Larry Barnowsky - Counting on Deception

 

~ o u

t t

 

o

e

•

tto

e

y

Larry Barnowsky A Gyromagnetic Press Publication 2 13

 

Copyright© 2 13 by Larry Barnowsky All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical including photocopying recording o r by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the author. All manufacturing rights o f any original apparatus described in this book are reserved by the author.

barnowsk ymagic.co ymagic.com m email: barnowskyl @ao @aol.com l.com

Photograph y: Esther Miller

Book layout: Deana DiVizio Art Director Media Forty Eight www.mediafortyeight.com Cover Art by Count Elmsley

Printed in the United States o f America First Edition Gyromagnetic Press 2 13

ISBN: 978-0-9764790-3-1

 

Numbers rule the Universe. Pythagoras

Naturee s great book is written Natur alileo

mathematics.

everything that can be cou counte nted d count counts, s, nott everything no everything that counts can be counted

ot and

in

Albert Alb ert Einstein

 

  ontents Preface to The Book of Destiny Introduction

. 

..

. . . .9

 

..

Cards Impromptu or Minimal Setup

Page

Nine Shuffle Paradox 2. 15 Card Poker Deal 3. Sort-ability + 4. Iron Certain Poker 5.Four For Sure 6. Ambitious Card++-+++ . .   7. One At A Time Aces++ 8. The Trick That Fooled M e 9. Underhanded Deception

13 19

1

5

29 35 39 .45 51

57

10. Impromptu Pas Pascal cal s Pyramid P redic tion+ 11. Eliminating Control

61

67

Cards In New Deck Order 12. The 39th Card 13. Until There Were Four 14. Loser s Poker 15. Prime Number Prophec Prophecy y+ 16. Shall W e Switch

71 77

83 87 91

Cards Setups All Roads Lead to Rome 18. Match Ga m e + 19. Hidden Order+-++ 20. Pascal s Pyramid Predi ction + 21. Pass the Pack+-++ 22. The Uncertainty Principle 23. As Many Hands As You Want+-++ 24. Oldest Trick in the Book 7.

.

 

95 101 10 7 113 119 125 133 139

 

Cards 25. 26. 27. 28.

affed

Drawing a Blank Parallel Uniforce Shuf Sh uffl flee Sur Surviv vivor or The Fabulous Athletic Aces -

Page 143 149 153 157

Props 29. 30. 31. 32. 3 3. 34. 35. 36. 37.

Crayola Payola Periodic Table Prediction Abracada bacus Salty Air Mind Reading Cards Force To Be Reckoned With Tale of the Tape The Illusion of Free Choice N o Lose Musical Chairs

165 171 179

185 18 9 195 201 205

209

Coins 38. Coins and Caps 39. Change of Mind 40. Undercover Queen -

215 219

223

Balls 41. Patriotic Balls 42. Color Me Clairvoyant

22 7

43. Silent Colorama 44. Glass, Tube, and Bag Mystery References

241 245 25 5

235

 

Preface Pre face to

ounting ount ing on Dece Deceptio ption n

In order for a magician to bewilder an audience, he often depends on dec decep epti tive movements, sleights, and apparatus to accomplish the objective. In a mann er of speaking, he is counting on deception. \Y  e deceive so we can mystify, and we mystify so we can create a sense of wonder; and if all that is d one

in a theatrical mann er the final result ideally ideall y should be a polished work of entertainment. W e can also deceive an audience by the way we count or make them count. We can take advanta ge of hidden mathematical concepts and controlled permutations. Throughout this book you will find numerous examples of these. t may be through a false count of cards, a spectator dealing piles of cards, counting beads on an abacus, counting cards to a thought of numbe number, r, countin g numbers in a pyramid, counting cards under a table, o r counting deriv deriveed sums. What these ha ve in common are number s which we use in a varie variett y of ways but alwa ys with deception as the goal. Many o f the effects in this book are self-working or require minimal sleights. That does not m ean

tha t they require require no skill. The artful presentation of magic is a skill that is too often underappreciat underappreciated ed.. The scripts I supply are a start. Use them as is, modify them, them,,, or write your own so they suit your personality, styl style, e, and the character you are portra ying. The scripts are the hook that engages your audience immersing them into a theatrical experience rather than just like the trick they remember Uncle Al did. The effects in this book are meant to be performed. Reading about them to disco discover ver the method s

and techniques is fine but do try them out on a real audience. In fact, I'll suggest one. Perform Underhanded Deception   . This is a baffling baffling trick requiring no sleight o f hand. This effect w ill be enhanced by engaging the audience in the notion that rea l magic often only takes place in th e

dark.

t

involves some counting which makes the trick work automatically.

So, explore this book and find some effects that fit your taste and style and go out and perform.

Larry Barnowsky Cooperstown ew York July 2013

9

 

  ntroduction Layout o

he

ook

This book is structure d very very similar in layout to my previous two, Kingdom o f the Red and The ook o f Destiny Each effec effectt is broken down as needed into the following components: Effect, Skil Sk ills ls Needed, Props Needed, C onstru ction of Props, Setup, Explanation and Script, Discussion.

Title: After each title there is a bullet mark in the form of a diamond (+) indicating the relative , or . level of difficulty. I ve chosen a simple scale of , +: Self working or needing basic skills ++: Needing slightly more skill such as a Faro Shuffle :Needing more advanced sleights o r the routine contains more complex technique All o f the necessary necessary moves can be perfor med properly with a reasonable amount of practice. I use no impossible type sleigh sleights. ts. Effect: This is a brief summary of the effect. In some cases I go into more detail of the effect as seen by the audience when doing so will will make the explana tion easier to follow. Skills Needed: These are the main sleights and skills needed. Trivial moves and basic card handling are not listed. An asterisk ( :·) is placed next to a sleight sleight that will be explained in the chapter. f it is explained in a prior o r subsequent chapter, the chapter is listed in parentheses after the asterisk. Major sleights and moves will appear in bold throughout the text except in the Discussion. Other moves, grips, palms, and basic sleights will appear capitalized. Props Needed: Any required props or paraphernalia needed for the effect are listed. Check the Discussion section for alternatives. Construction of Props: In some chapters I give details of how to make the props your yourself. self. Most of the time these are small craft projects that most magicians should be capable of doing. In a few cases they require woodworking skills and access to some power tools. Setup: This describes wh ere visible and concealed props are placed prior to performance and any prearrangement of a deck. Explanation and Script: Step-by-step instructions explain how to perform the effect. In some cases the steps are numbered. The script appears in italics before each step or description. Numbered black and white photos help to illustrate the key points of each move or important action. Discussion: This includes additional tips, ideas, and alternative handlings. In many cases it offers easier moves to accomplish the effect. References to previous published effects which inspired the effect and credits for other sources may also be listed here.

 

efinition ofTerms Descriptions of sleights and movements in magic books have not always been as precise as it could be. In this book as well as my prior three, I've tried to correct that by applying terms used by anatomists and physicians. In the anatomic position" the hands lie at each side with the palms open facing the observer and the thumbs pointing away from the body. Structures closer to the body are described as being medial and those farther from the body are referred to as being lateral For example, with the left palm open the thumb is lateral to the index fing finger er and the little finger is medial to both of them. In virtually virtuall y all magic books, the thumb is not counted as a finger. They identify the first finger as the index finger and the little finger as the fourth finger. This is contrary to anatomy textbooks which consider the hand to have five digits or rays. Anatomists refer to the thumb as the first digit and avoid the term finger. So there is no ambiguity, I will use the following to describe the five digits of the hand: thumb, index finger, middle finger, ring finger, and little finger. The terms distal and proximal are terms to describe the relative position of one part of the body to another. A structure that is distal to another is farther away from it relative to the body. A body part that is proximal to another is closer to the body. For example, the palm is distal to the wrist and proximal to the fingers. Wrist motion can be difficult to accurately describe without the proper terms. With the hand palm up, rotat ing the wrist until it is palm down is called pronation Reversing that motion is called supination With pronation the thumb points medially and with supination it points laterally The following terminology is used when describing a deck of cards:

The short end of the deck closest closest to the performer is the inner end The short end of the deck farthest from the performer is the outer end sidee The long edge to the perfo rmer's left is the left sid The long edge edge to the perfo rmer's right is the right side The top of the deck is that portion farthest from the palm or table. This is true whether the deck is face up or face down. • The ottom of the deck is that portion closest to the palm or table. This is true whether the deck is face up or face down. • • • • •

\'\ hen I use \'\  use the t erm new deck order I am referring to the normal arrangement when a sealed deck o f Bic Bicycl yclee card c ard s is opened. That order is AH, 2H, ... KH; AC, 2C, ... KC; KD, QD, ... KS, QS, ... AS . .\ l os ostt decks come in that order but not all. :\ o re that I use the term Double Cut interchangeably with Double Undercut (with or without

the h yphen) .

.\ l a thematicians will describe the first row of Pascal's Triangle as row zero. In this text I refer to it as row one.

 

 

 

Nine Shuffle

Paradox

-

Effect A deck is thoroughly shuffled by the spectator. The magician takes the deck and removes a total of 24 cards one at a time placing them in several piles and allowing the spectator to determine where the cards will go. go. The pi pile less are further mixed by the magician including a genuine riffle shuffle. The cards are shuffled again by dividing them into three face-up and four face-down piles and then reassembled by folding the packets onto one another. Next twelve packets consisting of pairs of face-down cards are laid onto the table and randomly reassembled into a larger packet a t the direction of the spectator. Twelve packets are then created consisting of face-to-face pairs. These are reassembled into a larger packet as directed by the spectator. The faceface-up up and face-down mixture of cards is given one last genuine riffle shuffle. When the cards are spread, all the face-up cards are red and when the spread is turned over, all the face-up cards are found to be black.

Needed:

Skills • No

difficult sleights se seee Disc Discussio ussion n for another version using a setup with or without a Faro Shuffle) • Seven Seas Pir Pirate ate Shuffle :-

Props

Needed:

• Any deck of cards with at least least 12 black cards and 12 red cards

Setup • None

3

 

Nine Shuffle Paradox

Explanation

nd

Script

I 'm going to perform for you a very different type o f effect. You don't have to pick a card, t hink o f a card, or even remember a card. All you have to do s help me shuffle the cards. And we'll do that individually and together exactly nine times. Why nine times? Mathematicians s

have proved that a deck o f cards completely randomize d after seven shuf shuffles fles.. But I have shuffles something totally found that after nine shuffles paradoxical occurs. What's that unexpected thing? Well, you'll have to wait to the end to see it. But first, I want you to perform the first o f nine shuffles.

1. Have the spectator shuffle the cards thoroughly. Point to w here I should place these cards.

2. Take the deck and spread the cards face up toward of the fromon near toptoward you. any 2one redface cards deck Take and place down the the table your left and the other face down to the right of it. Continue removing only red cards and ask the spectator to point to which pile it should go. Do not mention anything about color separation. D o this until there are a total of 12 red cards distributed between the two piles fig. 1 ). Don t allow the spectators to see these cards. The piles don t have to be equal. f you choose cards close to the top, most if not all of the top remaining cards will be black.

3. Remove two black cards and place them face down on the table adjacent to the two existing piles. For the remaining 10 cards, remove only black cards and place them in the two new piles as directed by the spectator. You should be able to deal them face down off the top without looking since there will be a long run of blacks if you were succes successful sful in culling out the red ones fig. 2). No w shuffles two and three.

4. Shuffle the two red-only piles together and then shuffle the two black-only piles together. together. And old fashioned shuffle number four.

4

5. With the red pile in your left hand and the black in your right, deal cards alternately onto the table until there are none left fig. 3 ). The cards will be in an alternatin g red-black order. t doesn t matter which color you deal first. f you want, you could do a Faro Sh Shuf uffle fle instead. instead. T hat s easy to do with 24 cards. Followed by shuffle number five.

 

Counting on

eception

6. Turn the packet face up. Cut the cards near the middle so the face cards are opposite in color fig. 4 ). Now turn the two packets face down and do a genuine riffle shuffle with your eyes askan ce fig. 5). Because of the Gilbreath Principle, succe ss i\·e pairs of cards will be of opposite color. Do not d o a perfect riffle. Do a haphazard riffle shuffle so th e pairs will not all be of the same parity. A nd now the sixth shuffle, the famous Se ve ven n

Seas Pirate Shuffle.

originally y 7. Perform the false reassembly of cards originall described in Look to the Cards in The Bo ok o{ Destiny: With the cards face down, slide off 3-4 cards and turn them face up in position 6. Rep eat that for positions 4 and 2 fig . 6). Then thumb off 3-4 cards face down at positions 1, 3, 5, and 7 . Reassemble the packets from left to right foldin g face-down packet 1 onto face-up packet 2 and so cardss on until there is one packet of 24 face-down card fig. 7-8). The order o f the cards is left unchanged unchan ged by this procedure. 8. Take the face-down packet and deal pairs of card s forming two rows of six pairs fig. 9). Make sur e you deal two succ successi essive ve cards for each of the twelve piles. A nd the seventh, the Pick-A-Pair Shu{fle.  

9. Haphazardly reassemble the cards keeping the p air s intact. You can ask the spectator to point to pil es a you perform the reassembly fig . 10). Just tran sfer pairs of cards with the right hand into the receiY ing leftt hand. Deliberatel lef Deliberately y have pairs of cards in th e left hand overlap each other. An d some cards face up so you can see th a t th eY

are really mixed.  

5

 

Nine Shuffle Paradox 10. Square the cards. Make two rows of six pairs again but this time the pairs consist of face-to-face opposite color cards: Deal the first card face up and the second on top of it face down. Jog the face-down card slightly to the right so the face-up card's pip still shows. Deal the next card face up and its mate face down on top of it it.. Con tinue until you have two rows of six pairs fig. 11). The color of each face-up card should be visible. Which brings us to shuffle number eight, the

face-up Pick-A-Pair Shuffle.

11. With your left hand, pick up any red-showing pair nearest you o n your left (this is arbitrary). Ask the spectator to point to another pair. Pick that up with the right hand and place it on top of the first pair. f the face-up cards match in color, the added pair should be placed flush with the first pair. f the added pair is opposite in color (black), injog that pair toward the left palm. Continue adding new pairs chosen by the spectator into the left hand placing them aligned with the first red pair or injogged with the black pairs. As you are doing that, the back of the han d should face face the spectator and the fingers will conceal the injogs fig. 12). Do this until all cards are in the left hand. As a mnemonic, I remember black is back and red is right . Remember, the b lack cards are in jogged toward the back of the palm. And the last shuffle, shuffle, number nine, the blind riffle

shuffle.

12 . With Wi th the right hand, strip out the outjogged red cards ca rds by pulling them to the right as the left hand p ulls to the left fig. 13-15). As they are being se parated, turn the right hand packet over reversing reversing rhe parity fig. 16). Now do a genuine riffle shuffle \\· irh your eyes closed fig. 17). ·' A nd the unique thing about this trick is you don' t have to remember a card. You just have to know red from black. But after shuffling the c rds nine times, something paradoxical has h ppened. All the cards on this side are red and all the ones on this side are black. 1 .

6

Sp rea d the cards showing all reds face up fig. 18 ). Flip the spread over showing the blacks all facing e same way fig. 19).

 

  ountingon

eception

 

Nine Shuffle Paradox Discussion • This

is

one of my favorite impromptu effects. Culling out the reds and blacks

is

done right in

front of the spectator in a seemingly haphazard manner. They don't know what to expect at this point.

ll

they will remember

is

that they got to choose where the cards were placed in various piles.

• f you start out with the deck with the reds and blac blacks ks separate d (culled or prior stacked) you

could skip the initial shuffling by the spectator and the subsequent open culling culling of the colors. That open culling procedure is similar to that used in Harry Lorayne's

Impromptu Out of This

Worl d. Instead you can do the following: following: Execute a Faro Shuf Shuffle fle so the cards alter nate in color color.. Have the spectator cut the cards. Now deal four hands of six cards each. Your Faro will count as shuffle number one. For shuffles two and three, riffle shuffle diagonal pairs. Then proceed with the effect resuming at step #5. Adjust the patter accordingly. • f I'm working with a beat-up deck I'll use the impromptu method. f it's my deck or a new deck,

I may use the Faro Shuffle version. • Another idea

is

to have the top 24 cards separated already with 12 reds on top o f 12 blacks.

Keep the top 24 intact with a Jog Shuffle o r face-up Hindu Shuffle. Then deal the first 12 cards into two piles and the next 12 into two additional piles. Shuffle cards in the same rows followed by the alternate dealing procedure or a Faro Shuffle. • f you are starting in new deck order, two faros will produce alternating colors. Or, as you

spread the cards to remove jokers and ad cards, switch the block of diamonds and spades in the lower half. That way you only need one Faro to get the cards in alternating color orde order. r. • Instead of using reds and blacks, you could use diamonds and hearts. In that case, you would tell them you are using only red cards. Another idea

is

to

use

the 12 court cards and 12 red non-court cards.

• f you were to do a perfect riffle, the face-up cards in step 10 would all be one color which could

tip the method. Avoid that by deliberately doing a sloppy riffle shuffle. • The effect could be shortened by eliminating one o f the shuffling sequences and adjusting the patter. I always perform it as written. • The effect could be done using my ESP Duel gaffed deck described in The

ook o f Destiny

Steps #1-5 would be omitted. You could do multiple clean riffle shuffles. Then instead of doing a riffle shuffle at step #6, you would make two parallel spreads and push the spreads into one a n other. The rest of the steps after that would remain the same. •

h av avee found that 24 cards works best. You can do the effect with any even number of cards as lon g as they are half red and half black black..

 

 

 

5

a r d Poker D e a l

Effect The magician tells a story about a session session wit h the world s foremost gambling expert. Fifteen cards are removed from the deck and thorou ghly shu shuffle ffled d and genuinely mixed in piles with multiple fair cuts. Next three hands o f stud poker are dealt. Despite all that mixing and cutting, a royal flush in spades s dealt as the winning hand.

Skills Skil ls Needed N eeded • Jog Shuffle or face-up Hindu Shuffle (optional) • Slip Shuffle • Straddle Faro Shuffle (optional)

Props Needed • Deck of cards

Setup • None

9

 

15 Ca Card rd Pok Poker er Dea Deall

Explanation

nd

Script

I once had a card session with the most accomplished expert on gambling. He

performed for me the most incredible demonstration o f card control that I had ever seen. Let's do a bit o f role playing. You will be the great gambling exp ert and I will play myself. First he said, remove fifteen cards from the deck and place them face down. Next, remove five spot cards, no court car cards ds or jokers, and place them face down over here.

1. Spread the cards face up toward you. Remove any ten random cards not from a royal flush and place them face down on the table. Then remove the five cards mak ing up a royal flus flush h sa say y in spades) and place them also face down on the other ten. 2. Next remove five cards having the following values: 2, 4, 5, 7, and 8. The suits are immaterial. First, remove a five spot and place it face down. Place the other four cards on top of the five spot in any order. Then he said, you shuffle and deal piles and all

I'll do s cut the cards. He said, take the top card out o f tho se five. five. It's It 's a five spot. D Dea eall five five piles and reassemble them.

3. Pick up the packet of fifteen and false shuffle keeping the top five cards intact. A Jog Shuffle or a face-up Hindu Shuffle will suffice. Take the packet o f five cards, briefly show their faces, and do a Slip Shuffle or any other control keeping the five spot o n the Cut the cards so the five spot is on top and t t o ~ turn it face up.

4. Ta ke the packet of fifteen and deal cards in five piles fro m left to right until there are three cards in each p il e . Reassemble the packet s from left left to right or in in a m · order) until there is one pile fig. 1). Have the k e t cut and complete the cut. Optionally do a Straddle F aro Shu Shuffle ffle fig. 2). N ext he said, I'll cut this large pile and then this small one. Turn over the top card and deal that n umber o f piles.

2 

5. Have the spectator cut each pile and complete the cut. You then select the top card of the four remaining face-down spot cards. Depending on which one you choose, deal cards and reassemble piles according to the followi following ng procedures: :;

2 is chosen, deal two piles left to right and reassemble either left to right, or right to left.

:;

4 is chosen, deal four piles left to right and reassemble right to left.

:;

8 is chosen, deal eight piles left to right and reassemble right to left.

:;

7 is chosen, deal seven piles left to right and reassemble left to right.

f

f

f

f

6. Repeat step 5 until one card remains in the small packet. Turn over that card and follow the above procedure fo forr that specific card.

 

Counting on 7. At this point, you will have dealt and reassembled a total of five different pile piless (five piles first) with the spectator cutting each pac ket between deals. deals. Then he said, now it's time to play some stud

poker.

. Deal three stud poke r hands from left left to right. h at is, the first card of each hand is dealt face up and the remaining ones face down. he piles should be in a horizontal row fig. 3 ). Then he said, pick any hand for yourself

9 . Ask the spectator to choose any of the three hands. f they choose the one with the face-up spade from the royal flush, then move any one packet toward you and the other toward the right. f he doesn t pick the royal flush, then you should move it toward yourself and slide the remaining one to your right. Well, m y jaw dropped and m y heart fluttered when I saw that I had just deal t a royal flush in spades.

10. Turn over both non-winning hands. hen turn over the winning royal flush fig. 4 ). Because of the ambiguity in what you have said, whether you deal the royal flush to yourself or the spectator (the gambling expert), the statement is still true.

eception

 

  5 C ar d Po Poke ker r De Deal al

Discussion • How does this work? First, by dealing five piles of fifteen and reassembling from left to right (or right t o left) each of the cards from the royal flush will be three cards apart. That is, there will be two cards between each of the spades making up the royal flush. Cutting the cards keeps the cyclical order intact even though the original order is changed.

• When we deal and reassemble the cards with 2, 4, 7, or 8 piles, the cyclical order is modified. The spades making up the royal flush will rotate within a cyclical subgroup or chain o f five. Those spades will still remain three cards apart from one another but not in the original order.

Simple cuts also will not affect this relationship. So, after multiple deals, reassemblies, and cuts, the cards making up the royal flush will be three cards apart; since it s stud poker, the winning

hand will be the one having the spade from the royal flush.

• With a packet of fifteen cards, there will be three groups of five cards making up a chain o r subgroup. The four different shuffles will keep members of the same chain three cards from one

another (or two indifferent cards between) although not necessarily in the original order. Note

that this will work only if the piles are reassembled in the correct direction. For example

reassembling four piles from left to right (instead of right to left) will destroy that relative order. • Performing a Straddle Faro will also not change the relationship of the five royal flush cards. Faros and Reverse Faros will also maintain the other two sets o f five cards that are spaced every third. Dealing cards in piles and reassembling them is equivalent to one or more Reverse Faros.

• After one two-pile shuffle and reassembling left to right, the card positions change according to the following charts:

initial final initial final initial final

10

1

4

7

8

14

5

2

5

8

11

14

15

6

2

3

9

3

6

9

2

4

10

7

3

3

2

15

N otice that each top row set of 5 initial positions are mapped to new final positions separated b y 3. For example the cards a t positions 3, 6, 9 12 and 15 will be mapped to new positions 1, 4 , 7, 10 and 13 but not in that order. However, each o f the five elements of this group of cards w ill remain separated from its neighbor with two indifferent cards between them. 22

 

Counting on

eception

• Here's a mathematical way of showing the preservation of the relative positions of a chain of five. Let x be any card position number from 1 to 15. Following a Faro Shuffle, five cards that are three cards apart from another will be mapped to the following positions: 2x, 2(x+3), 2(x+6), 2(x+9), 2(x+12) mod 15

=

2x, 2x+6, 2x+12, 2x+18, 2x+24 mod 15 which is equivalent to 2x, 2x+6, 2x+12, 2x+3, 2x+9 mod 15 which rearranged is

2x, 2x+3, 2x+6, 2x+9, 2x+12 mod 15 Subtracting any two adjacent positions will yield 3. Therefore, follow following ing a Faro Shu Shuffl ffle, e, cards in a group of five that were three apart will remain three apart although not necessarily in the original order. • In a packet of fifteen, all chains of three cards that are five apart from each other will also maintain that relationship follow following ing similar shuffles. Generalizing this further, one can say that for any packet of n cards where n = a x b, both a and b are integers, and n is an odd integer, the following is true: A chain of a cards spaced b cards apart will remain in the same relative order following any number of Straddle Faros or equivalent Reverse Faros. Since 15 3x5, any three cards spaced five apart will keep their relative positions following Faro Shuffles. Similarly, any five cards spaced three cards apart will also keep their relative positions following Faro Shuffles. These observations were called by Alex Elmsley The Constant Stack . • One seven-pile shuffle (with left to right reassembly) is cyclically equivalent to a single Straddle Faro. One four-pile shuffle (with right to left reassembly) is cyclically equivalent to two Straddle Faros (but in reverse order). Two four-pile shuffles (with right to left reassembly) are cyclically equivalent to four Straddle Faros (in correct order). One eight-pile shuffle (with right to left reas sembly) is cyclically equivalent to one Straddle Faro (but in reverse order ). Two eight-pile shuffles (with right to left reassembly) are cyclically equivalent to two Straddle Faros (in correct order). • When dealing two piles with reassembly from left to right repeatedly, an interestin interesting g phenomenon occurs. After four such shuffles, the original cyclical order of all the cards will be restored. That is, a simple cut will return the packet to its original order. Now, if you repeat this four more times, again the cyclical order will be restored. Doing that four more times (total of twelve) will return the packet to the original order. • When dealing seven piles with reassembly from left to right, the original order will be restored after the fourth dea deal. l. • Cutting between these shuffles does not change the cyclical order or the relative position of neighboring cards. This is always true only if the packet contains an odd number of cards. • When two piles are dealt, the packets can e assembled left to right or right to left since either way you are essentially making a simple cut. • Mixing cards by making piles of 2, 4, 7, or 8 and reassembling in the proper direction tionally equivalent to one or more Reverse Faros (or Anti Faros). • For a packet of fifteen cards, original order will return as follows: 2 piles: 12 shuffles (all left to right or all right to left) 4 piles: 8 shuffles (right to left ) 8 piles: 10 shuffles (right to left) 7 piles: 4 shuffles (left to right)

is

func

 

15 Card Poker Deal • Since a Reverse Faro

is

equivalent to a finite number of Faros, one can see that a Reverse Faro

will also preserve the relative order of cards three apart • Original order will be restored

~ ~ ~

to:

packet of 14 after 4 In Faro Shuffles packet of 15 after 4 Straddle Faro Shuffles packet of 16 after 4 Out Faro Shuffles

• An interesting observation is that the fifteen card packet order will remain unchanged following two 3-packet deal dealss and two 5-packet dea deals ls in any order. Two shuffles shuffles consisting of one 3-packet deal and one 5-packet deal will reverse the original order. • Similarly, any packet of cards that can

e

factored into two primes will possess analogous

dealing properties. For example, a packet of ten cards 2x5=10 and 2 and 5 are primes) will return to revers reversee order following single 2 and 5-packet deals. deals. Repeating that once more will

restore the original order. Likewise, 21

is

composed of the primes 7 and 3. Performing two

3-packet deal dealss and then two 7 -packet deals will also resto re the original order. • For further reading regarding the Faro Shuffle, I refer you to Volume 2 o f The Collected Works o f Alex Elmsley by Stephen Minch, A Book

Card Technique

4

by Ed Marlo

n

English by Woody Aragon, and Revolutionary

 

 

Sort ability

Effect Fifteen cards are removed from Fifteen fr om a deck and thoroughly mixed and cut multiple times by the magician and the spectator. Despite all th at mixing, the magician is able to sort and find just by his sense of touch, all fiv hearts, then all fiv spades, and finally all fiv clubs. For a surprise ending, the fiv clubs and hearts switch places. This effect uses methodology similar Poker Deal .

Skills Needed • Double Turnover Turnover • Double Cut • Straddle Faro Shuffle (optional)

Props Needed • Deck of cards

Setup •

No n e

to

The

Fifteen

Card

 

Sart-ability

Explanation

nd

Script

I have a unique talent with playing cards. I can

sort cards according to their suit without seeing them and by using only m y sense o f touch. It's sort o f an ability and in fact I call it sort-ability. Some might call it suit-ability but that doesn't suit me. 1

Fan the deck face up toward you and remove any club, heart, and spade in that order. Place them in that order face down o n the table (club on the bottom). Repeat that procedure four more times until you have a pile of 15 face-down cards which alternate among the three suits. There should be a club on the bottom and a spade on top. Set the rest of the deck aside.

