Door droppers, yeah!
Hi, I'm Larry Anderson, and welcome to Pick a Card, Any Card.
This is a collection of some of my favorite card tricks.
I'll tell you why they're my favorites, because they take very little skill,
almost none actually, and very little practice.
They're actually almost self-working card tricks, and those are the best kind.
There's also a great collection of card tricks at the end of the tape
that you can perform with the bonus deck that you got for buying this tape,
this Bengali deck. So, really, give them all a try.
You'll see how powerful they are.
Just a word about the format of this tape before you dive in.
Some of the tricks on the tape are designed to be done seated at a table,
and some are designed to be done standing up,
and some of them are just great gags that you can perform anywhere
and really get a lot of mileage out of.
Now, the way that the tape is laid out is that you will see me perform
each and every one of the tricks before a live audience,
so you can really get a feel for how the trick is to be presented.
And then, immediately following that is the full explanation
with all the mechanics and all the nuances of how to pull it off.
And I want you to go back and forth between the two
until you really get a whole feel for not only the secret part,
but the way it should look when they're watching it
and how to keep those separate, okay?
And then, finally, use my presentation as a model,
but slowly, as you're starting to get it, add your own personality,
your own touches to it, because it really should come from you
and not just be a carbon copy of me.
And also, make sure that you practice each one of these tricks
before you perform them.
I mean, really, anything you do, no matter how simple,
the first time you do it, you might fluff up.
There's a learning process, kind of a curve, you know, a bell curve.
The first time you do it, eh, maybe not so good.
Second time, hey, I figured it out, now I know how to fix that.
And the third time, you're flying,
and you'll really start getting some results.
So don't sell these tricks short, okay?
You want to, you know, sort of develop as you go along.
And also, practice in front of a mirror.
It can help you when those critical angles are there.
Some of the tricks have angles that are kind of crucial.
I help you and tell you which ones those are,
and I want you to check yourself out in the mirror
so you know what the audience is seeing.
Also, there's a magician's rule, don't repeat the trick.
There's a reason for that. They know the surprise.
Once they know the surprise ending, you're leading them down the wrong path,
and boom, it's a surprise.
If you do it again, they know what to watch for, and you're busted.
And also, there's a lot of tricks on this tape.
As you watch it, don't get overwhelmed
and say, oh, how am I going to absorb all that information
and put the tape away.
No, watch it from beginning to end and enjoy the tricks,
and then pick out a couple that you like and learn those really well.
All right, once you got two of them,
then you can go on and pick up another one.
I mean, they'll still be on this tape for years to come.
All right, just learn a couple well.
Some of the tricks on the surface,
when you start to watch the explanation,
you'll say, oh, that's complicated.
Believe me, it's not complicated.
I'm just explaining it in great detail so you really get it.
Don't think they're too complicated,
and then also get overwhelmed and put them aside.
Try out each one, okay?
And finally, don't reveal the secret.
It's tempting.
People are going to say, tell me how you did it.
But don't, because people really don't want to know.
They like to be astonished and amazed.
So keep the secret to yourself and keep your audience entertained.
So go out and have a lot of fun with these,
and I hope you enjoy this Jawdroppers videotape.
Hey, y'all like card tricks?
Yes.
And you want to do a trick with me?
Why not?
Good, because I just happen to have a couple of decks of cards here.
I think you'll find this one doubly entertaining for that reason.
I want you to use any deck that you like,
so choose any one that you want.
The blue one.
The blue one, okay.
Now, I call this trick Do As I Do,
for good reason.
I want you to do everything I do.
So you can take the blue deck, the one you chose,
and do as I do.
Take, first, the deck out of the box and throw the box aside.
Good.
And next, we're going to shuffle them.
So whatever way you like, just mix them up.
Make sure they're in no prearranged order,
that they are, in fact, well shuffled.
Kind of mix them up like that.
As soon as you're happy, set it down.
Great.
So we have two shuffled decks.
Now, I think it would only be fair if I were to use your deck
and you use mine.
That way you know there's no shenanigans
with the way I shuffle the deck around.
So we'll swap them like this.
I'll take yours.
Here's what I want to have happen.
I want you to take the deck, run through as I'm doing.
Find any card that you like.
I always have one favorite card in the deck.
I'm going to take that out and place it on the table.
Do the same.
Great.
Now, close the deck up.
Great.
Set it aside.
Now, what I'd like you to do is cut the deck like that.
Move half the deck forward.
Great.
And place your card right there.
Yep, right there.
And then complete the cut like that.
So you've looked at a card.
You've cut it back in the center, right?
Now, let's swap decks.
Good.
So far you're doing everything I'm doing.
It's very good.
Now take that deck and find the same card in that deck.
And I'll find my favorite card in this deck.
Somewhere, I'm sure I'll find it.
Ah, yes indeed.
There's my favorite card.
Take that out and place it on the table.
And so far all that's happened is we've taken two shuffled decks,
found our favorite cards in each deck.
Just out of curiosity, what is your favorite card?
Go ahead and turn it over.
Two of spades.
That's a nice card.
In fact, it's so nice, that happens to be my favorite card.
Whoa!
Great!
I'm so glad you like the two of spades.
Well, here's a killer trick that practically works itself.
It works with any decks of cards.
They can be borrowed.
You can just borrow two decks at somebody's house.
That's what's so great about it.
It's so clean.
There's nothing prepared from the start.
And of course, you give the person a free choice of any deck of cards.
So go ahead and pick one, Tiffany.
I'll take the blue one.
Great. You've got it.
I'll take the red one.
And then you say, let's have you do everything I do.
It's called Do As I Do.
And you let the person shuffle the deck just as you're doing.
And that's all above board.
And as she shuffles, you do the same.
The only thing that you do while she's shuffling is that you,
when you're all done, is you take a glimpse of the bottom card
before you set it on the table.
You can do that rather secretly because they're busy shuffling their cards.
So when you tip it up to square it up,
I've seen the nine of diamonds on the bottom, and I'll put it like this.
That's very key to how this trick works.
You say, OK, now it would only be fair if I shuffled my deck
and you shuffled yours, that we switch decks.
That way I can't pull anything fishy on you with the deck I shuffled, right?
That gives you a perfect reason to exchange decks.
They'll usually agree with you.
So you can give them your deck and you take theirs.
Say, now what I want you to do is just go through and find your favorite card.
And remember, the nine of diamonds is on the bottom of her deck.
I know that.
Now, I reach in and take out any card I want.
I don't even have to remember it.
Just put it on the table.
You tell them to do the same.
And you put it right out here.
Great.
Would you put your deck right on the table there like I've done?
Say, now what I want you to do is to take the top half of the deck
and just cut it forward like this, anywhere you want.
Now, that was a free choice, right?
Mm-hmm.
OK, I'd like you now to take your card and look at it,
the one you pulled out, your favorite card.
I'll look at mine.
I don't have to look at it, but pretend to.
She's remembering hers.
Say, now put it right there on that top stack
and complete the cut, bearing it right into the middle of the deck.
Now, she's putting the nine of diamonds right on top of her card.
I'm now going to be able to find it in the deck
because I know it's the card next to the nine of diamonds.
She doesn't know I know that.
Say, OK, you've got your favorite card.
I've got mine, right?
We both shuffled the decks freely.
Let's change decks again.
And I'll find your favorite deck card in my deck,
and I'll find my favorite card in your deck.
So we're going to find it twice.
What I do is I just go looking for the nine of diamonds in this deck,
and I've just found it.
The card directly below it, closest to the bottom of the deck,
here's the nine of diamonds,
and right next to it is the ace of spades.
That's the one directly below it.
That's her card.
So I simply take out the ace of spades and say,
OK, I've got my favorite card in this deck.
Now, you recap real quickly.
Now, we've each found our favorite card in each other's decks.
We've shuffled these fairly, right?
Tell me, what was your favorite card?
Ace of spades.
Ever turn it over and say,
wow, ace of spades, that's a pretty common card.
Isn't it interesting that that's my favorite card, too,
when you, of course, turn over the ace of spades,
and they're nonplussed when they see that,
especially when it's not as obvious a card as the ace of spades.
It might be the six of diamonds or the four of spades.
It really is quite a stumper when they see that they match.
And that's do as I do, very easily done.
Hey, let's try something else.
Maggie, would you be my victim or volunteer in this?
OK, great.
Are you hot-blooded?
Yeah.
Yeah?
I'd like to think of myself as hot-blooded.
OK, good.
Well, we're going to have to find out how hot-blooded she is.
I'm going to take this deck of cards,
and what I'd like to have you do is take one card from the deck.
Anyone that you like at all.
What you have to do, though, is only touch one card as I run through them.
I only want you to touch one because it's going to get the heat from your body.
That one right there?
Yeah.
OK, I want you to look at it, all right?
All right, while you look at it,
you show it to everyone else so they can see it too, OK?
OK.
