Welcome
to a special page, devoted to exploring new uses and features of
the Aronson stack.
Simon
Aronson created his stack over 30 years ago, and used it privately
for many years. When he published his treatise on the memorized
deck in Card Ideas (1978), many magicians requested that
he release his specific stack, so they could learn it. So, the following
year, Simon published his booklet A Stack to Remember (1979),
which set forth the Aronson stack, Simon’s complete set of
mnemonics for learning it, and also the many built-in features unique
to this arrangement (including three different poker demonstrations,
a perfect bridge hand, poker routines, the Zens stack, and a spelling
feature). Both Card Ideas and A Stack to Remember
are reprinted in full in Bound to Please.
Many top-notch magicians realized the exciting potential that this
tool had opened up, and soon began creating their own exciting magic
with memorized decks in general and with the Aronson stack in particular.
And Simon himself kept creating and exploring this area. Simon’s
many contributions to memorized deck magic are listed in the bibliography
in the ensuing pages. But Simon also unearthed and created a host
of new features and effects lurking within his own stack - exciting,
fast, visual magic that is almost "automatic" (if you
have the Aronson stack handy). And much of this material leaves
the stack intact, a boon to the walkaround magician. Simon recently
published a 70+ page collection of this new material in his treatise
"Unpacking the Aronson Stack," as a chapter in his newest
book Try the Impossible (2001).
BUT
IT DOESN’T STOP THERE!
Even since Try the Impossible, new, strong effects and features
with the Aronson stack are still being created. Some are Simon’s
ideas, and some are those of his friends worldwide who use his stack.
If you’re just learning the Aronson stack, how would you like
a simple computer program to help you practice, to quiz you? Simon
wants to share these latest tools and ideas, with all users and
would-be practitioners of the Aronson stack.
Just
click on the relevant title:
The Aronson Stack Quizzer (Mark Harris)
Magician
Makes Good (Michael Vincent and Simon)
Thoughts
on the Triple Poker Routine (Dennis Loomis)
Prediction
Shuffle-bored (Alain Nu and Simon)
Active
Aces (Simon)
Matching
the Cards (Norman Beck)
Christ-Aronson
Aces (Simon)
Challenge
Aces (Gene Castillon)
Kruskal meets the Aronson Stack (Dennis
Loomis)
Plunger Lie Detector (Joshua Jay)
The Calendar Card (Simon)
Binary Think-a-Card (Mergel Funsky)
If
you have some original ideas that are specific to the Aronson stack
and you want to share them, send them to Simon. He’ll publish
those he thinks are worthy of general interest on these pages, with
credit to all contributors.