2. False Shuffle the packet in any way you like. A series of Double Cuts will suffice. A Straddle Faro can be done which will not change the relative order of the suits and that's what I normally do. I've shuffled and cut these cards. Now you and I will cut some more. 3. Have Ha ve the spectator cut the packet and complete the cut. ''I'll mix these up making two piles. Which one should go on top o f the other? Now cut the cards and complete the cut. 4. Deal cards into two piles and ask the spectator to place any pile o n the other (left to right or right to left) and then cut the cards and complete the cut. I f two piles can shuffle the cards, imagine what

four piles will do. Cut the cards again. 5. Deal cards in four piles and reass reassemble emble from ri ght t o left. lef t. Have the spe ctator cut the packet and complete the cut. Now just in case you thought the cards were not mixed up enough, I'll make seven piles. Cut the

cards again. 6. Deal cards in seven piles and reassemble from left t o right. Have the spectator cut the packet and complete the cut.

6

This will be the last mixing unless you want more. I'll deal eight piles and then you cut the cards. Should I deal more piles or are you satisfied that the cards are thoroughly mixed? 7. Deal cards in eight piles and reass reassemble emble from ri ght to left. Have the spectator cut the packet and complete the cut. 8. Co ntinue the pile mixing procedure or a Straddle Faro if the spectator chooses so. N ow let me see i f I can sense a suit. I feel a heart; and now a second heart; and now

a third ...

9. Take the packet and glance at the bottom card. Let's assume it's a heart. Cut or Double Cut the bottom two cards to the top. Do a Double Turnover revealing a heart. Deal the top card a club) face down onto the table. 10. Double Cut two cards from the top to the bottom. Do another Double Turnover showing a heart. Deal the top card a club) onto the first card. 11. Repeat step #1 0 three more times until there is a pile o f five cards which are thought to be hearts but are actually clubs. Cover those five hearts with your hand and don't let any o f those hearts escape. 12. Have the spectator place his hand over the packet. I now sense a spade, and another spade, and a third, ...

13. With the remaining packet of ten cards do a Double Cut (or just cut a single card to the bottom) transferring one card (heart) to the bottom. Deal the top card face up (spade). Repeat that procedure four more times until you have produced all five spades face up fig. 1). I sense red cards in m y hand; wait, they feel

like hearts hearts just like the ones under your hand. Wiggle your fingers and say presto change-a and turn over your cards.

 

Counting on 14. Rub your hand above and below the remaining five cards. 15. Have the spectator wiggle the fingers of his covering hand say presto change-a, and then turn his cards face up revealing five different clubs fig. 2 . someth ing very magical has has just happened Look "

"I think

16 . After he realizes that all the hearts have turned to clubs, turn over your face-down cards revealing five face-up hearts fig. 3 ).

eception

 

Sort ability Discussion •

s

in The Fifteen Card Poker Deal , the 2, 4, 7, and 8-card deals and reassemblies do not

change the relati relative ve positions of the cards having the same suit. That is, for a given suit, those cards will

be

three apart from one another no matter how many shu shuffl ffles es are done. Just remember

to reassemble from right to left for the 4 and 8-pile deals and left to right for the 7 -pi -pile le deal. • Note that in step 9, after you show the first heart, the dealt card may

be

a club or a spade.

That happens because the four-pile and seven-pile shuffles reverse the order.

• You can do a Straddle Faro anytime duri ng the mixing procedures. The relative suit order will remain unchanged. You can shuffle the bottom seven into the top eight or the bottom eight into the top seven. • You could simplify the effect by eliminating the Double Turnovers and just separate the three suits with the series of cuts. • With a pack in new deck order, just remove five

five of

each of the three suits followed by dealing

piles of three and reassembling the packets in any order. That will also create the proper

alternating suit setup. • Instead of Double Cutting two cards from top to bottom, you could just spread two and cut them to the bottom as a single cut.

 

 

 

ron Certain Poker

Effect Ten cards are removed from the deck consisting o f two royal flushes. The cards are shuffled by a spectator and cut by the magician. When he deals two poker hands, each player gets a perfect straight ten through ace. This is repeated as the cards are mixed face up and face down with the same resul result. t. Fin Finall ally, y, the spec tator th orough ly way

and

shuffles any he wishes are cut several times bycards the magician. When the two they hands are poker dealt, each player gets a perfect royal flush.

Skills Needed • Biddle Steal :• Slip u t technique :- (See Discussion for easier method)

Props Needed • Deck of cards

Setup • None

9

 

 ron

Certain

Explanation

Poker

nd

Script

Did you ever hear the story about the spy who won his freedom by playing poker? It s really

fascinating because not only was he a secret agent but also an experienced magician. This American spy was arrested in Moscow by the KGB, the Soviet Secret Police. They relied more on psychological than on physical torture. torture. I n this case, the interrogator offered the American spy a chance to win his freedom. The captured spy would play three hands o f poker and as long as he won or tied in each o f the three hands he would go free. I f he did not play, he would get a life sentence. I f he lost he would be shot. Since he knew how to handle cards as a magician he took his chances with the card game. I will play the spy magician and you will be the interrogator. The interrogator removed five cards from the deck, ten through ace. He asked the spy to remove another five cards. The spy removed similar cards o f different suits. The cards were shuffled by the interrogator and cut several times by the spy. The spy dealt two hands o f poker. When the cards were turned over, they each had a straight to the ace. A tie. Well, you were lucky that time but everybody s luck eventually runs out. ·

1. Using clubs and hearts, remove one royal straight from the deck placing the cards in a face-up spread on the table. Use a mixture of clubs and hearts and not all one suit. Next remove the other royal straight, but choose cards so they are in mirror image to one another and are laid out next t o the first str ai aight ght fi fig. g. 1 ). For example, KC, JH 1 OC, QH AC are in the initial face-up spread. Then add AH, QC 10H JC, KH. 2. Gather up the cards holding a break between the fifth and sixth cards. Cut to the br eak placing the packets down on the table ready t o be shuffled. 3. Have the spectator riffle shuffle the cards. Instead, you could sprea d each set of five cards on the table opposite each other and have him push the spread cards together fig. 2).

30

 

Counting on

eception

4. Thanks to the Gilbreath Principle, the top five card s and bottom five cards will each make up a straight. 5. Hold the packet in the left hand with the thumb on top near the right edge and the fin finger gerss below the right edge fig. 3). The right hand comes over and grasps the near and far right corners with the thu m b and middle finger fig. 4). The left hand gentl gently y squeezes the packet and pulls the top and bottom cards to the left as the right hand pulls the remaini ng cards to the right fig. 5). This process allows the top and bottom cards to be pulled apart from the rest of the packet. This procedure is repeated three m o r e times and each time a pair of cards is added to th ose already in the left hand fig. 6). The last two card s are then dropped on the rest. See Discussion for an easier handing. for the po ker 6. The packet is now completely stacked for deal. dea l. Have the spectat or cut the cards and complet completee the cut. 7. Deal two face-down hands of poker. Turn over the hands revealing two straights fig. 7). Let's see how well you do this time. I'll keep some o f the cards face up to prevent any monface-up -up cards key business. nd now I'll shuf fle face into face-down ones. I'll let you cut. Then I'll cut and you deal. 8. Pick Pick up yo ur hand and show how it is similar to th e spectator s except in suit. Casually arrange the card s so the values repeat in order (not mirror image). Justify the handling by showing that each hand has a jack, a king, a ten, etc. fig. 8).

9. Gather up the cards holding a br eak between the straights. ut the packet in two equal smaller packet s and turn one face up. Have the spectator riffle shuffle the cards or merge them together from two spreads fig. 9). 10. Repeat the stacking process from step 5. This tim e half of the cards will be face up. 11. Have the spectator cut the cards and complete the cut. cut.

3 

 

Iron

Certain

Poker

12. Deal two poker hands fig. 10). Turn over the face-down cards showing th t each player once again has been dealt a straight fig. 11 ). Two straights again, another tie. Well this last

deal is a deal o f a lifetime. I wish you the worst o f luck. This time I'll shuffle the cards m y way. As you can see, the cards are well mixed . You cutt . I'll cut and then you deal. cu

13. Give all ten cards to the spectator to thoroughly shuffle. 14. Take the cards from him and turn the packet face up. Peel off the first card into the left hand. Let s assume it s a heart. Peel off the next card. f it s also a heart it goes flush onto the first card. f it or the next card is a club, hold a break below it fig . 12-13). As you peel off the next card, Biddle Steal the club if the next card is a heart fig . 14 ). f it s a club, place it flush on the prior club still holding the break. f the next card is a heart, Biddle Steal all clubs above the break as you dd the heart to the left hand. Repeat the process until you have counted five hearts. At th t point, the suits will have been separated. Remember, the hearts (or first suit) are peeled off flush int o the left h nd and the clubs (second suit) are peeled off onto a break nd later removed by a Biddle Steal. 15. Turn the packet face down. Stack the cards again as in step 5. Have the spectator cut the cards. A royal flush in hearts (clubs) will be hard to

beat. That's true, but easy to tie with a royal flush in clubs (hearts).

16. Deal two hands of poker face down. Show th t each player has been dealt not only a straight, but a straight flush, one all in hearts nd one all in clubs fig. 15).

3

 

Counting on

eception

 

 ron

ertain Poker

Discussion • With just a little practice the slip cut stacking procedure

is

easy to do. A little moisture on the

left fingertips makes it even easier. f

you want something easier than the stacking procedure described above, try the following:

rom left to right, deal five hands o f two cards each. Then reassemble the pairs also from left to

right. Doing that will stack the cards correctly for the poker deal. You could use this method all three times or once or twice. I prefer the first method. It s quick and looks like you re just cutting cards. •

s

an alternative, choose a royal flush in clubs and a royal straight from a mixture of diamonds

and hearts. At the end, cull out the clubs and after stacking the cards, deal the cards in such a

way that only you get the royal flu flush. sh.

4

 

 

Four For Sure

Effect The magician removes a matched matc hed pai r from a shu shuffle ffled d deck. Each o f those cards s inserted fac facee up into the deck at locations freely chosen by the spectator. The deck s spread face down and when the card next t o each o f the two face-up cards s removed they are found to match in value completing a four o f a kind. Two versions are taught. The second

s

taught in the Discussion section.

Skills Needed • Any shuffle keeping the top two cards intact • Double ut

Props Needed • Deck of cards

Setup • None

5

 

  our or Sure

Explanation

nd

Script

Please shuffle the cards thoroughly. I want to show you a trick using a pair o f sixes. In this trick you will control the outcome. 1. Have the deck shuffled. Fan out the cards face up showing how well they are mixed. As you do that spot any pair sharing the same value and cut both cards to the top. Continue spreading the cards face face up and search for the mates of that pair. Assume they are sixes. 2. Remove the two mates and place them face up on the table. 3. False shuffle keeping the pair on top (Face-up Hindu Shuffle or Riffle Shuffle). Double ut the top card to the bottom. ''I'll deal cards one at a time and I'll stop whenever you want. There? OK place any o f the sixes face up on the cards I dealt. The rest o f the deck goes on top. 4. Pick up the deck with the right hand in overhand grip. With the left thumb peel cards one at a time from the deck into the left hand fig. 1). Ask the spectator to tell you when to stop. At that point have them place either face-up card onto your left hand packet 2).. Com plete the cut by dropping the right hand fig. 2) cards on top of the face-up card. Let's do the same thing again but this time for the other six. Stop me anytime. There? OK, place the face-up six on top o f the dealt cards and I'll drop the rest on top . 5. Repeat the above process thumbing cards again from right to left. Ask them to say stop and have them place the remaining card face up on the left hand pile. Complete the cut dropping the right hand cards onto the left hand pile fig. 3 ). 6. Spread the cards face down revealing the two expected face-up cards fig. 4). Let's see, this six found a card on its right; and this six found a card on its right. 7 . Remove Remove each face-up card along with the face-down

36

card to its right (they re face-to-face) and arrange them in a two-by-two array fig. 5). Place the face-up cards diagonal to one another. Although you have controlled the outcome, the result is truly magical, a matched four o f a kind. 8. Turn over the two face-down cards revealing a four of a kind fig. 6).

 

Counting on

eception

7

 

our

or Sure

Discussion • From a shuffled deck, more than 95 % of the time there will be at least one pa p a ir of cards sharing the same value that lie side by side. f

you prefer, you can ha hav v e the spectator remove cards from the deck to the table and do all the

handling himself. Once the pair

is

placed on top and bottom the rest

is

automatic.

• Second Version: This version has the same overall effect but can be used as a magician fooler since the mixing appears to belie the chance of a setup. It allows the spectator to mix up the cards after yo u have announc ed which pair you will remove. remove. You'll need two treated short cards comprising a ny pair. For example, let' let'ss say we use the queens. Two of the quee que e ns will be short cards that have treated with roughing spray (Krylon Matte Spray). Treat the face of the QS and the back of the QD. The combination of the roughing spray and the short card with insure that those two queens will stay together following a series of multiple cuts. Place the two treated queens together so the rough sides touch each other. Leave the two queens near the top of the deck say within the top ten cards. The QC and Q H can be any where in the

deck. Riffle Shuffle the deck d eck so the top ten cards are lef leftt undisturbe d. Announce that this trick will be do n e with the Q H and the QC. Have the spectator cut the deck leaving a small packet of cards, say ten, on the table. Have him repeat that until he has four or five

piles. Reassemble the piles from left to right completing a true multiple cut. Have him do

that cutting procedure once more.

Take the cards from him and spread th em toward you face up as you are looking for the Q H and QC. Actua Actually, lly, you are also looking looking.. for the short treated pair of queens (QD and QS). In the

process of removing the Q H and QC cut the QD an d QS to the top or split them so one the top and other

is o n

th e bottom.

f

is on

you yo u cut both to the top yo u'll have to move one to the

effect ect as in step bottom with a simple cut o r Double Cut. Now proceed wi th the eff

4.

The two queens will best stay together if the cuts are done with th e spectator or you handling the short ends of the deck. deck . A careful riffle shuffle could for keeping the two queens together as the cuts are.

also done but that process is not as reliable f the deck in fairly new, yo you u could also cut to e

the short cards bringing them to the top or bottom before searching for the Q H and QC.

 

 

  Effect

mbitious Card Routine

··-···

A signed card which is inserted into the middle of the deck repeatedly returns to the top and is eventually found in the magician s wallet.

Skills Needed· • • • • • • •

Double and Triple Turnovers Illogical Double Lif e· Le Paul Turnover Turnove r Pass or Classic Kelly Bottom Replacement One H a n d Glide Middle Deal :Top Palm or Side Steal Double ut

Pass :-

Props Needed • Deck of cards • Sharpie Marker

Setup •

No n e

9

 

Ambitious Car C ard d Routine Routine

Explanation and Script: Please select any card you want and sign the face o f the card using this pen. Oh no, you selected the [Jack o f Clubs]. That's the card I have the most trouble with. It  s the only card in th thee deck that has a mind o f its own. It thinks it's th e most important card in the deck. It a lways wants to b e on top. 1. H a \ e a card freely selected. Optionally, ask spectator t o sign the face of the card. In the photos the card was not signed. 2. Ask the spectator to return the card to the deck. Get a break two cards above the selected card. Using a Double Cut or pass, maneuver the selected card to a position third from th e top. 3. Do a Triple Turnover showing the face-up chosen card fig. 1 . Even when I place it in the middle, it comes to th e top. 4. As you turn the triple face down hold a break and insert the top card into the center. Do a Double Turnover aided by the break showing the selected card back o n top. And i f I place it all th thee way on the bottom, it

still comes to the top.   5. Take the face-up double and insert it face down into the middle middl e of the deck. While the right hand holds the double at the upper edges, use the left index fin ger to secretly slide the selected card at the face flush into the deck fig. 2 . Create a break with the left index finger and continue pushing the lower packet until it protrudes at the bottom fig. 3-4 . With the right hand transfer the lower packet to the top of the deck. The left index finger maintains pressure on the protruding indifferent card. Using the right hand push the protruding indifferent card so it is flush at the bottom fig. 5 . Flip over the top card and hold it aw awa a y from the deck showing that the selected card has once again returned. Each and every tim e, without fail, it comes back to the th e top.

40

 

Counting on

eceptio n

_ Ge t a bre ak below the top face-down card as you p la ce the face-up card back on top. Now do the Ulogical Double Lift: Slide the back-to-hack double ro the right and fold over the rest of the deck by p ro nating the lef leftt wrist fig. 6-7). Thumb off the new top card into the right hand fig. 8). That card w ill be face down and the deck inverted in the left h a nd. Supinate the left hand and insert the right h a nd card into the center. Turn over the top card showing the selected card back on top.

I can do it slowly an d it still still won't stay in the center. - . Insert the selected card into the center. Hold a little nger break. Execute a Le Paul Turnov er Pass (fig. 9-13) or the equivalent getting the card to the ra p. Turn over the top card showing the selected card ca rd back on top. Figures 9 and 13 show the be ginning and end of the move respectively from t he audience  s perspective. Figures 10-12 show the exposed ex posed view from the performer s viewpoint. And just when you think you've got it figured

out, it fools you and goes from the middle to the bottom.

, . Insert the selected card into the middle and get a b reak below that card. Show the face card of the u pper half and as you replace the half, get it to the b ottom using the Kelly Bottom Replacement (fig. 14). Show that the top card is not the selecte selected d card. Turn over the deck showing the selected card is n ow at the bottom And even when I know it's in the middle it sometimes will just squirt out o f the deck.

- 1

 

Ambitious Car C ard d Routin Routinee 9. Insert the face-up bottom card into the center of the face-up deck. Get a little finger break at the face of the selected card fig. 15 . Pronate the left wrist and execute the One Hand Glide Middle Deal originally taught in The Book o f Destiny. Here is a brief description: Hold the face-up deck with the thumb at the left far long edge and the index fin finger ger at the right far long edge while still maintaining the little finger break. The middle and ring fingers are not used. Supinate the wrist until the deck is face down and at the same time extend the little finger pulling the selected card with it fig. 16-17 . When about half of the card is outside the deck, release the grip with the little finger. Then pin the card to the table with the little finger as you stretch the little finger and slide the deck t o the right fig. 18-19 . The selected card will now be face down on the table. This time I'll make it stay in the center because I'll give you the cards to hold.

10. Take the selected card and insert it into the center. Get it to the top with a Side Steal or a Classic Pass or to the bottom with Kel Kelly ly ottom Replacement. Using a Top Palm or ottom Side Steal fig. 20 , deliver the palmed card to your pocket o r a loader wallet using the concealed guide fig. 21 . Hand the deck to the spectator while you load the pocket o r wallet. Check to see i f your card s still in the middle. Check all the cards. Can't find it? There's one place we haven't looked. Righ t here here in this this compartment in m y wallet, your chosen signed card.

11. Ask the spectator to fail, look slowly for thepull selected card in out the the deck. After they wallet or the card in the pocket for the final reveal. 12. Remove the signed card from the wallet compartment or your pocket and give it to the spectator as a souvenir fig. 22 .

14

t2

 

  ountingon

eception

 

Ambitious Car C ard d Routin Routine e Discussion • I like this routine because it flows. Each move leads nicely to the next. The only move that may be new to you

s

the One Hand Glide. It s not hard. You could substitute another move or skip

that step entirely.

• I think it s a mistake to mak e an Ambitious

ard Routin e too long. My routine has h as th e selected

card returning six times and then finally produced from the wallet.

• The Illogical Double uantum

Leaps

ift

was a move developed by Harr y Lora yne and

s

full y explained in

 

 

One

t

Time

ces

Effect The four aces are placed face down on the table in separate piles. Three cards are added to each ace. One by one the aces vanish from each of the three piles and appear one by one joining the Ace of Spades.

Skills Needed • Buckle Count :-  See easier alternative in Discussion as well as my Buckle ount technique) • Biddle Steal::• Braue Addition::-

Props

Needed

• Deck of cards

Setup •

None

5

 

  nea t

a Time Aces

Explanation

nd

Script

I am about to show you a demonstration not o f sleight o f hand but rather pasteboard

gymnastics. 1

Remove or magically produce the four aces or any four of a kind. I usually use the four ace production, Blindfold Aces , from The Book o f Destiny. Let's assume the aces are in the following order: AD, AC, AH,AS. And it's done with something familiar to

you, the four aces.

2. Perform the Braue Addition Get a little finger break under the top three cards. Place the four aces face up on top of the deck squared with the top three cards. Lift all seven cards above the break. With the left thumb, peel off the top face-up ace flipping it face down flush with the pack. Do the same for the next two aces fig. . Now place the packet of four with one face-up ace flush with the deck. Turn that face-up ace face down on the deck. I'll place an ace in four different places.

3. Deal the top four cards onto the table in a T formation. The top ace AS) will be the leader ace and lies closest to you fig. 2). The other three indif ferent cards will be for the row aces. Please cut the deck.

4. Turn the deck face up on the table. Ask the spectator to cut the face-up deck but not complete the cut. 5. Take the bottom faceface-up up half in your right hand. Get a right thumb break above the three aces on the bottom following a thumb count. 6 . W ith the left hand, peel off the top face-up indifferent ca rd into the left hand. -. Bring the deck flush with the left hand card and

a llow the three aces to fall onto that card fig. 3 ). Then peel off the second face-up card onto the aces. If done correctly, the aces will not flash. As that card reaches the left hand, get a little finger break below ir (fig. 4).

6

 

Counting on Deception   . Peel off the third face-up card as you iddle teal the left hand one above the break fig. 5). At this point, the audience will have seen you count three indifferent cards and will have seen no aces. Now I'll place a few cards on this ace, a few on this ace, a few on this ace, and a few on that ace. Believe it or not, what you are about to see is this ace, this ace, and that ace do a triple flip

in mid air and land in that pile, one at a timeinvisibly o f course. . Turn the fivefive-card card pac ket face down in your hand. Take the top indifferent card and casually flash its face. Place it at the bottom of the packet as you flash the bottom indiffer indifferent ent card. T he net result is you hav avee transferred a card from top to bottom. Drop the five-card packet on the leader ace pile. 1 

Legitimately peel off three more face-up cards from the deck in a similar fashion. Place those cards face down on any other row ace pile. Repeat that two more times for the other two aces fig. 6). Drop the remaining face-up cards onto the rest of the deck and turn the deck face down. Let's see We've got one, two, three, and four.

· Pick up the ace pile on your left counting the cards

one at a time face up showing four indifferent cards and no ace fig. 7). And over here we've got one, and two aces.

, . Pick up the leader pile and turn it face up holding the cards in the left hand. With the left thumb push off the first two cards into the right hand without reversing their order. With the left index finger buckle the bottom card while transferring the triple to the right hand (see Discussion). The bottom ace (AH) will be revealed fig. 8). Place that ace at the face of the packet and turn the packet face down at the leader position. Let's see. We've got one, two, three, and four. 1-t . Repeat step 12 for the middle row packet. And over here we've got one, two, and

three aces.

47

 

  nea t a Time Aces 15. Pick up the leader pile and turn it face up holding the cards in the left hand. With the left thumb push off the firs firstt two aces into the right hand without reversing their order. With the left in dex finger buckle the bottom card while transferring the triple to the right hand. The bottom ace AC) will be revealed. Place that ace at the face of the and turn

packet position fig. the 9). packet face leader

down at

the

And lastly, we've got one, two, three and oops That one didn't go yet. Now it did."

16. Repeat step 12 for the right row packet. For the last card, glance at the face and pretend the ace didn t vanish yet. Snap or flick the card in a magical gesture showing that the ace did vanish fig. 10). Merge all three row packets into one overlapping face-up pile.

"Which leaves us with one, two, three, and o f course four aces." 17. Pick up the leader pile and turn it face up holding the cards in the left hand. W ith the lef leftt thumb push off the first two aces into the right hand without reversing their order. Three aces will show. Buckle the bottom card revealing the fourth ace fig. 11). Place that ace AD) on the face of the packet. 18. Drop the leader packet onto the face-up pile. Spread the four face-up aces fig. 12). The two concealed indifferent cards will merge with the indifferent cards in the row packets.

48

 

Counting on

eception

9

 

  ne

t

a Time Aces

Discussion • This effect is my version of Ed Mar lo s One-At-A-Time Ace Acess which appeare d in Tarbell Volume 5, p. 138-141. The differen differences ces include the Biddle Counts that convincingly show indifferent cards going to the leader pack, the true and Buckle Counts done in the hand rather than to the table, and finall y a simple script that is easy to remember.

• This has been in m y repertoire for more than forty-five years. It s one of those effects I almost always do when I have time to perform perfo rm only one or two effects. • In place of the Buckle Co unt try the following: 1. With the cards card s face up in right hand Biddle grip, peel off an ace into the left hand; peel off an indifferent card twice; drop the block of three aces onto the top. 2. Peel off three aces one at a time into left hand; place the block of th r ee on the bottom Turn the packet face down and transfer an ace from top to bottom. 3. With packet face up, peel off three aces one at a time into the left hand; place the block of three on the bottom

4. Add the face-up packet to the row cards and spread the aces face up. • This is th e technique I use for the Buckle Count: 1. Start with a packet in the left hand from top to bottom consisting of three aces, two indifferent cards, and one ace. Transfer the two face cards one at a time to the right hand without changing their order. The remaining four cards lie in the left hand with the thumb at the left outer corner, the index finger along the outer edge, and

the middle finger just below the right outer corner. The ring and littl littlee fingers lie along the right edge. 2. Buckle the bottom card at its outer right corner with th e inde x finger fig. 13). 3.

ow grasp the left outer corner of the triplet with the left thumb and the right far or outer edge with the pad of the mi ddle finger fig. 14). At that point the thumb and

middle finger control the card. By slightly flexing the thumb and extending the middle finger, the triplet can pivot a bit counterclockwise and look more like a single card fig. 15-16). 4. Place Place the triplet bene ath the two cards in the right hand and then bring the last ace to the face of the packet fig. 17). Using thi s t echnique, the triplet cards will alwa ys stay aligned following the buckle. The buckle is vastly exaggerated in th e photos for clarity.

50

 

 

The Trick

hat

ooled M e

Effect The magician relates a story about a trick that fooled him years ago. The 13 diamonds and 13 clubs are removed from the deck. The cards ca rds are thorou ghly shuffled shuffled several several times and the last can be done by the spectator. Pairs o f cards are dealt into a n array o f thirteen piles. The top card of each pair is turned face up. Next the spec tator guides the magician in switching club and diamond cards and after turning those cards face down, they are placed in a discard pile that the magician holds. The one remaining pair turns out to be a club and a diamond. The magician cuts the discard pile in two and places one pile next to the club and the other next t o the diamond. When the cards are turned face up, all the cards in one pile turn out to be clubs and all the others diamonds.

Skillss Needed Skill N eeded • Faro Shuffle 26 cards optional)

Props

Needed·

• Deck of cards

Setup • None

5

 

The Trick That Fooled Me

Explanation

nd

Script

When I was very young, an o ld magician

showed me a trick. That trick fooled me so badly that I decided at that moment that I wanted to be a magician so I could learn to do that trick. Would you like to see the trick that fooled me? That old magician took out a deck o f cards and out

and

picked all use the only clubsth o se all the diamonds said he'd cards. First he and shuffled the cards using an an ove rhand shuffle shuffle.. Then he did this fancy shuffle. Then something called The Seven Seas Pirate Pirat e Shuffle and finally he let me cut and then he h e I) shuffled the cards one last time.

1. Fan out the cards and remove all the diamonds and clubs placing them in two pil piles. es.

2. Add one pile to the other. Hindu Shuffle the top half keeping keeping the diamond s and clubs from mixing together. You could also use the Ireland Red-Black Shuffle which would accomplish the same result. 3. Divide the cards in half and execute a Faro Shuffle creating creati ng alternating diamond s and clubs. f you prefer not to Faro, place a pile in each hand and deal them alternately so the diamonds and clubs are perf perfeectl ctly y interlaced fig. 1-2). 4. I follow that with a false waterfall shuffle but that is optional. 5. Mix up the packet of 26 using the Seven Seas Pirate Shuffle taught in Nine Shuffle Paradox . 6. Turn the packet face up and have the spectator cut the packet without completing the cut. f the suits of the face-up cards match, ask him to cut again until they are different. Turn the two packets face down and do a real riffle shuffle. Do not do a perfect riffle. The spectator can do the riffle shuffle at this step if you prefer. He then dealt pairs o f cards face down all

over the table and turn ed eac each h top one face up.  