All right, everybody got it?
Yeah.
OK, good.
Now, hold it in your hand on your palm, face up,
and put your other hand on top,
and fuse some of your hot-blooded heat into that, girl, all right?
Get it as hot as you can get it.
Ooh!
So far, you've touched only one card in the deck, right?
Right.
So take that hot card now and slide it into the deck somewhere,
anywhere you like, and we're going to put that in.
Now, it's got your heat, and the longer I wait,
the longer it's going to have to cool off.
So here's what I'll do.
I'll see if I can find it just from the heat that you infused in it.
Here's what I do.
I'll quickly take the deck, just like this,
run through them under the table, see if I can find the hot one.
Whoa, I found it, all right.
Whoo-hoo!
That baby's hot.
What card did you touch?
Five of hearts.
And that's the one you put in the deck?
Let's see if I found it.
Right there.
Oh!
That's so hot, I can't even touch that, girl.
Whoo!
Look out.
That's a hot spot.
You are hot-blooded.
Well, this, like any good trick, has a story,
which is just a lot of presentation
to cover up the mechanics of the trick.
And, of course, this one deals with hot-bloodedness
and temperature and heating up a card, which is all baloney.
If you didn't have that story built around the trick,
it would be very boring and probably quite easy to figure out.
So the way this works is, actually, the deck is preset
to begin with with an upside-down card
on the bottom of the deck.
So you have to have a moment to turn over a card,
put it on the bottom, put the deck aside.
So now when you pull it out, have the deck arranged
so when you take it out, it's back up, and you say,
hey, I'd like to do you a card trick, Tiffany.
Would you like to see it?
Yeah.
Obviously, you don't shuffle.
Let's say I've got a whole deck of cards here,
and you start to spread them in your hands.
You just need to be careful not to spread too deep
because then you'll expose the bottom card.
So just start running them like this,
saying, whole lot of cards, 52 different cards.
I want you to take out any one, but only touch one card.
This is where the story comes in
because I don't want you to touch any more than one.
And don't go any further than half the deck
as you're spreading them
because you don't want a chance
of them seeing the bottom card upside down.
So just slide that one out very carefully.
Don't touch any other card.
So she does that.
Now you square the deck and put it in your hand again,
just the way it was when you took it out of the box.
Say, what I want you to do is I want you to take a look at it,
and you can show it to any other friends that are there
so everybody can appreciate the trick.
Say, now place it on your palm face up, okay?
Or sorry, face down rather, yes.
Say, now put your hand on top.
Now any time during all of this instructions,
you can let your hand roll over just like this,
as in the previous trick, double reverse.
It turns the card deck upside down again.
It's a very natural move.
No one should notice it
if you're talking about things out here.
Now I want you to heat up that card as hot as you can.
If you're hot-blooded, just infuse it with heat.
Have you done that?
It's getting really hot now?
Okay, now you just take the deck like I did before.
From this position, not flipping it over,
not turning your hand over again.
You want it face down or upside down.
Take it like this and say, here.
Now you've readjusted your grip.
Take your card and slide it in the deck somewhere.
Of course, she thinks she's putting it in face down.
Good, now push it in and just help them along like that.
Say, good, your card's in there.
Now that's the only card you've touched, isn't that right?
Mm-hmm.
Okay, now just take the deck
and set it down on the table straight away like that.
Her card, of course, is upside down on the deck.
You have one thing to do,
and you're gonna do it under cover of the table,
and that is turn that card on top over
facing the same direction as the rest of the deck.
So you tell this story to justify it.
Say, now your card is hotter than any other card in the deck.
I'm gonna find it just from the heat,
from your hot-blooded little self
that you infused into that card,
and I'm gonna do it as quick as I can,
but I'm gonna do it under the table
so I can't see.
I can do it only by feel.
Justifies why you're taking it under the table.
So I'm gonna see if I can do it real fast.
Now under the table, I take it,
and while I'm under there, all I do is turn over this card
and flip the deck over and bring it back out again,
and all I have to do is say, I found it.
Ooh, boy, is that a hot card.
I found it, and I did something magical with it.
Watch, and then just spread them
as best you can on the table like this.
They'll all be face down, except for her card,
staring her square in the face,
and say, boy, that thing is hot.
You are a hot-blooded girl.
Chill, babe.
Hey, you know, I gotta confess.
You know what I don't like about card tricks?
The guy doing the card trick
is always holding the deck of cards.
He has somebody take a card,
then he has the deck shuffled,
which he usually does himself,
and then he finds the card himself,
and it's like big deal.
So you found a card and a deck
that you've been holding on to the whole time.
So I think a good card trick
would be one where he never touches the deck.
So I'm gonna let you, Karen,
reach over and grab that deck of cards,
take it out of the box.
Okay.
And give them a mix-up so we know that they're not
in any specific order or pre-arranged order.
Good deal.
Great. Hey, let's go to Vegas.
I'm gonna turn my back,
and I want you to make three piles
just by cutting them into three piles.
I don't want to see any of this.
I'll even make it harder for myself.
Tell me when you've done that.
Okay.
All right, pick up one of those stacks
and give it a shuffle,
any one you like.
Even mixing it more.
And I've got my back turned,
can't see anything going on.
Now, look at this.
I mean, you've done that?
Yeah.
Look at the top card on the one you just shuffled,
the deck that you just shuffled.
All right, put it back.
Well, do you want me to show it to anybody?
Sure, show it to everybody.
Let them all get a chance to see it.
Okay.
Why not?
Okay.
Okay, great.
Now, put it on top of the stack.
Okay.
And turn that whole stack upside down
and put it on top of any one of the other stacks.
Okay.
So now we've got your decks
kind of back-to-back there, right?
Yeah.
Now, take the other stack
and put that right on top of the other two
so we've got it sandwiched in between.
Okay.
Sounds kind of weird to ask you to do that, right?
Mixing up the deck that way?
Yeah.
You think that's weird?
Wait till you see this, huh?
Now I want you to pick up the deck
and shuffle it once.
Okay.
That way, we're going to take
all those upside-down cards
and really mix them up in there.
That's really bad.
Uh-huh.
All right, good.
Now, just for good measure,
give it a cut.
Okay.
All right, good.
Now, I haven't touched the deck so far, right?
No.
What I'd like you to do
is look at these cards
as I spread them on the table.
I'm spreading them toward the camera
so you can read their numbers.
See how they're all mixed up?
Would it be amazing
with everything I've just done,
the shuffled deck, my back turn,
if I could look in here
and just find your card?
Yeah.
What card did you take?
Two of clubs.
Could I possibly know
where your card is in this deck?
Not likely.
Well, I think it's this one right here.
Turn it over.
How in the world?
Oh, wow!
Amazing.
Yes.
Amazing.
Well, as hard as this may be
for you to believe,
this trick is totally self-working.
It requires you to never touch
the deck of cards.
If you asked me how it works,
I'd probably be honest
if I said I don't know.
It's really totally mechanical.
You reverse cards in the deck,
you shuffle them together,
and you can find the card that's selected.
I'm just going to take you through it.
I'll tell you what to do
and what to look for,
and then you can figure out how it works.
Sometimes when you have about 10 minutes
and you analyze what happens
when you shuffle the cards
and the upside-down ones go together.
Suffice to say, the trick works,
and it's well worth it.
You explained about a good trick.
Somebody doing it shouldn't really
even touch the cards.
I mean, that'd be the perfect trick
where you never touch the cards.
So you let them take the cards out of the box.
You let them shuffle, if you would,
real quickly.
Just do a real quick mix-up,
because it makes no difference
how many times they shuffle.
Nothing is prepared.
Tell them then to make three piles.
When they do, you turn your back,
so it even adds to the mystery
of how could he possibly know my card,
where it is or what it is.
But I'll not turn my back
so I can explain how this works.
You then tell them to pick
any one of those piles
and pick it up and shuffle it even again.
So they mix it up.
Pretend you've done that.
And good.
Once it's shuffled,
put it back there in the middle,
and tell them to look at the top card,
which they do,
and remember,
show it to their friends
so everybody knows.
Put it back.
Now here's what I want you to do.
Take that pile.
No matter...
I'm just taking you through it.
This is what happens.
Take that pile.
Flip it upside down.
Put it on top of any other pile.
Now her card is on the top of that,
and it's upside down.
And say now,
complete this
by putting the next pile on top.
Then you can turn around and say,
have you done that?
She'll say yes,
and we'll take it to the next step here.
You ask the person,
now this may sound kind of strange,
because you've already sort of
put the deck together wrong,
but now I want you to even make it
really screwed up
by shuffling the deck once.
Would you do that?
We'll really mix those cards up.
Now it's important they do
the kind of shuffle
that Tiffany is about to do,
called a riffle shuffle.
In other words,
where they're being shuffled,
as opposed to an overhand shuffle
where you do it in stacks.
