John Bannon - 2 Tricks From Destination Zero

By John Bannon

Leverage

1r Destinrtion Zerct. a nau h ar dbound coLlc ct ion fr ott Sqtttrsb l'ublishing, John Ban non traucls to a sltccial ltrouinte in the u.'orld of magit: f -u, or k ittg car d mtrgi c. Let's joirt Bdnnon on lsis uidc-rattging tour. Tb tsc arc not )'ottt typitdl non sleight of-btutd tricks. Banrtort has ScI

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a couple of principlcs antl t:all it a tnck. Bdnnon looks for s1'rerylcs antl he leueragcs the me tbod tts much tts possible . His objcctiua: " ()ne plus onc shoultl caLrttl three of mt)l'?. Othcru,rse, u,h)' hotber? " Yttt get tha trick, ttntl yott get Bannon talkiry ahrnt the n ick all in his orccise but edst, to reatl stt,le, mdhing Ban non tha perlect trauel contpanion on this ext-itittg journey. This nnnth, wt t'isit 2 oi thc 2\ sterns in T)estinrtion Zero-

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Pr6cis

play. And they wait to see what the trick

After briefly examining a shuffled deck, the performer writes a prediction. He thinks a bit and then changes the prediction. After the prediction is made, a participant freely cuts to a card. Let's sav she cuts to the Three of Cluhs. The performer shows part of his prediction; it reads, "Nine of Diamonds." He explains: "You see, I predicted you would cut to the Nine of Diamonds. But as soon ds I wrote tbose words down, I had d feeling that you were not going to cut to the Nine. and thdt you were going to miss it by a number of cards tbat you would be off by six card.s, to be precise." The rest of the prediction reads, "Off bv six." "So if I am right, if you bad cut off six more cards one, two, three, four, fiue, and six -you would haue cut to the Nine of Diamonds." From where the participant cut, the performer deals down six more cards. The sixth card is the predicted card.

rea v ts_ In this trick. we exploit this presumption. The s1161 " off by six" is not part of the pres entatio n but actually part of the method. The performer does not attempt to control the card the participant actual[y cut to; that would. be impossible. Instead, the procedure secretly controIs the aftermath of the participant's free cut. Using the audience's own presumption against rhem is like a form of judo. The audience cannot believe that the performer actually "missed" (even though it would have been impossible to succeed). Accordingln they accept that the real trick is that the performer successfully predicted that the participant would cut exactly six cards away from the predicted card which, if you think about it, seems like the same thing. They conclude that the "miss" is not a real miss but a bit of presentational business. The performer ends up with full credit.

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Mise en Scdne A straightforward application of the

Presto.

Nos Encanta This is my favorite type of card trick. The idea is to take an obviouslv free choice and to leverage it into a forced result through craft and guile. Implemented correctly, it should feel like a remarkable prediction of a fair selection. Audiences have a very strong presumption that a trick will work. It's so strong that, when a trick does not work (or appears not to have worked), they refuse to believe it. Instead, they conclude that the mistake or error was just part of the presentation, part of the performer's

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Balducci Cut-Deeper Force drives the whole trick. Have the deck shuffled. Take it back and note the identity of the sixth card from the top. You can do this openly by "studying" the shuffled ordcr, t-,r secretly, or by moving a known card into position. Say it is the Nine of Diamonds. Place the deck face down in front of your participant. Now, write the following prediction: "Nine of Diamonds. Off by Six." The prediction should be written so you can show the "Nine of Diamonds" part while keeping the "Off bv Six " covered but not necessarilv hidIC FEBRI-I ARY 63

201s

By John Bannon

den (Photo 1). Place the predictron rn 1 conspicuous place. To gild the lily, you can have your participant run through some exercises. Write only the first part of the prediction. Now guide your participant through the Ose False Cut. Brieflv: Have your participant pick up the deck. Refer ro the following diagram B

