If you like a real card baffler, look no further. This is a sort of 'One-Deck Do-As-I-Do' but it works on a very different principle.
Cards are shuffled and cut both by the spectator and the performer (really!). The spectator mentally chooses a card (free choice) and the performer does the same. Then the cards are shuffled again. Unbelievably, the magician and the spectator get cards of the same value and colour. It almost works itself.
Effect: The performer cuts a portion off the pack, hands it to a spectator and asks him to do exactly as he does.
First they both shuffle their packets, then fan them to themselves and mentally select a card. The card is laid on the table face down, the balance of the packet is placed on top, then it’s cut so the card is lost in the middle.
The magician pushes his packet over to the spectator and tells him to cut off a portion, insert his own packet, then replace the cut-off cards. Under these conditions it would appear impossible to locate any card.
The performer runs quickly through the pack, finds his card and again lays it face down on the table, then instructs the spectator to do the same. When the cards are turned up, they are the same value and colour, i.e., Nine of Hearts and Nine of Diamonds.
- No force
- Spectator has a completely free choice
- Spectator really shuffles the deck and so does the performer.
- Can be done with a borrowed deck (with a little preparation…)
- Very easy to do
- Very subtle method
1st edition 1986; 1st digital edition 2018, 3 pages.
word count: 826 which is equivalent to 3 standard pages of text