As soon as she's done shuffling,
you say,
I'll tell you what,
just for good measure,
give it one cut, two.
One cut and complete the cut, okay?
All right.
So she does that,
and now they've got to be convinced
they're really mixed up,
and believe me, they are.
Now I want to show you another angle,
because I want you to see it
from my point of view
and what you do
at this stage of the trick.
Now Tiffany has just cut the cards.
They're sitting on the table,
and here's what you do.
You're going to take the cards
and flip it over
a half a turn
and spread them on the table
from left to right in front of you,
and you'll notice
that they're all mixed up.
Okay?
So now you turn the deck over
after she's cut it,
and you will see
a whole lot of face-up cards.
Now if you've done that turn
when you spread the cards,
her card is definitely
one of the face-down cards,
and I'll tell you which one
it is in a minute,
but you want her card
to be face-down,
so that's why you want her
to give that deck
a half a turn
before you spread them.
Here's what you should see.
You will see a big long run
of face-up cards
somewhere in this spread.
The longest run
is from here to here.
Usually it is on this end.
Sometimes there might be
a few more over here on this end,
and it's just split differently,
so really the run kind of starts here,
goes to here,
continues over here,
and goes to here.
But find the longest run of cards.
On rare occasions,
you'll find the big long run
of face-up cards
in the middle,
and you'll have a couple
of face-down cards
on either end,
so that's the one you want to use,
but usually it's on the end,
and it all has to do with
how big they make the stacks
when they cut it into three
and how they shuffle.
But in this case,
it's very obvious.
Here's the longest run
of face-up cards.
Her card is always the one
directly under the last card
to the left of the face-up cards,
this one right here.
Here's the Ten of Hearts.
It's the one underneath there,
and what card did you take?
The Two of Diamonds.
The Two of Diamonds,
and you can pull it out
with confidence and say,
there's your card.
Don't ask me any more.
If you want to figure it out,
you're welcome to.
Give it a try.
If you don't believe me,
you'll see it works.
Peggy, I think that
any good card trick
should be able to be done
quick as lightning, don't you?
Oh, definitely.
Yeah, no time at all.
A good card trick should be.
So let's do one
quick as lightning, okay?
We're going to take out
the deck here.
I'm going to find a couple
of cards here that are random
in the middle of the deck
and put them on the table,
and you can take those two babies.
Show them to everybody.
See if we can't do a trick
quick as lightning.
I'll turn my back.
Now, what I'd like to do
is just spread the cards like this.
Put them in together, apart,
any way you want.
Just stick them in any place
your heart desires, okay?
Well, one there.
Oh, I bet you're going to
separate them, I'm going to
make things tough for me here.
Just a little bit.
Okay, watch.
Make sure there's no
funny business here.
Yeah.
I said quick as lightning, right?
Yes.
Watch, okay?
It's done.
How was that?
Whoa!
Whoa!
Well, the success of this trick
relies basically on,
and I hate to say this,
people's laziness.
When you randomly go through
the deck and pull out two cards
and you say, here,
I'm going to show you a trick
with a couple of cards.
Why don't you take those?
They look at them very casually
for just a moment,
and you don't say,
you don't make a point to say,
I want you to memorize
those two cards.
You just sort of
casually say to them,
I want you to take
those two cards
and put them into the deck.
Now, the cards they put
into the deck
are these two cards.
The cards that you suddenly,
quick as lightning, reveal
are these two cards.
Now, if you look at this,
one is the six of hearts
and the nine of diamonds.
The other is the nine of hearts
and the six of diamonds.
So, it's very easy
to make this trick happen,
because you have one pair
set with one card
on top of the deck
and the other card
on the bottom of the deck,
and that's how you start
the trick.
And the other pair
is just together
somewhere in the middle
of the deck.
That's your arrangement.
So, you have that
in the box,
and you bring it out.
Hey, let me show you
a card trick.
I'm going to go through
and just pull out
a couple of cards.
Now, there's the six of diamonds
and the nine of hearts
is on top.
You just run through
and say, I'm going to
grab a couple of cards,
and it's supposed to look
just so haphazardly.
Here's a couple right there.
Why don't you take those,
if you would?
Tiffany, what I'm going to do
is I'm kind of
hurrying the thing along
so you don't say,
now, look at those cards,
memorize them,
because you don't want
them to do that.
You say, yeah,
take those cards,
if you would.
Just slide them in the deck
anywhere you like.
You can separate them
and put them together.
Any good trick,
I should be able to find
those cards quick
as lightning, right?
Make sure I don't do
anything funny here.
I'm just going to push
the deck together.
The cards are exactly
where you placed them,
right?
All right.
Here's how I'm going to
find them,
quick as lightning.
Take your cards
and your fingers
and just turn them
over like that.
It looks very magical,
like you just pulled them
out of the center of the deck
and just sit back and go,
so what do you think?
Hey, Angela,
would you help me
with something?
Sure.
Have you ever seen
those little wire racks
you sort of get
at stationary stores?
They sit on your desk
and they hold your mail
in the little slots
that's sort of a separator?
Yeah.
Okay, we're going to let you
be one of those here today.
Okay.
I want you to take your hands
and put them like this
so they represent
the little slots
to put mail
and we'll put them together
a little more like that.
Okay.
Now, the cards here
will represent mail
and I always get mail
in twos for some reason,
so we're going to take
two pieces of mail
and put it right there
in that little piece
of the wire rack
and then we'll take
two more and place it
right there and then two more.
Good, you're pinching it
just the way I want you to
there and then we'll take
two more and we'll place
it right here
and of course,
I'm getting a lot of mail now
so I'm going to get two more
that go over in this part
of the wire rack
and two more over here.
My mail comes in pairs
for some reason,
but that junk mail
comes in odd pieces
so I don't want
that piece of junk mail.
We'll put that there
for the time being
and let's actually
make some of this mail yours.
We're going to take now
two pieces of mail
and I'm going to split it
between your mailbox
and mine
so we each get
an even amount of mail here.
There's two there.
We'll take another pair.
We'll keep it even
so you get as much as I get
and there's no difference
and we're going to hope
that one of us
or one of us will hope
that we don't get
the odd piece of junk mail
that's coming.
Here comes the mailman
with this piece of mail.
Everything's even so far.
Which one of these
do you want to be your mailbox?
This one.
Okay, put your hands on it.
That'll keep this piece
of junk mail from getting inside.
That means I get
the odd piece of junk mail
but I don't want it either
so what I'm going to do
is put my hand over it
and redirect it
over to your mailbox
and if that worked
the way I wanted it to,
I should have only
nice even pairs
of pieces of mail.
There's two,
there's two,
there's two more
and if it worked
as I said the way I wanted it to,
you're going to end up with
there's a pair of mail,
pieces of mail,
there's a pair of pieces of mail
and you got the odd
piece of junk mail.
You got mail girl.
You got mail girl.
Well this is a very
bizarre little trick
and if you're scratching
your head as to how
this works,
you've got good reason to
because it's really much more
of a word trick
than it is a magic trick
and you'll see why.
You're using the word even.
All the time I'm saying
even, even, even
number of cards.
Even has two meanings.
Meaning an even number
like two, four, six, eight, ten
or even meaning
evenly distributed
like you have one,
I have one
and you're interchanging
the definitions of those
two words psychologically.
You'll see what I mean
as I explain the trick.
So you have the person
put their hands out
as we've done in the fashion
of a mail sorter
and you actually have 15 cards.
The values of the cards
never come into play here.
They're just 15 objects.
In fact this is a great trick
to do with business cards.
So you can turn this
into a good way to
give your business card
to someone.
So you have 15 cards.
You never tell them
there's 15 cards.
You just refer to them
as symbolic pieces of mail.
So you say, you know,
I got these two pieces of mail
and you just count them out
very openly
and you put them
between the fingers
and then two more pieces
of mail came
and everything is exactly
as you say
and two more pieces.
So I always get my mail
in even amounts.
Always in pairs.
So the first time
the word even comes out.
Pairs, equal amount.
Okay, you're psychologically
getting the word even.
And then I got two more
and I got two more
and I got two more
and then there was this
one odd piece of mail.
So now this is an odd one.
This is the one
that doesn't match up
with another piece of mail.
Say of course
that one goes right here.
So now if you really count these,
look there's one, two, three, four,
five, six, seven.
That's an odd number.
But I'm saying we're each
getting even amounts of mail.
Well we are getting
even amounts of mail.
They're going to be
evenly distributed
between us.
But we'll each have
seven pieces of mail.
That's an odd number.
So what I'm doing
is calling something even,
but it really is odd.
Watch, there's seven pieces of mail.
I'm not counting this
odd one over here.
There's seven pairs.
You never say that.
Everything's pairs.
Everything's even.
Say I'll tell you what.
Let's say that one mailbox
over here is yours.
One mailbox over here is mine.
We're each going to get
an even amount.
So I'm going to take
one pair here.