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Now show the part of your prediction that reads "Nine of Diamonds" and begin the spin. "Yow see, I predicted you tuould cut to the Nine of Diamonds. But as soon as I wrote those words down, I had a feeling that you *ere not going to cut to the Nine, and that you were going to miss it by a number of cards. After I watched you cut the cards, I figured that yow would be off by six cards, to be precise," Now show the rest of the prediction, which reads "Off bv Six." JOtrldm right, if you had cut off six more cards one, two, three, four, fiue, and six lou would baue cut to the Nine

Ask her to cut off a third and to place it onto the table. That packet is packet A. Have her cut off a second third and place it next to the first that is, at position B. The remainder of the deck goes to position C. Between each instruction, act as if you are studying her cutting ability. of Diamonds." Pause only a beat or two, then have her Pick up the deck and spread off the faceassemble the packets by placing A on top up cards and place them squared onto the of B and the combined packet on top of C. table. From the face-down remainder of the This places the deck back in order. deck, deal five cards face up onto the tabled packet. Take the sixth card, pause for drama The subtext here is that you are evaluand then show it: the Nine of Diamonds! aring her cutring abiliry. The false cur is a bonus. Do not elaborate; actions speak If you have the room, you can very fairly louder than words. When she is done, go spread the deck and then deliberately, with back and change your prediction by adding one finger, separate the halves and count down to the sixth face-down card. You the "Off by Six" part. Now guide your spectator through a know, make a big deal about it (Photo 3). tabled Balducci Force. First, instruct her to cut off a packet of cards "less than half the dech," to turn it face up, and to BOP ODen replace it back onto the deck. Then ask Six her to cut off "more than half the deck," With a little tinkering, a very fine Open Prediction can be wrought. In fact, I find to turn over the packet, and to place it onto the deck. A face-up card will show this of{beat approach to that classic inter(Phoro 2). esting on a number of methodological and presentational levels. Here is a variation Remark that the uppermost card is a completely free choice of card. It actually is. essentially the same trick, but with a small Get your participant to commit to the fair change in the framework. Here, you make a double-sided predicand free nature of the selection process. Now ask her if she thin-ks it is possible rhat you tion, one side "open," one side "closed." Have a prediction with "Two chances, could have predicted in advance which card she would cut to. Again, get her to admit that but off bv six" written on one side. Then, it would be impossible to do reliably. openly write the name of your force card M AGIC 64 FEBRI'ARY 2015

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Postmortem (Balducci Predibtion) By

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(which is sixth from the top) on the other side. Let's say your force card is the King of Clubs. Place the prediction on the table openly showing "King of Clubs." Place the deck in front of your participant and walk her through the Balducci Cut-Deeper Force. "Tbe card we are looking for is the King of Clubs. Cut off a packet of cards, turn rt ouer, and place it back on top. Rdquel, that's not the King of Clubs. Let\ try again. Thk time, cut deeper than the first time, tarn ouer the packet, and Place it bach on toP. Raquel, thdt's not the King of Clubs either. "Well, tt s harder than it looks. Actually, ds soon as I predicted the King of Clubs, I bad a feeling that euen with two chances, you would not cut to tbe King. But I feh tbat you would be close and only miss it by a few cards. See what I wrote down? 'Two chances, bwt off by six.'Let's see..." Pick up the deck, spread off the faceup cards, and place them squared on the table. From the face-down remainder of the deck, deal five cards face up onto the tabled packet. Take the sixth card, pause for drama and then show it: the King of Clubs! "So if I am right, if you had cut off six more cards one, two, three, fou1 fiue, haue tut to tbe King and six -you would of Clubs."

