My Favorite Card Tricks: Ollie Mealing
By Alex Robertson - Thursday, March 11, 2021
We asked some of the best names in magic to share with us their three favorite card tricks, this week is the turn of Ollie Mealing. You may know him from Instagram, his YouTube channel or from Mealing's Membership. Over to Ollie:
As a keen moonlighter of several blogs (supine in bed, staring dry-eyed at my phone whilst my partner cries for affection), I’ve been keenly keeping up to date with the multitude of excellent contributions to this series thus far. Where I’m heading with this is that it’s an honour to have been invited on and entrusted to presumably add a modicum of value here – and with that in mind, fingers crossed I don’t screw it up.
After a semi-insecure start (stripped of cards and script I’m nothing) I’ll begin circling back to the topic in question – my three favourite card tricks.
The short answer:
This is really difficult to say and I’ll never be able to fully make up my mind.
The long answer:
Card to mouth
Hummer Card
Card to fish
I’m joking, but in complete seriousness the amalgamation of all three would make a wicked TikTok.
The long/sincere answer:
Smoke, Derren Brown.
Card Through Window, David Blaine.
Keep reading to find out. (hooks ladies & gentlemen, hooks!)
I’m assuming our first two A-listers (or I guess you could say B-listers, oh c’mon!) require no introduction, they are quite simply two of the most iconic effects (and magicians) of our time. So much so that if globally, you asked a societal cross-section (probably via Twitter for ease - @olliemealing) to name a magician and/or card trick, you would no doubt be hearing one of these responses – both the trick and magician have for good reason, earned immortal royalty status in magic’s illustrious hall of fame. For me personally, these effects were instrumental in catalysing a lifetime’s devotion to magic – and subsequently a draw full of tricks I never do. The superabundance of impossibility coupled with the outward appearance of effortlessness, generates a potently attractive, memorable and mystifying experience. In each effect, the aggregate of fairness, clarity and surprise make for a beautifully crafted and heady journey. The logical yet unexpected twist of diverting to a component that begins innocently hidden in plain sight, is hugely exciting to me – it teaches us that the familiar often goes unnoticed and that therefore (as creators) we should seek to find the extraordinary in the ordinary. Great magic reveals the familiar in new ways. I could talk about these effects all day, but to wrap it up I’ll just lastly mention the aspect of story. Each effect provides the viewer with a remarkable story – we quite literally want to make remarks to our friends about them. This is a valuable reminder that overarching our magic is a story and that ultimately whoever tells the best story wins.
Right then, onto number 3. Now I’d like to prefix this by saying that in the email-brief for this blog post, I was asked to submit ‘three card effects that you perform the most’. Naturally the aforementioned are not part of my repertoire, but as a creator and performer of predominately my own material, I felt it wouldn’t sit well to only toot my own trumpet. However, now that I’ve hopefully bridged some humility, I’m going to delicately balance my third choice, which is Stopwatch.
- Stopwatch, yours truly
Stopwatch is my approach to Any Card At Any Number. Dare I be so bold to say this, but it is genuinely my favourite version of ACAAN and has served my performances better than any other effect. I’d feel like a bit of a narcissist to explain why I love my own trick so much, so it’s probably best I leave a performance link and allow you to form your own conclusions – hope you enjoy!
Well I really enjoyed this, hope you did too. I’m going to make some breakfast now. Thanks for reading.
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