You're going to take
a piece of mail.
I'm going to take
this up nice and evenly.
And we're going to continue on.
So we each get the same amount,
a nice even amount of mail.
So now in their mind,
it's an even amount of mail.
And it is evenly distributed,
but an odd number
that they don't know.
One of us is going to get
this odd piece of mail.
Now you don't want it.
Nobody wants junk mail.
So which mailbox
do you want to be yours?
And which one do you want
to cover it up
so you don't get
this odd piece of mail?
I'll take this one as mine.
Great.
So just put your hand
on top of it.
I get the odd piece of mail.
Well in fact,
I'm going to do the odd
number of seven cards.
I say, I don't want it.
So I'll snap my finger,
re-forward that mail
to your mailbox.
And now you pick it up.
Say, let's see if I have now
the odd piece of mail.
You count it off in pairs.
There's an even pair.
There's an even pair.
There's an even pair.
What do you know?
I've got the even
amount of mail.
That must mean you have
the odd amount.
And you pick it up.
And of course,
you can now count it.
And two, two, two.
And it looks like she got
the odd piece of mail.
And you can say,
you got mail.
I'm going to change the tone
of things a little bit.
Does anybody believe in ESP?
I do.
Yeah?
Chloe, you do?
Yeah.
It runs in my family.
I have an uncle
who's part psychic
and part telepath.
He's a psychopath.
Actually, for a while,
I was considering a career
in fortune telling,
but I couldn't see any future
in it, so I gave up
the whole idea.
I'll tell you what.
We're going to try
an experiment in ESP.
Oh, the jokes are bad,
aren't they?
We're going to do
an experiment in ESP.
Chloe, would you give
the deck a shuffle there?
Make sure that they're
well mixed.
And then we'll try
and see if we can't get
some sort of mental telepathy
going between you and I,
because I'm feeling
some vibes from you.
We're going to see
if we can't make
something spooky happen.
Okay.
I'm going to take the deck
that you just shuffled
and go through
and find two cards
that I like.
That one's yelling
at me here.
And let's see
that one there.
I don't know,
something about those two cards.
I don't know what it is,
Chloe.
We'll find out.
Why don't you take the deck,
your shuffle deck.
I'm going to have you
deal cards now onto the table.
As you do,
I want you not to be
influenced by me.
Just look at these two cards.
If you get any kind of
mental telepathy,
any feeling to stop dealing,
you stop whatever you want.
Okay?
So you can start.
Yeah?
That's the spot, huh?
I'm going to take
this marker card
and mark the place
where you stopped.
Throw the rest of the deck
on top, okay?
Okay.
Pick up the whole thing.
We're going to
have you deal some more
and see if we can't
mark a spot here
for the nine of hearts,
okay?
Any time.
You can go as long as you like
just until you feel
that you should stop.
Yeah?
We're going to put
that one in there.
Throw the rest of the deck
on top.
Square the whole thing up.
Okay?
Set it down on the table.
All right.
Now I'm going to
spread the cards.
We're going to find
the two cards
that you placed in here,
okay?
There they are.
Jack of Spades,
that are together,
the jack and the nine,
and the one right above it.
Nothing out of the ordinary,
you felt?
Mm-hmm.
Jack.
Can you explain to me
why you stopped
at the two cards
that matched the nine
and the jack?
Oh, my God!
Oh!
I don't know!
I think they were
screaming at you, too.
Well, this is a real fooler,
and it really works
with anybody
in the room
to make it work.
Okay.
Well, this is a real fooler,
and it really works
with anybody's deck
and no prearranged deck.
You can give it to the person,
have them shuffle it
to their heart's content,
cut it as many times
as they want.
I'll spare you
all the trouble there.
Okay.
Once that's done,
take the deck from them,
and you do something
that looks completely innocent
but, in fact,
is the real secret
to the trick.
You turn the deck over
and say,
just to make sure
everybody agrees
with me.
Well, that seems innocent,
but what you're doing is
you're looking at
the bottom card,
the Three of Spades,
and the top card,
the Four of Hearts.
Now, simply all you do
is look at those
and remember them.
Three of Spades,
Four of Hearts, okay?
So, they are well-shuffled,
aren't they?
Yes, they are.
Okay.
Now, I'm going to go through
here and find two cards
that really are screaming
to me something.
I don't know what,
but they're telling me something.
That's all the story again.
There's two cards in here
that I think are going to
have something to do
with this trick,
and I'm going to pull them out.
So, you've got two cards,
and you've got your
reminder here,
because it's staring right
at you, Three of Spades.
You're going to look
for the opposites
of the two cards
that you've just looked at.
Remember how we had
the exact matching cards?
You're going to look
for the Three of Clubs
and the Four of Diamonds
and take them out of the deck.
They match the top
and bottom cards.
So, you just go through
and say there's something
about two cards in here.
There's one of them.
You can throw it out
face down on the table,
or face up on the table
if you want,
and there's another one in here.
I don't know what it is,
but as soon as I get,
there it is,
you've still got
the Three of Spades
and the Four of Hearts
on top.
Let's find out.
Say I want you to
pick up the deck.
You shuffled it, right?
It's well shuffled,
well cut.
You constantly
reinforce that.
Say what I want you to do
is start dealing.
Put them in a pile
on the table.
Okay.
And stop any time you get
any kind of a sensation
or feeling or whatever.
Now, it makes no difference
where she stops,
as long as she stops
somewhere.
You then pick up
the first one you want
to pick up,
the first marker card
is the one that was
the black Three of Spades.
So, you're going to pick up
the matching card
and say,
all right,
I'm just going to mark
the spot where you stopped.
You stopped right here
for some reason,
as though this position
in the deck
has some significance.
You put that there
and you say,
I want you to throw
the rest of the cards
on top.
Now, look what's happening.
She's throwing the Three of Spades
right on top
of the Three of Clubs.
Now, say,
pick up the square
of the cards all up.
Say, now pick up
the whole stack
and start dealing again.
And she can stop
anywhere she wants.
And then you put,
okay, you want to stop
right there, huh?
Let's put that there.
And then you say,
throw the rest of the cards
on top,
and then she's now
taking the Four of Hearts
and throwing it
right on top
of the Four of Diamonds.
There's nothing more
to be done.
The trick is over.
Tell her to square up
the pack and say,
all we've done now
is taken a shuffle deck.
You went through
and found two spots
and I put my two
marker cards in there
that were telling me
something about this trick,
right?
Would you do me a favor?
Just spread the cards
on the table.
Right?
Anywhere you wanted.
Would you take out
those upside-down cards
and the card
directly above those cards?
The one right next to them
where you stopped.
And here's the Four of Diamonds.
Slide out that one
and the card
directly above it.
And then keep reinforcing.
It was a shuffle deck, right?
That's right.
You stopped
wherever you wanted to.
I simply marked it.
Why in the world
did you stop
at the exact spot
where the matching cards
to the ones that I thought
were screaming at me
matched exactly?
I'll be darned.
Hey, Rowley, are you
much of a gambler?
Oh, with somebody else's money,
maybe.
Oh, okay.
That's a good attitude.
Probably a smart attitude.
What I'd like to do
is take the deck of cards here
and have you take any card
that you like out of the pack
as it goes by there.
All right.
And you can show it
around to everybody, okay?
That's important.
Okay.
Everybody gets a good look at it?
Yep.
Okay.
What I'm going to do
is just shuffle the cards like this
and as I shuffle,
just say stop as I shuffle
and let you throw it in there.
I'll throw the rest on top.
Fair enough?
You bet.
Could anything be fairer than that?
No, I don't think so.
All right.
Now, I'd like you to take the deck
and hold it as though
you were going to deal.
You're not going to deal,
but what I will do
is I'm going to attempt
to find your card invisibly.
Now, what do you think?
I asked you about gambling.
What do you think the odds are
I can find your card invisibly?
Pull it out of the pack.
Pull it over
so it's face up
and stick it back in.
Would that be a good trick
if your card were upside down
on the deck right now?
It certainly would.
It would.
It would amaze me.
It'd be a great trick, wouldn't it?
Yeah, yes.
Okay.
Let me just take the deck
and put it right down here
on the table.
We'll see if anything has happened.
What card did you...
Oh, don't tell me yet.
Let's just see if anything happened.
Wow.
One card upside down on the deck.
Five of hearts.
Thank you, Betty.
Betty.
That's not the card.
Excuse me?
That's not the card.
You didn't take the five of hearts?
Over seven of clubs.
Really?
Seven of clubs, yeah.
Maybe that's a clue.
Maybe if I count down
one, two, three, four,
turn over the fifth card,
we'd find that seven of clubs.
Oh!
And I asked you
if you were a gambling man
because every time I do this trick,
I always end up with
a great poker hand.
Oh!
Oh!
I want you to go with me
to lost hands.
All right, here's a great trick.
It requires a setup.