7 . Deal pairs two together) of cards until you have 13 piles with a pair in each pile fig. 3 ). 8. Turn the top card of each pair face up fig 4.)

52

 

Counting on

eception

9. Following a random riffle, you usually will have 6 of one suit and 7 of the other. Let's assume instead that there are 4 of one suit and 9 of the other. In (6-4=2) of the excess suits that case, pick up two (6-4=2) and switch them to a different row as if you are doing more mixing fig. 5). But as you replace them, casually turn over each back-to-back pair. pair. By doing so, you will wind up with seven of one suit and six of the other fig. 6). I th en touched cards o f opposite suit and he switched them, them, turned them face down, and

removed those pairs. We did this until only one pair was left and he held the pile o f discarded cards."

10. Ask the spectator to touch any two face-up cards with different suits. suits. Pick up those face-up cards and switch their positions and then turn the red one (7D) face down fig. 7-8). Pick up the red down in the left palm . Turn pair and place it faceface the black one (KC) down and place the pair injogged slightly on top o f the the red pair fig. 9). Remember, black goes toward the back.

11. Repeat the above step until 12 pairs have been removed and placed in the left hand which leaves one pair on the table fig. 10). The injogs are exaggerated in the photos. " He then turned over the last pair and said, Voila They are each different I was not impressed. So he cut the discarded cards that mix into two piles I helped piles,, one in front o f each face-up card.

12. Turn the face-down card face up showing one face-up club and one face-up diamond. 13. With the right hand pull the injogged pairs back wards unti untill you have two packets fig. 11) 11).. Then place the right hand packet on top of the left one and hold a left little finger break. ut the cards at the break and place the top black (clubs) pile next to the club card and the bottom red (diamond) pile next to the diamond card fig. 12). Not impressed? Maybe this will impress you he said, as he spread the cards face up showing that all the diamonds and all the clubs were together sorted perfe perfectly. ctly. And now you've seen how I was totally fooled."

53

 

The Trick

hat Fooled

e

14. Spread the face-down cards tow rd you. Turn over each pile showing all of one suit in each column. Instead, you could turn over pairs of cards one t a time until all all are tur ned over fig. 13 .

5

 

  ountingon

eception

Discussion • After the Faro Shuffle, the cards alternate in suit. Following one riffle shuffle the mirror image halves mix and obey the Gilbreath Principle.

hat insures that every pair will always contain on e

of each suit. When the pairs are placed back to back and the face-up cards switched, the cards

removed will all be b e pairs containing two of the same suit. The separation of the injogged pairs from the others completes the suit separation. f

there are for example

fiv

diamonds and eight clubs, then instead of further mixing and turnin turning g

over one pair you could do the following. Switch face-up suits and remove pairs until there are two pairs left that are face-up clubs. Combine the two face -up clubs into one pile and lea v

th e

other pile face down two face-down diamonds). Proceed with the culling of the outjogged clubs

and place them in the club column. Place the face-down diamonds next to the two face-down

cards. Turn the clubs face up showing a run of club clubs. s. Turn the face-down p air face up showing two diamonds. Turn the diamond face-down cards face up showing a run of diamonds. f

you accidentally did a perfect riffle, all the face-up card s will be of one suit. At that point, cur

yo ur losses losses.. Announce that as the miracle you intended and go on to some other effect. • To shorten the effect you could use less cards cards.. For example ace through nine of each suit would require 18 cards instead of 26. You need to use an odd number o f pairs 9, 13, etc.) so the last pair is used for the leader cards.

55

 

 

Underhanded

Deception

Effect The magician hands the spectator a sealed prediction t o hold o n to. He

then gives him a deck t o thorou ghly sh shuf uffl fle. e. The magician takes about half of the deck, turns it fac facee up, and then shuffles the face-up cards into the face-down cards. He returns the deck to the spectator who is asked t o shuffle it again. Next, the magician asks the spectator t o pick u p the mixed deck and hold it u nder the table. The magician also places places his his hands under the table. He asks the spectator to count off twenty cards from the top of the deck and hand them t o the magician under the table.

The magician immediately takes his his cards and places them on the table and asks the spectator to do the same. The magician sorts and counts the number of face-down cards and announces the number. The spectator says, s, The magician is asked to count his. The prediction is read which say will have five more face-down face-down cards tha than n you do . The spectator acknowl acknowl edges that the prediction is correct. s an afterthought the magician tells the spectator to read the other side of the prediction: You just dealt the magician four face-down aces. The magician turns the face-down cards face up revealing that he holds all four aces.

Skills Needed: • N o sleights needed

Props Needed· • Deck of 52 cards • Envelope containing the prediction

Setup and

card and

• Secretly Secret ly remove the four any oneyour additional them by sliding them faceaces down between rightt leg and theconceal righ chair. • A written prediction prediction is sealed in an envelope. One si side de of the prediction pre diction reads, The magician wil willl have five more face-down cards than you do .

The other side side reads, You just dealt the magician four face-down aces .

7

 

Underhanded Deception

Explanation

nd

Script

6

Have you noticed that a lot o f magic you see takes place in the dark, under a cloth, inside a dark box, or behind a special curtain? The magic you are about to see will take place beneath this table where neither o f us will be able to see what's going on. But first, hold on to this envelope. It contains m y prediction which we will open later.

Let's bring our cards back to the tabletop.

7. Place your packet on the table and have the specta tor do the same. I've got fourteen face-down cards. How many do you have?

1. Hand the spect ator the envelope containing the pre diction and have him place it in a secure spot. Take these cards and thoroughly shuffle them."

2. Give the spectator the deck to shuffle. "Wow You di d a great job shuffling. N ow just

stay stop somewhere. OK, I'll cut the cards and flip these face up."

3. Take the cards from the spectator and spread them face up between your hands. As you are showing how well the cards have been mixed, quickly count twenty cards from the top or bottom and hold a break as you turn the cards face down. Cut or iffle Force to the break creating two face-down pile piles. s. "By shuffling like this, the cards are really mixed

up. But to make sure, please shuffle these cards some more."

4. Turn the larger pile of twenty-seven cards face up. Riffle shuffle the twenty face-down cards into the face-up pile. Shuffle one more time and then hand the cards back to the spectator. Instruct him to give the cards a final thorough shuffle shuffle.. Make certain he doesn't reverse any cards as he shuffles. Place your cards in darkness by holding them under the table. No w from the top, deal ten cards and hand them to me. Now cut the cards. Deal me ten more."

5 . Ask him to hold the deck below the table and then count ten cards off the top and hand them to you under the table. Tell him to now cut the deck once under the table and hand you ten more cards from the top.

While your hands are beneath the table, turn over the entire packet of twenty and then insert the five concealed face-down cards into different parts of the packet in order to separate the aces.

8

Spread your packet and remove the face-down cards as you count. Announce clearly the number of face-down cards you have. Have the spectator do the same. Let's assume you have fourteen face-down cards. When he counts his cards, he should have nine (five less than you).

9. Merge and set aside both your cards and the specta tor's face-up cards into one pile. "N ow open the prediction and read it out loud.

10. Ask the spectator to open the prediction and read it: The magician will have five more face-down cards than you do. Turn over the prediction prediction and read what it says says..

11. After a suitable dramatic pause, ask him to turn over the prediction and read what's on the other sid side: e: You just dealt the magicia n four face-down aces. 12. Turn over your face-down cards and display the four aces.

8

 

Counting on

eception

Discussion • This is a very old trick which I added my own touches to. Martin Gardner described the basic effect in his 1959 book Hexaflexagons

A n d Other

Mathematical Diversi Diversions ons

• So how does the trick work? It's based on a self-cancellation concept. With five cards conceale conceal ed , the deck will contain 47 cards. W e first shuffle 20 cards face down into the remaining 2 7 face-up cards. Let's assume for example there are 7 face-down cards and 13 face-up cards among th e 2 the spectator hands you under the table. That leaves the spectator with 13 face-down cards. y turning your pac ket over, over, you now have 13 face-down cards and 7 face-up cards. Therefore yo u and the spect ator will always have an equal number of face-down cards (13).

y adding the fi ve

additional face-down cards, you will will always have five more face-down cards than the spectator. • It's important that the spectator is unaware of the exact number of face-down cards that you shuf fled fl ed face-up face-up cards int o at the star t of the effect.

f

he did, he might add up the number of his cards

and your cards and wonder why they didn't add up t o twenty. twenty. You could say tha t while unde r the

table you will will be turn ing some cards over rando mly which wou ld explain the discrepan discrepancy. cy. • You can also do the effect without the concealed five cards. For exampl e, in step 5, ask the spectator to hand you a total of fifteen cards beneath the table and then reverse the cards. In that case, your prediction will be that the spectator has five more cards than you. This also works by the self-cancellation principle. f the spectator deals you x face-down cards, then he will have (20-x) face-down cards. After you invert yours, you will have (15-x) face-down cards. The excess going to the spectator is (20-x)-(15-x)

5.

• In the original effect described in Gardner's book, you predict that there will be an equal num bers of face-down cards in each packet. That trick in itself will fool people but I think having the numbers equal is a bit suspect. With my routine it's harder to reconstruct the method.

59

 

Impromptu Pascal s

1

yramid Prediction

Effict A deck of cards s thorou ghly shuffled shuffled.. A prediction card c ard s set aside face down. Ten cards are selected in the fairest manner. The cards are dealt into a row of ten. ten. The T he value of each card is used to create an addition pyramid. When all the numbers are summed and simplified to one digit, the total is seen to match the prediction card.

Skills Needed: • Rif Riffle fle Force optio optional) nal)

Props Needed· • Deck of cards need • Paper and pencil

Setup: •

one

not

be a complete deck)

6

 

Impromptu Pascal Pascal''s Pyramid Prediction

Explanation

nd

Script

Did you know that pyramids pos possess sess magical magical

properties? It's true, and I'm going to prove it to you. This pyramid and this deck o f cards share something in common. They both are defin defined ed by numbers. The numbers in the deck o f cards can be randomized by shuffling and cutting. The pyramid has empty spaces for numbers to fill in. Please shuffle the cards until you are sure they are well mixed. 1. Ask the spectator to sh uffle the th e deck. Let's see how well you did. did. Wow, these cards are

rea lly mixed up. 2. Take the deck and spread it face up showing how well the cards are mi mixed. xed. As you are doing that, look for two adjacent cards (the special pair) whose sum is either 0, 3, 9, or 18. Hold a break between the first of those two and the face-up card to their left. Tens and court cards count as 0. Add the va values lues of the two cards to the right of the special pair and rem re m embe emberr that number fig. 1). f the s um is a two digit number, add the digits t oge ogether ther creating a new sum that has a single digit. Remove a card from the deck whose va value lue equals that sum and place it face do w n as your prediction card. f needed, use t wo cards whose sum equals the needed number. Turn th e deck face down. ''I'm going to cut the deck where you tell me. Say stop anytime. We'll take ten cards from fro m where you stopped me in the deck you th oroug oroughly hly shuffled. 3 . Cut the cards or

iffle

Force to the break.

4. Off the top, spread ten cards without reversing them. Table the deck. We've got a group o f ten card cardss which matches the number o f spaces at the base o f this pyramid. I'll mix them up an and d th en deal them face up onto the tabl tablee in a single row. 5. Next, deal the ten cards face down from left to right forming th r ee piles fig. 2). The first pile will have four cards and the other two will ha ve three.

6. Take th e left packet and slide out the two middle cards to the right fig. 3). Thumb off the pair in the right hand one at a ti tim m e onto th e lef eftt hand cards reversing the order of those two cards fig. 4 ). Tabl Tablee that packet of four spreading them face up. With th e middle cards, slide the center card to the right and add it to the top (fig. 5). Table tha th a t packet sprea spreadin din g the cards face up. Repeat that process for the right

hand packet.

7. At this point there should be ten face-up cards in a sing le row. Th e two cards of the spec special ial pair are at positions four and seven an d the two cards that yo u summed are at positions one and ten fig. 6). Each o f th these ese cards has a number va lu e The courtt cards an cour and d th thee tens hav havee the value o f zero and the other cards have the numbers 1 through 9. Add adjacent cells and write the sums in the cells above. Simplify the numb ers by ad ding the digits o f any two digit number forming a single digit number. Any nine can be changed to a zero. Continue fillin g in the pyramid until you reach the top. 8. O n the paper, transfer the values of the cards mak ing a row of ten numbers. It's much easier if you use the template supplied in th thii s book (see Discussion). Create the addition p yrami yramid d in the same manner as in Pascal's Pyrami Pyramid d Pr Predic edic tion . In this case, court cards, tens, and nines are counted as zero. zero . Also sim plify by ca cass ting out nines at each successive row. For example, 7+6=13 which is simplified to 1+3=4. At th e top of the pyramid the spectator sh sho o uld ar rive at a single digit (see fig. 8 in Discussion ). Turn over the predi prediction ction card and see i f ther theree is really such a thing as pyrami d power. power. 9. Have the spectator turn over the prediction card(s) which will match his to t al.

6

 

Counting on

eception

6

 

Impromptu Pascal s

yramid Prediction

Discussion • For explanation of the workings of the Pascal Triangle, refer to the discussion in the Pascal's Pyramid Prediction chapter later in this book. In that effect, the pyramid consisted of 6 rows. In this effect, there are ten rows. • In fig. 7 there is a ten-row Pascal Triangle. The arrow indicates the tenth row.

fig. 7

Let's assume we have a row of ten cards whose values are a, b, c, ... j One property of the triangle is that the sum arrived through repeated addition through all ten rows will always equal the sum of the products of the card valu values es with the corresponding value of the pyramid's t enth ro row. w. The tenth row is: 1, 9, 36, 84, 126, 126, 84, 36, 9, 1 The sum of the products is given by: 1a + 9b + 36c + 84d + 126e + 126f + 84g + 36h + 9i +lj = l a + 9b + 36c + 126e + 126f + 36h + 9i +lj + 84(d +g

Since d + g = 9 or 3 •:- then the sum equals l a + 9b + 36c + 126e + 126f + 36h + 9i +lj + 84(9)

Casting out nines and simplifying the sum equals l a + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + l j + 84(0) = a + j

•:·Notice also that if d + g = 3, the n the term 84( d + g still simplifies to zero since 84 simplifie simplifiess to 3 and 3(3)=9 which is equivalent to 0.

6

 

Counting on

eception

So the one digit sum at the top of the pyramid will be simply a

j or the sum of the cards at either end of the row of ten. Recall that a and j are the sum of the two cards to the right of our special pair (whose sum is 0, 3, 9, or 18). Assume the ten cards were 5, 3, Q, A, 10, A, 8, 7, 9, 2 as in fig. 6. The addition pyramid would look like fig. 8: Notice that in positions 4 and 7 the pair 1 and 8) adds up to 9. The two end cards 5 and 2) add up to 7.

hat matches the total at the top of the pyramid.

fig. 8

•

you prefer, you can omit the Riffle Force. Instead, cut to the br eak instead of forcing it, and then deal the top ten cards onto the table. table . f

• This effect was inspired by Mathematically Inclined by Karl Fulves in Self-Working Number Magic. • Copy the template on the next page fig. 9) or download a copy of it from http://barnowskymagic.com/Pascalt http://barnowskymagi c.com/Pascaltemplate.doc emplate.doc

6 

 

  mpromptu Pascal  s Pyramid Prediction

fig

66

 

Eliminating Eliminat ing Control

  Effict

The magician shows a prediction card in his wallet. H e shuffles the deck and then allows the spectator to do further shuffling therefore eliminating his his control over the cards . The spectator cuts the deck into four piles and ri riffl fflee shuffles shuffles them th em to gethe getherr until there s one pile. He then counts some cards off the deck forming a packet and proceeds to turn over cards until only one remains face down. When that face-down card s found to match the prediction in the wallet.

s turned

over, it

Skills Needed· • Riffle Force • Shuffle controlling bottom four cards • Jog Shuffle

Props Needed • Deck of cards • Himber Wallet • 2 double-sided prediction cards • our o f a kind marked for suit se seee Discu Discussion ssion for details)

Setup •

our of a kind are o n the bottom of the deck assume aces in

this explanation) • Predictions in Himber Wallet se seee Discussion) • Each of the four cards ca rds has a distinct mark which identifies its suit se seee Discussion for other othe r idea ideas) s)

7

 

Eliminati Elimi nating ng Control Control

Explanation

nd

Script

In this wallet I have placed a prediction o f the

future. I am going to have you select a card by the process o f elimination. Despite the fact that I will let you shuffle the cards and pick one by elimination, I believe m y prediction has a 99 chance o f being true. First I'll shuffle the cards. 1. Shuffle the cards keeping the four aces on the bottom. This is easily done with careful riffle shuffling allowing the bottom cards to fall first. 2. Get a break under the bottom four cards. Take the rest of the deck above the break and shuffle exactly twelve cards onto the bottom four. Finish with a Jog Shuffle and hold a left little finger break under the injogged card leaving you with sixtee sixteen n cards below the break fig. 1). Say stop anytime. Divide your cards into about four equa equall piles.   3. Riffle Force to the break and hand the upper half of the deck to the spectator. You will keep the bottom sixteen cards. 4. Instruct the spectator to cut his cards into about four equal piles fig. 2). Now take the rest o f the cards and deal them onto your four piles from left to right like in a card game until there are no more.

5. Hand him your packet and tell him to deal cards When is from left there to right hisace four finished, willonto be an onpiles. top of each he packet fig. 3). You can deal the cards yourself if you prefer.

Touch any two piles. Now riffle shuffle them to gether. Riffle shuffle shuffle the other two piles together. Finally,, riffle shuffle those togeth er. Finally 6. Have him shuffle any two piles together fig. 4). Then have him shuffle the other two piles together. Finally have him shuffle the remaining two piles to gether. This procedure guarantees that some ace will remain on top. 7. Determine the suit of the ace by observing the unique marks. Name a number between one and thirteen. Six?

O K deal six cards onto the table one at a time

8. Ask him to name a number between one and thirteen (see Discussion for quicker alternative). Let's say he names six. Have him count six cards off the top of the deck one at a time, one onto the next. The ace will be at the bottom of the pile. Cut the deck and deal the rest o f the cards onto

this pile until you get thirteen. 9. Have cards cards more

him cut the deck and then count the remaining onto the tabled packet until he reaches thirteen in total. In this case he would count sev seven en cards onto the six already there.

Take the cards in your left hand and move the top card to the bottom. Now turn over the top card and place it on the bottom. Keep on do ing that until you've moved 24 cards. Every other one gets turned over before it's placed on the bottom. I'll help by keeping count for you. We've We 've reach ed twenty-four so take that top fac eup card and place it on the bottom. 10. With the packet face down, instruct him to place the top card on the bottom. Then he turns the next card face up and places that on the bottom fig. 5). He needs to repeat that paired sequence eleven more times for a total of twelve. Keep track of the number by counting aloud for him. After twelve sequences (24 cards moved), a face-up card will appear on top. Pl Plac acee th at o n the bottom. bott om. A face-do face-down wn card will now appear as the top card. Cut the packet and complete the cut. Now

spread you r cards on the table and let  s see wh at spread you chose by elimination. 11. Ask him to cut and then spread the cards on the table or in his hand. One face-down card will remain fig. 6). f you didn t spot the suit before, yo u can look for it again at this point. Have him discard the other cards. Here's m y prediction. 12. Bring out the wallet and pull out the correct pre diction similar to the method in Periodic Table Prediction (see Discussion). W hich exactly matches your card.

13. Have him turn over his face-down face-down card which will match your prediction fig. 7).

68

one on top o f another.

 

  ountingon

eception

9

 

Eliminating

ontrol

Discussion • You can simplify the effect so marked cards and a Himber Wallet are not used. This requires using usin g three a dditional duplicates of the forced card. The duplicates are on the bottom as in the regular effe effect. ct. The prediction can be in an envelope held by the spectator. • For prediction cards I use the same double-faced aces used in the The Fabulous Athletic Aces . f

you don't want to make up your own marked four of a kind, a commercially marked deck

such as the Boris Wild Marked Deck works well. f you look closely at fig 6 you'll notice the markings for the AC (1). You don't need to use the whole deck, just the four of a kind added to a regular Bicycle deck. • Fine pencil marks in mirror image positions will not be noticed. • Blue ink applied to the blue back design marks works well too. Make sure the marks are read able when the card is turned 180 degrees. • You have to remember the position of the prediction cards in the wallet. wallet. Once you know the suit, open the wallet t o the correct side and pull out the card and show it, or turn it over as you pull it out to show it. See technique used in Periodic Table Prediction . • The twenty-four card counting and turning procedure o n the thirteen-card packet works automatically. The bottom card of the packet will always end up as the last face-down card in the second position. f

f

you prefer, you can perform the counting and turning procedure your yourself. self.

he names thirteen in step 8, you can skip the next step.

• In step 2, you can run eight or sixteen cards instead of twelve. The number of cards run needs to be a multiple of four. • Quicker revelation procedure: Instead of the procedure in steps #8-10, try the following. Ask for a number between 1 and 11. Deal that number of cards to the table. Have them cut the deck and add enough addi tional cards to make ele eleve ven. n. This time you'll need to get the ace third from the

bottom. After the additional cards from the cut are added, you'll need to move two cards from the top to the bottom bringing the ace third from the bottom. With eleven cards and the ace third from the bottom, have them spread three face-down cards

and move them to the bottom. They spread three more, turning them over and moving them to

the bottom. This is repeated for a total of twelve moves. Some cards will be face up so remember to have the triplets turned over on every even count up to twelve. After twelve moves, the ace willl be the only face-down wil face-down card. This vari ation has the ad vantage of being twice as fast and the packe t does not have to be cut at the end. The ace will be face down third from the bottom of the face-up packet.

70

 

 2

he

9th Card

Effect A sealed deck of cards is opened and the four kings and ad cards are removed. The cards are mixed and given to the spectator. A second deck of cards having a different colored back is shown and placed aside. The spectator is handed an envelope with a prediction inside. He cuts the deck and deals 12 cards in three piles and chooses one pile and discards the others. He cuts the deck again and deals 12 cards in six piles and chooses one pile and discards the

others. His six chosen cards are turned over one by one and the values are used to count through the second deck. The card arrived at is tur turned ned ov over er.. The prediction is opened and found to be 100 correct.

Skills Needed • Who Whole le deck fals falsee shuffle optio optional) nal) • ee Discuss Discussion ion for alternat e ending with kicker

Props Needed • Bl Blue ue deck of card cardss in in new deck order orde r or pre-st pre-stacked, acked, see Discussion) • Second deck with red colored back • Envelope with prediction

Setup • None, if deck is in Bicycle new deck order • Force card duplicate or writte written n prediction predic tion in envelope envelope • Place force card at position 39 in red deck

7

 

The 39th Card

Explanation

nd

Script

I am going to perform for you a trick for the

very first time. I don't know i f it will work since it's not even m y trick. Last week I received in the mail this envelope from an anonymous magician and in it was a sealed prediction. I haven't had the nerve to open it. I also received instructions from this unknown magician on how to perform the trick. o you and I will be seeing this trick for the very first time and I don't even know how it works or even i f it will work. Hold on to this envelope with the prediction and don't open it yet. Hold on to this deck o f cards and set it aside.

1. Give the spectator the red deck and the prediction envelope. ''I'll open this new sealed deck o f cards. For this trick we don't need the ad cards, or the jokers, or even the kings according to m y instructions.

2. Take the blue deck and remove the ad cards, jokers and the four kings. He says, turn the deck face up and take small

groups o f cards and place them face up on the table. And when you ar aree half way through the deck, turn the deck face down and repeat the procedure.

3. With the deck face up, spread the first six cards (without reversing them) and drop them face up on the table fig. 1 ). ount the next six cards reversing their order and drop those cards face up on the face-up pile. Spread the next six (without reversing them) and drop them face up on the pile. ount the next six cards reversing their order and add them to the pile fig. 2).

4. Turn the remaining cards in the deck face down. ount the first six cards reversing their order, turn them over and drop them face up on the face-up pile fig. 3 ). Spread the next six (wi thout reversing reversing them ) and drop them also face up on the pile. ount the next six cards reversing their order, turn them over and drop them face up on the face-up pile. Spread the last six (without reversing them) and drop them also face up on the pile fig. 4) . give the deck a He then wrot e that I sho uld give good shuffle.

5. The above procedure has now stacked the deck in the exact order for the effect to work. At this point, perform any whole deck false shuffle. A False Waterfall, my Overhand False Shuffle, or the folding card sequence taught in Nine Sh Shuf uffl flee Parad ox could be used. havv e After that, he says to give you the deck and ha you give it a complete cut. Now deal cards in three piles from left to right until you've dealt 12 cards. Now, choose one pile, set it aside and discard the rest.

6. Hand the deck to the spectator and have him do th e following: Ask him to cut the cards, complete the cut and then deal cards in three piles working from left to right until a total o f twelve cards have been dealt with four cards in each pile. He then chooses one pile, places it aside, and discards the other two fig. 5). Cut the cards one more time. N ow deal six pil es

from left to right until you've dealt 12 cards. f the six piles, place it with the Choose one ocards othe r chosen and discard the rest.

7. Have him cut the cards again, complete the cut and this time deal six hands from left to right for a tota l o f twelve cards with two cards in each pile. He the n

72

 

Decception Counting on De

aca in chooses one pile fig. 6), adds it t o the packet o · fo ur cards and discards the other five. · Remove the cards from the red card case. Turn over any one o f your chosen cards. Now count

cards one cards on e at a ti tim m e from the red d eck corresponding to the value o f your chosen card. jacks count as 11 and queens 12. Now do the same sam e fo r each o f your remain emaining ing cards. Turn the card you arri arrived ved at fac e up. _. Po int

the red card case and tell him t o remov removee ll the cards. Have him pick any card from the .: os en packet of six and turn it face up. Count ·a rd rdss one at a time from the red deck using the ·a lue of the face-up card fig. 7). You or he ) can inse rt the blue-backed face-up cards into the face-down ile as you count as in the figures. Repeat this each ime for the other five cards. After counting the al ue for the th e sixth card, ask him to turn that card ·ac e up fig. 8) . to

Open the envelop nvelopee and read th e prediction.

. . \sk him to open the envelope and displa display y the re diction contained inside which will show a erfect ma t ch with the card counted to

73

 

The

39th Card

Discussion • The effect is mathematical and works automati automatically. cally. The procedu re insures a force of the number 26 for the first twelve-card deal and 13 for the second twelve-card deal. Together you

are forcing their sum which is 3 9. • How does it work? The trick is based loosely on an old magic subtlety known as the Stay-Stack Principle first described by J Russell Duck (Rusduck). That is normall normally y used to maintain symmetrical relationships of cards following cuts or Faro Shuffles. In this case we use the mirror symmetry to force a number after the spectator has cut the cards. For example, when

the spectator deals six hands of two cards each, the value of the cards in each pair will add up to 13. That's because the two cards in each pile are always six cards apart in the stack. Any two cards six cards apart will add to 13 since for every drop in value as you proceed through the first six cards, there is a corresponding increase in value as you proceed through the last six cards: 6 and 7; 5 and 8; 4 and 9; 3 and 10 etc. For the first deal, the same concept appli applies es except the cards are three apart with two from the first six and two from the last six. You'll never get more or less than two cards from each half because three 3 piles) divides evenly into six and twelve. This is true even if the packe t is cut. There will always be two cards from numbers 6 through 1 and two cards from numbers 7 through 12 although not always in that order.

• It is important that the spectator deal 3 piles and then 6 piles. f you were to only deal 3 piles to force the number 26, all the cards might sometimes be of the same suit. By doing two different deals, it is more likely there will be a mixture of suits. • When the spectator begins turning over the six cards in his pile, have him choose ones randomly. This way it is less likely that similar suits will appear in a row. • The effect could of course be done with a full deck setup. f you do that, mix the suits as in the following example: 6S, 5 0 , 4C, 3H, 20, AS, 7C, SH, 9 0 , 10H, JS, QD, 6C, SH 45 45... ... • Any number of complete cuts will not change the symmetry. Any successive group of 12 cards that are cut to will insure that the correct number will be forced following the above described

dealing procedures. • To better understand how this works try the following. With the deck in the setup order, cut the cards and deal 12 cards. Look at the top and bottom cards of the deck. They will be neighboring cards in the original stacked order except for suit. Cut the cards and deal another 12 cards from the pack. The top and bottom cards will again be neighboring cards. This will work a third time leaving you with 12 cards in the original cyclic order. • The inspiration for this effect can be found in The Square Deal in Self-Working Close-Up

Card Magic by Karl Fulves with the concept originated by Arthur Setterington Setterington.. • What makes this effect deceptive is the fact that the spectator genuin genuinely ely cuts the deck each time and gets to freely choose the packet he keeps.

