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ACAANasta Written by Pablo Amirá Thanks for respecting this art and keeping this document to yourself.
Copyright: © 2016 Pablo Amirá All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher
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Introduction It isn’t the effect you do, is what you do with that effect. Welcome to ACAANasta, an approach of “Any Card at Any Number” inspired by the work of Chan Canasta, the legend of bold Mentalism. If you know about him, you know that his approaches were very ahead of his time, clever and innovative handlings and best of all, very personal to his own mannerism and ways to handle failures and unexpected situations. I am sure that in a way or other, this could be Chan´s handling for this classic effect. Also with “ACAANasta” I wanted to approach a CLEAR effect, which is well appreciated for my audience as a simple to understand effect. Many ACAAN available are framed as “coincidence” and I don’t like them for the simple reason that I don’t perform “coincidences” in my repertoire. That is because they are not attributed to role as Mentalist and in my own opinion, coincidences are not part of credible Mentalism, rather magical effects that don’t have a clear source of creation. For that same reason this effect is framed as mindreading. You are knowing the card and the number via mindreading and using the climax of dealing cards as dramatic revelation. Hope that you can enjoy the thinking, approaches and overall routine.
Pablo Amirá, 2016
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Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. Confucius
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A picture is worth a thousand words
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ACAANasta History 8 years ago I start to use the core card technique to create another ACAAN effect and it was very fun, but I leave that effect resting for a while. A couple of years I re-build a new approach, using this technique in a way that is bold, clean and allows a very interesting new handling of this classic in Card Mentalism, using a coherent and simple to understand premise for my audience of mindreading and adding the placement of the card to the thought of number as second climax. Chan´s approach to performance in terms of confidence and approach to potential failures influence me in a great manner, and hopefully for you too now this routine can open a new window of opportunities to take risks and to enjoy the new possibilities. Outer Reality Approaching a group, the performer proposes an interesting game of cards, using just thoughts. A participant is asked to think in a card. Others are asked to think in various numbers to use later to add. Then after some moments of mind-to-mind connection with everyone the performer is not only able to reveal the thought of card, but also placing that precise card in the thought of numbers added together. Inner Reality This routine will not only give your audiences great moments of mindreading, but also a deeper lesson about how to be flexible and bold. Flexible because every performance will be different, so
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you need to be present at the moment to think to how you will make the effect work and bold because the technique used is not 100% foolproof. It is a classic technique that is completely underused but highly powerful. I read it the first time in ErdnaseThe Expert at the Card Table and it is called “Methods for Determining a Card Thought Of”, particularly Method “A”. I read it and I said… “This sounds like just a pipe dream”, but when I saw Chan performing, I realize the full potential of it, not just with his one-hand handling (much more casual and effective that the original with two hands) but the visual fairness of the situation. The participant actually can see several different cards but you will peek with him and know the thought of card via real empathic thought. You will see what he sees and think in the card that you are thinking of. It is beautiful and philosophically can teach us a lot. (Portion from Erdnase)
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No finger break is needed in the technique, just riffle the cards and in the middle pause for a bit, basically forcing the participant to think in that card (I prefer to call this technique a peek because you are not forcing a card perse, rather forcing a position which you will peek) If you want to watch this technique, you can see it in this legendary footage (at 5:31) Chan Canasta on Mike Parkinson https://youtu.be/sDcYeyHUJjY I could edit the video and show you just the technique, but every part of the introduction as well as the handling of the cards and the other routines that he did are gems that you need to watch multiple times to appreciate Chan´s extraordinaire background and interesting premise as performer. ACAANasta is also inspired (by the use of apparently unknown information to prepare everything in advance) by Chan legendary Book Test : https://youtu.be/I9Ckc_uVgLk Basically in this routine you will use this “Chan Riffle Peek” (we will use this name) to know the thought of card and the thought of numbers, so then you can add them and position the card secretly at the precise position in a covert manner while creating the apparent process of mindreading. I normally ask for 3-4 participants for this routine (you will understand the flexibility needed) but you can even use just one or two, the possibilities are open depending in your performance´s context. You can use any deck of cards in use and because you are letting the participant think in a random card, you don’t need a complete pack, so this routine is highly practical for professional and social
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situations. Some people could take the risk of the “Chan Riffle Peek” as a negative factor, but personally I love the idea to be present at the moment, being able to adjust depending the situation. Open your performance saying: “I want to invite all of you to an interesting game of cards. A mental one, just dealing with thoughts. Cards have numbers and symbols and we will use both characteristics…” From this initial script you will setup the idea to use the cards as complete entities but also as random numbers. The use of the “Chan Riffle Peek” is motivated during the routine for the same conditions that you will set: “(to the first participant) I will ask you to think in a random card and because normally people can think in psychologically more attractive cards such as the Ace of Spade or 5 of Hearts, I will just show you cards and just capture one in your mind” With this type of script, you will let the participant know that he will only focus in one while you “show him” cards. Don’t say “riffle” cards during performance rather “show”. This verb has more meaning to your participants and allows you to create a better subtle dual reality. After the procedure you can add: “You saw several cards but you have only one, right?” Again, this type of script allows you to create a confirmation about the last sentence and presuppose the affirmative reply form your participant apparently for both statements (Pablo Amirá-One Yes Set and also Peter Turner-Confirmation Principle). Lets say that the peek card/”thought of card” is the 9 of hearts.