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Leverage This basic construction raises a question. If you can predict "off by six " accurately, you should be able to predict the actual card. So why didn't you? Good question. The answer, of course, is that yon can't predict the actual card. That said, while we are leveraging the method, maybe we can leverage the presentation, too. You want to leave the impression that you could have made a "spot on" prediction but purposely did not. Instead, you

deliberarely created a "magician in rrouble" scenario, only to blirhely show you were in total control all along. In other words, you want your audience to understand that you were playing with them and that's why you apparently missed to artificially create a moment of apparent failure in order to turn

you can smrle to yourselt every trme your participants give you the credit for the methodological Ieverage you really dont deserve. Did lmention this is my favorite type

triumph. Like it or not, most "magician in trouble" plots leave exactly that impression when the trick is finished. No one concludes that vou were reallv in trouble, but only that you created that appearance so you could recrify ir for dramaric effecr. And most of the time, the "magician in trouble ploy is only presentation driven the plo v is used solely for dramatic effect. Tricks like Leverage are different. Here rhe "magician in trouble" aspect is not lust presentatlon driven but method driven. You must miss the actual card for the trick to work. The fascinating aspect of these kinds of tricks is that because your participants assume that the "miss" is presentation driven, thev will also assume thar rhe miss is nor really a miss. In other words, they will assume that you really could have predicted the actual card, but for their amusement and entertainment, you did not. But you could have. This is deception at a very deep level. You don't often see this kind of construction in the card trick wasteland. Too bad. It's tike a "sucker trick" without the sting, and

This is a really good method that will fool almost everyone. However, some sleight of hand is required. The first version is virtually self-working. To set up in real time, the second method requires a half pass, and the trick itself uses a timing-based turnover move, the flop. Have the deck shuffled. Take it back and spread it with the faces toward yourself, pretending to study the arrangement. Note the third or fourth card from the face let's say irt rhe King of Clubs and ger a break five cards past (below) Turn the deck face down and, as you do so, execute a half pass or a mechanical reverse of the lower packet. If the deck were turned over, the King of Clubs would be sixth from the top, with three or {our face-down cover cards heneath it. But let's not do that yet. Set down the deck (with the reversed packet at the bottom), and write a two-paft prediction similar to the ones previously described: "King of Clubs. Off by Six." Pick up the face-down deck and begin dealing the cards into a face-up pile on the

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Flop By Six

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Mousetrap The participant mentally selects a card, which is convincingly lort in the deck. Two sandwich card\. \ay the two red Queens. afe buried face up in the deck. The performer starts pulling pairs of cards from the top and bottom of the deck and dropping the pairs into a spread on the table. During this process, he encounters the face-up Queens, which end up with a single face-down card between them. A few pairs after the Queens, the performer drops the remaining cards onto the spread, saying, "l don't know about you,

table. Allow your participant to stop the deal whenever she'd like. Sell the fairness of the selection (presumably the uppermost face-up card). Call attention to the prediction. Simultaneously, pick up the prediction with your right hand as you put the deck down with your left, secretly turning over the deck as you do, while all anention ir on the predictlon a fa irly perfect moment for the flop. Do the prediction shenanigans: " Yor.r see, I predicted you would stop at tbe King of Clubs. But as soon as I wrote those words dou,,n, I bad a feeling that you were not go ing to stop on tbe King, and tbat you were going to miss it by a number of cards that you wottld be off by six cards, to be precise." Very fairly pick up the deck, deal five cards face up onto the tabled pile, pause for drama, then slowly show the sixth card to be the King of Clubs. If you preset the force card and the reversed cards on the bottom, this handling is much more accessible. Simply remove the cards from the box, give the deck a quick Ose False Cut (without revealing the reversed cards), and go from there.

