A location of a selected card under true test conditions. The deck is shuffled before and after the selection ... yet the card can be located. It's fooled many well-versed magicians, so laymen don't stand a chance. Read on. (There is a full performance video with a spectator attached below as well.)
Imagine:
The magician introduces a deck of cards - he spreads it face-up to show that all the cards are different. The spectator is invited to thoroughly examine and shuffle the deck.
The magician then explains (as he gives a demonstration) that they are to select a card by simply cutting somewhere into the middle of the deck. The spectator does as instructed - they cut into the deck, after which they look at the bottom card of the cut-off portion. They then immediately replace the portion back on top so as to reassemble the deck.
The magician then invites them to give the deck a few cuts, a riffle shuffle, a few more cuts, another riffle shuffle, and some more cuts as well (if they want). They do all that.
Despite all the shuffles and cuts, the magician takes the deck and locates the selected card.
Some important conditions of note:
- The spectator shuffles the entire deck at the beginning of the effect.
- At the end of the effect, before the magician locates the selected card, the spectator gives the deck some legitimate riffle shuffles.
- The magician doesn't know what the selected card is until he looks through the deck at the end - so there is no peek or force.
Note: In order to perform this, you may need to buy something for $5 (but it's also possible that you already own it).
1st edition 2024, PDF 6 pages.
word count: 1714 which is equivalent to 6 standard pages of text