So you have to have time
to put the four aces
on the bottom of the deck
and directly above the four aces
is an upside down five.
So it's face up
as you look at the face down deck.
So four aces on the bottom,
an upside down five
directly above it.
That goes in the box
and you bring out the deck of cards.
So hey, let me show you something.
I got here a deck of cards
and I'd like you to take
one of them, okay?
Okay.
Same thing as one of the earlier tricks
where you just run through
the cards like this
and don't show the bottom
upside down five, okay?
So you say,
go ahead and take one out Tiffany.
She does so.
Okay.
All right.
She looks at it,
shows everybody else there
and now you transfer the deck
into an overhand shuffle position.
That's the kind of shuffle
where you go like this.
If you don't know that shuffle,
you can also do a cut
where they place the card back there
and then you put the four aces
and the upside down five on top.
So that's okay.
But it looks better
if you can do an overhand shuffle.
Tell them to stop you
anywhere as you shuffle.
When you do the overhand shuffle,
you're only taking cards
off the top.
You're not taking them
off the bottom.
Your arrangement
still stays the same here
with the aces right here
and the upside down five.
So go ahead
and stop me anywhere, okay?
Stop.
Okay.
They throw it right there
and then you just throw
the rest of the pack
right on top.
You've now just added
the four aces directly on top
of her card
and directly above that
is an upside down five.
You now hand them the deck.
The trick's all over.
The rest is presentation.
You say,
wouldn't it be amazing
if I could reach in there
and invisibly take out your card,
flip it over 180 degrees
and slide it back?
Wouldn't that be a great trick?
That would.
I've already done it.
It's done.
Your card's upside down.
They'll look at you
like she's just looking at me
and say,
I don't think so.
Say, yeah, sure,
take a look.
Watch.
As quick as lightning,
I have reversed your card
in the deck
and then sit back,
you know,
look at you and say,
sorry, not my card.
Then you act surprised
and say,
really, it isn't?
Oh, that's embarrassing.
Well, maybe it's a clue.
And now there's
the upside down five
and directly below it
are the four aces.
You say,
maybe it's a clue.
Four.
The fifth card down
from your card
is the six of diamonds.
That's the one you took.
They think that's the end
of the trick.
And they think,
wow, that's pretty cool.
Say, you know,
the best part about this trick
is every time I do it,
I always end up
with a great poker hand.
And I swear they'll think
you're a card sharp
and you didn't do anything
except sell the trick
and make it magical.
A lot of fun.
Hey, you know,
when you're doing card tricks,
one of the things
you want to do
is you want to
pick up the deck
and shuffle them up.
Same thing when you're
playing cards at home.
You can play a little poker game
or a friendly game of bridge,
just like you're always
playing poker
behind the shed at school.
Right, Kendall?
All right.
I hope not.
I'll show you some of the
shuffles you see
quite commonly.
This is the riffle shuffle
where you take half the deck
and you riffle it
into the other half
of the deck like that.
And then there's another
pretty common one
called the overhand shuffle.
And that's where you just sort of
shuffle stacks of cards
into each other.
But here's one you don't
have to shuffle
in this way and some this way
and some that way.
You'd have to be pretty
loaded to do this,
wouldn't you, Kendall?
And of course,
that gives you a real mess
when you look at it
because you end up with
some cards that are
faced-to-back
and some cards
that are back-to-face
and there's probably even
some cards that are
back-to-back.
But if you're really clever,
you could just snap
your fingers like that
and all you do is
you just rearrange them
so that they're all
facing the same direction
just the way they were
when you started,
except for the four
in the middle.
Oh.
All the rest of them.
Amazing.
Amazing.
Amazing.
A great trick
because it looks
like real magic.
You've messed up the cards
the best you possibly could
and yet a magical ending
happens and here's how it works.
You start out with a deck
that's already prepared.
There are four aces
on top of the deck, okay?
They don't know that
and it doesn't matter
because you're going
to shuffle the deck.
You explain about the
different kinds of shuffles.
You say,
the one that you see
is called a riffle shuffle
and you demonstrate.
Always make sure
that the aces
which are on top
get shuffled last.
That way you apparently
shuffle the deck pretty well
but the aces stay on top.
So say that's called
a riffle shuffle.
Then there's something
called an overhand shuffle.
You might have seen that.
Now, you're simply going to do
what I did in the last trick
is you're going to
take off cards
one, two, three, four.
There go the four aces now.
Those are the first ones
you shuffle
but you actually count
them like that
and once you've got
the four aces
then you can continue
to shuffle them
the regular overhand shuffle.
You've now got the four aces
on the bottom.
It's very easy to do.
Four aces on the top.
Simply get counted
one at a time.
One, two, three, four
and then you shuffle
and you've transferred
them to the bottom.
So now you've apparently
done two very fair shuffles
and you've got your aces
on the bottom
and that's where you want them
when you go into
the drunk shuffle.
And this is really clever.
I'll do it slowly
so you can see what happens.
This really looks like
you're messing up the cards.
Doesn't it?
When I do that?
Watch what's actually
happening here.
I'm going to show you
when I do that.
Watch what's actually
happening when I do that.
Let me put them back in order.
The hand that's holding
the deck, the right hand
is all it's doing
is it stays in position
and deals off cards like this.
That's its total job
is it deals off cards.
The left hand does
all the turning
or if you're left handed
just switch this around.
Deal off a bunch of cards
and then flip the left hand over
and put them right on top
and then deal off
a bunch more cards.
And then flip the left hand
over again,
put them right on top
and deal off a bunch
more cards.
And then do the
keep doing this.
Now if you look and examine
what's happened
all the face up cards
just stay together
and all the face up
face down cards
stay together.
So you're really
just dividing the deck
into two equal halves.
Some face up, some face down.
Now when you get
right to the bottom
you have to kind of
you have to sort of
spread the bottom cards
because you want the last
four cards to be separate.
So when you turn over
the last time
the only cards that go
upside down on top
of the face up cards
are the four aces.
So actually if you look
at this I'm going to
spread it.
All of the cards
here are face down.
All the cards here
are face up
with the four aces
the only backwards ones
in the whole arrangement.
So you slop those down
on the top at the end
and then you just square
the whole thing up.
And again now
I'll examine the deck
so you can see
there's all the face up cards
there's all the face down
cards on the bottom
and the four aces
are right over here on top.
So now all you have to do
is say now these cards
are really mixed up.
I cut down deep into the deck
and you say look
some of the cards
are back to face.
Well I'm just cutting
and opening the deck.
And you'll have one down
and one up.
So you say some of the cards
are back to face
and then I put it back
and say now I cut
shallow in the deck
and some of the cards
are face to back.
Well still you're just
cutting in two separate
places of the deck.
And now you want to find
the place where the
two halves meet.
And usually the cards
will naturally sort of
separate at that place.
And as soon as you find
two that are back to back
like this.
And because of the bend
the natural bend in cards
the deck sort of has
a nice bow to it
you'll find that just by
kind of hunting for it
and that's okay.
Say somewhere in here
there's probably cards
that are back to back.
So now you spread it open
there and instead of
putting it back
the way you found it
when you spread it open
you let this half go back.
So you're in effect
now you're reversing
the upside down cards
and putting them back
in order.
And now you can simply
put it on the table
and spread it
and they're all
face down
and the only cards
that are wrong
or face up
are the four aces
right in the middle.
And that's the whole thing.
You're going to have
to play the tape
sit with a deck of cards
in your hand
because it's hard to
just look at it
to see it
and do exactly as I'm doing
as you're looking at the tape
and you'll see
just how it works.
There you go
give it a try
play the tape again
and follow with
I'm going to tell you a story
I don't know
if you're going to believe it
but if you take those Manuel
and just give them a shuffle
mix them up
a good gambler
a good card sharp
should be able to determine
one card from another
simply by the feel of it.
I know I could literally
touch the card
and tell whether
it's a face card
or a five or a nine
simply because
cards have more ink
than other cards.
A kick of club
has more than a two of clubs
I know that sounds
far-fetched
but someone who really
has a fine ten cents
it does doesn't it?
We're going to see
I've been working on
four cards
no way could I do
52 different cards
but I've got four cards
I think down pretty well
and those would be
what do you guess
I might be practicing on?
The aces?
Yeah how do you know?
You shuffle these
to your heart's content?
You're happy they're mixed?
Would you take those Peggy?
I put them in my jack
because I want you
to shove those
in my inside coat pocket
make sure there's nothing
in there by the way
absolutely nothing
okay
and I'm going to try
and reach in there
and find the aces okay
anybody have a favorite ace?
Chloe do you have
a favorite ace?
Ace of diamonds
Ace of diamonds
okay she's going to
make me work
watch empty hand
reach in the pocket
see if I can't find
the ace of diamonds
a little hard
red ink weighs
a little bit less
than black ink
I think I might have it
do I have it?
How about you Roly?
Do you have a favorite ace?