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Pr6cis Of all things, it's a self-working sandwich trick.

deep in the deck. For me, the challenge is

how to moye through that number of cards in an efficient way and to make a trick out of it. Burying the {ace-up Queens, among other but I'm dying of curiosity tuhat card are things, burns ttrough twenty or thirry card' you thinking of?" ln an efficient way. There is a lucky synergy The card sandwiched between the here between the Automatic Placement and the necessary positioning of the Queens for Queens is the mentally selected card! the Klondike sandwich revelation. The Klondike Shuffle adds an interesting If you have the performing patience and dimension because you can watch the sandare baffled bv the Automatic Placement wich being formed. As the shuffle progresseven though you know how it works (sort es, you get a sense of what inevitably must you might like this trick, too. happen, which is confirmed when a card of) gets sandwiched. Only when the sandwich I have been playing around with this procedure for over 25 years. The procedure appears does one appreciate that it will be usually places the mentally selected card fairlv the mentally selected card. Combining the MAGIC FFBRI]ARY 2015 65

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Encanta

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By John Bannon

"impossible location" of the Automatic Placement with a sandwich-type trick creates such a disconnect that the straightforward sandwich revelation is unexpected and surprising.

At the end of the procedure, it's plain that you cannot possibly know the number, the card, or the location of the card which, for the most part, is true. So the procedure, while a little unusual, seems very fair.

Mise en Scdne

Location

You need a full 52-card deckl no Jokers. Remove your two sandwich cards here, the red Queens and ser them face down to one side. You now have a fifty-card deck.

Okay, because you are working with a 6fry-card deck, through the wonder of the Automatic Placement, the mentally selected card is the thirtieth card from the top. Pretend to concentrate and then state as seriously as you can, " l know you are not tbinking of a red Queen, right?" Then, turn the tabled Queens face up onto the top of the deck. "Because I took them out before we started, But we will use tbem to find yowr card. First, we'll need to buru them in the deck." You will bury the Queens apparently haphazardly, but actually in a particular place tenth and eleventh from the bottom. Set the Queens face up onto the table. As casually as you can, spread off three cards and toss them onto the table. Toss three more, then three more. Now, place the Queens face up onto the tabled pile. Bury the Queens by tossing three more groups of three, and a group of two, for a total of eleven more cards. To recap: Toss nine cards, then the face-up Queens, then toss eleven cards any way you want to. For example, you could place the face-up Queens on top of the deck. Then, push over the Queens and three groups of three cards each and drop them all onto the table. Next, push over eleven cards (three, three, three, and mo) and drop them on top. The key is to not

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Placement Have the deck shuffled. You will now do the Automatic Placement procedure. Take the shuffled deck back and spread it berween vour hands. Instruct vour participant to grab some cards from the center of the spread. The total number needs to be twenty or less. It is unlikely in a hand-to-hand spread that more than twenty cards are available to even an

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enthusrastrc partrcrpant. When she does, ask her to count the cards and to remember the number. She mav do it under the table or she can turn away and count them. As she is doing this, you can let another participant shuflle the remainder of the cards. When she is done, caution her to remember the number. She can place the packet of cards aside; they are not returned to the deck. Take back the remainder of the pack and tell your spectator that you will show her some cards and ask her to remember the card at her secret number. Itr7ith your right hand, take the top card and raise it to the participant's eye level. Ca[[ the card,, "One," Leavtng your right hand where it is, bring your left hand to look like you are counting. your right and thumb off the next card Drop the rest of the deck on top. At this point, the mentally selected card is tenth in front of the first card. Cotnt, "Two." The cards are not reversed and your right from the top and the Queens are tenth and eleventh from the bottom. hand does not move. You will be showing her twenty cards in fairly rapid succession. Anvone for a Klondike Shuffle? and this way of displaying rhem minimizes any motion blur, allowing for a clear look at each card. If you like, give the deck a false cut. The Klondike Shuffle goes like this: Take Continue until you have shown her twenty cards. Verify that she is thinking of the deck from above with your right hand. \7ith your left thumb and 6ngers. simulraa card. Finally, place the right-hand cards under the left-hand cards- Give the deck an neously pull off the top and bottom cards Ose False Cut. of the deck (Photo 1). Drop this pair onto 66 MAGIC F E B R IJ A RY 2015