7

 

  ountingon

eception

• Although you are openly stacking the cards, it should really really appear that you are mixing them by the spreading and counting procedure. Of course, it

is

best if this

is

followed by some type

of whole deck false shuffle.

• Although I have never performed it this way, you could do the effect over the telephone using 2 sealed decks. You would have to give the spectator very precise directions regarding the initial setup removing kings, spreading and counting groups of six cards).

t

might be one to try on a

fellow magician. In this case, you would announce your prediction over the phone and the card the AD) would be the 9th in a second unopened deck o f cards. • Alternate Ending: In this version, the forced card

is

one of the blue-backed kings and

is

in the

red deck at position 39. This requires placing a duplicate blue backed ca rd at position 39. When you remove the four kings, palm off or lap the forced king. At the end, the forced card

say the KH) matches the prediction and the KH

is

later found missing from the discarded

packet of four kings. This may be a bit too much and could distract from the climax but some may choose to try it.

7

 

 3

ntil

There Were Four

Effect cards are removed from a newly opened deck. The cards are shuffled thoroughly and are dealt into four piles. The spectator is allowed repeatedly t o mov movee cards ar ound. The top card in each pile is removed and placed aside. This is repe repeated ated several times times.. At the end there are fiv piles of four cards. When those cards are turned over each pile 2

contains a four of a kind.

Skills Needed • N o sleigh sleights ts needed neede d

Props Needed • Deck of cards in new deck order

77

 

Until There Were Four

Explanation

nd

Script

Did you know that four is a special number?

After all, there are four directions on the compass, four seasons in the year and four chambers in the human heart. Furthermore there are four types o f nucleic acids in DNA, four states o f matter (solid, liquid, gas, plasma), four fundamental forces (strong nuclear, gravity, weak nuclear, electromagnetic) and four suits in a deck o f playing cards. cards. I'll remo ve some spades, some diamonds, some clubs, and finally some hearts from this deck.

1. Fan the deck face up toward you and remove the AS-55 and drop those five cards on the table face down. Spread some more and remove the AD-5D and drop those cards on the first pile. pile . Spread some more and remove the 5C-AC and drop those on the same pile. Finally, remove the 5H-AH and drop them face down on the rest fig. 1 . T i l mix

these in m y hands so all four suits are

randomized.

2. False shuffle the packet of 20 cards. That is optional. I use my False Overhand Shuffle technique taught in The Book o f Destiny. Any false cut could be used instead. I'll place these on the table in small piles and mix them up good.

3. Next, a very deceptive false mixing procedure will be done. This is similar in principle t o the folding mixing procedure taught in Look to the Cards in The Book o f Destiny.

4. Turn the packet of twenty face up and grasp it in the right hand in overhand Biddle grip. You will now create six packets of alternating faceface-up up and face-down smaller packets in a right t o left direction. direction. Using the right thumb, riffle off 2-4 cards from the face-up packe t and deposit them on bottom of the face-up the right side of the table fig. 2 . Flip the packet in your hand face down. Then with the right thumb riffle again and release 2-4 cards face down placing this second small packet to the left of the first fig. 3 . Turn the pa cket in your hand face up. Repeat the above procedure until you have six packets fig. 4 . From your right to left they will be: face up, face down, face up, face down, face up, face down. No v; reassemble the cards by folding packets onto one another from left to right. For example, the left mo packet which is face down is turned over onto the adjacent face-up face-up packet , and that combined packer turned over onto the next face-down packet and so on until the packet is reassembled fig. 5-7 . The n er result will be no change in the order of the cards. Five cards go in each o f the four corners.

5. Turn the packet face face d own. Spread the top five and place them in the left far corner of the table. Spread five more cards and place them in the left near corner. Spread five more cards and place them in the right far corner. corner. Drop the last five cards in th e near right corner fig. 8 . In the row o f cards near you, move a total o f

four cards from the top o f a pile to the botto m. You could move four in either pile, three in o n e and one in the other, or two in each pile. And what ever you do with the cards near yo u , I'll

do with the cards near me. No w I'll remove th the card on top o f each o f these mixed piles and place them together over here.

8

 

Counting on

eception

6. Tell the spectator that he needs to move four cards from the top of the far piles to the bottom. He can take two from each pile and move them to the bottom of their respective piles. Or, one card moved to the bottom in one pile and three cards in the other pile fig. 9). Or, four cards moved from top to bottom in one pile and none in the other. As he does that, you mirror his actions moving the number of cards as the spectator does in the samepiles. near Remove the top card of each pile fig. 10) and place that packet of four aside face down the first four of a kind).

Let's do some more mixing. I'll deal in this direction and ow in that direction. 7. Pick up the left far pile and drop it on the left near pile. o the same with the right piles. Add the piles together. The order does not matter.

79

 

Until There Were Four 8. Deal th e cards in four corners clockwise until yo you u have dealt eight cards. Now reverse th e procedure startin g on the last position and moving counterclockwise until yo u are back where yo u started. Each of the four packets will now cont ai ain n a four of a kind.

Touch any pil pilee and place th e t o p card on the bottom. Touch any other pil pilee and place the top tw o cards to the th e bottom. Touc ouch h a third pile and place thr three pile ee cards to the bottom. For the las t pile place any number o f ca carr ds to the bottom. 9. Ask the spectator to pick any pile and have him t a ke the top card and ins inser ertt it to the bottom. Have him choose another pile and mov e two cards to the bottom. Have him se lect a third pile and move three cards to the bottom. For the last pile h ave him move a ny number of cards to th e bottom. Since each pile contains a four of a kind, th es e actions change nothing. ackett and pla ce it on ano th er. Pi ck up any packe Pick ace th those ose on a third an and d those on the last. last . Place Pl D ea l those thos e cards into the fo ur corners just as I did before. I'll remove the top cards from thes e pil es and place them together over here. 10. Reassemble the four packets in any order th e spectator chooses. Now deal th em or have the th e spectator deal them) clockwise until there th ere are four cards in each corner. Remove the top card of each packet fig. 11) and place that packet asid asidee the second four of a kind). There are thre threee ca rds here, three h ere, thr ee h ere, and three over here.

11. In the right column, pick up each packet of three a nd count them in yo ur hand reversing their order and replace them in their position. ount th e ones in the left column without reversing them. Move a total o f two cards from top to bott bottom om

in the row near yo you. u. Two at a tim e or one in row

each I'll do the in the N o w,pile. I'll remove thesame t op card top in eachnear pilee me. pil an d and placee them together plac tog ether over her heree.   12 . Have the spectator move from top to bottom an y two cards in the far row. Move one in each packet or two in one pack packeet. Mirror the same actions in the near n ear row fig. 12). Remove the top card of eac packet and place that packet of four aside the thir third d four of a kind). In your row, move one card in any one pile and I'll do the same as you. The top card o f each pile will now be removed and those cards pl place aced d to toge gether ther over h ere ere..   13 . That lea leav ves two cards in each corner. Have the th e spectator move one card from top to the bottom in a far row and mirror that in the near row fig. 13). Remove the top card of each packet and plac placee those four aside the fourth four of a kind). We start started ed out wi th 20 cards and we've elimi-

nated them four at a time until there were four. ·· 14. That leaves four cards which will make up the fift h four of a kind. And look at these four cards. They're all the

same valu value. e. And so are thes e and these, and these, th ese, and these.   15. Turn over the four cards remaining on the table tabl e revealing a four of a kind. Then turn over the remaining packets showing 4 four of a kinds fig. 14 .

80

 

  ountingon

eception

8 

 

  ntilThere

ere Four

Discussion • Instead of using ace through five you could use 10, J Q, K and Ace o r any other five values. • This effect is based on an old magic mathematical principle described by a variety of terms including clock arithmetic, the Stay Stack, or Palindrome Concept. With two packets of 5 in mirror image order, moving a total of 4 cards from top to bottom will unwind the two opposite running clocks so they share the same same top card. The cards can be moved from either pile so long as the total of moved cards is 4 . You can move four in one pile or two in each pile. The result will be the same.

f

you do this with face-up cards, you ' ll see visually why this works.

After removing the top card from each pile, the remaining packets of four on the left will remain in mirror image to those on the right. They are in a palindromic order. Similarly, when there are three cards in each pile, moving any two to the bottom wil willl bring cards matching in value value to the top. The remaining two-card pile neighbors will also be in mirror image order. • The effect could be modified by using thin objects other than cards. For example, discs such as wooden nickels, bar tokens, or drink coasters could be used. Even state quarters could be used.

Those need to be identical o n one side with four different sets of five styles or colors on the opposite side comparable to the values of the playing cards. have a deck in new deck order, simply remove cards from your deck so they are in the proper order. f you don t

8

 

  4 Effect: A deck o f cards is shuffled twice by the magician and given a genuine riffle shuffle by the spectator. The deck is divided into six piles. The spectator picks any three piles as his (no force) and shuffles them. The magician does the same with the three remaining piles. A game o f Loser s Poker is played. The rules are simple. Each player gets four cards and six hands are played. Only the suits matter. The best suit. For F or example, hand is the one containing no duplicate suit.

the following four hands are in order of the best to the D worst: CHSD CCSD CCCC. Each player deals four cards from his shuffled pack and a total of six hands are played. Despite incredible odds, the magician never loses a hand and in fact has a perfect hand each time.

Skills Needed· • Faro Shuffle See Discussion) • Any false shuffle

Props Needed · • Deck o f cards in new deck order (see Discussion) • Prize (cash, gift, etc.)

Setup · • Remove any four of a kind leaving 48 cards in the deck. Let s assume a ssume it s the nines. • With new deck order, the suits are separated into groups o f twe twelve lve:: 12 hearts, 12 clubs, clubs, 12 di amonds, and 12 spades from top to bottom. They need not be in any numerical order.

8

 

Loser s Poker

Explanation

nd

Script

8 . Ask the spectator to take any three piles and place them in his hand. You gather up the remaining thre e heard o f It's called Loser's Poker. It's called that piles as your own. because the worst hand wins. And it's simpler than poker because the numbers don't count 9. Instruct the spectator t o thor oughly shuffle shuffle his his just the suits. In this game, I shuffle the c r d ~ cards. As he does that, false shuffle the cards using and then you shuffle the cards. I divide the deck any false shuffle you are comfortable doing. I do my my into six piles and then you pick any three and Overhand False Shuffle from The Book o f Destin Destinyy leave me with th e remaining thr three. ee. W e then followed by a False Waterfall Shuffle. Shuffle . Your 4 card s shuffle the cards some more and then deal four must remain in order. cards from the top o f th e deck. A winning hand contains all different suits with no matches. Th e 10. From the top of yo ur packet, deal four face-dow face-down n worst hand has all four cards having the same cards from left to right. Instruct the spectator to d o suit. Every time you win a hand you get to keep the same in a separate row fig. 2). all eight cards. In case o f a tie, the cards are discarded and no one gets th em. After six hands, hands, 11. Turn over his cards one at a time. Then turn over the one with the most cards is the winner. yo urs revealing a winning hand or at most a tie (fig. 3 ). f it's a tie discard those cards face up off r Now to make things as fair as possible, I will the side. f it's a win, claim those cards as your ow give you a huge advantage. I will deal six hands and place them face up in your pile of winnings. and all you have to do to claim the prize is to win any one o f the six hands. Remember ties 12 . Repeat the above step until a total of six hands don't count. have been dealt. I have a card game that you probably never

1. Let's assume the deck is in new deck order. f not already done, remove any four of a kind. Hindu Shuffle the top quarter of the deck which will just mix the hearts. . 2. Cut the deck exactly in half and execute an Out Faro Shuffle. 3. Repeat step 2 doing another Out Faro Shuffle. 4. Deal a total of 4 cards one at a time, one on top of another onto the table. Place the remaining half on the table. This reverses the order creating a suit order which is the mirror image of the other half. 5. Have the spectator or yourself riffle shuffle the halves together. 6. Spread four cards off the top of the deck and place them on the table. Spread another four cards and place them in an adjacent pile. Repeat the process until you have six separate piles of four. 7. Continue spreading groups of four cards adding them to each pile. At the end there should be eight

I love this game, because you win by losing, and as you can see I always manage to lose and win.

13 . At the conclusion, you will have won or tied all th e hands and the spectator will have no wins.

cards in each of the six piles fig . 1 ).

84

 

  ountingon Deception

8

 

Loser s Poker Discussion f

you set up the deck with a lternating suits, then you can omit the Faro Shuffles. You must how-

ever be able to do some false shuffling otherwise the spectator wil willl suspect a setup. • After the two Faro Shu Shuffl ffles, es, the dec k will be in alternating suit order. By dealing 24 cards onto a pile, the bottom half of the deck now is a mirror image with respect to suit to the upper half. The Gilbreath Principle is satisfied at this point so a random riffle shuffle will insure that succes-

sive groups of four cards will contain no duplicate suits. By distributing the cards in groups of four, each group will contain one of each suit. When the spectator mixes his cards, the suits will be randomized randomized.. When the magician false shuffles his half, successive groups of four will retain their property of no duplicated suits. • The probability of the spectator getting a perfect hand (four different suit suits) s) is low. The probability for one hand is about 10.55   from a 52 card deck and 10.65

from a 48 card deck. For a

48 card deck the calculation is as follows: To get four cards exactly in heart, club, diamond, and spade order, the probability is (12)(12)(12)(12) But there are 4

= 24

(48)(47)(46)(45)

= 00444

ways of arranging the four suits. Therefore the probability of getting dealt

4 cards of different suits is (. 00444) (24)

=

1065 or 10.65  

• The effect can be done with a full deck. The only problem is there will be four cards left over in one of the hands. I think it's better to have the effect end with no leftover cards.

8

 

rime

umber

rophecy

 5 Effect

The power of prime numbers is demonstrated with a deck of cards and with the help o f four spectators. The magician displays displays a wallet containing a prediction and sets it aside. He hands the first first spectator specta tor a thoroughly shuffled deck and has him deal the deck into seven piles from left to right and then reassemble them from left to right. H e passes the deck to a second spectator who then takes the deck and does the same making five piles. The deck is handed to a third spectator who repeats the proces processs but this time with three piles. piles. The last spect ator does the same with two piles. Finally he gives the deck back to the first spectator who takes the deck and deals two hands of four cards each. The spectator freely chooses one of the four cards in his hand. The magician reveals his prediction and for the first time the spectator turns over his card. The prediction and card match perfectly.

Skills

eeded·

• Riffle Shuffle leaving top four cards intact • Cull four o f a kind (if setup not used) • False shuffle

Props

eeded·

• Deck of 52 cards • Himber Wallet or gaffed envelope with four outs . See Discussion for prediction cards setup. • By using 3 additional duplicate Seven of Spades, the Himber Wallet is not needed. See Discussion.

Setup • Four predictions set in multi-out wallet or envelope (in the example in the text they are 7H, 7C, 7D, and 7S). I use four mini Bicycle cards. See Discussion for details. • With a deck in new deck order, no deck setup is needed. • f not in new deck order, then the predicted four o f a kind are in posi

tion to be controlled to the top. They need to be in a known order. I use 7H, 7C, 7D, S which is also the suit sequence in new deck order.

8

 

Prime Number Prophecy

Explanation

nd

Script

In this wallet I have placed a prediction card.

I will not touch thi thiss wallet until the end o f this demonstration.

1. Display the wallet showing th e face-down prediction card fig. 1). Place the closed wallet on the tabl e. Some o f you may know about prime numbers.

4. Demonstrate th e de dealing aling procedure by dealin dealing g th e entire deck in four piles from left to right (fig. 2). Then reassemble the deck de ck from left to right. The four sevens will be in positions 13, 26, 39, and 52. In overhand shuffl shufflee position, run six cards from the th e top to the bottom. You could also spread the top six cards, get a break, a nd cut them to the bottom. Th e seve ns are now at po si ti sevens tio o n s 7, 20, 33, and 46 which is where th thee y are in new deck order.

They are the building blocks o f whole numbers

just as atoms are the building blocks o f molecules and compounds. I f you shuffle cards with prime numbers in mind, some magical things things can happ en First, I'll shuffle the cards three times, a prime number.

2. f the deck in new deck order, do a full deck false s huffl e. I cas uall ually y do a False Waterfall Shuffle o r m y Overhand False Shuffle from The Book o f Destin Destiny. y. I do th thrr ee false shuffles 3 is a prime). Now proce proceed ed directly to step 5. the deck is not in new deck order, the four sevens (or predicted four of a kind) are secretly brought to the th e top of the deck. Remember th e order of their suits sui ts o r rearrange them w ith heart s first followed by clubs, club s, diamonds, and th en spad spa d es. See Discussion for ideas. In that case, any false shuffling or cutting mu st not change the position o f the sevens. f

3. Riffle Riffl e Shuffle the deck maintaining the top four sev ens in the correct suit order. Do it three times 3 is a prime). Next, you are going to make piles like this. In

this exam ple I'll make four piles, actually not a prime, dealing from left to right and reassemble the cards also from left to right.

D ea l cards from left to right making seven piles seven-handed anded as i f you were dealing cards in a seven-h card game. Since seven is a prime number number,, magical things will occur as you deal. Reassembl Reassemblee th e piles from left to t o right. Now pass the deck d eck to someone else.

5. Hand the deck to spectator 1 and have him dea d eall seven piles from left to t o right and then reassemble the packets in the same direction. fivee piles from left to right. Go ahead and deal fiv Five is a prime number too. Whether you kno w it or no t, magical things are happening as you deal. Reassembl Reassemblee those five piles from left to right. Now give the deck to someone els e .  

6. He h a nds the deck to spec spectt a t or 2 who does th e same dealing proce proc edure with five piles piles.. This time you'll deal three piles from left to right; and you probably know by now that three is a prim primee number so the magic continues. Reassemble th e cards cards from left to right. Pass the deck to someone els e.  

7 . The deck is passed to spec spectt a tor 3 who doe s that dealing procedure with th r ee piles. Two is the smallest prime number. Deal two

piles from le ft to righ t and when you'r e done place the left one on th e right. Did you fee l the magic happening? happ ening? Pass the deck to the th e first dealer.

8. Spectator 4 continues the same dealing proce proce dure bu with wi th two piles. H e hands th thee deck to spectator 1. Dea De a l two hands o f cards so you and I each get

four cards. N ow spr spread ead your four cards and choose one. Without loo k ing at your chosen

88

 

Counting on Deception card, move it to your right and cover it with your yo ur right hand. Remember in the beginning I showed you this wallet containing a face-down prediction card. Th e deck is handed back to spectator 1 or spectator 5) The ,. o deals two hands of four cards each fig. 3). : . pe ctator 1 or 5) is asked to spread his four faceo wn cards and choose one card from his hand of fig. 4 ). Without looking at it, he slides it to o ur he right covered by his right hand. At this point will know the exact position of each seven. They will be from the bottom up still in the order - H 7C, 7D, and 7S on top). Therefore, because o f the known suit order, you will know his chosen card by its position without even looking at the d iscarded sevens. Assume he chooses the top card, rhe Seven of Spades.

For the first time I will reveal my prediction. The Seven o f Spades. Turn over the card under your right hand. n exact match, or more accurately a prime match em powered by the magical properties o f prime numbers. 1 

The magician opens the wallet and reveals his prediction. he spectator turns over his card which matches the prediction precisely fig. 5).

9

 

Prime

umber Prophecy

Discussion • The effect works automatically. With the four sevens at positions 7, 20, 33, and 46, the series of deal dealss guarantee s that the four sevens will lie at positions 2, 4, 6, and 8 in the same suit order

(hearts, clubs, diamonds, and spades).

f you work with

a deck in new deck order, it turns out

that the deck is already set with the sevens in those positions and the correc t suit order. order. This is

true even though the lower half of the deck

is

a mirror image in value to the upper half. Because

the sevens are at the exact halfway point of king through ace, they will be in proper position for new deck order as well as any tetradistic stack where the seven

is

the seventh card.

• From a shuffled deck, cull the four of a kind using a culling technique you are comfortable with. An under spread cull, Harry Lorayne's

Great Divide , Biddle type cull etc. can be used. f you

start with new deck order or tetradistic stack, then no culling culling is needed.

• It's best that this be done with a minimum of two spectators and ideally four or even five. • Using a Himber Wallet, place the 7 H and 7C together as one face-down card with the 7H on top. In the other compartment place the 7D and

7S

as one face-down card with the 7D o n top.

When producing the prediction card, open the wallet to the correct side and flash the face-down

card. As you begin to remove it, turn the wallet toward you and pull out the appropriate card. There is no heat on this since since you are making the predict ion before the spectator reveals his card. As

seen in the photos, I use miniature cards with a Bendix Bombshell wallet.

As

I withdraw the

prediction card, I push the other card deeper into the slot so it will not be seen when I turn the wallet around. • You can eliminate the 4 outs by using duplicate sevens. Remove the 7C, 7H, and 7D from the deck and replace them with three duplicate

7S

Keep the four Seven of Spad Spades es toget her or o n top

of the deck. Follow the normal procedure in the eff effect ect except at the end they can pick any of the

four cards dealt to them since they are all the same 7S. You only need one prediction which you can have the spectator hold on to.

• I agree that doing tricks with a lot of counting and dealing can potentially be boring. But if the counting and dealing can be justified by an engaging storyline, that weakness can be avoided. Getting the spectators to participate in the dealing

is

a positive which helps propel the effect

toward the climax. Watching the magician deal cards could make an audience lose interest, but

if the the spectators are doing the dealing the magician has the opportunity to ad lib, critiquing or complimenting their work, as well as explaining the magical powers of the prime numbers. • Some may want to add a kicker to this. Add the three other sevens to the deck and control them as you shuffle the cards. Reproduce them one a time matching the chosen and predicted card. • You could simplify the effect choosing to make the prediction say, sevens and turn over all four cards.

you will deal yourself four

9

 

 6

hall We

Switch

Effect A sealed deck o f cards is opened and thoroughly shuffled. 21 cards are given to both the magician and spectator. Cards are further mixed in three different ways and during that process the magician and spectator switch cards seve several ral times. The spectator then fre freel ely y chooses which p acket o f 21 will be used in a poker deal. Four hands o f poker are dealt and despite all the shuffling and switching the magician gets a straight flush.

Skills Needed • Riffle

ontrol o f top and bottom fiv

cards

Props Needed • Deck o f cards

Setup • None

if using a deck in new deck order • Otherwise the top and bottom fiv cards are set as straigh str aigh t flushes flushes

9

 

Shall

We

Explanation

Switch nd

Script

''I'm about to show you an amazing demonstra-

tion o f card control from a thoroughly shuffled deck. o allay any concern that cards are prepared, I will open this sealed deck o f cards.

1. Open the sealed deck and remove the cards. Toss out the jokers and advertisement cards. First a standard riffle shuffle.

2. Riffle shuffle the cards leaving the top and bottom five cards undisturbed. More than one controlled riffle shuffle can be done. No w we'll divide the deck into two piles o f

21 cards each.

3. Spread and count the top 21 cards without reversing them, and drop that packet on the table. Spread and count ten more cards and discard those. 4. With the remaining packet of 21 cards, get the bottom five cards to the top. o that by counting 21 cards one at a time one on top of the other. O r instead, you could spread the bottom five or thumb count them) and cut the packet to the top. I want you to do exactly what I do. Deal cards

into five piles from your left to your right. Keep on dealing until there is only one card left. Drop that card on the first pile on your left. No w let's reassemble reasse mble the small packets o f cards also from left to right just like this. A t this point, shall we switch packets?

5. Have the spectator deal cards with his packet of 21 exactly as you do for the rest of this effect. First, deal five piles from left to right until there are four cards in each pile. The last card goes onto the first pile where there will be five cards fig. 1 . The spectator also deals exactly as the magician does from left to right. Now you and he reassemble the cards by placing packets on top of each other from left to right fig. 2). Ask him if he wants to switch packets with you. No w something a little different. One card here, count two cards here, ... and six cards here.

left to right. Let's do that once more. Shall we switch packets now?

6. Deal one card to position one and two cards to position two on the right. Cards are dealt one on top of the other. Three cards go to position three and so forth until you reach position six where there will be six cards fig. 3 ). Packets are reassembled from left to right by you and the spectator. Repeat the procedure once more. Ask him if he wants to switch packets with you. Let's deal five packets from left to right as we did before. The last card goes on the first packet. Reassemble the packets from left to right. Let's do it again. Shall we switch packe packets? ts? And once more five piles from left to right.

7. Repeat the dealing procedure as in step 5 three time switching packets with the spect ator as requested. We're back to two packets again. Choose one and discard the other.

8. Ask the spectator to choose one packet and discard the other. ''I'm going to deal four hands o f poker. The

first card goes face up on the bottom. This is to prevent any bottom dealing. Five cards for each player.

9. Take the chosen packet and bury the top card face up as the bottom card. 10. Deal four hands of poker with each hand getting five cards. The last card will be the face-up one an can be discarded fig. 4). This hand has a pair, this one nothing, this one

has two cards short a flush, and m y hand a straight flush ace through five.

11. Turn over the hands of the three opponents show ing the results. Then turn over your hand revealin a straight flush ace through five fig. 5). c

No w let's reassemble the packets again from the

92

 

Counting on

eception

9

 

  hall

e

witch

Discussion • This is essentially a self-working effect. The false riffle shuffle is very eas easy y to do. do . Just allow at least five or more of the bottom cards to fall first, shuffle the middle cards genuinely, and allow the top •

five or

more cards to fall together last.

he strength of this effect is the thorough shuffling and switching of packets. The final choice of

which packet to deal

is

a free choice since both packets will have straight flushes stacked at that

point. • In step 6 the two-packet shuffles leave the packet unchanged. You can do a similar false shuffle with an any y number of packets. For exampl example, e, with 3 6 cards you can deal cards making 8 packets with the first pile having 1 card and the last pile having 8 cards. Reassemble from left to right and repeat once more. The packet will be unchanged. This occurs because repeating the process

essentially inverts or undoes the first shuffle. • In step 6, if you wanted to, you could spread cards without re reve versing rsing them as you make the six piles. s long as you do the sam samee procedure the second time, the 21 cards will be unchanged. I prefer counting the cards one on top of each other, which reverses them, because I think it

is

less

likely the spectator will make a mistake that wa way y. • When deal dealing ing the four poker hands, you can choose to deal the first cards face up in stud fash ion and then the others face down. • Short Summary: 21 cards given each to spectator and magician with straight flush on top. Deal and reassemble left to right 5, 4, 4, 4, 4 once hands are stacked) . Deal and reassemble left to right 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 twice no change). Deal and reassemble left to right 5, 4, 4, 4, 4 thre e times no change). Discard one pile and deal four hands of poker.

9

 

  7

l l oads Lead to

ome

E /feet: A deck is shuffled and cut by the magician. A card is freely chosen, reinserted into the deck, followed by shuffles and cuts. The deck is handed to the spectator and he is asked to deal cards face down one on top of another and stop at any card. At that point, he turns that card face up and deals a number of cards face down corresponding to the value o f the card. Th is process is repeated several times until only a few few cards remain. re main. When he turns over the last face-up card, he finds that t o be his original freely chosen card.

Skills Needed: • False shuffles and cuts • Double Cut • Riffle Force

Props Needed:

• Deck o f cards with one Joker

Setup: • A rotating stack o f thirteen cards repeated four times: [A, 8, 2, 5, 10, 3, J Q, 9, 4, 4 , 7, 6, 6 , K, A, 8, 2 ... ]. This is the same stack used in Entropy I and II in Kingdom o f the Red This also follows the pattern o f my own memorized deck (see Discussion). The Joker is separate from the deck.

- 

95

 

All oads Lead to

Explanation

nd

ome

Script

Tonight I want to show you the power o f magic and numbers. Some call this numerology. I call it humorology because it's a funny way o f finding a card. In fact, I'll tell you a corny joke at the very end. First let's start with a thoroughly shuffled 1

deck.

