OCD and Other Effects is a collection of seven card routines for magicians and mentalists that explore some of the possibilities of a mathematical principle designated The StayCard Principle.
[While the principle is not new, others have made use of it before, this is the first systematic treatment and explanation of it.]
The effects included are:
OCD
The magician talks about how he was helped to conquer his OCD (Obsessive Cereal Disorder). He explains his childhood ritual for deciding which breakfast cereal to eat each morning. Cards made from fourteen breakfast cereal packets are mixed in a formalised dealing procedure. Despite the spectator deciding how the dealing should proceed, the cards correctly predict which cereal is to be eaten next morning.
Ten Card Poker Deal Variation
A procedural variation on Arthur Buckley's celebrated Ten Card Poker Deal. The magician and a spectator are each dealt five cards. The spectator decides whether to keep his cards, or whether the cards should be mixed by dealing again. No matter how many times the dealing is repeated before the cards are examined, the magician's hand wins.
15 Card Poker Deal
Fifteen cards are counted from the deck, mixed and cut. The magician deals the cards into three poker hands. The hands are examined and the magician wins. The cards are collected up, mixed and cut, and dealt again into three hands. The magician wins. This procedure is repeated a third time – and the magician wins. For a fourth and final time the cards are collected up, mixed and cut, and dealt into three hands. Despite good poker hands obtained by both spectators, the magician wins with a full house.
Six to Four Against
Ten alphabet cards are mixed. Six are dealt face-down to the spectator and four to the magician. This is repeated until the spectator decides to stop. If the magician cannot form a longer word with his four cards than the spectator can form with his six cards, then the spectator wins ten dollars. No matter when the spectator chooses to stop, the magician wins by forming a four-letter word.
Tarota
The mentalist performs a Tarot reading for the spectator with the 22 Major Arcana (Tarot Trumps). Using a spread that explores Past, Present, and Future influences, cards are eliminated based on the spectator's decisions. Positive influences in the Past and Present are interpreted before revealing and interpreting the final selected card (indicating positive aspects of the Future). This card is shown to match a sealed prediction that has been in plain sight throughout the reading.
Trigrammatical
The mentalist explains how to consult the Ancient Chinese I Ching Oracle using a set of 16 trigram cards. A formalised procedure is followed, eliminating cards as determined by the spectator's decisions until just two remain. The spectator chooses how to combine these in order to create the hexagram reading. The hexagram is interpreted and then shown to match a sealed prediction that has been in plain sight throughout the consultation.
Hexagrammatical
The mentalist explains how to consult the Ancient Chinese I Ching Oracle using a set of 64 hexagram cards. A formalised procedure is followed, eliminating cards as determined by the spectator's decisions until just two remain. The two hexagrams are interpreted and shown to match a sealed prediction that has been in plain sight throughout the consultation.
All seven effects are essentially self-working but require some basic cardhandling knowledge and skill.
The ebook also contains:
- A detailed explanation of the StayCard Principle.
- Tables showing many potential procedural variations.
- Suggestions for developing new StayCard routines.
- A computer application (runs in your web browser) that enables you to fully explore hundreds of StayCard variations.
- Suggested interpretations and reading procedure for the Major Arcana of the Tarot.
- A set of images that you can print out to make your own cards for the OCD routine.
- A set of I Ching images and interpretations (16 trigrams and 64 hexagrams) that you can print out to make the cards used in Trigrammatical and Hexagrammatical.
- Suggestions for using the I Ching Oracle Divination Cards for actual divination.
1st edition 2013, 87 pages.
