The magician finds the spectator's card despite impossible conditions.
A spectator selects a card from a shuffled deck and remembers it. Before he puts it back on top and cuts the deck, the magician suggests that he shuffles a few cards from the top so nobody knows what the top card is. The spectator does so and puts the packet back on the deck. Then, the magician suggests that he also shuffles a few cards from the bottom for the same reason. The spectator does so and, this time, drops the deck on the bottom packet. The magician actually doesn't know what the top or the bottom cards are. Now, the spectator puts his selection back on top and loses the card into the deck. Because of the difficulty in finding the spectator's card in those conditions, the magician proceeds by elimination. He deals the deck in two piles and asks the spectator to choose one for him. The magician looks at the faces and states that he thinks that the spectator's card is – or is not – in it. He keeps the pile that contains (supposedly) the spectator's card and gets rid of the other one. He goes through the same procedure a few times again until he is left with three or four cards. He looks at the faces of every card and picks one that he tables face down. For the first time, the spectator reveals the name of his card. Let's say, the King of Diamonds. The magician turns the face-down card over ... it is the King of Diamonds!
Effortless. No sleight. No move. Examinable. Can be done impromptu.
1st edition 2024, PDF 4 pages.
word count: 1155 which is equivalent to 4 standard pages of text