Display the stacked deck and spread it face up showing that the cards are well mixed. Follow that with some false shuffles and cuts. Keeping with the humorology theme, use the Joker to pick a card. Insert it face up anywhere in the deck. N ow remove one card next to the Joker. Either side, it doesn't matter. Memorize that card card.. The Joker is now in the deck so some wild things may happen. In fact, i f we see the Joker again it will act as a wild card representing the value o f your card.

2. Hand the Joker to the spectator and spread the deck face down between your hands or on the table. Ask him to choose a card by inserting inserting the Joker face up anywhere partly into the spread. Have him remove a card fig. 1) next to the Joker (he can choose from either side). Turn the Joker fa face ce down in the deck where it was inserted and square the pack. Give the deck a false cut. Let s assume the chosen card is the KD. Now, just say stop anywhere and insert your chosen card into the center o f the deck. Al though this trick uses humorology, I'll mix up the cards again to make sure there is no funny business.

3. Get a right thumb break above the fourth card from the bottom (it will be above a four spot) . Swing Cut the top half to the bottom merging with the original four bottom cards and convert to a left little finger break. Riffle Force to the break. Have the spectator insert their chosen card between the halves. As they do that, spread the left hand cards getting a little finger break below the fourth card from that half (excluding their card) (fig. 2). Square the pack keeping the break. Cut or Double Cut to the break. The chosen card will now be fifth from the bottom and 49th from the top of a 53-card dec deck. k.

4. Perform a false cut and then hand the cards to the spectator. Start dealing cards one at a time, one on top o f the other and stop dealing whenever you want. Turn over the card you stopp ed at. at. You stopped stoppe d indicates cates you need to at the 7C That number indi deal seven more cards face down. Turn over th tha a: seventh card. It's the 1 OC Deal ten more cards face down and turn over over the tenth- the 8D. De Deal al eight more cards and turn over the last. That brings us to the 4D. Four more cards which brings us to the AS . Turn over one more. It's th th 8C. Deal eight more cards but don't turn the last over yet. Since we have just about run out t he o f cards, we need to stop here. But, now for th joke . How many magicians does it take to fin d a card? The answer as you will see is none. Tu r : over the card card..  

5. Instruct the spectator to deal cards face down one o n top of the other until they feel like stopping. As long as they don t go past the 29th card, the effect will w ~ r every time. With subtle cues from you, they will always stop befor beforee the thirti eth card. Ha\ them turn the card they stopped a t face up on the pile.. We ll assume they stopped at the 7C which is pile the 11th card. Court cards count as 10 except the JD which is spelled J-A-C-K with four letters. 6. Using the value of the face-up face-up ca rd, have hi m coun cou n: cards again face down to that number (7) and turn that new card (lOC) face up fig. 3). Count 10 car and turn up the 8D. Then count 8 cards and turn the 4D face up (fig. 4).

7. Repeat that counting process AS, 8C) until you reach the fifth card from bottom fig. 5-6) 5-6).. At that point, he will have the chosen card in his hand. Pi c  · up the last four cards explaining that you ve near hrun out of cards to turn over as you drop them down onto the deck. Ask him to turn over the car · in his hand revealing it to be his freely chosen car .

96

 

  ountingon

eception

9

 

  l lRoads Lead t

Rome

Discussion: • The counting procedure is reminiscent of the Kruskal Count used in a well known mathematical card trick. That effect is statistically based using coupling methods for Markov Chains. For that

effect, in order to know the final card, you have to do the counti ng procedure for yourse yourself lf once before presenting the trick. Also for the Kruskal Count trick, the deck is random but previewed, a number ten or less is chosen, and the effect works correctly only 85

of the time. In my effect,

the deck is stacked, the chosen number can be twenty-nine or less, the final face-up card position is always fifth from the bottom 49th), and the effect works 100

of the time.

• For court cards use the number 10. There are two exception exceptions. s. Fo r the 20th card, the Jack of Diamonds, spell the letters J-A-C-K instead of counting ten. f they turn over th e Joker, use that as a wildcard. Its value will equal the value of their selected card.

f

they happen to select the

Jack of Diamonds, then the Joker will have a wildcard value of four four letters in in Jack). f they picked the 7D then the Joker would have a value of seven etc. The other jacks would have a value of ten although only the JS would ever come into play; the JC and JH are above 29 in position and are never hit upon during the counting procedure. From Diagram 1, you can see that there will never be an instance where the JD is spelled with four letters and another court

card is counted with 10. • You can use any number of different stacks as long as they have the same numerical values described in the setup. The suit is immaterial. The stack 1 use coincides with the memorized deck that I created. When I created my memorized deck, I built in a number of effects like this. As illustrated in Table 1, the stack repeats after each thirteen cards. Note that each column

contains the same card value. With this type of stack, following two Out Faro Shuffles, card values will come together. The four

c e ~

will be on top followed by the four eights etc.

Table 1 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

AH

8S

2D

5C

lOH

3C

lS

QD

9D

4S

14

16

18 lOC

20

3H

JD

2 QS

22

2S

17 5D

19

AD

15 8H

9H

27 AC

28 8D

29

30

35

5S

33 lC

34

2H

lOD

32

QH

9S

40

4 8C

42 2C

43

44

5H

lOS

47 QC

48 9C

AS

3

3S

45 3D

46 JH

12

13

7C

6H

KD

23 4C

24 7D

25 6S

26 KC

36 4D

37 7H

38 6C

39 KH

49

50

5

52

4H

7S

6D

KS

• Diagram 1 maps out the course of the top 29 cards as they are counted during the trick. The boxes in bold represent the top 29 cards. Those are cards that may be randoml y picked by the spectator as the starting point. They also also may represent a waypoint. The boxes not in bold

represent waypoint cards that cannot be selected and are positioned at locations above 29. 9

 

  ountingon s

eception

long as they pick a card below position thirty, they will be forced to take a path that leads

them to the card below the 4H and above the 9C which will be their selected card (fi (fifth fth card from the bottom). Note that when performing the trick, you will h ave 53 cards including th e Joker, so keep that in mind when looking at Table 1 and Diagram 1.

t is

essential the Joker

beco ecomes mes a wildcard acting as a clone for the se selected card in case the Joker's position becom es a waypoint. •

So how

does this work? The mapping diagram

is

fairly self-explanatory. All paths converge to a

common path passing through either the SC or the 4D. It works b eca ecause use of the order I chose for

the thirt ee n-card repeating

se quenc quencee . Other

sequeences will not likel sequ likely y work. Th ere may be other

sequences that can be created which will allow the starting point to purposes 29

is

be

above 29. For practical

more than sufficient . I prefer prefer this stack since it contains properties for other effects

such as Entropy I and II de descr scribed ibed in Kin King g dom o f the

Diagram

ed and

Hidden Order

in

this book.

99

 

atch G a m e

  8 Effict A deck o f cards is thoroughly shuffled including a genuine blind riffle shuffle. Pairs of cards are shown t o the spectator one face up and one face down. The magician asks the spectator t o gue guess ss wheth er the suit colors match o r not. The magician places the guessed matched pairs o n one pile and the non-matched pairs on a second pile. When the face-down cards car ds are revealed all the pairs in one pile pile match sharing the same color and all the pairs o n the oth er pile pile mismatc mismatch h displaying opposi opposite te colors exactly as predicted by the spectator.

Skills Needed • False shuffle or cut • Faro Shuffle optional • Two easy moves• ·

Props Needed • Deck

of

cards

Setup • Deck separated into red and black cards

and

black

or

alternating red

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 101

 

Match Game

Explanation

nd

Script

We're going to play a little game which is something like the old T V show, The Match Game. Instead Inst ead o f matching words, we're going to try to match colors. But first, let me shuffle the deck three different ways. First, the old Hindu Shuffle. Next the elite Las Vegas Shuffle. Please cut th e deck. And finally, an ordinary riffle shuffle the which I'll do with m y eyes closed.

1. f yo you u start out with the deck stacked with alternat ing red and black cards, then adjust the patter and go to step 2. f the deck is stacked with the reds and blacks separated, then do the following: indu Shuffle the top half which will not change the red and black separa separation. tion. Execute either an In or Out Faro Shuffle resulting in the cards alterna alternating ting red and black. Go to step 3. 2. False shuffle or cut the deck leavin leaving g the cards in an alternating red-black order. order. 3 . Turn the deck face up and have the specta tor cut the deck near the center. f he cuts so that the colors in each face-up half are opposite, th en close your eyes and perform a genuine riffle shuffle (fig. 1). f the colors match, ha v him cut again and repeat until the colors are opposite. Then do as above and perform a riffle shuffle. You can shuffle face up or face down. OK, now for the game. You'll need to concentrate, contemplate, and deliberate. Here 's the first pair. Do the colors colors matc h or mismatch? Use your intuition, ESP or a simple hunch to decide. You say mismatch. I'll place this pair on the table on what we ' ll ca ll the mismatch pil pilee. How about this pair? A match. I'll keep the matched pairs in my left hand. Let's continue. Match or mismatch? ..

102 __________________________________________________________________ __

 

Counting on Deception - - Pl ace the deck face down on the table. Remove the ·o p two cards and set them down. You can take he m one at a time or as a pair. The order does not ma tter. Turn the top card face up fig. 2). Ask the spe ctator if he thinks the suit colors will match or no t. f he says no match , place those back-to-back o n the table to your right. f he says match , la ce those b a c k ~ t o ~ b a c k cards in the left hand. Co ntinue asking the spectator to guess guess whether the a rds will match or not. f they say no match , a dd those cards to the no match pile fig. 3). f t hey say match , add the cards to those in the left hand ha nd depending upon the following two conditions. f the f c e ~ u p card showing in the left hand is o pposite in color to the one of the new pair, add that ba ck-to-back pair on top of those in the left hand (fig. 4 ). f the face-up cards showing in the left hand a re the same color as the new pair, casually turn o ver that new back-to-back pair on top of those in t he left hand fig. 5-6). This can be done by folding the cards onto the left hand ones o r by pronating the left wrist and folding the left hand cards onto to the new pair. Do this casually preferably with the back of the left hand toward the audience. . Continue the sorting process. You can go through p art o r almost all of the deck. Stop at any point you w ant provided you have an even number of pairs in t he left hand. That is, the total number of cards has t be divisible by four. You could count pairs but there is an easier method. f you don't want to count pairs, just check the color of the bottom card. f it matches the top card, it indicates that you have an even number of pairs and the packet is set for step #7 . f the colors are opposite, it means you have an odd number of pairs. In that case, continue the sorting process process until the spectator adds one more pair to the match pile. Then proceed to step #7. See Discussion for a way to always go through the w hole deck. - . Holding the matched packet in the left hand in deal ing position, place the right thumb at the bottom and the fingers o n top. Now draw the right hand back pulling the top and bottom cards simultane ously until you are holding a back-to-back pair fig. ously 7). Place that b a c k ~ t o b a c k pair on top and hold a little finger break beneath it fig. 8). Beneath the top

8. Next, rapidly count the cards from the left hand onto the table one on top of another. However, the first card dealt will be a back-to-back double fig. 9). The finger break makes that an easy move. Follow that with legitimate dealing until you have reversed the order of the pile fig. 10). Leave that pile o n the table.

9. Pick Pick up the no-m atc h pil pilee and legitimately count the cards two at a time. At this point, the finale is set. are the chances that you sorted the pairs with 100% accuracy? I know for a full deck it's about 671 million to one. There's no way anyone could do that without some special edge. It turns out we have a special edge a n d it's called magic. Le t 's see how well you've done. What

10. Take the no-match pile and deal pairs of cards turnin g them over revealing revealing mismatched pairs. pairs . When you get to the last pair leave it as is, unrevealed. Create a row of mismatched face-up pairs fig. 11 ). 11. Take the ma matc tch h pil pilee and deal deal pairs of cards turni turning ng them over revealing revealing that all pairs match. When you get to the last pair leave it as is unreveale unrevealed. d. Create a second row of matche d face-up face-up pairs fig. 12) . 12. Finally turn over the last two pairs revealing a perfect sort fig. 13 ). All the pairs in this row are mismatches; and all the pairs in this row are perfect matches. Was it intuition, ESP lucky hunches or was it magic? I'll let you decide.

face-up card are two face-down cards. 1 3

 

Match

ame

1 4

 

  ountingon

eception

Discussion • When you're about two thirds through the deck, consider stopping at that point. Remember, if you weren't counting pairs, just check to

s

if the top and bottom colors are the same. f

they match, you have an even number of pairs. f they don't match, continue until the spectator chooses one more match . • Counting the mismatched cards isn't necessary for the effect to work. I do that to take some heat off the mat ched pile. You have to count the matched pile cards enabling you to reverse their or der for the effect to work. The number of pairs in the unmatched pile

is

irrelevant to the effe effect. ct.

However, you need to count them as pairs so the y remain back-to-back. Don't reverse them. f

you want to use the whole deck, try the following procedure: Do the effect until the deck

is

exhausted. f the top and bottom cards in the matched pile are the same then nothing more need be done. f they are different, say to the spectator that he made one mistake and transfer the top pair in your left hand to the mismatch pile. Once that

is

done, proceed with step 7.

• For the matched pile of cards, I transfer the pairs from the right hand to the left in the following way: f the cards colors are opposite, just add the pair and pronate the left wrist. f the colors are the same, pronate the left hand over the right hand pair. Keep the back of the hand toward the spectator. Although in one case you are adding a pair normally, and in the other turning over a pair, the spect ator will see you turn your wrist so the movements look natural and similar. In either case, the right hand pair in not turned over. • The Gilbreath Principle ensures that after mirror image packets are riffle shuffled, successive pairs will contain no matching colors. • Leaving one pair from each pile unrevealed allows for additional suspense at the finale.

1 5

 

 9

idden

Order

++

Effect A deck is thoro ughly shu shuffl ffled ed for this three part effect. The specta tor cuts the deck deck.. The magician weighs the cut portion in his hand and correctly announces the number of cards in the pile. The deck is then further mixed by dividin dividing g it into six face-up face-up and face-down packets. While the magician's back is turned, the spectator is asked t o select and remove any face-up or face-down card and hide it in any other packet. The packets are reassembled by the magician. A packet o f cards is dealt by counting o r spelling the value of the cards. Each card shows u p in a precise numerical order from ace through king. The rest of the cards are handed to the spectator t o deal. H e deals

cards repeatedly t o two hands and discards the opponent's cards until only one card remains. The remaining card turns out to be the card he originally selected and moved.

Skills Needed • False Waterfall Shuffle (optional, see discussion for technique) • False cut • Memorized Deck

Props Needed • Deck o f cards in my memorized deck order. Although the suits are immaterial, the order needs to be four repeating sequences: A, 8, 2, 5, 10, 3, J Q, 9, 4, 7, 6, K. See All Roads Lead to Rome for details on my memorized deck deck..

1 7

 

Hidden Order

Explanation

nd

Script

I am going to thoroughly mix thes thesee cards but no

matter how many times I mix the cards, there exists a hidden order to th em . Using m y mathematical skills skills,, I can decipher the order, sort o f lik e br breaking eaking a code.

1. Starting with the memorized deck stack, perform some convincing false cuts and shuffles. I casually do some in-ha nds fal false se riffle waterfall shuffles followed by a false cut. Cut o ff some cards from this deck and place

them in m y left hand. I'll first use m y sense o f proprioception relying on sensitive biological transduceers built into m y muscles and tendons transduc to reveal, for example, how many cards are in this pile.  

2. As Ask k the spect ator to c ut off a portion of the deck and place the cards in your left ha h a nd face down. Gesture with cards, a nd as if yo you u were trying to weigh them, peek at the bottom card (8D) . Since the deck is memorized yo you u now know how many cards in your hand (28). Feels like about 26, no 2 7, wait a secon d 28 cards.. Yes 28 cards. Pl ease count th em to ch ec k cards m y accuracy.

3. Announce that using your ski skills lls of proprioception and with the benefit of your muscle and tendon transducers, there are 28 cards in your hand. Count the cards (or have the spectator count them) to that your assertion is correct. Make certain prove that the order is not changed. Replace the packet back onto the rest of the deck. ''I' ll mix thes thesee once more like this. But even after mixinJ? th ere can still be b e a hidden order order..  

4. Next, a very dece deceptive ptive mixing procedure will be done. This is also us ed in Until There Were Four It's similar in principle to the folding mixing pro cedure ta t a ught in Look to the Cards in The Book o f D estiny. Turn the deck face down and grasp it in your right hand in overhand Biddle grip . You will now create six packets of alternating face-down and face-up smaller packets in a right to left direc tion. Using the right thumb, riffle off 8-10 cards from th e bottom of the face-down packet and deposit them on the right side of the table. Flip the packet in your hand face up. Then with the right thumb again riffl e rellease 8-10 cards face up placing this second and re small packet t the le ft of the first fig. 1). Turn the th e packet in your hand face down. Repeat the above procedure until you have six packets fig . 2-3 ). Fr01 right to left they wi ll be: face down, face up, face down, face up, face down, face up. 5. Spread each packet toward you in a vertical direc tion creating six columns o f cards fig. 4 ). ''I'll turn m y b ac ack. k. Touch any card you want. b e face up or face down. R emove that It could be card carefully without disturbing the cards nea nearr it. Look and reme rem ember that card. Insert that card into any other pile. Ma k e sure it is facin g the same way as the other cards in that pile.

on e 6. Turn your back and ask the spectator to remove one card from any pile, memorize it, and insert it into a different pile facing the same way so it s location remains hidden. ''I' ll gather up these cards and mix th em up som more .

1 8

 

Counting on Deception 7. Now reassemble the packet by folding packets onto one another from your left to right. For example, th e left most packet which is face up is turned over onto the adjacent face-down packet, and that combined packet turned over onto the next face-up packet, and so on until the deck is reassembled fig. 5-7). The net result will be no change in the order of th e cards. In the photos, I reassembled the packe pack ets while th thee y were spread which is a little harder to do. You can first square the packets before reassembling them instead. Wow, these cards are really mixed up. One more cut and that should do it. 8. Give the deck another false cut. Spread the cards face up towards yo you u and scan them from top to bottom looking for the extra c hosen) card in the th e seq uence. This should be easily found since it will be the th e only stranger card in th e memorized deck sequence. Once you spot it, begin to separate th e spread above to the left of) the ace in that sequence fig. 8). Then, using the left thumb slide the extra card out of the lower half so it becomes the face card of the upper half as the halves separate fig. 9). Complete the cut so the chosen card is at the bottom and a complete ace through king sequence comprises the top thirteen cards. et  s take about a quarter o f the deck and dis-

cove r what hidd cover hidden en patterns exist. First, a little more mzxmg.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 109

 

Hidden

Order

9. Deal four hands of cards from left to right in a row for a total of thirteen cards fig. 10). When finished, there should be four cards in the left most packet and three in each of the others. Reassemble the packets into one pile by placing the packet on the left onto its neighbor on the right, and that com

11. Pick up the rest o f the deck (thirty-nine cards) and spread five cards off the top and drop them on the table. Remove any five cards from the center of the deck and drop them on this new pile fig. 14). Spread five cards toward the bottom of the deck and drop those on the pile. Drop the deck on those

onto the packet on the right, and that bined packet combine combined d packet onto the packet on its right (fig. 11 ). Repeat the same dealing and reassembly se quence two more times. When completed, the cards will be unchanged in order with an ace on top and a king on the bottom as follows: A, 8, 2, 5, 10, 3, ], Q, 9, 4, 7, 6, K.

now fifteen cards fig. 15) . The cardthe should be twenty-fourth from the chosen top. Hand packet of thirty-nine to the spectator and ask him to alter nately deal cards to you first and then himse himself. lf. You discard your twenty cards. With his remaining nineteen cards he deals again and you discard your ten leaving him with nine. He deals again givi giving ng you five and four for himself. You discard your five. He deals two to each of you and you discard your two. Finally one card is dealt to each of you. You discard yours. Ask him to turn over his re maining card which will be his original selection fig . 16).

These cards follow an order, but not the obvious one, like 1, 2, 3. I f I count one, we get an ace. I f I count two, we get a two. On e, two, and we get a three ... Now the jack is eleven, but let let''s spell j-a-c-k and w e get a jack. Queen is q-u-e-e n   , and we get a queen. nd finally with one le ft w e arrive at the king. 10. A deal and duck type procedure is performed next. Count on e   and turn the top card, the ace, face up starring a discard pile. pile . Count two dealing one card to the bottom of the packet and the second, the two, is turned face up fig. 12) onto the ace (discard pile). Count three moving two cards, one at a time to the bottom of the packet, and the third, a three, is turned face up onto the discard pile. Repeat this until you get to the jack. Spell the four letters of jack and turn the jack face up onto the discard pile. With two cards left, spell queen with five lette letters. rs. Turn the queen face up o n the fifth letter and onto the discard pile fig. 13). That leaves you with the king which you turn face up onto the rest. Pla Place ce those thirt een cards aside. This sequence is from Entropy I from Kingdom o f the Red. I t really doesn't matter which cards we choose choose.. There is a hidden order, but you have to know

the code. I'll take a few cards from the top, several from the middle, and some fro from m th thee bottom like so. Deal cards to me and then you and I will discard mine. Do it again again.. One more time. n d once more until you have one card left in your hand. Name you r car card. d. Take a deep

11

br eath. N ow turn this card face up. How did I bre do it Through innate ability and knowing the secrett hid den order o f the cards. secre ____________________________________________________________________ _ _

 

  ountingon Deception

 

Hidden

rder

Discussion • You ll need to use a memorized stack in order to perf orm this effect. Just knowing the repeating sequence of values will not work every time. For example, if the

SS

is the selected card, there is

a good chance that it might be placed adjacent to another five such as the 5 H in the fig. 9. f you don t k now the sui suitt order there will be ambiguity ambiguity.. A soluti solution on would be to use the numerical sequence with a rotating suit sequence. However, if you did that, the weighing part of the effect would have to be eliminated since that requires knowing at which number a given card is located. • I use a simple false waterfall shuffle similar to the one Bill Malone uses.

t

is based on the original

Ron Wahl false waterfall shuffle. My technique is a little different. My grip is different and I

angle the back o f the cards towards the audience audience as the riffling takes place. I then rotate the cards back toward me as the waterfall is executed. • When I turn the deck face up to look for the out-of-place chosen card, I fan the cards and scan them from left to right looking for the card out of order. I slide the chosen card to the left and casually cut the cards bringing the right hand portion led by by the ace to the top. That should take about 10 seconds. • The packet mixing procedure can also be done using my original technique from The Book o f

D estiny: With the cards card s face face down in the left hand take a small packet off the top and place it face up on your right (position 1 . From right to left, skip a space and place a small packet from the top face up in position 3 . Do the same for position 5. Now from left to right place three successive packets face down in positions 6, 4, and 2 respectively. Fold the packets from left to right (from 6 to 1 as in this effect until you re left with a face-up deck in position 1. The cards will remain in the original order after that mixing procedure. This is similar to the Seven Seas Pirate Shuffle taught in Nine Shuffle Paradox . • Always fold the card packets from left to right. f

f

you go from right t o left, the cards will be mixed.

you use your own stack or memorized deck, part of the effect can be done. You will have to

leave out the counting and spelling trick since that will only work with the described stack.

2

_

 

Pas cal s

2

yramid Prediction

Effect After a deck is shuffled, the magician riffles the edge of the cards and asks the spectator t o say stop. The upper part of the deck is tabled and the next card place placed d face down as the freely chosen prediction card. The rest of the deck is placed back into the card cas case. e. The tab led cards are spread face up in a circular fan on the table. The spectator is as ask k ed to touch any card and then remove that card and the next fiv on the left o r right hi hiss choice). Thos Thosee six six car cards ds are dealt onto the table from left t o right or right to left hi hiss choice). The pred icti iction on car card d is kept face down above that row of cards. Using the numerical value of those six cards, the six cells forming the base of the pyramid drawing are fill ed in. Adjacent numbers are added together to create elements in the next higher row. This is repeated until there is only one number at the top o f the pyramid. The digits making up the top number are added together until only a single number digit remains. When the prediction card is turned over, it matches the top digit of the the pyramid. pyr amid.

Skills Needed· • False Shuf Shuffle fle optio optional) nal) • Rif Riffle fle Force optio optional) nal)

Props

Needed

• Deck of 52 cards • Pad and pencil

Setup • Deck of 52 cards with the first 25 cards stacked from top to bottom

follows: lOH, 3Das JD, QC 9C, 4D, 7D, 5 H 45, 95, 4C, 5D, 7C, 4H 9H 3C,

2D, 35, AH, 9D, 85, 3 H QD 7H 75. Only the numerical values matter; the suits are immaterial. • Pad with pyr pyrami ami d temp template late se seee Discussio Discussion) n)

 

PascaFs Pyramid Prediction Explanation

nd

Script

Did you know that pyramids possess magical

properties? It's true, and I'm going to prove it to you. This pyramid and this deck o f cards share something in common. They both are defined by numbers. The numbers in the deck o f cards by shuffling and cutting. can be drandomized cutting. pyrami has empty spaces for numbers to fillT he in. N ow I'll shuffle the cards in several different ways to assure that the cards are well mixed.

1. Show them the pyramid template on the pad fig. 1). Keep the stack intact by doing false shuffles and cuts. A face-up Hindu Shuffle that takes cards from the upper half of the face-up face-up pa ck is easy and works well. You could also use the packet mixing folding card seque sequence nce from Nine Shuffle Paradox to mix up the entire deck. Stop me anytime somewhere in the middle o f the deck. The card you stopped me at will be m y prediction card. I'll put it right here near the top o f the pyramid. We'll use all o f the cards before the chosen one, and the rest we'll discard. 2. Cut the deck so the 7H ( 24) is the bottom card of the top half and the 7S is the next card. Hold a break between the halves and iffle Force (or cut) to the break. Table the top half. Deal the 7S onto the table. Return the lower half to the card case. Our pyram id has 2

stones. I'll make half a circle with the cards which we'll use to choose the bottom stones.

3. Turn the tabled half face up making a circular fan fig. 2). Place your finger on any card. Now take the five cards next to it on either side. Again you choose. Deal the six cards from left to right or right to left. You choose. 4. Ask the spectator to choose any card by touching it and pulling it it partl y out of the fan. Have him choose five adjacent cards on the left or the right. Remove those six cards without changing their order fig. 3 ). The spectator could choose two on one side and three on the other. As long as the six cards are sequential , any six will suffice suffice.. 5. As Ask k the spectato r to deal the cards in a row of six leftt to ri ght or right to left, his choice fig. 4 ). lef Fill in the bottom row o f the pyramid with the numerical values o f the cards in the order you placed them. The jack, queen, and king are eleven, twelve, and thirteen respectively.

4

__

 

Counting on . Ha ve the spectator transfer the numerical values of the six cards into the boxes at the base o f the pyramid fig. 5). Now add up pairs o f numbers and write the

answer on the square above. o that until all five squares are filled. Repeat that for the next lines until you ar aree left with one number. - . Have him add adjacent pairs to create the row of five numbers above it. Repeat for the row of four numbers etc. until only one number lies at the apex of the pyramid fig. 6). Now add up the three (or two) digits o f that top

number until you get a single digit. Write that number down and circle it.   . H ave the spectator simp simplify lify the top number adding the digits until only one remains. This can also be done by the casting out nines procedure. Have him write that single digit down o n the paper and circle it.

Which exactly match es th e card you originally selected. A demonstration o f the magical power o f th e pyramid. . Turn over the prediction card showing it matches the circled number fig. 7).

eception

7 5

 

Pas cal s

yramid Prediction

Discussion • You need to choose spectators who can add numbers with ease. You could provide a calculator, but if the spectator needs a calculator to do basic arithmetic then probably this effect

not for him.

s

• This effect could be performed on stage with a blackboard, whiteboard, or large drawing pad and easel.