I like the ace of clubs
ace of clubs huh?
Okay let's see if I can
find that one
that's a
you know that has those
round edges on the clothing
I think I might
have it here
I'm not sure
oh I did
how about you Maggie?
You have a favorite one?
Ace of spades
Ace of spades
that's easy
that's got a lot of
ink on it
I'll just reach in here
and see if I can't
find the ace of spades
I think I got it
yes
bingo one left
that's the ace of hearts
the one closest to my heart
I think I got it
yeah there it is
and there it is
did you reach inside?
that's great
that's great
did you reach inside?
oh my
and they're all
going from that deck
thank you very much
thank you
that's good
this is a great trick
and will really
make them think
that you have
skills as a card sharp
and it couldn't be easier
when you see
the explanation
if you haven't figured out
most people haven't
when they see it
the first time
here's a secret
the deck of course
is shuffled
and you can
see it
and you can see it
and you can see it
the deck of course
is shuffled
freely shuffled
the reason you can
pull the aces out
because they were
never in the deck
from the start
you had them
out of the deck
and this requires
certain wardrobe
requirements
to do this trick
you need to be
wearing a men's jacket
or a woman's jacket
a blazer
and you also have
to have a shirt
with a pocket
right here
because the cards
are in your shirt
pocket
right next to your
breast pocket
and that's where
you put the deck
and they're quite happy
that they're
well shuffled
you say okay
and you open
your jacket like this
and tell somebody
to reach in
your breast pocket
and place the deck
in there
you should make
a point to have
them check
and make sure
there's nothing in there
so they don't think
you have duplicate
aces of any kind
let them freely
drop them in
you should make
a point that
they put them in
with the faces
of the cards
facing out
because that way
it's easy
for me to
remember what
the aces of the cards
are
alright now
I'm going to see
if I can find them
the rest is all
presentation
now there is one thing
I put the aces
in a certain sequence
you might come up
with any sequence
you like
but I like to put
the heart
closest to my heart
the most obvious card
is the ace of spades
so I have that one
on the outside
meaning the one
closest to the audience
the heart closest to
my heart
and then I just
keep the other two
it's easy for me
to remember
what sequence they're in
and then I simply ask
for your favorite ace
and it's usually
the ace of spades
or the ace of hearts
for some reason
and so you know
it's going to be
the top or the bottom
card as they're
in your pocket
so give me a card
ace of hearts
I know it's
the closest one to me
I simply
go into my pocket
you have to make it
look like you're
going into the
breast pocket
that's very easy to do
because they're
side by side
but don't let this
flare open
and see if I can
find it
and then it's all
presentation say yeah
I think I got it
sure enough it is
give me another one
ace of diamonds
ace of diamonds
well now I know
that's closest to my body
because I took out
the ace of hearts
so I find the ace
of diamonds
ace of spades
that's the one
closest to you
so I pull out
the top one
and there we go
and then you say
ace of clubs
and you do all
the business
about the black ink
being heavier
than the red ink
and then looking
freely
make sure there's
nothing in there
and say go ahead
make sure the aces
aren't in the deck
and they can
examine everything
of course
the four aces
aren't in there
and they think
you're a
bloody wizard
I'm now going to
show you
a very useful
tool
or principle
that is used
in the next
two tricks
it's called
the use of
a key card
actually you got
a little glimpse
of it
and the very first trick
is to use
two decks
if you remember
in that particular
trick
I had noted
the bottom card
of the deck
and then we
place the bottom
card on top
of another card
and that became
my marker
for finding your
card when I picked
up the deck
and went through
that's actually
the use of
a key card
now I'll show you
how you use it
in the next
three tricks
the key card
is always
the bottom card
and you find it
gives you
a perfect shot
at the key card
you'll be able
to see
as they shuffle
see how she squares it
the queen of diamonds
now I know
the bottom card
is the queen of diamonds
and I'm all set
I don't have to
do anything suspicious
if that doesn't happen
you can say
alright good
and in fact
boy those are
really well
shuffled too
now I'm looking
at the upside down
deck
and I'm seeing
the bottom card
everything has to
have a reason
and of course
let's square
them up like that
set it down
I've now
glimpsed the key card
and one other way
do you mind if
I give it a shuffle
sure
okay just give it
one last shuffle
like that
and you just note
which one of these
cards is going to
go down first
and it's the
queen of clubs
and say great
now they're
really well shuffled
lots of different
ways to get it
they all have
logical reasons
and here's a trick
using the
key card
principle
here's a question
for Andy
are you a
betting man
a little bit
yeah you take a
good wager
every now and then
sure
if the odds are
alright
like in your
favor maybe
that's a good
philosophy
I want you to
take the deck
if you would
give them a
little mix up
and while you
do that I'll
let everybody
else know
I like to
take a good
bet every now
and then too
so we'll see
I want you to
cut the deck
anywhere you like
just cut off
any amount
and look at
the cards you
cut to
alright just
show it to
everybody
I'm going to
turn my back
so I can't
see it
place it on
the other stack
okay and now
complete the cut
so it's lost
there somewhere
alright now I
didn't see it
you shuffle
the deck
cut anywhere you
want
give it one or
two single cuts
now there's
ways that I can
do that
you see you've
touched one card
in the deck
more than
any other card
and that was
the one you
took out
and got some
of your
body heat
into it
you also might
have put
a fingerprint
on there
that I can spot
plus I think
maybe ESP
is going to
be working
in my favor
here so
we'll see
now I don't
want you to
get a
fingerprint
are you
concentrating
try it
I'd be willing to
wager
right now Andy
the next card
I turn over
is your card
oh I'd
take that bet
you would
yep
that worries me
you'd bet
the dollar
sure
really
yep
well good
because the
next card
I would turn over
would be that
seven of clubs
right there
would I be
wow
good
thank you
give me a
buck pal
I'll take
a handshake
instead
okay
very good
now I'm going
to show you
how the trick
works
that I just
showed you
and it uses
the key card
principle
so we have
Tiffany shuffle
the cards
whatever method
best suits you
for glimpsing
the key card
I know it's
the queen of clubs
so here's
the deck
and many different
ways it can
be inserted
we can do it
this way
where I do
the overhand shuffle
and stop me
anywhere if you like
stop
okay throw it
in there
and there goes
the queen of clubs
right on top
okay and now
at this point
by the way
you can actually
cut the deck
and have it
cut again
that does not
disturb the
arrangement of
the cards
you can't shuffle
the cards
they will
always be
next to
the card
that she selected
it's possible
you could
pick it up
and the queen
of clubs
might be
on the bottom
and if that's
the case
then you know
they've been
separated
but her card
is then
on top
and that's
the only time
they would
actually be
separated
otherwise
they'll still
remain together
okay now
the card
is now
you're looking
for the queen
of clubs
you know
that the next
card after
the queen of
clubs is
her card
you tell her
not to tell
you anything
because you're
supposed to
find it
by looking
for the
fingerprint
or the
warmth of
the card
it's down
here deep
in the
deck
the longer
you go
because
if she's shown
that card
to everybody
they all
know you
passed it
but that's
why you've
reinforced
and said
don't tell me
if you
see your
card
I'm gonna
find it
and then
you stop
at this one
and say
the next
card I turn
over is
your card
of course
you know
it's that one
right there
you know
when it comes to
matters of the heart
I've got kind of
a soft spot
in my heart
for card tricks
actually it's
a bit of a
murmur
a touch of
gas actually
but I like to
do a trick
involving the
heart and
actually the
pulse
if you would Maggie
I'd like you
first to shuffle
the cards
and you'll see
what I mean
this incorporates
some of the
actual changes
physical changes
that happens
all right
but not that we're
gonna try to
find out if Maggie's
lying that's not
the purpose
what I'd like to
have happen here
you see that
they're well
shuffled right
okay Maggie
what I'd like you
to do is just
we'll spread the
card somewhere
just draw
the card
anywhere that
you like
from anywhere
in the pack
then you shuffle
great
I'll pick up
the rest of it
and what I
wanna do now
is just shuffle
okay fair enough
good now I said this
has to do with
matters of the heart
what we're gonna do
is spread the deck
like this
try and expose
as many of the
cards as we can
if you'd hold
your hand out
in a fist
yeah and just
to point your
finger out
yeah good
now I'm gonna
take your pulse
and you're
gonna tell me
which card
you've selected
just by the
change in your
bodily function
your heart will
start to beat
a little more
yeah
where your card
is I'm gonna
move it along
the spread here
and just feel
if I can feel
anything change
your eyes
are closed
yes
okay I'm
not feeling
anything
oops a little
skipped beat in
here
starting to
oh it's
starting to
speed up
don't open
your eyes yet
I'm feeling
I'm gonna
come down
here and touch
one card
don't say
the queen of
spades
open your
eyes
the heart
never lies
oh
how did
you do that
how did
you do that
I had
nothing to do
with it
it was all
in the heart
the secret to this
trick again
lies in the
key card
so have the
deck
shuffled
