This is a very powerful two-spectator coincidence effect, where one spectator selects (and loses) a card under very fair conditions, and then a second spectator impossibly locates the card.
Imagine:
The magician introduces a deck of cards - he spreads it face-up to display that all the cards are different. He then hands the deck over to one of the spectators and asks them to thoroughly shuffle the deck. (They can shuffle in any way that they want.)
The magician then says, "I want you to make a free choice of any card in the shuffled deck. Simply spread the deck face down across the table and slide out any card - that will be your selection. Don't show it to anyone; only look at it yourself. Then, replace the card anywhere inside the spread and square up the spread.
The spectator does as instructed. Once done, the magician instructs them to thoroughly shuffle the deck again so that even they don't know where their card ends up. They can shuffle in any way that they choose, and as they shuffle, the magician looks away so that he can't possibly shuffle track.
After the shuffling is complete, the magician turns back around and asks the spectator to hand the deck over to the second spectator. The second spectator is then instructed to bring the deck under the table and to blindly reverse any card. They are to reach into the deck, pull out any card, turn it face-up and place it on top of the rest of the deck. Then they are to give the deck a complete cut, burying the reversed card.
After they've done that, the magician takes the deck as he says, "This is the first time I'm touching the deck since the beginning. You [the first spectator] selected any card at random, which you then freely shuffled into the deck. After that, you [the second spectator] took the deck under the table and blindly reversed any card of your choice. How amazing would it be if you reversed his [the first spectator's] card?" At this point, the first spectator names their card out loud for the first time, after which the magician (or one of the spectators) spreads the deck face-down across the table for the impossible reveal. One card and only one card is seen face-up amongst the face-down cards - the selected card! (There are no other hidden reversed cards in the deck - the spectators can immediately examine the deck to verify this.)
Some important conditions of note:
- The first spectator can select any card. There is no force whatsoever.
- The first spectator shuffles the deck both before the selection is made and after the selection is made.
- The deck is examinable both at the beginning of the routine and at the end of routine. At the beginning of the routine, the spectators can make sure that there aren't any duplicates in the deck. At the end of the routine, the spectators can make sure that there aren't any other (hidden) face-up cards in the deck (there is indeed only a single reversed card in the entire deck); the spectators can check the deck front and back to verify this fact.
1st edition 2025, PDF 8 pages.
word count: 2077 which is equivalent to 8 standard pages of text