• The addition pyramid

s

related to the famous Pascal s Triangle. The bottom row of this pyramid

corresponds to row six of Pascal Pascal  s Triangle: 1 5 10 1 0 10 10 5 1 • f you create an addition pyramid using row six of Pascal s Triangle you ll get the following result:

1 2 1 1

3

1

10

1

56

21

1

3 6

4

5

252

6

4

10

70

35 15

5

5

126

126

56

35 15

2

10

21

10

6

5

1

Addition Pyramid

Pascal s Triangle

The pyramid on the left s formed by adding pairs from top to bottom. The one on the right s formed by adding pairs from bottom to top. f

you multiply corresponding numbers in the bottom row of Pascal s Triangle and the Addition

Py ramid (above) and add the result, you ll get the number at the top of the Addition Pyramid. 1x1

5x5

1 x1

1 x1

5x5

1x1

=

252

6

_

 

Counting on

eceptio n

An even even simpler addition pyramid reveals the workings of Pascal  s Triangle with all ones on th e bottom row:

32

1 1 1 1 1 1

2

4 5

4

1

3 4

6 10

8

1

3

16

16

1

10

1

1

5

1

4

4 2

2

1

8

8

4

1

2

2

2

1

1

Addition Pyramid

Pascal's Triang le

1x1 + 5x1

10x1 + 10x1 + 5x1 + 1x1

=

32

• For the firs firstt six cards in the stack stack:: 304

145 64

10

81

14

3

78 44

37

27

13

159

23

J

34

13

21

Q

9

4

Mu l tipl tiplying ying again th e bottom six numbers (1, 5, 10, 10, 5, 1) from the Pascal Triang Trianglle by th e bottom six numbers of this tri angle yi yield ldss 1x10

5x3

10x11 +10 x12 + 5x9 + 1x4

=

304

which matches th e top number of the pyramid. Simplifying 304 results in the number 7. • By doing some quick math and casting out nines you can predict th e actual top number of the pyramid . A spectator astute at math ma y know that proper t y of Pascal's Triangle, so for them

thee y randomly chose the six cards and th e that approach won't appear magica l. But, since th prediction was set before they chose those cards, that shou ld leave th em without an explanation. Harry Lorayne  s Card Pyra mid (in Deck-Sterity uses a base of any 5 numbered cards . The downside is the prediction has t o be made after the cards are chosen. In my effect the stack ensures that the total always simplifies to th e number seven; so the prediction is se t before the cards are chosen. Becau Because se the Pascal Trian Triangle gle is symmetrical, the bottom numbers will give th e same result res ult whether you lay the cards out right to left or left to right. • f the spec spectt ator chooses a card toward either end of the spread (l (less than six cards from th e end),

he cannot choose a direction where he runs out of cards . He has to then go in the opposite direction. You cannot go ar o und the clock . That will not work .

1

7

 

Pascal s

Pyramid Prediction

• Casting Out Nines: This is a method to simplify any posi positive tive integer converting it t o a single digit. Treat nine as a zero . Subtracting away nine or multiples of it does not change the final result. For example, the number 376 is equivalent to 3+7+6=16 7. 392 is equivalent to 3+0+2 5. 19 = 9x2+1 = Ox2+1= 1 • You can simplify the numbers at each stage by casting out nines. It still works. I prefer doing that only at the end. The larger numbers make the prediction loo k more impressive. impressive. • For an entirely impromptu pyramid prediction using a ten row pyramid, check out Impromptu Pascal's Pyramid Prediction in an earlier chapter in this book. • Copy or sketch a template o f the pyr p yraa mid o n the pad ahead o f time so the spectator can be guided to insert numbers in the correct spaces. You can use the one below in fig 8 or download it from http://barnowskymagic. com/Pascalpyramidsix.doc

fig 8

Pyramid Template

8

 

Pass the Pack -   Counting on Deception

2 Effect

A shuffled deck of cards is given to a spectator. The spectator legitimately cuts the cards and comple completes tes the cut. He H e is asked to deal the cards in five piles from left to right. When all the cards have been dealt, he reassembles the deck also from left to right adding one pile to another. When done, he passes the deck to another spectator who does a simi similar lar thing but this He passes the deck to another spectator who does time with four it with three pilpiles. piles. es. The cards a re then passed to the final spectator who are does the same with two piles. The magician takes the deck and has the spectator blindfold him. He cuts the deck, shuffles, and deals five hands of poker poker.. Wh en the hands are turned over, the magician has four of a kind.

Discussion for severalvariations including ones with no sleights using the "Pass the Pack Procedure". ee

Skills Needed: • Milk Shuffle o r Haymaker':• False Shuffle (optional) • False Cut • Double Cut

Props Needed: • A deck o f 5 cards • Ideally 4 spectators (or minimum of 2) • Blindfold

Setup: • Several options including using either tetradistic stack order, new deck order, or impromptu setup. The effect will be described using a tetradistic

stack (like

Stebbins o r my own memorized deck). deck). There impromptu method with no deck stack ee Discussion. i

is

also a n 9

 

Pass the Pack (Counting on Deception

Explanation

nd

Script

For this next experiment I need four volunteers who know how to deal cards. First, I'll give the deck a good shuffle. Would one o f you please cut the cards? 1

False shuffle and cut the deck set in tetradistic order (value repeats every 13 cards). f you are not comfortable with false shuffling, use the

folding pile sequence from Nine Shuffle Paradox . 2. Have the spectator cut the deck and complete the cut. I want you (first spectator) to deal cards into

five piles from left to right and continue until all the cards have been dealt. Then reassemble the piles from left to right until you're back to one pile o f cards.

3. You need to get the card at the fifth fifth position t o the sixth position. There are two ways. Take the cards and fan them out to show they are well mixed. As you do that, casually switch the fifth and sixth card positions from the top. My preferred method is to move the card as

I explain the dealing instructions: instructions: Dem onstrate by dealing the first five cards from left to right. Place the sixth card on the left most pile and stop. Then reassemble the cards from left to right as described below and in the photos. After doing that demo, the fifth card will be at the sixth position and the deck now set. In that case, the original sixth card will be on top. 4. Hand the cards to spectator number one. Have him deal the entire deck into five piles from left to right fig. 1). After he completes that, ask him to reassemble the deck by placing the farthest piles on the left onto its neighbor on the right. Then that combined pile is placed on the pile to its right and so on until the deck is reassembled fig. 2). Now, pass the pack to the person on your left.

5. Have him pass the deck to the next spectator on hi s left. That person follows a similar procedur e except four piles are dealt and reassemble reassembled d i nstead of five. Pass the pack to the person on your left and d o the same except this time deal only three piles and then reassemble the packets from left to right

6. He passes the deck to the spectator o n his left. That person performs a similar procedure but this time dealing and reassembling three piles. Pass the pack to the person on your left and d o the same except this time deal only two piles reassemble the packets from left to and then reassemble right. When you're done hand m e the cards.

7. He passes the deck to the spectator on his left (fourth) who deals and reassembles two piles. 8. The last (fourth) spectator hands the cards to the magician. The four top cards will be a four of a kind  

You sir will follow a similar procedure except you will deal four piles from left to right and when done reassemble the packets from left to right.

To make this experiment even more impossibl impossiblee, please blindfold me. I'll shuffle b y feel only.

120 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ __ _

 

Counting on Deception . Ask the spectator to blindfold you. Double Cut or overhand shuffle the top four cards to the bottom. These will be a four of a kind although at this point the magician won t know the value. Riffle shuffle the cards keeping the four of a kind intact on the bottom. 10 . While blindfolded, stack the cards for five hands of poker using the Milk Shuffle Haymaker) stacking procedure: With the cards in the right hand thumb at bottom edge and fingers on top edge), grasp the bottom of the deck with the left fingers and the top with the lef leftt thumb. Simultaneous Simultaneously ly pull the top and bottom cards down into the left hand fig. 3 ). Then run three cards from the top onto this packet fig. 4). Repeat the sequence three times fig. 5). Injog the next car d, ove rhand shuffle shuffle the rest of the deck onto it, and then cut the stacked packet below the injog to the top. The deck will now be stacked so when five hands of poker are dealt, you the dealer will get the four of a kind. I ll deal five hands o f poker. Make sure I'm dealing fairly. N o bottom dealing or cheating. Let s se e these four hands are are pretty w eak. But I couldn't take any chances so I dea d ealt lt myself four o f a kind.

11. Deal five hands of poker. Take off the blindfold. Turn over the opponents hands. Then dramatically reveal your four of a kind fig. 6).

2

 

Pass the Pack Counting on Deception Discussion f

the dealing procedure is done as described, the top four cards will be a four of a kind.

Specifically, any four cards placed at positions 6, 18, 31, and 44 will wind up as the top four cards. Notice that the second, third, and fourth cards were 13 apart. However, t he first and second cards were only 12 apart (6, 18 ). That is the reason why the fifth has to be repositioned to the sixth position.

• Whe re the spectat or cuts the cards, determines determines which set of four will come to the top at the end of the mixing. Whatever card is at position 5 will determine the value of the four of a kind. Remember that fifth card has to be repositioned to the sixth position. • With a deck in new deck order, reverse the order of the bottom 26 cards. You could do that while removing jokers and ad cards etc. The deck will now be tetradistic • Since my memorized deck is tetradistic, that's the stack I normally use. The exact stack I use use is detailed in "All Roads Lead to Rome . f you

don't want to use a blindfold, blindfold, do the shuffling with your eyes looking away or at the spectat spectators. ors.

• Avoid doing this for one spectator since the shuffling for one person can get monotonous. Using two spectators who takes turns is an option. It's best done with four spectators.

• Coach the spectators as they make their piles piles.. Make certain the piles are sufficiently far apart so they don't accidentally merge during the dealing. Observe that they deal correctly and in the right direction. f the piles begin getting messy, help straighten them out. • Verify that the deck has 52 cards. This will not work with more or less than a full pack of 52. f you

can't do a good convincing false shuffle, use the folding pile mixing procedure. It's very deceptive.

• Instead of the poker deal, you could produce the four of a kind one at a time in different ways. • As an alternative to dealing poker hands, you can end the effect by going into "Blindfold Aces" in The Book o Destiny. • Here is an impromptu application o f the "Pass the Pack Procedure" fig. 7): Remove any four of a kind, for example jacks. Cut the deck into roughly four equal face-up piles. Spread the first

packet face up and place any jack at the fifth position. Count the number of cards after the jack in the packet. Subtract that numb er from twelve. twelve. Place the next jack after that numbered position in the second face-up packet. Count the number of cards in the packet after the jack and subtract that from twelve. Place the third jack after that numbered position. Again count the number of

cards to yourself after the third jack and subtract that from twelve. Place the fourth jack after

that numbered position. The jacks are now at positions 5, 18, 31, and 44. Do the demo dealing moving the jack from fifth fifth position t o sixth. Have the spectators do the "Pass the Pack Procedure". When they are done, all four jacks will lie together on top of the deck. This open stacking procedure

is similar to that used in "Vernon' "Vernon 's Aces" from Close-Up Card Magic.

122 __________________________________________________________________ __

 

  ountingon Deception • Another idea: Have them cut the stacked deck on the table and remember the top card

of

the

lower half. You complete the cut and Double ut four cards from the bottom to the top. Then proceed with the demo getting the fifth card to the sixth position. At the conclusion you will deal four

of

a kind including the

lected ed se lect

card.

• Shortened Easy Version: Use onl on ly three spectators. They deal five piles fou fourr piles and then three piles. At that point the four of a kind will be at position 45 47 49 and 51. Tak Takee the pack and overhand shuffle but finish by running cards singly which must include cards. In effect you will be reversing the order of the th e top. They will now occupy position positionss 2 4 6 and and give yourself four

of

at

least the

bottom

8

eight cards and bringing them to You can now deal two hands of poker

bottom

8

a kind without having to stack them. Consider also riffle stacking the

top eight cards w ith a perfect riffl rifflee

or

a Faro and dealing fours hands

of

poker.

23

 

 

The Uncertainty

rinciple

Effict: Cards are shuffled and spread face face up between the hands. Two spectators each think o f any card they see. The magi cian closes the fan and cuts the deck in half. H e reverses one half and shuffles face-up cards into face-down cards. The first first sp ectator names hi hiss thought o f card. Th e magi cian announces a number and deal dealss cards cou nting only face-down cards to that number. When he reaches that number it turns out to be the thought of card. The deck is flipped over and the same procedure done by the second spectat or locating his thought o f card. The deck is then thorou ghly mixed by combining seven seven random piles. The spectators set settle tle o n a number and the magician tells them the exact card at that free freely ly chosen chos en number.

Skills Needed· • Memorized deck • False shuffles and cuts optional)

Props Needed· • Deck of 52 cards • 2 Pencils and 2 small paper slips

Setup • Deck of 52 cards in memorized deck order. Any memo rized deck system can be used. ee Discussion for my own memorized deck sequence.

____________________________________________________________________

25

 

The Uncertainty Principle

Explanation

nd

Script

There is nothing revolution revolutionary ary about this effect. With a memorized deck, given a position yo u know the card identity; given the identity, you can find the location. What makes this effect a real worker for me is the in troduction of the face-up into face-down riffle shuffle. Although this preserves the order of the memorized deck into two subsets, it appears to the spectator that the cards are hopelessl hopelessly y mixed up. Even if you can t do a convincing riffle false shuffle in the beginning, the face-up into face-down riffle shuffle leaves them with the impression that all the shuffles were fair. In fact, they can perform that shuffle themselves. The concept o f The Uncert Uncertainty ainty Principle gi gives ves a ra t ionale for find ing the cards without naming them. Finally, the seven pile mixing procedure clinches the notion that the cards are truly randomized. One thing is for certain, and that is that we can

not know everything, even i f you're a magician magician..

In fact it's natural law. In physics, it's called the Uncertainty Principle. It states that you cannot simultaneously know both th thee energy and posi tion o f a particle. You can only know pr prec ecisely isely one o f the two variables at a time. A similar concept is true regarding a shuffled deck o f cards. I as a magician can deduce the position o f a card you name; I can also deduce the name o f the card at a location you choose. I cannot tell you where a card is that you are m ere erely ly thinking o f until you tell me the name o f that card. Let me illustrate this by the following demonstra tion. We'll shuffle this this deck so it's it's random ized . 1. Perform false shuffles and cuts that you are co m  fortable doing. f you can do a good Zarrow, Pu Pull ll through False Riffle, or Fals Falsee Wa terfall do one o f those. My simple Overhand False Shuffle (p. 188, The Book o f Destiny) along with multiple false cuts is more than enough. Now just think o f any card you see in this fan o f cards and commit it to memory.

2. Get a bre ak just below the 27th card. This does not have to be exact. I cut the deck as if I m setting up for a Faro. For th e first spectator, fan the cards face

And I want you to think o f any card you see in this fan o f cards but not the bottom one since since that''s too easy. Commit that card to memory. that

3. For the second spectato spectator, r, sprea d cards face up exposing only the cards in the upper half (fig. 2). Instruct him to remember a card that he sees but not the bottom one. Close the spread and table the deck. Now, just to make sure your thought o f cards

are well mixed in the deck, I'll shuffle and cut some more. N ow I'll do something really cra zy I'll mix face-up cards into face-down cards like so. This will be the ultimate t es t o f the Magic Uncertainty Principle. 4. Perform some table false cuts. Then divide the deck in half. t doesn t have to be exact, but I always cut between th e 26th and 27th card so th e subtraction subtrac tion done for the second card always uses the number 26. Flip the bottom half face up and riffle shuffle it into the face-down top half fig. 3). You may opt to allow the spectator to do the shuffling shuffling.. What was the th e card you were thinking of? The

SD? That 's now the 17th face-down card from the top o f the deck. That you see I am certain o f  

up toward him so he can think of a card fig. 1). Do not fan cards below the break. You want to force him to think o f a card in the bottom half. Close the fan maintaining the break.

126 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

 

Counting on Deception -. Ask the first spectator to name his thought of card. Let's assume it' it 's the SD. Tell him his card will lie at the 17th position. Spread and count the face-down cards into the right hand without reversing them. With a modicum of suspense, slowly turn that card face up (fig. 4). Return it face down to the deck keeping the stack in the correct order.

shuffle and cut some more. What was the card you were thinking of? The ]H? That should be the 20th face-down card from the top. N o uncertainty here. il

. Casually turn over the deck. Give it a false cut or shuffle. -. Repeat the same procedure as above for the second

spectator.. Whateve r card he gives you, subtract 26 spectator from the card's corresponding number. So, if he says it  s the JH, I subtract 26 from 46 (its position in the memorized deck) yielding 20. Spread and count the cards until you reveal his card (fig. 5). Return it face down into the deck keeping the stack in the correct order. Turn the deck over again. Your first face-down card (AH) is once again the first card in your memo rized deck deck.. just in case you think the cards were not mixed

enough, I'll mix them up again openly in several piles, some face up and some face down. N ow I'll mix the piles together.   . You will now deal the cards seemingly haphazardly into seven random piles and then reassemble them in what appears to create a fair mixing. This uses my folding card sequence which first appeared in Chapter 1 in The Book o f D estiny and also in Nine Shuffle Paradox Paradox   : As seen in the photos there are

seven numbered table po sition itionss . These are labeled from the performer  s left to his right, one through seven. Spread about six to eight cards from the top into the right hand. Flip that packet over and lay it down at position six toward the right side of the table. Spread a similar number o f cards and turn them over and place them in position four, about three inches to the left of packet six. Do the same for packet two placing it a bout three inches to the left of packet four (fig. 6). Spread a similar packet of cards, and without turning them over place them in position one to the left of packet two. Continue spreading smal smalll packets placing them down without reversing them until they fill empty positions three, five, and seven (fig. 7). The even number packets are reversed as they are placed on the table. The odd number packets are left as is. Reassemble the packets as follows follows.. Working from left to right, fold packet one onto packet two (fig. 8). Fold the com bined packet onto pack et three, and so on until yo u have reassembled the deck (fig. 9-11). This proce ss will leave the deck unchange unch anged. d. Remember, unlike the piles in Nine Shuffle Paradox , these piles will not necessarily alternate face up and face down. Some people think t hat the the only way to do this trick is to have have a confederate. To eliminate that chance, I 'll have each o f you write down a number betwe between en 1 and thirteen on a piece o f paper without showing it t o the other person. Now at the same tim e, turn over those pap ers and add the two numbers together. Even i f one o f you was my confederate, you'd have to admit that the sum o f thos e two numbers could not be known ahead o f tim timee. L et s see, the sum is eighteen. I am seeing in m y mind the number ten.

127

 

  he Uncertainty Principl Principlee 9. Ask each spectator to write down any number be tween 1 and 3 on a piece of paper. They are asked to simultaneously reveal their choices. Have them add the two numbers together. This insures that the number is freely chosen even if one spectator were a confederate. Let s assume the numbers were six and The sum

ll

twelve. wi be eighteen . Leave the deck as is or turn it over over.. Good. The eighteenth face-down card will be the 1 OC (105). Counting 1,2, 3, ... nd finally 18; which proves the validity o f the Uncertainty Principle. 10. Ask them to leave the deck as is or turn it over. An nounce the name of the card at that number. 11.

the deck is set such that the first face-down card is the first one in your memorized stack, then announce that the eighteen eighteenth th card will be the 10C. ount cards until you reach the number eighteen f

and dramatically reveal the 1 OC f the deck is in the opposite position, then add twenty-six to eighteen yielding forty-four in which case you will announce it to be the 1 OS Since my memorized deck is tetradistic, the numerical value of the card will be the same regardless of the orientation of the deck. For that reason, you can announce the number before they decide to turn the deck over or leave it as is.

28

__

 

  ountingon

eception

29

 

The Uncertainty Principle Discussion • This is my favorite memorized deck routine. The face-up and face-down riffle shuffle and the folding card sequence convince the spectator that the deck is totally out of order. Even if you can't do a convincing false shuffle or cut, these procedures will be effec effective tive in bewildering your audience. f

you use a tetradistic memorized deck like mine, then you can name the value of the card before

they choose to flip over the deck. Once they make their choice, you will then know which suit it is • My memorized deck sequence is listed below. It is used in this effect, All Roads Lead to Rome , Hidden Order , and other effects in my last two books. Notice that the suits are random and

do not cycle in numerical order, and do not cycle among cards of the same value. This insures that a pattern will not be seen by the spectator. 1-13:

AH, 8S, 2D, SC lOH, 3C, JS, QD, 9D, 4S, 7C, 6H, KD,

14-26: AD, 8H, 2S, SD lOC, 3H, JD, QS, 9H, 4C, 7D, 6S, KC 27-39: AC, 8D, 2H, SS lOD, 3S, JC, QH, 9S, 4D, 7H, 6C, KH, 40-52: AS, 8C, 2C, SH lOS, 3D, JH, QC, 9C, 4H, 7S, 6D, KS you do not want to use the patter about a confederate that's fine. Either spectator can name a number. When first performing this, I found that one spectator was sometimes suspicious that f

the other had prearranged the card and number choices with me. By having them both choose a number and using the combined sum, that eliminated that possibility. f

you don't know a memorized deck, I urge you to learn one. It is a very powerful tool as you

can see. There are many books written on the subject and methods to learn a stack in a reason reason able amount o f time. The memorized stacks that require a calculation calcu lation or rely on a formula are tempting because they can be learned quickly. However, they are not as effective and will force you to stall while trying to recall the card or number. I would avoid them. • Once I designed my stack, I learned it by rote memory aided by mnemonic devices and clues. Make the association funny and/or visual.

~

example, the lOD is 31. October is the tenth month and Halloween is on the 31st. I picture a pumpkin with 10 diamonds as eyes, nose and mouth.

o r

tenth card is the 4S. I picture a tent (tenth) and four pointy (spade-like) spikes holding down the four corners.

~ T h e

34 is the QH. Macy's is on 34th St in NYC and I picture a queen sitting on a throne in the window with hearts decoratin decorating g it for Valentine's Day.

~ N u m b e r

~ T h e

22nd card is the 9 H . I picture a 22-caliber bullet passing through a 9-volt battery

in a cardiac (heart) pacemaker. ~ T h e

45th card is the 3D. I picture an old 45 RPM record of the Diamond Trio

(invented (inven ted ) and they are wearing 3D glasses .

130

__

 

Counting on ~

eception

27th card is the AC. I picture an ace pitcher striking out 27 batters for a perfect

h e

game for his baseball club. ~

now know six cards from my stack. Make up and learn five or six cards a day

o u

and in no time you ll have a memorized deck that you ll know cold for the rest of your

life. Then test yourself yourself by randomly d rawing a card and recalling the number and vice versa. Put an old deck in memorized order and write the number on the back of each card. You can use that as a flash card deck to practice and test yourself. ~ U s e

numbers, dates, and addresses that you know already. For example the first or

last two digits of an American Social Security number may correspond to a card value or position. An address, room number, phone number, license number, birth date, or

anniversary can be used as an association. For example, my birthday card

is

the QC Although this

is not

is

4/7. The 47th

my original association, I would think of a queen

juggling three clubs a t my birthday party. After a while you may forget or not need the original association and just know the card and associated number cold. • For the folding card sequ sequence, ence, remember 642 1357 like a phone number. Each of the first three spread piles has t o be turned over before being placed on the table. Piles 6, 4, and 2 are tabled from your right to

your

left The next four spread piles are

from your left to your right a t positions 1, 3, 5, and your

left to

your

7

ot turned

over. They are tabled

The folding sequence always goes from

right Remember to spread groups of cards without reversing their order.

3

 

 3

As

Many Hands

As

You W ant

-

E /feet: The magician divides the deck in half and gives one half to the spectator to shuffle and the other half for him to shuffle. The halves are exchanged and then shuffled so each packet has been shuffled by both the magician and the spectator. The magician cuts the cards and asks how many hands of poker he should deal up to a maximum of seven. With out any additional addition al shuffl shuffling ing or moves, the magician announces that he has the winning hand,.what kind of hand it is, and then t hen proceeds to deal that th at exact hand h and to him himse self lf..

Skills Needed: • Overhand False Shuffle (or any whole packet false shuffle) • Bott Bottom om Replacement Replac ement Packet Switc Switch: h:::·

Props Needed: • Deck

of

cards with

both

jokers

Setup: • Prearranged cards in the top 30: · KS JD QS AC JS H lOS J C AS::- JH 7C AD KC · 9D AH 7D · · 9C · · 7S · 9S ( :· indifferent card). See Discussion. • The two jokers are in the bottom half.

__________________________________________________________________

 

A s Many Hands A s

Explanation

nd

ou

Want

Script

To demonstrate m y prowess with a deck o f cards, I propose to do something never done before by any card handler, card hustler, card mechanic, or professional card cheat. I will somehow, despi despite te both o f us shuffling, deal the winning hand to myse l f And to make it even more impossible, you will specify how many

hands o f poker I shou ld deal after we shuffle. First, you take half o f the cards and I'll take the other half and we'll both shuffle them.

1. False shuffle the deck keeping the top thirty cards intact. This could be done with a face-up Hindu Shuffle of the bottom twenty-four cards of the deck or a Jog Shuffle using only the bottom twenty-four cards. Any false shuffle that keeps the stack intact can be used. 2.

ut the deck in half so the bottom card of the top

half is the 9S. Give the bottom half to the spectator and keep the top half fo forr yourself yourself.. 3. Ask the spectator to shuffle his cards as you shuffle yours. yo urs. False shuffle the packet of thirty cards. I use my Overhand False Shuffle technique described in The Book o f Destiny. I sometimes do a False Waterfall Shuffle. Now, let me see what card is at the face o f your

half. Oh, I don't believe it. It's the Six o f Clubs . Last time I played poker I drew that card completing an inside straight straight.. Anyway, I'll take your packet and you take mine and let's shuffle the cards again .

4. Next you will exchange packets with the spectator, but actually hand them back their original packet. Turn their packet face up and point out the name of the card fig. 1 .

133

34

 

Counting on Deception

5 . With your packet in the left hand pick up the

spectator s face-up packet with the right hand. Turn his packet face down. As you bring that packet close to the left hand packet, execute the Kelly Bottom Replacement and hold a break between the halves fig. 2). Pronate the left wrist fig. 3). With the right hand insert the thumb in the break and separate the halves fig. 4 ). Your packet with the st ack will be o n your left but its face card will be the one previously on the spectator s half. The half that the spectator shuffled (minus the face card) will be on your right fig. 5). This is my Bottom Replacement Packet Switch. 6 . Slide the packet on your right toward the spectator and have him shuffle while you casually false shuffle your packet. 7. With the right hand take the spectator s packet and place it on your packet while holding a left little finger break. With the right hand cut half of the top packet and table it fig. 6). Cut to the break and add that to the tabled packet fig. 7). Finally add the bottom packet containing the stack to the top of those cards. Place the cards in your left hand in dealing position. How many hands o f poker should I deal? 2, 3,

4, 5, 6, or ? Your Choice.

8 . Tell the spectator that you will play poker but he will determine how many hands are dealt. He can choose 2, 3, 4 5, 6, or 7 hands. So you want six hands? Ok, I'll deal six hands

9. Deal the number of poker hands requested. In the example pictured, six hands were dealt fig. 8). Before dealing, announce that you will have the winning hand and describe exactly what it will be . For my mnemonic see Discussion. Two Hands: Royal Flush in Spades Three Hands: 4 Jacks Four Hands: Straight to the Ace Five Hands: Aces Six Hands: Full House Nines and Jacks Seven Hands: 4 Sevens This hand has a pair and the rest not much at all. 10. Turn over the other dealt cards to show that they are all losing hands. And as you can see, I did in fact deal a full house o f nines and jacks, which is the winning hand.

11. Turn your cards face up and display the predicted winning hand fig. 9). In this case, it will be a full house.

and the winning hand, a full house o f nines and jacks, will go to me.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 135

 

  sMany

ands

s

ou

Want

36

 

  ountingon

eception

Discussion • Below

is an

example of the stack I use. use. The indifferent cards ca n be changed but if yo you u use these,

then there is no chance that one of the other hands dealt could beat yours. f you use other indifferent cards th a n the on es here, make certain they are low value cards so a winning hand (such as a full house) won t accidentally be produced. The weakest hand yo you u could get the ace which

is

4D KSJD JS 7H

is

a straight to

dealt with four hands. The cards in old are the indifferent ones. QS AC lOS JC

AS

8D JH 3H 7C AD KC S 9D 2SA H 7D SS 3C 9C H 6H

S

8S

D 9S

• The two Jokers are included so the halves are closer in size (30 and 24). • The switch of the packets using my m y Bottom Replacement Packet Switch need not be executed quickly. The switch

is

inherently decept deceptive ive even at slow speed due to the left hand pronation and

separation of the packets. The spectator will recognize their packet by the face card that you pointed out even tho though ugh it s really reall y the stacked packet. • You ll need to remember which hands go with the corresponding number of hands. You could use a crib. I do it by memory using the following mnemonic. 2 Hands = toe

Hiding roya royall flush between toes

3 Hands = tree 4 Hands = golf 5 Hands = basketball team

Lifting tree using four jacks Hits the golf ball perfectly straight

6 Hands = sick

Play Pla yers palming 4 aces and the ball Call911 (jack=ll), three nines a nd 2 jacks

7 Hands = dice

Throws four sevens in a row

37

 

  4

Oldest Trick in the Book

Effect After the magician shuffles a deck, he allows the spectator to do the same. While While the magici magician an s b ack is turned, the spect ator select selectss a card, car d, buries it in the pack and shuffles the cards. The deck is returned to the magician who finds the selected card.

