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Endless Chain
Endless Chain (also known as Pricking the Garter, Chain of Chance and Loopy Loop) is a gambling scam. A loop of string or chain (sometimes a necklace) is laid upon a table in a figure-8 pattern. The spectator is shown that if a finger is placed in one side of the figure 8 and the chain is pulled, the chain will come free, but the other side catches on the finger. The spectator is instructed to pick a side that will catch the chain, but fails every time.
This is a very old scam. It was published as a magic effect in Stanyon's Magic in 1901 and later popularized George Blake in 1949 when he published it as "Loopy Loop".
Routines in Books
- The Loopy Loop - A Treatise on the Endless Chain by George Blake (1949)
- A Ray of Magic, by Jimmy Ray, The Magic Figure 8 (1980)
- Ken Brooke and Friends, page 95, The Endless Chain written by Derek Lever (1986).
Routines on DVD
- The Chain Gang, by Marc DeSouza (Camirand Academy of Magic)