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Klondike

the table to the left, in a spread condition. Pu[[ the next top and bottom pair and drop it onto and to the left of the tabled pair. Continue pulling pairs in this fashion, gradually building a right-toJeft spread of cards (Photo 2). When you pull the tenth pair, a face-up Queen will be the lower card of the pair (Photo 3). When you pull the eleventh pair, the second Queen will appear and, when the pair is tabled, will sandwich a single facedown card berween the Queens (Photo 4). I pull off two or three more pairs to complete the "spread" [ook, then just drop the rest of the cards on the end of the spread. You know, cut to the chase. While it does not seem possible, the card berween the Queens is the mentally selected card. Reallv. Gotta love it.

Postmortem Background I have a similar trick that combines an impossible location with a sandwich rrick: Dawn Parrol, in Dear Misler Fantasy (20051. This combination creates an interesting dynamic. The "impossible location," almost by definition, creates a set of conditions specifically designed to reinforce the conclusion that there is no way the performer will be able to find the selected card; participants are necessarily skeptical as to how and when you will be able to bring which, the trick to a successful conclusion of course, is the whole point of the location. Accordinglg they really don't expect the sandwiched card to actually be the selected card and are prepared for additional byplay before the trick ends. When the sandwiched card turns out to be the selection, it ls unexpected and, accordingly, surprising. Dawn Patrol employs a perfect faro shuffle. I thought about how to accomplish the same effect by some other means. Turns

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out, the math of the Klondike Shuffle makes it unusable under Dawn Patrol conditions, in which the relevant cards are a known distance from eacb otDer. In considering the Klondike Shuffle. what matters is that the relevant cards are a known distance from tbe top and bottom of the deck. This contideration, in turn, led me ro the Auromaric Placement, which automatically places the mental selection at a known number from the top. Hmm... As I mentioned earlier, there is a real synergy berween rhe Automatic llacement rnd the requirement that the Queens be buried in th e deck, and that creates a truly ef6cient trick . In addition, making ten pairs hefore the Queens show up generates just enough anticipation without overdoing rt-

Mousetrappers In discussing this trick with the Chicago Session, Dave Solomon and I came up with the following handling that doesn't use the Klondike. Use the Automatic Placement to put the mental selection thirtieth from the top as described. Introduce the sandwich cards and bury them face up by first putting down eleven cards, then the face-up Queens, and then nine cards. (This is the opposite of Mousetrap, where nine cards were placed first, then eleven.) Then stop, leaving the deck in two portions. The face-up Queens are tenth and eleventh from the top of the tabled half; the mental selection is tenth from the /op

of the remainder. Hand your participant the balance of the deck and then pick up the tabled half. Have her follow your actions as you walk her through an Ose False Cut. Having a participant do the Ose False Cut is good (when used judiciously), but both of you doing it at the same time is even hetter.

Now, deal a card onro the rable and have your participant deal a card on top of it. Each of you continues alternately dealing cards into a single pile on the table. Eventually you will deal a face-up Queen, she'll deal a face-down card on top of it, and you'll deal another Queen. Got one! Stop the dealing and say, "Did you see what iust happened? The Queens haue trapped a card. " Ask for the name of the mental selection. Voila!

Do the Math I think ten pairs before the Queens show up are just abour righr. But everyrhing, is under your control. It all depends on how many cards you put below and above the Queens. For example, if nine below and eleven above means the sandwich will be formed by the tenth and eleventh pairs, placing seven below and thirteen above will form the sandwich at the eighth and ninth pairs. (Seven below is the least amount I would consider; fewer would decrease the illusion that the Queens are "buried.") Similarlg eight below and twelve above would put the sandwich at the ninth and tenth pairs. M John Bannon's new book, Destinarion Zero, explains 25 complete routines all of tbem self-working in the author's conuersdtional, firstperson style. The hardbound, photoillustrated book k auailable from Squasb P ublis h in g, www.squashpublishing.com.

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