Skills Needed •

o sleights

Props Needed • Deck of cards

Setup • Remove and discard the following four cards: AD, 3D, SD 9D • Set the remaining 16 odd cards in their pointer direction (see Discussion). For example, for the SS the points o f three o f the fiv spades should point upward.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 139

 

Oldest Trick in the Book

Explanation

nd

Script

I am going to ask you to think o f a card in a moment. First, give me a chance to read your

mind, but I want to limit your choice a bit. First pick for me odds or evens. evens. Ok, I'll take the evens and you take the odds. First I'll shuffle the cards. Now you shuffle them. O K turn the cards face up in your hands. Spread the cards and remove any odd number card and place it face down on the table. Take the face-up pack and place it face up just to the left o f the chosen card. Turn the deck face down onto the chosen card like you would turn the page o f a book. Cut the cards. Now shuffle them.

1. Shuffle the cards without disturbing the orientation of the sixteen pointe r cards. Normal riffle and over hand shu shuffl ffles es should keep the orienta tion intact. 2. Allow the spectator to shuffle the cards. 3. Force a choice of odds . Tell him to pi ck for me odds or evens . f he picks picks odds, instruct him to select an odd numbered card. f he selects evens, say, 0 K I'll take the evens and you take the odds . 4. With your back turned, ask the spectator to spread the cards between his hands toward him face up. Tell him to use his right hand to remove any odd numbered card and place it face down on the table fig. 1-2 . As he places it down, the orientation should change as the card is turned face down. 5. Ask him to square up the face-up cards in his hand and place the cards face up to the left of the face down selection.

6. Instruct him to turn the deck face down onto the face-down card as if he was closing a book fig. 3 ). The deck and the selected card are now opposite in orientation. 7. Have him cut the cards once and do an overhand shuffle. 8. When he is done, turn around and retrieve the deck. Shuffle a few times yourself. 9. Spread the cards face up and look for the odd pointer card that is rever reversed sed in orientatio n to the others fig. 4 . And the card you thought o f was ...

10. At this point you can reveal the card. Another ending would be to palm off the card with a Side Steal or other palm and produce it from a pocket or wallet.

14

 

  ountingon

eception

4

 

Oldest Trick in the

ook

Discussion • There are 20 odd cards in the deck court cards not counted) counted).. Four of the five odd diamond cards were removed because they are not pointers. The pips on o n their faces faces are symmetrical. • The remaining 16 odd pointer cards used are AC, AS, AH, 3C, 35, 3H SC 55, SH, 7C, 75, 7H 7D, 9C, 95, 9H fig. 5). • I discovered the one-way pointer principle when I was a teenager. of

t

was obviously a rediscovery

a well known principle.

• In many effects using this principle, all 22 pointer cards are utilized including the even ones: 6C, 65, 6H 8C, 85, and 8H) and are kept stacked together. In this effect, the cards can be thor oughly shuffled because you force a selection of only odd cards. Since the 4 non-pointer odd diamonds are removed, when they choose an odd card, it has to be a pointer card.

42

 

  5

Drawing a

lank la nk

Effect A deck is shuffled and a card is selected and remembered. Five Fi ve additional cards ca rds are chosen but not looked at. The six cards are counted again but now there are seven. That extra card is discarded face down. The count is repeated and again a seventh card appears which is discarded. This is repeated with an extra card appearing for for a tota l of eight times. With six cards in the hand a card is discarded leavi leaving ng five which are given to the spectator to hold. When he counts them he finds only one card which turns out to be his selected card. The discarded cards are turned over and all are seen to be blank. When the remainder of the deck is spread face up, all the cards are found to be blank.

Skills Needed • Biddle Steal False Count • Hammon Count • • • •

Bottom Pivot Palm see Discussion for alternative to palming) Riffle Force Double Lift J. K. Hartman Popover Move optional)

Props

eeded·

• Deck o f blank-faced cards • Joker, single force card QH), 2nd regular card 7C)

Setup • Joker third from the bottom Q H second from the bottom

7C o n the bottom

43

 

Drawing a Blank Bla nk

Explanation and Script: This effect can be done as is but is stronger if you switch in the gaffed deck after performing some card magic with a normal deck. This

s

the famous Six Card Trick, a trick that

requires teamwork. Are you up for that? I need four volunteers. You sir will be the chooser; you will choose the th e card. You madam will be the counter; you will count the cards. You young man will be the cutter; you will cut the cards. And lastly, you m y friend will be the shaker; it' it 's your job to shake anyone who falls asleep during this trick, except me because magic s very tiring work. Chooser, just say stop anywhere. Right here? Take that card. You could ha havve picked the 7C or th e joker but you didn't; you picked that card. For this trick w e don't need the jo k er so I'll get rid o f it. Cutter, cut the cards. I'll take the next five cards so we have enough for the six card trick . Counter, please count these five cards. And this s your card right? right?

2. Get a two-card right thumb break above the second

3. Riffle Force to the break. Flip the forced card face up (QH), turn it back over, and then with the left hand deal it face down onto the table. Turn the ca r in the left hand packet face up (7C) and then face down holding a little finger finger bre ak bel ow it. Flash the face of the Joker in the right hand half. Using the Hartman Popover Move, place the Joker fa face ce u

card from the bottom. Swing Cut the top half to the bottom and maintain the break below the Joker

onto the face-down 7C fig. 2-3 ). This can also be done by using the left hand to slide the Joker to th e

1. Assign names and tasks to each of the .four spectators. Hindu Shuffle or riffle shuffle maintaining the bottom three cards without exposing the blan k faces. faces.

with the little finger fig . 1).

left and flipping it face up. Be careful not to expos exposee any blank-fac blank-faced ed cards. Insert the right hand packer beneath and flush under the back-to-back double fig . 4 ). With the right hand, remove the double (appears as a face-up Joker) from the deck and pur it in a pocket fig. 5). Place the deck face down onr o the table. 4. Instruct the Cutter spectator to cut the cards bur not complete the cut. Take the bottom half and get a break above the fifth card from the bottom. With your right hand deal five cards from the lower half onto the table in front of the Counter . As he

counts the five cards, palm the bottom five using th th Left Bottom Pivot Palm from Stars o f Magic o r

144 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

 

Counting on other similar bottom palm fig. 6-7 6-7). ). With the right hand, place the top half back on the lower half and move the deck aside. Take the five counted cards and casually add them to the palmed ones fig. 8). Hold up the selected card and then place it on top of those and square. You now have eleven cards in your left hand although the audience has seen only six. The reason this is called the six card trick is

because I only use 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 cards. Wait a second; where did that seventh card come from? You counted them. Are you sure you counted correctly? ... -. Get a four-card four-card br eak from the bottom and transfer it to a right thumb break. Peel off one card from the right hand to the left. As you pee peell off the next c ard, add the four cards below the break so the block of four lies betwee n the first and second cards fig. 9). to Continue peeling car cards untildown you get seventh. Place the seventh d face on thethe table with out showing its face.

6 . Repeat the above peeling procedure, but this time get a three-card break adding a block of three cards secretly during the count. Discard the seventh card to the table as before. Do this procedure two more times using one less added card each time. At that point there will be four face-down cards on the table and exactly seven cards in your hand.

7. Legitimately count seven cards using a similar count ing motion. Discard the seventh card face down. There are now five face-down cards on the table. 8 . With six cards in the hand false count them as seven: Peel off the first and second cards into the left hand hol ding a little fing finger er bre ak between the two. As you peel off the third, Biddle Steal the second card (fig. 10). Continue the count until you have reached the seventh card. Discard it face down. 9. With five cards in the hand false count them as seven: Peel off the first and second cards into the left hand holding a little finger break between the two. Peel off the third card onto them keeping the break. As you peel off the fourth card, Biddle Steal the

eception

second and third. Continue the count until you've reached seven. Discard the seventh card face down. Seven Sev en face-down cards lie on the table. 45

 

Drawing a Blank B lank 10. With four cards in the hand peel off the first three into the left hand. As you peel off the the fourth, switch packets as in a Hamman ount fig. 11-12). Then count the three in the right hand back into the left as 5, 6, and 7. Again, discard the seventh card fa face ce down. Three cards remain in the hand . Maybe six cards are too much. Why don't we try five?

11. Buckle the bottom card (selected card) and take the face-down double and place it under one of the discarded cards fig. 13-14). Including the double, there should be ten face-down cards on the table. Note in figure 14 the left fingers press on the near leftt corner of the discarded card pile making it lef easier to insert the double beneath them. In figure 13 the buckle is exaggerated. Please deal each one o f these five cards into m y right hand. Hmm Something is very wrong here. Turn over that card. s that the card you picked?

12. Holding the card in Biddle Grip as if you were holding five cards, place the single card in the spectator s open palm. Ask the spectator to deal the remaining five cards into your right hand. They ll soon find out that they have only one card to deal. Have them turn that card (their selected one) face up. "Now every time I do this trick, someone tries to figure it out, but each and every time they draw a blank. In fact they draw many blanks.

13. Turn over the discarded cards which will be blank fig. 15). "And that's because all the evidence has been

erased.

14. Turn over and spread the rest of the deck face up revealing revea ling only bla nk cards fig. 16).

146 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

 

  ountingon

eception ec eption

47

 

Drawing Drawi ng a Blank Discussion • This effect was inspired by The Six Card Trick by

ill

Malone from his DVD series,

Here I Go Again I changed the handling, the false counts used, and added the blank card

kicker. I borrowed his brilliant idea of assigning tasks to each spectator. • Instead of bottom palming the five additional cards, you could get a break below the top five, top palm them, and add them to the other five cards counted by the spectator. • The patter I use after each seventh card is produced

is

ad-libbed working off the reactions

of the audience members.

• Showing a differen differentt car d on either sid sidee of their selection selection reinforces reinforces the noti on that the deck

is

normal and their selection random . Having the Joker as one of the cards gives you the rationale for removing it from the pack so you end clean. • Instead of using blank-faced cards, consider using a forcing deck having 52 of the same card or even a deck with all double-backed cards. f you use the forcing deck, the card the y choose (you force) would be the only one different from the force card . f you do that, then the patter would have to be changed .

48

 

  6

arallel Unifor

e

Effect The magician displays a red deck and a blue deck o f cards. The red deck s from a parallel universe where everything s the same as here except the color is different. The magi cian asks the spectator t o first take the blue deck and place it under the table out o f sight and shuffle it. hen he s asked to take a card from the deck, reverse it, and reinsert it into the deck. he two decks are spread face up and a single reversed card s seen in each. When the cards are turned over they are found t o match.

Skills Needed· • Double Turnover

Props Needed· • Blue deck of cards with 51 cards roughed on back • 1 blue blue card card,, the force card Ki King ng o f Spades), roughed • Red deck of cards

s not

Setup • Place Place non-ro ughed force card on top of the blue deck and insert in card case. • With red deck, place force card face down in face-up deck and insert in card case.

49

 

Parallel U nifor e

Explanation

nd

Script

What you see in front o f you are two very

different decks o f cards. One is red and one is blue. But what you may not have known universe .   is the red deck is from a parallel universe. 1

Display two card cases, one red and one blue.

2. Place the red deck aside but in view. First I'll shuffle the blue deck cards. Next, I want you to shuffle the cards under the table and place a random card reversed in the deck like this.

3. Riffle shuffle the blue deck keeping the force card on top for example, the KS). 4.

o a Double Turnover of the top two cards fig. 1).

Pronate the left wrist wrist to turn the deck face up. With the right hand pull out the bottom card which will now be face down fig. 2). Flash its face and begin to insert it face down in the middle of the face-up deck as a demonstration fig. 3 ). Before it becomes flush remove it and place it face up at the bottom just below the reversed force card fig. 4-5). Turn the deck face down and cut the cards so the face-up forced card is near the center. 5. Hand the squared deck to the spectator and instruct him to place it out of sigh sightt under the table. 6. Once under the table have him cut the cards or shuffle them carefully) and remove the top card. Instruct him to turn that card over and insert it back into the deck. Place the deck back onto the table.

7 . Have him return the deck to the table surface. You cut the cards once. Here's the card you chose and turned over.

8 . Spread his blue-backed cards face up revealing a single face-down card his chosen car d will not show

9. Spread the red-backed cards face up revealing a single face-down card fig. 6). And amazingly, they match.

10. Turn each card over showing a perfect match fig. 7 ). 11. Remove the blue-backed deck and proceed with the next effect using the red-backed one.

since it is back-to-back with another roughed card. And here's a card reversed in the red deck from

the parallel universe. 15

 

  ountingon

eceptio n

5 

 

  arallel Unifor

e

Discussion • The effect

s

nearly automatic since as long as he picks one o f the 51 roughe d cards the face-up

spread will hide his reversed card. What happens if he actually picks the reversed force card? You still have a small miracle. When you spread the blue deck face face up no cards will be reversed. At that point you could stop or proceed by cutting the force card to the top and repeating the effect from the beginning calling it phase two etc. • Remember to cut the cards after they bring the deck back to the table. You don t want them to have any idea where they put their card. For example if they put the card in the center without you cutting the pack and the force force card showed up near the top it would appear suspicious. • Making the deck o f roughed cards

s

easy. Just spray the backs with Krylon Matte Spray

available at paint and art supply stores. • I don t have most spectators do too much shuffling beneath the table since there

s

a chance

they might drop the cards and then you d have to reset them if you wanted to proceed. • I usually spread the blue cards myself using a wide ribbon spread and let the spectator spread the red ones. ones .

152 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ __ _ _ _ _ _ __ _

 

  7

huffle urvivor

Effict A red deck and a blue deck are displayed. The red deck s given to the spectator to guard. The blue deck s shuffled and cut. Th e magician deals two hands of 6 each. The spectator chooses which half to keep. The spectator then deals those into two hands of 13 each and chooses which pile to keep no force force). ). The deals are repe repeated ated and cards eliminated no for force) ce) until the spect ator has one card left. The magician spreads the cards ca rds showing all the cards the spectator could have chosen. The spectator turns over the remaining remainin g ca rd and it s the 10D. He opens the card case containing the cards he has guarded and spreads the deck face up. Only one card in the entire deck s found to be face fa ce down. The spectator turns the card over and it s the 10D.

Skills Needed • Easy deck switch

Props Needed • Red deck • Blue Svengali Deck • Matching Blue deck

Setup • Force card reversed in red deck and placed inside card case • Force card removed from matching blue deck and discarded.

Blue deckDeck hidden in card lap. case • Svengali in its

 

Shuffle Survivor

Explanation

nd

Script

Please take this red deck and don't let anyone touch it. I shuffled it last night but accidentally one card flipped over. In a sense it survived the shuffle since it is no longer random. Anyone can find it. 1. Display the red deck and hand it to the spectator for safe keeping. I am going to have you select a card in a very random way. First, we'll cut the cards, and then

shuffle the cards.   2. Remove the Svengali Deck from the case. Place the deck face up on the table and cut the cards making six piles or more. Then randomly reassemble the deck. You have indirectly shown the cards to be dif ferent without using the well known Svengali riffle displa y Turn the deck face down and give it a riffle shuffle. Now I want you to cut the cards. I'll deal the

entire deck into two equal piles. e need to entire eliminate half o f the cards. Which cards for you? 3. Ask the spectator to cut the cards and complete the cut. Deal the entire deck alternately into two piles. The spe ctator will get all 26 short force cards. Tell him that we need to eliminate half o f the cards. Ask him which cards for you . This is deliberately ambiguous. f he says the near pile, say he can keep those. f he says the far pile, say that we'll eliminate those.. Turn your pile face up showing all different those cards. Place the cards in your left hand face down. We're now going to play the game o f Shuffle Survivor. You will continually eliminate about half the cards until only one survives. Which one do you want to eliminate? 4. Instruct the spectator to take his packet and deal them into two alternate piles like you did. Ask him which one he wants to keep and which one to elimi nate (no ambiguity here). Take the discarded cards

5. Have him repeat the dealing and elimination procedur until two cards remain. H a ve him deal the last two and choose the one he wants to keep. Take the oth er one and add it to the left hand cards. N ow open the th e red card case and spread the ca rds

face up. One card

is

face down.

6. Draw his attention to the red card case. Have him open the case and spread the cards on the table fac e up mak ing certain he exposes the face-down card. As he does that, casually switch the left hand card s for the one in your lap. You have a lot of misdirec tion here so this should be easy to pull off. I just l e ~ fo.rward and lower the left hand into the lap swnchmg decks: To make the switch smoother I hold the gaffed deck between the left index and middle fingers and pinch the deck in the lap between betwee n the index finger and thumb. I then release the gaffed deck mto the lap whi le retaining the other cards between the index finger and thumb. Turn over the surviving card. N ow turn over the surviving card in the red deck. 7. Have him turn the blue card he selected face up. Then have him turn face up the face-down card in the red deck. Am a z ingly ingly,, not only do both cards match match,, but

both are shuffle survivors. 8. As the selection selectionss are revealed to match, spread yo you ur cards face down on the table and then flip them fa c up using the standard flouri flourissh.

and add

face down to the left hand cards.

We're down to two cards. Which one will survive? surviv e? 54

 

  ountingon

eception

Discussion • I have used this trick to fool a number of experienced magicians. I ve always known that if you want t o

fool a magician, do it with a thread a thumb tip, or the oldest gaffed deck in the world.

They do not expect something so basic. •

could also do this wi without thout the deck switch at the end. You ve shown the cards to be different several times. f you wanted to, you could spread half the deck again fac facee up showing different cards. ou

55

 

The Fabulous

  8

Athletic Aces

++

Effect This is a three phase effect where aces rise t o the top o f a four-card packet, then one at a time transpose from the center of the deck t o the front, and then finally rise from the deck one by one.

Skills Needed • Multiple lifts and two-card push-offs for the first sequence

Props Needed • Devana-style gaffed rising card deck with aces, 9C, and D removed • Thre Threee double-f double-faced aced cards 9C/2D), AC AC/A /AS), S), AH/A AH/AD) D) • The four aces need to match if possible) the style of the double-faced ones • Wine glass large enough t o hold the deck • 18-inch silk o r handkerchief • Matching regular deck wit h the four ac aces es on top AH, AC, AD, AS) • Card case shel shelll optional)

Setup and Construction • In the gaffed deck from the top down plac placee the follow following ing cards fig. fi g. 1): Fa Facece-dow down n 9C, AH/AD), 9C/2D) 9C/2D),, AS/ AS/AC) AC),, face-up 2D. From the top down you should see on top a face-down card and then four face-up cards: AH, 9C, AS, 2D • Wine glass on a table with silk inside • Gaffed deck on table near wine glass concealed by card case shell fig. 2). Set gaff so the weight will be in the down position when the

is placed in theisglass. • deck The card case shell easily made by first cutting out the front o f the case. Then cut off the rounded flap. Glue or tape the inside corners together. • Regular deck with the four aces on top 57

 

The Fabulous Athletic Aces

Explanation

nd

Script

This routine is a favorite of mine and proven audience pleaser. t is based on an old Tannen catalog trick called Ace-Ca Ace-Ca pades wh ich used a m echanica l houle tte and a fan. Other versions include The Gymnastic Deck and Alan Wakeling's Aces Front. I've taken that basic effect and combined it with a short Ambitious Card sequence and a rising card finale. The Devana style deck uses a simple lead weight attached to a thread which moves freely inside the hollowed out portion of the deck. An internal adhesive pad or pin attached to the thread grips the card which is pulled upward as the weight slides downward Ladies and gentlemen, I present for your viewing pleasure feats o f athletic prowess, all performed perfectionists, by the worl d acclaimed pasteboard perfectionists, namely, The Fabulous Athletic Aces. First to make an appearance is the Heroic Ace o f Hearts. Next, the Clever Ace o f Clubs. Then the Dazzling Ace o f Diamonds. And finally the Skillful Ace o f Spades.

1. Display the deck of cards and produce the four aces one at a time from the deck using your favorite method. Each time hand the ace to the spectator. For example, Double Cut the first to the bottom reveal ing the ace. With the face of the deck toward the audience do a Side-Steal type color change. For the third, spin the card from the deck u s i ~ my Flying Singl Si nglee Spi nner fro m Kingdom o f the Red. For the last, double lift the top two cards and execute the Pinch and Ditch Color Change also from Kingdom o f the Red. Please examine the strength and agility o f these athletes. I shall demonstrate the athletic prowess o f these cards while holding them in m y hands. And then I will allow them to perform their stupendous acts while they are totally out o f m y reach confined by this J;lass

2. Ask the spectators to pass the aces around for examination. As they do so so,, explain that the aces will perform athletic feats as you handle them, and then later as they are isolated from your hands. As you say this, lift the card case shell shell off the gaffed deck and place it over the deck in your left hand fig. 3-4 ). This uses Okito's Substitution Principle . Any other deck switch can be used. Place the card case in your pocket or set it aside. Then remove the th e silk from the glass and insert the gaffed deck into it with the weight in the down position. First the high jump. The Dazzling Ace o f Diamo Diamon nds starts at the bottom and leaps to the top. Each Eac h and every time. From the bottom to the top. A n d again from the bottom to the top.

3. Collect the four aces from the audience. You will now do the fir first st sequences from my Ambit ious Rendezvous routine from The Book o f Destiny. Start out with the aces alternating in color (AH, A C. AD, AS). Do a triple push-off and turnover showing showin g for example the AD fig. 5). As you place the actu a l top card on the bo ttom of the packet, packet, begin a two-ca two-ca r push-off (of the three-card packet) before the bottom botto m card becomes flush fig. 6). Turn over the AD do u bl and place the top card on the bottom. Turn over the top card showing the AD. Get a little left finger brea below the new top card fig. 7). Add the AD back o   top face down. Take the double and place it on th e bottom Repeat above sequence with a three-card push-off followed by a two-card push-off. In all, t h e AD will come to the top four times. Not only can this be done again but with ad d ed

difficulty with two at a time. Over and over, from bottom to top. Please give these gifted athletes a round o f applause.

58

 

  ountingon

eception

59

 

The Fabulous

Athletic

ces

4. The ne nex x t sequence is borrowed from John Carney's Sanverted . Do a th r ee-car ee-card d push-off turning the triple tripl e face up. Th en with the right thumb do a two-card push-off spreading the AH revealing just the pip of the AD fig. 8). Fold th o se cards back onto the single card in the left hand. Spread the top two cards and place them on the bottom fig. 9). Again do a three-card push-off followed by the two-c ard push-off with the right thumb. This time all of the AD will s how and only the AH pip will be visible (fig. 10). Fold the cards back on the packet. Place the top two cards on the bottom. Do a three-card push-off and two-card push-off display revealing the two red cards again on top. Note that the diamond th e red and heart will alternate in position. By using the cards inste insteaa d of the black, the discrepancy will be less noticeable since the AS is so much different than the AC. You could repeat that sequence again if desired. Now, a demonstration o f matter through

5. Approach the table and remove the deck from the glass. Displa y the four aces and place th em togerh togerhee in the deck in position for rising with the bottom o · the deck facing the audience (AH, AD, AS, AC) so the AH is the first set to rise (fig. 11 ). The weight weightee gaff is still at the bottom position. Co ncentrat ncentratee on the 9C I now command the H to pass from the center to the front. Again Agai n concentrate on the 9C I now command the A D to pass from the center to the front. Now concentrate on a red card, the 2D. I now command the S to pass from the center to the front. Again concentrate on this red card, card, the 2D. I now command the A C to pass from the center t o the front. 6. Hold the glass by the stem with the left hand. Transf Transfee the 9C from the back of the pack to the face fig. 12 . With the right hand drape the silk over the glass as as around 18

matter. I'll place these gifted athletes in th e center o f this deck de ck completely isolat isolated ed from human touch. n d to increas increasee th thee difficulty they th ey will be placed in a glass isolation chamber.

you secretly spin with the glass degrees bthe y e turning the stem your left fingers all underby th cover of the silk. Wisk the silk away revealing the AH fig. 13 ). Transfer the AH t o the back of the pack (last card) revealing again the 9C. Repeat the th e

160 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

 

Counting on stem turning sequence revolving the glass under the silk revealing the AD fig. 14). Remove the AD and place it in toward back of the deck but in front of the setup cards fig. 15). Transfer the 2D 2D/9C) to the face in front of the real 9C fig. 16). Repeat the stem turning seque sequence nce under th e silk and reveal the AS. Transfer the AS to the back of the deck last card) fig . 17 ). The 2D will show as expected. Repea Rep eatt the stem turning under th e silk one last time revealing revea ling the th e AC. Place the th e AC toward the back of thee deck in front of any setup cards. Remove the 2D th and place it at the rear. Do the same with the 9C fig. 18). The original card at th e face will now show. Fina lly,, the feat o f levitati on . To Finally T o tally isolated from human touch, th e H eroic ce o f Hearts. Next the Dazzling ce o f Diamonds. Follow Followeed by the Skillful ce o f Spades. nd finally, the Clever ce o f Clubs. .

Take th e deck out of the glass and casually turn the cards en d over end. Place th e deck back in the glass horizontally. Tilt the glass to the ver tical allowing th e first ace to rise fig. 19). Remove that ace ace..

. Inver Inv ertt the deck again as yo u remove it from the g las s. Replace it in the glass but thi s time so the mouth of the glass faces yo u. Gradually tilt the glass away from yo u until the glass is vertical ver tical fig. 20). Anoth er ace will rise. Remove that ace. 9. Turn the glass and deck over a llowing the cards to rest on the table surface. Gradually lift the inverted glass upward. The third ace will rise into the glas glasss as it is lifted fig. 21). Remove t h at ace. 10. For the last ace, place the cards in the left hand so the y rest on the index, middle, and ring fingers. The las lastt ace will rise up fig. 22). Remove t h at ace.

eception

6

 

The Fabu Fabulous lous

thle th le ti tic c

ces ce s

62

 

Counting on

eception

Discussion • Any double-faced

c rd

• The gaff showing an ace have

will do. Just match your double-facer with the two normal cards needed. on

one side and a different ace on the other

get them custom made

to

or

is

not standard. You will either

make them yourself. I made the AC/AS gaff using a card with

AC on one side and blank on the other side. To create the S graphic I used dry transfers which are available from magic supply stores nd sold as FAKO Sheets. The S does not m tch the Bicycle Brand

S

but it

You could also use cards the dry transfers. hack

or

s

unlikely

is

th t

th t

are blank

will be noticed. I used a similar process for the AH/AD. on

both sides and create both sides from scratch using

a last resort, you could make double-faced cards by gluing cards back-to

by splitting cards.

• D evana type decks decks are available from magic dealers. The original Devana deck I owned was bridge size. Since I didn't have bridge-size gaffs

to

match, I made one myself, hollowing

out

poker size Bicycle Rider cards with a sharp blade, and forming the weight from some scrap lead. I used small metal washers as the thread guides. Poker size Devana decks are

now

available

from dealers. f

you find the first sequence using the push-offs

too

difficult, you could substitute for example

a Twisting the Aces routine or Dr. Daly's Last Trick. • You could choose a deck

th t h d

to

skip the deck switch with the

been examined or used in other

c rd

c rd

case shell. In

th t

case, you could n't us usee

tricks.

• For the initial four ace production there are many routines to choose from. Check Blindfold Blindfol d Aces from The

ook o f Destiny

out

also

63

 

  9

Cr yol

ayola

Effect A crayon box containing a prediction and a cash prize are given t o a spectator for safe keeping. f the magician magic ian s prediction is wrong the spectator gets to keep the cash. A set of cards is displayed showing eight different black and white pictures that might be found in a coloring book. A second spectator selects and keeps one o f the cards. A second box o f crayons with 16 different colors is shown. The crayons are dumped into a paper bag and the second ·spectator randomly retrieves one o f them. e uses the randomly chosen crayon t o ill in the color of the picture o n his card. When the prediction is reveal revealed, ed, the color c olor and picture both match, so the magician gets to keep his cash.