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If you want at this moment you can give the deck to shuffle. You already know the thought of card, so then you can locate it and place it on top, where you need it for later. After this you will invite other members of your audience to think in numbers from the deck: “Now I need your mind for a moment (talking to other participant) You will see a card as well but now just as a numeric information, don’t worry about the color or the suit, just the number…” Now execute the “Chan Riffle Peek” for him. If you get a court card, you have some two options. You can do it again (my preferred way) for your participant or you can explain prior the execution of the technique the numerical values of each court card. From this point you can decide to take several paths. You can do the technique just one, two or three times. I have done it with just one “10”, making that number the thought of position to place the thought of card, but normally I let other participants also think in numbers so we can add the numbers together and get a bigger number. Is your decision. Let’s say that you did the technique two times, getting a “7” and a “9” (so the addition will be 16, a good number to count) Now, in the minds of your participants and audience, both the card and the numbers are unknown pieces of information, but because you know them, now you need to basically locate the “thought of card” and place it at the “thought of number” which will be the sum of the thought of individual numbers. You will do this very casually and easily through an apparent process of mindreading. For this spread casually the cards,
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locating the card that your participant is thinking of and control it to the top. Turn over the deck completely so you will have it face up. Grab it in “biddle grip” in your right hand (if you are right handed) ready to deal cards with your left thumb to your left open palm (Biddle Count). Now say: “I will show you several cards. Please look them while I look you…” Now you will simply count cards until you reach the “thought of number” (the sum of the previously thought of numbers) less one. So in this case you will pass 15 cards to your left hand while you look your participant in a dramatic manner and while your participant is looking the cards. This is a beautiful moment of process and procedure working together. You are placing the thought of card to the thought of number while you are making something interesting to look and to experience. After you reach the number (in this case 15 cards so the “thought of card” is 16th), you will say: “Interesting… I sense that you saw two cards that combined creates the card that you are thinking of… you didn’t saw your card but I sense that your card is….red…right?” Again, this phrasing allows us to apparently reveal information that your participant will not deny but replying affirmatively because the last sentence was correct (in our case) Now add: “Yes…red… and as you can see red in your mind you can see that this color red starts to form a symbol…a suit…which is…..hearts ,right?”
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While doing this, you can casually false shuffle the deck, keeping the order of the top stack (maintaining the “thought of card” on the desire position) “I think that I know the precise card… Now please yourself ( to the participant thinking in numbers)… each one of us has a number in mind…focus in that now…” Now act as if you are reading each participant´s minds and knowing the numbers. Then spread the cards towards yourself and take any indifferent card from the top portion (from the packet that you will deal in a moment) and place it in other position inside the same packet. So for example in our case take the 6th card and place it now at 13th. This will not change your final desire position but this serves to communicate in your subtext that you are placing the “thought of card” in the “thought of number”, when in reality everything is done already. You can give the deck to one member of the audience. Now say: “For some random reason each of you are thinking in numbers. If we add the numbers together, we will create a new number that will create something interesting, a serendipity of mystery. Please name your numbers outloud” Now your participants will name the “thought of numbers”, you will add them, ask the participant to deal cards and conclude the routine with a great revelation of the thought of card. As you can see, a simple routine, highly effective in my experience and clear in terms of the effect. You are reading each one minds and prove it.
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Extra Ideas 1. Another way to create a “thought of number” is to riffle force two cards that could create a number to use. So after the first “Chan Riffle Peek”, you can ask someone to shuffle and then while you casually spread commenting the unknown nature of the thought of card, you will spot two cards that are able to force a particular position. You can play with your options but whenever I use this handling I spot a 2 and other card (lets say a 3) , controlling them and force those cards, asking the participant to “just remember the numbers, so you have a 2digit number”. In this case you will force “23”, so then you proceed with the control of the "thought of card" to the top and the normal “biddle count” procedure of placing the “thought of card” at the 23th position. At the end, in the recapitulation you can say that the participant could think in “23 or 32”, when in fact you ask it directly to just form the 2-digit number quickly, without giving chance to invert the order of the cards.
2. You can use a subtle dual reality for the “thought of number”, so you will force in a bold manner two cards to other participant. Apparently you will show him the cards to think in a 2-digit number, when in reality you will show him this:
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From the front looks like a card spread, but you are just showing him the two and the three, so he will understand that the 2-digit numbers is 23. For him there is still an effect, because he doesn’t know how you knew the thought of card.
3. You can reveal the “thought of card” completely before the dealing procedure or reveal some aspects as I explain. Is your choice, but I prefer to keep it in suspense. The final result creates the implication that you knew via mindreading both the cards and the numbers so there is no real need to verbally name the information. 4. If you found that you didn’t get the exact thought of card or thought of number, you can adjust depending the situation (locating the proper card again, or doing a pass to move some cards secretly) or just move on and admit a mistake. There is nothing wrong with it, nobody will dismiss or reject your ability. As a matter of fact, being wrong and handle that situation in a casual and relaxed manner talks a lot about your confidence. Just try it again if you want or do something else. Credits and Inspiration The riffle technique can be found originally as “Methods for Determining a Card Thought Of” in Erdnase- The Expert at the Card Table “, method A. Later Dai Vernon has his own touches in "More Inner Secrets of Card Magic" under Riffled Thought. You can execute also this technique (as in the original from Erdnase) with two hands, but I highly prefer Chan´s handling using one hand and most important, a confident and natural attitude. The use of the biddle count as a way to place the card secretly as far as I know is original.
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Conclusion Hope that you found value in this routine, not just for the effect itself, but also for the understanding of a confident attitude and boldness.
Play with it and anything that you need just let me know via email at
[email protected] All the best! Pablo Amirá, 2016
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