The Zig-Zag Queen

This is a re-creation of Robert Harbin’s famous "Zig-Zag" illusion.  You show a playing card “cabinet” and introduce your assistant (the Queen of Hearts).

The Effect:

You ask the spectator to place the assistant into the cabinet.  You take the cabinet from him and proceed to slide the assistant’s middle sideways in classic "Zig-Zag" form.

You replace the middle section and your assistant emerges wholly restored.  Both the assistant and the cabinet are ungimmicked and 100% examinable before and after the illusion.

In developing this effect, one of my requirements was for the “cabinet” to be small enough that it could not hide anything, thus increasing the deceptiveness of the illusion.  I also disliked the fact that most versions of this effect are highly gimmicked (not to mention that the “frames” invariably look like a suspicious magic prop) and do not hold up under close observation, much less the scrutiny of being handled freely by a spectator.

In the end, I decided on a handling in which the cabinet need not be gimmicked at all.  I have routined this so that both the cabinet and the Queen are handled by the spectator before and after the effect: The spectator inserts the Queen into the cabinet at the beginning, and the spectator removes the Queen from the cabinet at the end.

I hope you enjoy performing my version of “The Zig-Zag Queen.”

Ready-made effect

(all cards included)

$12.99

.pdf only

(make your own cards)

$5.00