Skills Needed • N o sleights

Props

Needed·

• Packet of gaffed gaffed picture cards (from blank-faced Bicycle cards) • Gaffed crayon box 8 gaffed crayons in different colors and 8 crayons of the same color) • Second crayon box with prediction card and cash • Paper bag o r hat

Setup

n d Construction

• There are fourteen cards in the packet comprised o f seven different picture cards and seven duplicate force cards with the same picture. These pictures are drawn with a black marker in the style o f a coloring book (fig. 1 . The cards 65

 

 rayola

ayola are arranged in a face-down pile so the force cards are at the odd positions. Treat the face of the force cards and the backs o f the other cards with roughing spray Kryl Krylon on atte Spray). When the packet is fanned face up, all the other cards will show and the force cards will be hi hidd dden en fi fig. g. 2). One of the force cards can be shown in the fan by separating it from it itss mate. • The box o f crayons is gaffed see Discussion Discussion). ). Although Alth ough there will will be 16 crayons in the gaffed box, the box that is used is one that originally contained 24. The crayon box is divided into two compartments by a folded and glued cardboard partition fig. 3 ). At the bottom of the crayon box are two thin rare earth magnets. The front row of crayons is gaffed and measures less than half the length o f the crayons in the back row. row. Each crayon gaff in the front row will be o f a different color. The 8 crayons in the back row will be of the same force color. Choose a dark color for forcing such as green which will be less visible in the back row. The shortened gaffed crayons are cemented together side to side and a thin piece o f cardboard is cemented to their base. A small steel shim o r plate is then cemented t o the cardboard fig. 4). displayed, yed, pressure from your fingers prevents the When the box is displa front row gaff from sliding down fig. 5). f you release pressure, the gafff will fall fi gaf fig. g. 6) to the bottom and will stay secured by the mag net. Just before dropping the crayons in the paper bag, allow the front crayons ns al alll one color) row gaff to fall. This way only the back row o f crayo will fall in into to the bag fi fig. g. 7). Th Thee box can casually be shown empty since the front row is concealed and locked in place. • The prediction is made from a blank-faced playing card. t is colored in with the color o f the force crayon. The name of the color is also written on the card with the crayon. The colored prediction card is inserted into a second crayon box and the top flap closed. Cash is wrapped around the box and secured with a rubber band fig. 8).

166 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __

 

Counting on Deception

Explanation

nd

Script

Do you dream in color? Do you believe dreams can come true? I do too. But in the dream I had

last night I could only see one color and one ob ject. That object is pictured on one o f these eight picture cards. And the color I dreamed in was one o f these sixteen crayon colo colors. rs. You know,

dreams can sometimes foretell the future. I even drew a picture o f m y dream using one o f these crayons and put it in this crayon box as a prediction; and I am so certain this dream will come true, that I will give you all this cash i f it doesn't. 1

Display the prediction box and give it to a spectator t o hold. Touch the top o f any one o f these picture cards and place it in your pocket .  

2

Pick up the packet of cards and spread them face up briefly showing eight different objects. Turn the cards face down and ask the spectator to select a card.. Separate the forced card from its mate and card hand it to him. Have him place that card in his pocket.. pocket ''I'll fill this paper bag from a box o f sixteen different colored crayons crayons.. First I'll shake them up good . No w without looking, pick a colored crayon from this bag .

3 With the left hand, display the paper bag or hat)

showing it empty. With the right hand show the crayon box and dump the duplicate crayons from the back row into the bag. Keep the back of the hand to the audience so they will not see the gaff drop. Drop the force crayons in the bag or hat quickly so the color is not noticed . 4. Ask the spectator to select a crayon from the bag o r hat without looking. Using your chosen crayon, color in the picture card that's in your pocket Also write the name o f the crayon color on your card.

67

 

  rayola Payola 5 Have him color the picture with his crayon write the color n me on the card

nd

then

Open this box and remove the prediction card. Now show us the card you chose and color colored ed..

Ama zing coin coincide cidence? nce? Not really. You see, my dreams in co color lor always come true.   6 Instruct the spectator t o open the prediction bo box x nd hold up the prediction ne xt to hi hiss own colored drawing

68

 

  ountingon

eception

Discussion • For the construction of the gaffed crayon box you ll need to create a cardboard partition. Mine measures 2

V

inches high by

V

inch deep. Its width

s

the width of the crayon box plus an

additional half inch on each side to make the glue flaps. The partition

s

glued to the inside of

the box. At the bottom, glue two thin rare earth magnets to the bottom flap. Trim the small side flaps as needed so they don't cover any magnet surface. Glue the bottom flap in place so there

s no

chance of it opening.

• To make the front row crayon gaff, first line up eight brightly colored crayons. Next, glue them together side to side. After the glue has dried, cut the glued group of eight crayo cra yons ns in half with a sharp kni knife fe or hand miter saw. Using glue, attach a thin piece of cardboard to a thin piece of steel shim. After the glue has dried, glue the cardboard side to the bottom of the crayons. The metal shim should easily fit in the gaffed compartment and be no larger than the crayons. When completed, the gaffed crayons and shim should easily move up and down in the gaffed compartment. You can also glue a piece o f paper to the back of the crayo cra yons ns t o reduce friction. f you don't have metal shim material (hardware store carries it), you can imbed and glue small nails into the bottom of the crayons. nails

• To reset the gaff, gaff, invert the crayon box and tap the bottom sharply which should release the magnetized crayon gaff. • For the prediction box, I used used a Crayola Crayon box of 16. The predict ion playing card fits perfectly within it. • The matte sprayed on the force cards has the added benefit of allowing you to color with the cray on more eas easily ily.. Crayon doesn t apply well to regular glossy surfaced pla ying cards. f

you want to use my templates to make up your own cards, you can download them for free

by going to: http://barnowskymagic.com/cardartwork/clown.jpg. For the other seven designs, substitute for clown , any of the following words: ax, bunny, coffee, cones, leaf, strawberry, or teddybear (no space between teddy and bear).

• Other switching de dev vice icess can be used to force a colored crayon. These include a transparent forcing bag, a change bag, and a drawer box. For the transparent force bag, no crayon box s

used. For the change bag or drawer box, an un-gaf un-gaffed fed cra yon box

s

dumped into the chamber that doesn t already have the force crayons.

used. The crayons are

69

 

Periodic Table Prediction

3 Effect

A pad is display displayed ed which whic h contains copie copiess o f the Periodic Table o f the Elements. O n one side is the Periodic Table and on the other is a grid with empty spac spaces es identical to the shape of the Periodic Table. The front page is removed from the pad. The page is cut in half following the gridlines and the spectator is given a choice of which half to eliminate. It is cut again in half and the specta tor chooses which half to eliminate. This is repeated until there is

a small piece containing four squares. The spectator is provided with scissors and cuts that in half and keeps a half. Finally he cuts that in half leaving leaving him one square. A wallet that was on display is opened and the prediction read. For the first time the spectator reveals the element he chose and it matches the magician s prediction.

Skillss Needed Skill N eeded • N o sleights

Props Needed • Two cards which are blank on both sides for predictions • Pad wit h Periodic Table and gaffe gaffed d Perio Periodic dic Table (down load copies a t http://barnowskymagic.com/periodictablegaff.jpg and http://barnowskymagic.com/periodictable.jpg ) • imber type wallet (see Discussion for other ideas) • Scissors

Setup a n d Con Const struc ructio tion n

• Print out one copy each of the gaffed and the regular Period Periodic ic Table. ee Discussion (fig. 10-11). O n each one trace the outline of the table by taping the table to a backlit window and drawing lines with a ruler. Make 10 double-sided copies o f each. 7

 

  eriodicTable

rediction

• Place all the regular pages together in a pile with the drawn-in grid facing up. Make a second similar pile with the gaffed pages. Place the two piles back to back so that both sides with the blank grid show. Attach them together with two paper clips. • Gaffed Periodic Table repeats 4 elements in blocks o f four: Ag i Pd • Write Pd/Pal ladium on one side of a card and . Pt Au . Pt/Platinum o n the other. • O n the second card, write Ag/ Ag/Silv Silver er o n one side and Au/Gold on the other side. • Place a card in one section of the Himber Wallet and the other one in the other section. Remember where the A cards are and where the P cards are.

172 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

 

Counting on

Explanation

nd

eception

Script

The Periodic Table o f the Elements is an organized list o f the 92 naturally occurring elements

and the 2 6 synthesized ones. It 's like a magical alphabet for the universe. Everything that exists

is made o f combinations o f these elements. An d

i f we split one o f these larger atoms, different elements are created along with a lot o f energy. I don't have a particle accelerator so I can't split an atom; but, I do have a pair o f scissors so I can split the Periodic Table; and you can help m e do it. O n one side o f this Pe Pe riodic Table is an empty table with grid marks where the names o f the elements are normally written. O n the other side is the actual Periodic Table. But first, in this wallet is a card containing m y prediction o f how the Periodic Table will be split by you. This wallet will be left untouched until the very end o f this demonstration.

1. Display the outline Periodic Table on the pad fig . 1).

Lift up the page showing the actual table on the other side fig. 2 . Point out that there are more than a hundred different elements in the Periodic Table. Lower the page back to the starting position. 2. With the left hand drop the pad to your side as you yo u use the right hand to display displa y the wa ll et. With the right hand, take the wallet, open it, and show the edge of the prediction card (fig. 3 . Part of th e prediction card can be seen but the writing will be not visible. Place the wallet down in open sight remembering what prediction car d is up. As you are displaying the wallet, casually casuall y turn the pad around so th e gaffed pages are toward the audience.

3. Hold up the pad with the left hand. With the right hand remove the top page. Briefly Briefly flash the gaffed

side of the page. page . Keep the unlabeled side toward th e spectator. Do not let light shine underneath the page. First, I'll cut the tabl tablee in half. Tell m e which half we should discard. A n d now I'll cut this one in half Again, tell me which half w e should discard. An d once more , which one goes ... ?

4. Cut the page roughly roughl y in half a long the gridlines fig. 4 . Ask the spectator to choose a half to eliminate. Cut the remaining piece in half and ask the spectator to choose the piece to eliminate. Continue this process until you have a block of four cells fig. 5 . When cutting, the halves don't have to be equal. W ell, we're down to f ou r elements . Please tak e this remaining fragm e n t o f the table and using

the scissor scissorss cut it in half and eliminate the half o f your choice. D o th a t again leaving you with one piece. When you ge gett to the last piece, h o ld it in your hand but do not show it to anyone ye t . For some reason you didn't pick these three (op tionall tionallyy name them) or any o f a hundred _____________________________________ _ _ _ _ _others. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 173

 

Periodic Table Prediction 5. Give the spectator the remaining piece and the scissors and have him cut it in half and eliminate one piece. Finally, he cuts the remaining piece in half and keeps one of them. As he cuts them, hold on to the last three eliminated pieces and note what they are fig. 6). For example if he eliminates Au, Ag, and Pd, the remaining piece has to be Pt. You can mention the names of these pieces saying that he could have chosen these as well as more than a hundred others. Now we've split The Periodic Table multiple

times following your directions directions and this has led us to one single element which you are holding in your hand. In this wallet is my prediction. It says that your hand will contain the element Platinum (Pt)." 6. Display the wallet and turn it over if needed so the proper card is on that side. Open the wallet so it faces you and slide the card out. f the card you are sliding out matches the prediction, then turn the wallet toward the spectator fig. 7). f it doesn t, keep sliding it out until it comes out of the wallet so the opposite side is seen by the spectator fig. 8). This way all you need to remember is which side the A cards are and which side the P cards are. Now for the first time, open your· your· hand and show everyone which element you chose."

7. After showing your prediction, have the spectator reveal rev eal his his remai ning square which should match

your prediction fig. 9).

"Platinum That matches m y prediction exactly. How did we do it It's from the magical properties o f The Periodic Table".

174 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

 

  ountingon

eceptio n

75

 

  eriodic Table rediction Discussion • When the gaffed side of the Periodic Table

is shown

for a moment no one will have time to

notice that the pattern repeats. For the pieces that are cut and eliminated, place them on a table gaff-side down o r better in a small basket or hat. • Choose your cuts so that at the end you are working with a block that is a multiple of four. Sometimes you may wind up with a block of six. Ask them then to pick any four contiguous squares and those will be their final selection. • You can use any four elements that form a block o f four four.. I chose these because they are toward the center of the table and they are names most people are familiar familiar wit h . • Consider usin using g predic tion cards with a glossy surface and write on them with a marker that can e

easily wiped off. Then when you remove the prediction card from the wallet, you can erase

the back of the card by rubbing the writing off with your thumbs. This may seem like overkill but it might come in handy if someone asks to see the other side of the card.

• When preparing the gaffed Periodic Table, the reverse side has to match the cells on the front. I do this by taping the page to a sunlit window and tracing the grid pattern onto the back. Do this for the gaffed table and the regular table. Using a copy machine, make 10 double-sided copies of each. Save the originals to be used for future pads. f

you are presenting this o n stage o r to a large audience, a large sketch pad on an easel would

be desirable. This effect can be done close up with a steno size pad. • Instead of a Himber Wallet, a gaffed envelope with two prediction cards can be used. A gaffed envelope envelo pe with four predictions

is

also possible.

• I use the Himber Wallet and always open it like a normal book. My Silver/Gold default position. The Palladium/Platinum

is on

is on top

as the

the other side . To remember which side of the

card is up and down I use this mnemonic: Gold and Platinum are heavie heavierr than Palladium and Silver so they will face the wallet side . • I usually handle the cut pieces myself, follow following ing the instructions of the spectator as to which piece to eliminate. eliminate. Onl y when there

is

a block of four left do I let him handle the piece. This

insures the gaffed side of the table doesn t flash. Once they have the block o f four, no harm will occur if they glance at the other side since at that point they truly have a free choice of the four. • The effect could also be done without the gaffed Periodic Table. However, when you are down to the last 4 squares, you would need to do a switch for the four forced elements. The forced 2x2 could be kept under the Periodic Table moving it as needed until there was only one real 2x2 square left. Then the switch would be made.

176 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __

 

Counting on D eception

H , ... i.UHll l

3

He l " ~ ~ t i J I I n

4

Li

Be

8

c

11

12

13

14

Na Mg /?

.It ....

19

Rb

21

Fr

39

Sr

Y

"- •·.'

56

Cs Ba 87

Sc

38

55

l'i H r.hun

88

Ra

0

F

Ne

16

17

18

15

s

Cl

34

35

AI

Si

p

31

32

33

Ar 1 \ t · h l

20

K Ca 37

10

N

57 -70

71

22

Ti , 40

8 9-1 02

103

1 04

**

Lr

Rf

57

58

Hf t to

t·

.'•1

La Ce 89

Ac

90

Th

· · · t ~ l

42

41

••·

26

l t l l l

43

Tc

w

105 10 5

Re

rh •  ,u11

45

Pr j(• t .o'11nlltl

91

Pa

Ni 1·-lllrhtuu

46

Ru Rh Pd l < ••  '>< ·l u .l

79

Pt Au ,._.,,.

1-' ••oS

46

Jo

K4J

i · l . >

~ l l n

78

Pt

1" / . b/ ~ _ ; 1

I

79

Au

blll:t· fKifll

r·-l i Ll.lll.l Ll.lll.lm m

47

1•• /.Hf

79

78

r-111 .-

i n l

46

~ · .

•I

Pt Au

l••fH cUJ

r .• lmm

47

78

Pt

1+ 1

79

Au 1 ·-· · .

Pt

1\• / 8 (

Slk• -f

47

J l   :lo .ll l

46

~ 1 1 . - . - r

47

j O:l  l.l l , l lll

46

: > ~

· . · f

47

j ,l ,l  k ob ob.. llll

46

i •• i> - ~ _ . f d

78

47

46

Pd Ag Pd Ag Pd Ag Pd Ag Pd Ag ,.. , •. v J l lll> l, lnt

· La nthan i de ser series ies

r·. iL"l>l•nn

'"·'f:l

1

47

n

•

Pd Ag Pd Ag Pd Ag

Ag Pd Ag Pd

89-10 2

Au

1·-l l k>

78

14.111111111

~ J i .

J ,l ,lllll.l .l·· K nl

79

,

46

Pt

. J

f i l l

78

l l ~

'ol ·.-- 1

47

79

Au

j.J.- Iit iiJill

78

Pt

Pd Ag Pd Ag Pd Ag Pd Ag Pd Ag Pd Ag Pd Ag , •. v

· Ac tinide series

J ~ . l

1 1 1 1

78

Pt

,.  , (, {

1••/.l-l:' 1••/.l-l:' .

79

Au rc ; ., t

1•) ._4/

j-l.•b j-l. •bflll flll lll

78

l ' • ll i •JoJI

79

J

Pt Au r. _ ,

.

·

1•• : 1)

Jl.illl,l lll

78

Pt . ..

l ••: Kl ·H I

79

Au '•

-17

u

1w

fl/

w n

78

Pt

J('l ,p k

79

Au ,.,·· ··l ,.,

..• . v

V•/ 8  

78

79

r- .ohr•un

.

Pt Au

' '" ' " R

· ~ ;

47

r-1-•trrIJnl

78

Pt ..

x

. ._ ,

1}

1\•  lj

79

Au V•'· '' '

~ l l l l

J . j . i

78

I •• K/ ."I( ." I(

od

79

Pt Au ,,,._,, r,c,

fig. 11

177

 

bracadabacus

3 Effect

The magician displays displays an abacus which he places in a cloth bag. While it s covered, he shakes up the abacus t o randomly mix up the beads. A packet of cards is shown which contain important dates in history with a different date on each card. A card is freely chosen. The abacus is removed from the bag and the number represented by the first 4 rows of beads is found to exactly match the selected date.

Skills Needed • N o sleights • Basic operation of an abacus

Props Needed • Abacus fig. 1) • Cloth bag t o cover the abacus • Forcing packet of cards

Construction o

Props and Setup

• Any abacus can be used but a vintage one is preferred. Choose a four digit date t o be forced such as 1492 Glue together all the beads in the four right columns except those representing the forced number: For example, in the thousands column (fourth from the right) a single bead moved upward would represent the number one. The remaining four beads should be glued together and

the bottom bead glued t o the abacus frame . The two beads representing five thousand should be glued together and the bottom one glued t o the middle midd le divider divider.. In the hundreds column (third from the right), move four beads _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 179

 

  br c d b cus

upward and glue the bottom one t o the frame. The two beads

representing five hundred need to be glued as done with the five thousand beads. In the tens column, raise up four beads and glue the bottom one t o the frame. Then raise u p a fifty bead and glue the remaining one to the middle divider. In the ones column, lift up two beads, glue the bottom three together and t o the frame, and then glue both fives t o each other and the middle divider divider.. In the photo, the ovals indicate glued beads (fig. 2). Once the glue has dried, tilt the abacus so all the beads line up. In this case, when the top of the abacus is tilted down, the first four columns will display the number 1492. • The forcing deck is made like a Pop-Eye-Popper deck similar to the one used in Crayola Payola . Use 2 0 blank-faced Bicycle cards. For eleven o f them, write o n each the forced date such as 1492. O n the othe r famous dates such as 1776, 178 9, 1812, etc. other nine write other Using Usin g rough r oughing ing flu fluid id o r Krylon Matte Spra Spray, y, tr ea eatt the fac faces es o f ten force cards and the backs o f the nine non-force cards and one force card. Arrange the cards in order so from the top o f the packet down they alternate alterna te between force and non-force cards: 1492, 1776, 1492, 1789, 1492, 1812, etc. f you fan o r ribbon spread the packet pac ket face face up, only the individual individual different date cards sho uld show fig. 3 ).

18

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __

 

Counting on Deception

Explanation

nd

Script

The oldest calculator in the world is the abacus.

The ones we're familiar with use beads that slide on dowels . Thousands o f years ago they looked pebbles and groov ed much different using pebbles marble or wood. I always thought they were magical and it turns out they are. Let me show you how. I'll place the abacus in this bag and shake it up so the beads are randomized. 1

Display the abacus and demonstrate how a number is represented. Using some of the unglued beads, move beads to demonstrate a number like 1291. That can be shown using the moveable beads fig. 4.

2 

Place the abacus in the bag and shake it up from side to side. Then tilt the abacus so the moveable beads slide upward and then level it fig. 5 . Beneath the cloth randomly move some additional beads that are far from the right four columns columns.. Place the covered abacus down on the table. In m y hand I hold many cards and on each card

is a famous historical date. Please choose one card, hold on to it, but don't look at it yet.

3 Fan the packet o f date cards face up. Turn them face down and cut the cards. Hav e them select select one card forcing 1492. Place it face down but don t have them look at it ye t.

Let's see what the abacus shows. The date it indicates is 1492. You can now turn over your card. A perfect match. Was it a miracle or just a secret hidden in an ancient technology?

4. Remove the abacus from the bag keeping it level fig. 6 . Turn the abacus around if needed. Ask the spectator to read aloud the four digit number. Give him assistance if he needs it. Have him turn over the selected card revea revealing ling the matchin g date fig. 7) . The photos were done with the bottom of the abacus facing the magician. In performance, the bottom of the abacus can be facing the audience.

18 1

 

  bracadabacus

__

82

 

Counting on

ecepti on

Discussion • When gluing the beads for the forced date, use the smallest amount of glue . White glu gluee or Duco Cement works well. You might also try Blu-Tack as a temporary adhesive. • When using the forcing packet, have the spectator touch a card and openly cut it to the top. hen deal it onto the spectator s hand.

• Here f

s

a list of the 10 dates I use: 1453, 1492, 1588, 1776, 1789, 1812, 1861, 1865, 1914, 1941

you use an abacus that looks the same front or back, you can demons trate more freely freely how it

works using what normally would be the left hand columns since they are not gimmicked gimmicked.. The

four gaffed columns would appear o n the left and the normal ones on the right. After placing the abacus in the bag, the bag

s

simply turn ed over left to right. When the abacus

s

removed

the gaffed columns are back on the right. f

you need to show the abacus to a larger audience, hold it up vertica ll y so the beads are parallel

to the floor.

hat way none of the beads will accidentally slide out of place.

83

 

alty

3

Air

Effect Bits o f invisible salt are magical magically ly plucked from the air and dropped onto a paper collector. The spectators appear t o hear the sound of the salt landing on the paper collector. Although the spectator may think the sound s not really salt, they are surprised when the accu mulated invisibl invisiblee salt s

proven to be real.

Skills •

o sleights

Props • • • • • •

Needed:

Needed:

Sheet of paper (colored o r patterned Small rubber band Teaspoon of salt Thumb tip Pencil Small saucer o r sho shott glass

s

preferable)

Setup • Salt loaded in thumb tip which front or back pocket

s

concealed in the right

85

 

Salty Air

Explanation

nd

Script

I f you've ever been to the beach, you know that you can almost taste the salt in the air Did you know that all air contains dissolved salts? I'll

prove this to you by a little demonstration. First, we need a salt collector. I'll use this paper as a collecting surface and this pencil to support it. There's one, one, and there's another, wow they they'' re everywhere I look. More and more .. D o you see them? They're individual sodium and chloride atoms. Some o f you skeptics may think the pencil hass someth ing to do with this. We don't need ha that. Look, more salt crystals falling onto the After a while enough microscopic salt paper accumulates accum ulates to the point po int that it is visible. Like this "

1. Display the sheet of paper and pencil. Hold the pencil in the right hand grasping it between the thumb on top and the side of the bent index finger beneath. The thumb should be parallel to the pencil fig. 1). Now slide the short end of the paper between the thumb and pencil fig. 2).

2. Squeeze the pencil against the paper. This should help keep the paper from curling downward To make the sound of the salt hitting the paper, extend the thumb slightly forward while maintainin g prespressure against the paper and pencil. You only need to slide the thumb forward a few millimeters as you press down on the paper and squeeze it e t w ~ e n th e thumb on top and pencil below fig. 3 ). 3. When done correctly, a distinct snapping o r clickin 0o sound will be heard. Your spectators may think the th e sound is coming from unde r the paper, and if they the y look underneath they will find that they are wron g . The production of the sound is quite deceptive sinc sin ce careful observation will detect no finger motion. 4. Pretend t o pluck grains o f salt from the air (like a Miser s Dream) using the left hand and drop them on the paper fig. 4). As the imaginary salt hits the paper, time it so the sound is heard. Repeat that at least a half dozen times.

_

186

 

ounting on 5. State that this can be done without the pencil. Roll the paper up into a tight cone. Secure it with a small rubber band so it does not unravel. Take the pencil in the right hand and place it in a right pocket. As you withdraw the hand from the pocket, steal the loaded thumb tip. 6. Insert the thumb tip into the upright cone and secure it in place between the left thumb on one side and the index and middle fingers on the other fig. 5-6).

7. Press the left thumb against the paper and concealed thumb tip. Pretend to pull more salt out of the air dropping it into the cone. As the imaginary salt lands, create the sound of it landing by the same technique used with the pencil. That is, press against the paper and the tip of your left thumb as you slide it slightly downward or upward against the hidden thumb tip fig. 7). Do this several times. 8. Slowly invert the cone and allow the salt to flow out of the thumb tip into the shot glass or small saucer. Maintain pressure so the thumb tip doesn t fall out fig. 8). 9 . Place the right hand into the cone and steal the thumb tip with the right thumb Show the paper empty. Ditch the thumb tip at an opportune time.

eception

87

 

  alty

ir

Discussion •

The

snapping

sound

depends

friction to work.

on

slippery. It seems to make a louder

sound with

• I learned the basic technique from my father small gnats •

and

dropping them

y applying different

on

the paper.

a

Ma ke

wooden

a bout 50 He

certain your pencil

than

years ago.

fooled me badly

He

thumb

is

not

or

a plastic pen.

pretended to be catching

with

it.

pressure, you can choose to get a single, double,

amounts of

greasy

or

even triple

snap sounds. •

Don t extra

fill the

long

thumb

t humb

tip with

t oo

much salt. You

don t wa nt

your

thumb

coated coat ed with sal saltt An

tip is advisable.

• This will only be effective if you are performing in a relatively quiet place so the spectator clearly

hear

the

sound of

can

the salt hitting the paper. Even if they suspect you are creating the

sound yourself, they will be surprised

when

the salt pours out.

88 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

 

Mind

 

Reading

ards

Effect The magician displays five different square colored cards that contain numbers from the calendar, 1 through 31, and a packet o f 31 playing cards. He then pla places ces the playing cards behind his back. A favorite day o f the month is secretly chosen by the spectator. The spectator keeps the colored cards car ds contai ning his his favorite number and discards the rest. The magician hands the packet of playing cards t o the spectator and has him count cards 'fa 'face ce up until he reaches his secret number. When he reaches the card at that number, it turns out to be a special card on which is written, You just stopped a t the exact number you thought of .

Skills Needed • Associate five numbers with five colors See Discussion for easy mnemonic) • Basic addition

Props Needed • Five different square colored cards each with a four by four numbered array (fig. 1) • Deck of cards • Blank-faced card with writte written n predi ction message message

Setup a n d Constructio Construction: n: • Remove any 30 playing cards from a deck.

• Pla Place ce the prediction card at the bottom a t position 31. O n the fa face ce it will read read,, You just sto stoppe pped d a t the exact number you thought of .

____________________________________________________________________

89

Mind Reading Car Cards ds  

Explanation

nd

Script

"You are not going to be b eli eve it it,, but this packet o f cards can read your mind. Think o f a special day on the calendar, not the day o f the week, but the number on the calendar. You should be thinking a number between 1 and 31. Now, as you areo fthinking o f this number I'll scan your thoughts using these mind reading cards. I'll place the cards behind m y back so even I can can''t see them. 1. Ask th e spectator to think of any numerical da y of the month from 1 to 31 which has some significance to him. Show him the packet of 31 playing cards. Shuffle them maintaining the prediction card at the bottom. Wave the cards across the spectator's forehead but don't let him see the bottom card . Place the cards behind your back. O n the table are fiv e squares having many numbers on them ranging from 1 to 31. Look at each eac h square one at a tim e and keep only those

squares that have your number on them. Your number will be on one or more o f these squares. Concentrate on your number on each o f those cards. Then discard those thos e squares that don't have your number on th theem face down and off to thee side." th 2. Show him the five square colored cards. Ask him to keep the cards that have his number on them and discard the rest face down off to the side. Instruct him t o keep the number side of the cards face down. In this example he thou ght of the number 1 7 fig. 2). In the photo, the face of each colored card is shown for illustrative reasons. The spectator should keep those hidden.

15

10

1 29

I I