Stacks
  • Grouped Value Stacks
  • Grouped Suit Stacks
  • Pair Stacks
  • Divided Stacks
    • The Red-black Divided Stack
    • The Mixed Suit Divided Stack
    • The High-low Divided Stack
    • The Curl-No-Curl Divided Stack
    • The Odd-even Divided Stack
    • The Odd-even Divided Stack with Mixed Colors
    • The Odd-even Divided Stack with Mixed Suits
    • The One-eyed and Two-eyed Divided Stack
  • Red-Black Stacks
  • Pointer Stacks
  • Reflected Stacks
  • Matched Setups
  • One-Two-Four-Eight Stacks
  • Forcing Stacks
    • Card-Forcing Stacks
    • Number-Forcing Stacks
    • Word-Forcing Stacks
  • Stacks used for Revelations
  • Counting and Spelling Stacks
  • Storytelling Stacks
  • Gambling Demonstration Stacks
  • Solitaire Stacks
  • Other Stacks
  • Summary
 		1997
The Six-Hour Memorized Deck
5
Ellis Stanyon Queens Digging for Diamonds No. 40, hotel trick with eight cards each and story presentation
Also published here
 1999
Ellis Stanyon's Best Card Tricks
52
Steve Bryant Son of Sam on Frank Everhart, Jr.
 		Oct. 1999
Genii (Vol. 62 No. 10)
37
David Regal After Hours
2002
Constant Fooling 2
227
Wayne Dobson An Englishman in New York
2002
Dobson's Choice
4
Juan Tamariz Two Stories two stories, cards produced matching the story
  • First Story (With the Top Half of Mnemonica)
  • Second Story (With the Bottom Half of Mnemonica)
 		2004
Mnemonica
189
Jim Steinmeyer True Tales from the Newsstand
  • Conjuring
Sam the Bellhop type routine with news magazines instead of cards
 		Mar. 2004
MAGIC (Vol. 13 No. 7)
102
Al D'Alfonso Private Ace
Also published here
 Sep. 2005
MAGIC (Vol. 15 No. 1)
99
Bill Abbott The Last Romance of Diamond Jack
2008
Cabaret Card Magic
16
Curtis Kam On Story Decks
2008
The StageCoach
15
Curtis Kam Play It Again Sam recommended with jumbo cards for stage
 		2008
The StageCoach
16
Allan Slaight Charm Bracelet story trick with a packet of card
Also published here
  • New Pentagram, Oct. 1987
Inspired by
 2008
Spins & Needles
100
Marty Kane Wring Around the Collar joke using four cards
 		2010
Semi-Automatic Card Tricks — Volume 8
210
Woody Aragón The Court Cards story deck trick with court cards
Also published here
 2011
A Book in English
293
Woody Aragón Las Figuras story trick with just the picture cards
Also published here
 2011
El Manuscrito (Vol. 4 No. 17)
496
Tom Crosbie Waking up in Vegas storytelling trick with the Shadow stack
 		2013
Just Be Croz
171
Daniel Madison The Poker Lesson Storytelling stack that explains the rules and different hands of poker
 		2014
Placebo
7
Jim Steinmeyer Hamlet, Jack of Denmark
  • Conjuring
Also published here
 Aug. 2014
Genii (Vol. 77 No. 8)
28
Andy (The Jerx) Dear Penthouse Forum Story deck trick about some erotic story, later shown to be prediction on page in a Playboy magazine
 		2016
The Jerx
173
Patrick G. Redford* The Fate of Jack and Sally with the Redford stack
 		2017
Temporarily Out of Order
198
Patrick G. Redford* Club "754" with the Redford stack
 		2017
Temporarily Out of Order
202
Patrick G. Redford* Lady of the Night with the Redford stack
 		2017
Temporarily Out of Order
206
Alberto de Figueiredo Mi historia con una baraja story telling deck à la Sam the Bellhop, on how he became a magician, using a drawer box
 		2018
Veinticinco
255
Michael Powers A Night at the Stardust poem story in which only Aces are used, lost and found, with appearing at the fingertips of the "wrong" hand as finale
Inspired by
 2019
Tesseract
155
Jim Steinmeyer Hamlet, Jack of Denmark
Also published here
 2019
With Nothing But Mystery
9
Franz Kaslatter Fröhliche Wortkunst No. 6, story deck with Stebbins
 		2020
Das Si-Stebbins-Spielkartensystem
8
Guy Hollingworth Jeeves the Butler "An Essay and Story-Deck effect"
 		2022
The Neat Review (Issue 4 - Everywhere & Nowhere 2022)
142
Richard Wiseman, Will Houstoun, David Britland The Story of Story Decks credit information
 		May 2022
Genii (Vol. 85 No. 5)
46
Scott Baird Bigger Deal Aces cut to, then good hands for different games dealt (blackjack, bridge, poker)
Inspired by
  • "The Big Deal" (Joshua Jay, download)
 Sep. 2022
The Hermit (Vol. 1 No. 9)
404
Al D'Alfonso Private Ace
Also published here
 2022
Talk About Tricks (Issue 1)
433
Andrew Wimhurst King of the Hustlers
2025
King of the Hustlers
77
Tim Conover The King of the Card Table story with Infinity Stack
  • The Clean Up
  • Returning to Si Stebbins
  • Returning to the Stack
  • Alternative
  • King of the Card Table and New Deck Order Combined
 		2025
Conover — Volume 4: Selections from the Tim Conover Notebooks
99