mixed up
and spot the
bottom card
in this case
the ten of
diamonds
the two of
spades
you stop me
somewhere and
throw it in
right along
next to the
ten of
diamonds
now
when you
spread the
cards face up
on the
table
you'll know
that the
ten of
diamonds is
directly
below
her card
as you're
looking at
the cards now
face up
let's find the
ten of
diamonds
your heartbeat
changes even with
you not looking at
the card
and then you
pretend as you
start getting
over here
oops I felt the
skip of the
beat
oh now it's
starting to
speed up
I'm going to
come down on
one card
tell them to
keep their
eyes closed
put it on the
two of
spades
drag that one
out
and ask them
what their
card was
what was it Tiffany
hey I'd
like to try an
experiment in
sort of
premonition and
predicting the
future
but I'm going to
use a bunch of
you want to
participate
make something
interesting having
it'll be me
it'll be Carrie
it'll be Rob
and it'll be
Anne
maybe Steve too
we'll see
what I want to
do first is have
somebody shuffle
a deck of
cards so
Anne if you
would you shovel
I'll try
do a couple
all right
are they mixed
you can cut them
if you like
just to make sure
there are no
order and as
long as you're
happy
all right
good
now here's what
I'm going to do
I'm going to
take the deck
you just
shuffled
and spread it out
on the
table like
this
Anne I
want you to
look at the
whole stack
here
and you can
thumb through
if you like
you can
put
cards as
I suggest
so pull
one out
leave it face
down just
draw it
aside
don't look
at it
great
I'm going to
take a little peek
I'm going to
be cheating
now we're
going to
write down
the five
of hearts
it's important
to keep
a log
here
Steve you
want to
help here
you guys
are doing
very well
all right
five of
diamonds
Rob you
two want to
play
yes all
right
now are you
getting a
sense of
a card
or are you
just
grabbing for
anyone
they're
not playing
well
Rob actually
see if
you can
get any
vibes from
one of
these cards
stay
red I'm
going to
go all
red
we'll go
for
ten
of hearts
ten of
hearts
okay
okay
that's
how you
did
ooh all
right
and I'll
even try
one here
how about
the
ooh I'm
going to
go for
an ace
yeah I'm
going to
what are
the odds
of getting
one out of
the five
if you would
Steve
you call
those off
I'm going to
take the
five cards
we got
and see if
we got
any of
them right
okay what's
the first
one you
see there
five of
hearts
oh well we
got lucky
we did
get one
hey fabulous
what's next
ace
and what do you know
that's the one
I got
yours yours yours yours
hey
what do you know
a hundred percent
well this
clever trick works on a
very well known and
much appreciated
principle
in the magic business
called the one head
system
and I'm going to show you
how that works
of course you start
with your
pad of paper
and your pencil
or pen on the
table
and then have
these
well shuffled
it can be a
borrowed deck of
cards there's
no preparation
ahead of time
it would be
anybody's
deck and of
course the
pencil and paper
are legitimate
too there's
nothing a trick
about them
once they're
shuffled all you
have to do is
note the
bottom card
and here's how
you do that in
a very
unsuspicious
fashion after
shuffled say
boy you
really shuffled
out seeing
it it's
sort of a
thought projection
or it's
trying to
figure out
see if
inanimate
objects can
send
vibes or
whatever kind of
story you
want to
create and
basically the
way I've
spread them out
I've just
sort of
made a
big circle
of cards by
spreading from
the top
down but
it's very
easy for
anybody
to
figure out
if you
would Tiffany
just reach in
and drag out
of there what
could possibly
be let's just
randomly come
let's get a
low card like
the two
of diamonds
or I just
pull out any
card that could
be the two
of diamonds
now you've
just said the
card that's
on the
bottom of
the deck and
when they
look at that
or when
you think and
I've just
noted the
seven of
hearts so what
I've said is
you've
reached in to
get the
two of
diamonds I'll
tell you what
we'll do we'll
keep a
log here two
of diamonds and
you write
down the
card that you
know is still
on the
bottom of
the deck and
say okay now
let's
see let's
stay red I
like the
color red so
she pulls
one out and
then you
casually look at
it and this
one is the
seven of
diamonds right okay
we place the
seven diamonds
there you
just say well
okay this
is an
interesting
experiment and
of course
you write
down the
card that
she pulled
out which
was the
seven of
hearts over
here and
then the
next card
you're
on
let's
have someone
else take
out the
next card and
I like the
red and
I like the
middle of
the road we'll
go to
hey why
don't we go
for a
matching
card seven
of
diamonds okay and
somebody pulls
that out and
you look at
it now it's
the
jack of
diamonds you
say okay
well we're
going to
the
how about the
we'll go a
little higher the
jack of
diamonds of
course that's the
last card that
was pulled
out and in
doing that I
said I'm
going to go
really low let's
find one that's
kind of
buried in
here you're
not telling you
you're going for
the bottom
card in the
deck which
is right
there and you
know that's
the two of
diamonds you're
saying it's
good
and you
give this over to
somebody and say well
we've each
pulled out a
card why don't
you read
them off if we
get one out of
four that's
pretty good and
then of
course the
rest is just
plopping them
down two of
diamonds as you
got seven
of hearts seven
of diamonds and
jack of
diamonds the
trick is
done and
you're
always one ahead
that's why it's
called the
cards everybody
can remember their
card and you
don't have to have
them read off you
just say what
card did you
say oh the
four of
diamonds you said
the seven of
diamonds you said
the king of
hearts and you
just plopped
them down as
everybody calls
out their
card and they're
all mixed up and
they don't
really know what
sequence they're
coming out so
you can do it
actually with as
many cards as
you want just
everybody call
up on
one
of your
jones
okay
Kyrie
would you
do
love to
read I got a
deck of cards here and
I'm gonna give
them a bit of
a shuffle here and
mix them
all up before
we get
started and
I'm gonna have
you take
one okay so
here's what
we're gonna
What card? What number? What number? How about 13?
13. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13.
Now we shuffled the deck. We wanted to get a random number. You set a random number.
I don't want you to think that in any way, shape, or form I might have missed a card.
It has to be exactly 13, so just please verify that. Count them for me in a pile.
It has to be exactly... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13.
Okay, so I didn't teach you out of a card or anything, right? No.
Turn over the top card, take a peek at it, show it to everybody.
All right, okay, go look at it. All right, show it around to everybody.
You all see it? Okay, now put it back.
And now we're going to square up everything and we're done with the cards.
Okay, so now you have a card in mind. I told you I made a prediction.
No envelope, nothing like that in sight. So where's my prediction?
I have it in my pocket. It's actually a photograph.
A photograph of me holding your card.
No way. No way. No way. No way.
If I take it out and it's me holding your card, wouldn't that be a good trick?
That would be a good trick, Larry.
Me holding your card.
All right. Let's hear it for Larry.
You don't like it, do you? I'm sorry, I really cheated.
This would look a lot better if you were seeing it from the other side, probably, wouldn't it?
Yeah, well, let's just turn around. We'll let you see it from the other side.
How's that for me? Your card, the Six of Diamonds.
Well, this is a very novel way to reveal a chosen card rather than just having it selected,
put back in the deck, and then having it appear in a prediction envelope.
Even that, though, is pretty good, but just pulling it out of the deck somewhere
and having it appear. The photograph thing is quite fun and everybody enjoys it.
Obviously, you decide what card you want to force them to take.
I think for the purposes of doing a picture of the card,
it's good to pick a number card instead of a face card because in a small picture,
the card is diminished from its actual size and you want it to really show.
So, you know, a six or a low card of an H or something like that, which is easily discernible
in a photograph as opposed to, as I said, a picture card. No pun intended.
Now, you can use one of those cheapy disposable cameras, which this is, you know,
you buy them and you shoot them, take them in for developing and throw it away.
Or if you've got a Polaroid, it'll work. Or if you've got a nice camera, whatever,
just get yourself a picture. Just some notes on the picture is,
you know, I think it's best on the first one where you say me holding your card,
that you see your face. So, you should have your face smiling as though,
haha, I found your card, you know, and you're holding the back of the card.
And then have the surprise be the back of your head holding the card.
So, anyway, you start out with this in your pocket and you want to make sure that
it's in such a fashion that when you pull it out, it's not this way.
So, make sure you know which way you've got it in your pocket, wherever it is.
Now, the preparation of the deck is that you've got the force card,
the six of diamonds on top of the deck, and you're all ready to go.
So, the routine, as you saw in the presentation, is to have the card selected in a random way.
And we do this with a force. This one is the count force.
Because you can start out with the six of diamonds on top and, again,
do what we call a false shuffle, simply looking like you're shuffling the cards,
which you are, but you're still maintaining on top that six of diamonds.
But it psychologically tells the people the cards are really well mixed.
