An impromptu 21-card trick on steroids.
From a deck shuffled by one spectator (S1), another spectator (S2) deals any 21 playing cards, singly and face down, in the palm of the magician. The remaining cards are discarded. Each spectator removes any card from the face-down pack. The magician shows the first card to S1 and cuts it into the pack. Same with S2.
Next, the magician deals the cards haphazardly in a few packets (each containing a different number of cards) on the table. They are all shuffled by S1 and S2. Then, in order to demonstrate how to gather the packets in a single pile, he picks any packet and drops it onto any other one. While he looks away, S1 and S2 do the rest, as explained.
The magician faces the spectators again: "There is no way I might know what or where your cards are. So, you're going to help me, like in the famous 21-card trick."
First revelation: The magician deals a row of three cards on the table. The next cards are distributed onto the previously dealt cards. For every row, S1 and S2 decide if the cards are to be dealt from left to right or right to left. They end up with three packets of seven cards. The magician shows the packets to S1 who, then, indicates the one that contains his selection. Immediately, the other packets are gathered and discarded. The magician looks at the faces of the cards as S1 is thinking of his selection. He removes one card from the packet: It is S1's selection!
Second revelation: The magician spreads the 20-card pack face down on the table as S2 is thinking of his selection. Without even looking at the faces, he removes one card from the pack: It is S2's selection!
Impromptu. No force. No fishing. No peek of the selections. Real shuffles. Real choices. Effortless.
1st edition 2023, PDF 7 pages.
word count: 1436 which is equivalent to 5 standard pages of text
