Robert E. Neale - Satan's Solitaire

Visions, The Online Journal of the Art of Magic

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Satan's Solitaire by Robert E. Neale

Robert Neale should not be a stranger to anyone in magic, but just in case... Robert Neale is the author of "Life, Death, and Other Card Tricks" and "Tricks of the Imagination" and co-author of "The Magic Mirror" with David Parr. He's also written a few dozen other things you should read, but those should get you started. There's a lot I could say about Robert Neale, but I'll just say the one that embarasses him the most: he's a damn fine thinker and one of my greatest influences in magic. I hope he's blushing. The following piece is typically Neale: simple magic with a simple story that makes for a neat performance piece. I think you'll like it. -- Shane

Would you mind too much playing the Devil? Right now and for just a moment? You might even gain some little sympathy for him. Please? Thank you. Suppose that you are Satan. And your mood is bad. What can you, the Lord of Chaos, do to achieve your goals on earth? Nothing. Human beings on their own are doing it all for you. So you have nothing to do but watch our behavior over and over as an insomniac. The only issue is: how can you avoid boredom? The solution? Solitaire. You can play solitaire, a version of your own invention with these nine cards. Satan's Solitaire is all about what stimulates you most—the chaos caused by randomization. You game has three parts, after which you will discover if you win or lose. The first randomization. Please cut and complete the cut. Deal the cards alternately into two piles. Place either one on top of the other. Decide whether to do the cut and deal again or not. Again? Ok, cut, deal into two piles, and place one pile on top of the other. You have randomized the cards. The second randomization. Take the top or bottom card and table it. Do this two more times so that you have three cards in a pile. Do it again, making a second pile of three cards so, and taking either the top or bottom card each time. Set down the remaining three cards to make a third pile. You have randomized the cards again. The third randomization. Take any one card from the first pile and set it above them to the left. Take any one card from the next pile and set it to the right of the card previously set aside, forming a row of two cards. Take any one of the three cards in the remaining pile and set it to the right of the row of two cards, forming a row of three cards. Repeat this selection of a card from each pile to form a second row of three cards under the first one. Place the last cards in the same manner to form a final row. You have randomized the cards still again. You have randomized the cards three times. Did you win or loose? Turn them face up. And add the nine digits to get the total. 666—the Devil's Digits. It happens every time with no risk, no gamble, and no threat of chaos. It is all so very orderly! On earth, chaos rules, while in Hell, order prevails. By winning, you lost. Just as you always do. So, for the Lord of Chaos, absolute boredom. Hell is cursed. Maybe Satan deserves a little sympathy. Having been there, don't we think? Routine Stack three aces, three twos and three threes in any serial sequence, for example, ace, two and three, ace, two and three, ace, two and three. Run the cards facedown in an overhand shuffle that maintains any such sequence. For example, run three cards and toss the remainder on top. Repeat this action twice. Use the procedure described in the above script. Sufficient order is maintained during each randomization so that the total of three rows of cards will always be 666. Sources

http://www.online-visions.com/effects/0702satan.html

09/04/2012

Visions, The Online Journal of the Art of Magic

Page 2 of 2

Shane has a very surprising, shocking, and theologically provocative routine in which the Devil no longer has any work to do and feels unneeded. See “Weeping, An Old Man” in his Pentalogy (Volume Three). His routine inspired mine, although the trick and mood are different. Poinc would have love Shane's contribution. The first randomization. I do not know who first dealt a small packet of cards into two or more piles, gathered them, and repeated the dealing and gathering, yet maintained some kind of order. Phil Goldstein would know. You will find many uses of the approach in his Redivider. The second randomization uses the Rusduck Principle. See “Outer Space” by J. Russell Duck in the July 1958 issue of his publication, The Cardiste (No 10). The third randomization might be credited properly to Jack London. Sometime in early 2005, Larry White resubmitted to the Shadow Digest his fine piece, The Power of Fives. As he indicated, this is an old principle. I believe Jack London was the first to employ it. He used borrowed bills. Many others have simplified his approach to using digits one through nine, Larry Becker being one of them. I can simplify it even more than either Larry. Call it The Power of One, Two and Three. I have fussed with this routine before, once at least using the Gilbreath Principle, and may well have put it on the Shadow Digest, but will probably not do so again. Enough!

Robert E. Neale

http://www.online-visions.com/effects/0702satan.html

09/04/2012