Left behind
Welcome to my blog, this is my creative outlet where you'll discover my take on magic.
Get ready for essays, tricks, and presentations.
I love the torn and restored card plot, it's such a beautiful plot in magic. The effect is so clear the card is torn and later the card is restored. It's so clear to the audience what is happening, that's why I love this. There is also a thing I don't like about this plot and that is that the presentations are never up to the effect. Why would you break something for a moment later to restore it?
That is a weird thing to do, the only one I found interesting was Guy Hollingworth because he was pointing out that it is weird to do so. But further than that I didn’t come across a nice presentation for this effect. Until I watched a documentary on YouTube called The History of Playing Cards (I would highly recommend watching this one) where I came across a story that would fit perfectly alongside a torn and restored plot. I am not going to teach you any torn and restored effects, but for this presentation, I would use a single-piece restoration. In the end, I will leave some recommendations for single-piece restoration. I see this piece fit right in a close-up show. I think with a single piece restoration backed up with this story it can be something special and memorable. I want you to keep in mind that an effect backed by a story can be something really special.
The Routine
In Belgium, there is the Nationaal Museum van de Speelkaart (National Museum of the playing card) Where they hold a large collection of playing cards with beautiful stories connected with them. There was an auction lately where they sold some of their cards. I was able to get a card with a beautiful story on it. Tonight especially for you. I brought this card with me, let me show you what it looks like.
 In the 18th century, playing cards didn’t have back designs how we see them today. The back of a playing card wasn’t invented until later. Because playing cards didn’t have a back design they were used for something else. An unusual story from the Netherlands where mothers give their children to orphanages because they can take care of them. When the mother went to an orphanage she wrote the name and a message in the back of a playing card. This was to give the child some identity. The mother would use a playing card because this was the cheapest paper they could find. There was another thing the mother did to the card, If the card was torn it would mean that the mother would return with her matching half to reclaim the baby if the card was complete it would mean that the child was abandoned for good.
Here I have a card that has been torn, this is the card, and on the back of the card you can see the details about the baby. As you can see, the missing corner is also here. That only means the mother came back for the baby. How beautiful would it be now the family is also reunited that we do the same thing to the card?
Take the card and the piece and put the piece where it should belong, with a little cover the card magical is now in one piece again. Still, a little fold that would remain as a scar for what happened. So you can always see what has happened to the family.Â
 What do you needÂ
Jewellery box for a neckless (example for a box)
After a long search, I found a box that I would think a card would travel in if it was at an auction house. You can find a similar box to your taste.
White gloves (the gloves)Â
Search for cotton ones, these are the types they would use for rare items so the moister of the hands doesn’t transfer to the object.
The card
For the method of how to do the restored card, I will give some suggestions at the end. To make the card you will need some blank-backed cards, so the back of the playing card is black and the front is a normal card. To make the card look old I would recommend looking at this link.
 How it works
I will take out the gloves and put them on, after that I will put the box on the table and very carefully open it. Here I will show the card to the audience this is an old card where a piece of the card is torn. I would put the card face up in the box so the audience can’t see the back with the text on the back. Now I will tell the story about the card itself. How it's from the 18th century and it's from a woman who left her kid in an orphanage. That there would be a message on the back and that if the card is torn like this one, the mother will come back for the child. I now will take only the card out of the box and very carefully show it around to the audience, this time also with the text on the back.Â
I will tell them what the text means, that it is an identity for the child and a message for them. I will grab the piece out of the box and tell them that if the card was torn the mother would come back for their child. When the mom can take care of the child again. It's such a heartbreaking story, but we know that the mother and child are reunited because we got both pieces. But there are two pieces of the puzzle because the mother and child are together as one. Wouldn’t it be nice if this card is restored just as the bond between the mother and child? Take the piece and attach it to the card. I would now give some extra cloves to a spectator and ask him/her to examine the card very carefully. after the examination, I would put the card back in the box and close it. I would put the gloves off with closure about that some things like family shouldn’t be apart. Sometimes circumstances still make this happen but deep down you know it shouldn’t. So if there is something you can do to make it whole again. Please do it, life is too short and before you know it you can’t do anything about it anymore.
So the card is already torn, which is backed up by the story, So there will be only a restoration which I think is a beautiful thing to do. It makes sense the card is torn and it's justified. So I wouldn't recommend doing a piece-by-piece restoration and only focus on a single-piece restoration. Where only one piece is restored.
Here are some recommendations for a single-piece restoration:
Signed corner restore by Brandon David
I hope I have you some insight into a different angle for a restored card. I like that it's now a moment where there if you think about it only a small piece of magic is. What I liked the most about this presentation is that it all makes sense now. I hope you like this one as much as I do and inspire you to find a nice presentation for your effects.
Thank you for reading this blog, if you have any questions or feedback please let me know! the fastest way to get in contact is to go to Instagram and slide in my DMÂ @dannyurbanus.