You've got your six on top and then you say,
I'm gonna count down in this shuffle deck now any number of cards you want me to.
So, you give me the number from 1 to 52.
Usually, they know that you're, they're gonna have to wait for you to count them.
So, they'll give you a sort of low number.
But if they give you 45, you go with it. Give me, give me a number.
Seven.
Seven. So, you go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
Now, it's very important that this is your number and I haven't cheated you in any fashion.
Put the rest of the deck aside. Now, where is the six of diamond?
It's the first card that hit the table, right?
Okay, that's the card you're gonna force them.
Just track where it is during this procedure.
Now, it's really important that I haven't cheated you any cards and I counted correctly.
So, just to verify, you said seven, right?
And this is your number you selected.
It's a shuffle deck.
Just make sure that I haven't cheated you.
Go ahead, count down.
Make sure there's in fact seven cards there.
And of course, now where is the six of diamonds?
It's right back where it was on top of the pile.
Say, great.
So, you've randomly selected any card.
I want you to turn over the top card, take a look at it, show it to everybody.
It's so simple, it makes me laugh just explaining it.
But it really is confusing.
They look at that and then you just bury it in the deck.
You say, we're all done with the deck.
All I wanted to do is get a random card.
And now, isn't this gonna be an impossibility if I tell you
that I have in my pocket a prediction of the card that you just selected?
They go, oh yeah, right, sure.
Say, no, no.
Not only is it a prediction, it's better than a prediction.
It's a photograph of me holding your card.
And play the presentation, see how I sell that.
And say, no, really it is.
You reach in your pocket and say, here it is, a photograph of me holding your card.
And of course, it gets the big groans and they think that's the end of it.
You're pulling their leg and say, yeah, well, it is kind of a cheat, isn't it?
Yeah, it'd probably look a lot better if you could see it from the other side,
wouldn't it?
And you get them to agree and say, all right, well,
then we'll let you see it from the other side.
And then when you turn it around, of course, you get the punch of having found their card.
So, you can carry this around with you and do it at any time
as long as you get your hands on the deck and put the six of diamonds on top.
You're now in possession of one of the most interesting decks of cards
that you'll ever run across.
In the Magic Fraternity, it's known as a Svengali deck.
Don't know where it got the name, but it's kind of an interesting sounding title
and describes a very interesting deck of cards.
Upon examination of the Svengali deck, I'm going to spread it here on the table.
You will notice that there are half the deck, all the same, alternating.
Five of hearts, every other card.
So, it's a jack and a five, a six and a five,
a regular card and a five all the way through the deck.
That always remains the same.
And the way you can keep it the same is simply by either cutting the deck
as many times as you want.
Anytime you cut the deck, it still remains the same sequence.
It'll still be always an alternating sequence.
You can also shuffle the deck, and I'll show you that in just a moment.
You have to be a little careful on that, but not too careful,
and it still stays in the same sequence.
The real secret, other than the fact that every other card is a five,
lies in the fact that I'll peel off two of those cards,
an ordinary card and a five.
The five is right behind it here.
The five is a little bit shorter than the card next to it.
So, all of the ordinary cards are the same length,
and all the fives are the same length,
but the fives are shorter than the ordinary cards
by about a 64th of an inch.
But you'll see that I can peel away the top card behind it quite easily,
because my finger touches the longer card behind it.
This allows you to do many amazing things.
First of all, when you riffle the cards like this,
they'll all look to be ordinary cards,
because your thumb is touching the long cards.
And as you flip the cards like this, you're actually dropping two cards.
Behind every one of those long, ordinary cards,
a five is flipping with it.
So, you're actually flipping two cards.
So, if anybody were to stick their finger in this...
Tiffany, would you come over here?
As I go like this, would you stick your finger in anywhere in the deck as I do that?
Go ahead.
She will now have her finger on top of a five.
Go ahead and draw it out, because they'll always get a five.
They'll always get the top short card as you're going through.
Here's the five right here.
Okay.
Now, if you put it back in the same spot,
the cards are still in the same order.
Reach into it another time.
Every one of those cards on top will be a five.
Okay, there it is again.
So, that makes it kind of fun when you know the card
they're going to take out of the deck every single time.
Go ahead and take another one, if you would.
Great. She'll get the five again.
All right.
So, if you play with your deck of cards, you'll see that that's the case.
Now, there's another nice way to do that.
If you hold the cards as I'm holding it like this,
you can let them fall in your hand.
That shows the full face of the cards.
You can practice this.
It takes a little bit of practice,
but you'll finally get where you can just let them drop.
They sort of spring out of your hand into the lower hand,
and you just catch them there.
That's a nice way to let somebody take a card
if you don't want to use the finger method.
Go ahead and take one after it falls down.
You have to always tell them, take it after it falls.
And, of course, she'll get the five.
And then, make sure it goes back in the same spot.
So, that's a way you can have it selected.
Now, interestingly, if you flip the deck over
and you were to take the one ordinary card on the bottom,
move it to the top, keeping the sequence the same,
now you can run them this way,
and they'll all appear to be fives,
because your hand is still touching,
your finger's still touching the long cards.
But now, you're dropping a short card on top
of the long cards,
looking at it from the other direction.
So, you'll get fives this way,
and then, if you go the other way,
that's when you get the ordinary cards.
A very weird thing, I think.
It allows you to do many tricks,
and some of them I'll be showing you any second here.
There's one other thing you can do,
is if you just tap the cards like this,
you can now shuffle, too.
You'll be dropping two cards each time you do this,
and you'll still be an alternating
arrangement of cards.
You'll have to actually experiment with your own deck,
they're still alternating.
So, that allows you to take a deck that's
every other card a five, and still shuffle them,
and still have them in the same order.
And cutting as many times as you want
still keeps it the same sequence.
You've got a lot of versatility with the deck.
There's one other very neat thing you can do before I move on,
and that is you can change one card quite easily
into another one, and it happens very magically.
Remember, you've got a long card
second from the top,
and the fives generally, every time you cut a deck,
as long as you riffle like that,
and cut the deck, you'll always get a five on top.
Watch, there's a five,
riffle the cards, because remember,
that's where you would stick your finger, and you'd get a five.
So, if you use the same method to cut the deck,
you'll always have a five on top of the deck.
So, you start with a five on top,
just by cutting it,
and now you say, watch, I'm going to show you the top card.
Now, what you do is you grab it
lightly at the ends,
with your thumb and another finger,
and if you just pick up what you feel,
you'll actually be picking up two cards,
because you're picking up the long card.
It's quite amazing. They just come in pairs.
So, you say, watch, I'm going to show you the top card.
You can give it a little bend, if you want, outwards,
that holds them together, and say,
there's the Queen of Spades, or you can bend it inwards,
whichever is most comfortable, but when you pick it up,
it's usually easier to bend it outwards,
because it's already sort of bent that way,
as you're sort of prying it up off the deck.
In other ways, did you take that card?
Of course you didn't. You took the Five of Hearts.
You say, oh, you didn't take the Queen?
Put it right back on top of the deck,
then slide it off and put it on the table.
Now you've slid off the Five of Hearts.
They still think it's the Queen.
You say, you didn't take the Queen, huh?
Well, just rub it like that. Go ahead.
Yeah, rub off a few of those spots,
and now it's turned into the Five of Hearts,
so it makes a very magical change.
Hey, I got a trick I like to call Somebody Stop Me.
Let's see why.
It involves two people, and you're both going to stop me.
Actually, it'll be Peggy and it'll be Manuel, okay?
First, we're going to get Peggy to stop me, okay?
Because what I'm going to do, Peggy,
is riffle the cards like this, and when I'm riffling,
you might want to yell stop anywhere that you want, okay?
Okay. Stop.
Okay, look at the cards you said stop,
okay?
Pass it around, put it back there,
and we bury it back inside, okay?
And now I'm going to take the deck,
mix it in there somewhere.
So you saw the card, and everybody else saw it.
You stopped anywhere you wanted, right?
And give it a cut or two, like this.
And now, Manuel, it's your turn to stop me, okay?
Okay.
Here's how we're going to do this.
I'm going to start to deal the cards in a pile.
They're well shuffled. You stopped anywhere you want.
I want you to yell stop whenever you want to, okay?
Stop.
Okay.
You could have stopped me at this card right here,
the Five of Spades.
You could have stopped me earlier at this card,
the King of Spades, but you stopped me right there, didn't you?
Yep. What card did you take, Peggy?
Five of Hearts.
I wonder how he knew when to stop me exactly at your card.
Whoa!
Good!
Somebody stop me!
The explanation for this trick is really quite simple.
Of course, it involves the Svengali deck
and two people that are both going to stop me.
The trick's called Somebody Stop Me,
but before we get into it, let me explain that the usual
arrangement for the Svengali deck is to have the key card on top.
You can always do that by simply
riffle-cutting the deck,
and then you've got your key card on top
and a regular card on the bottom,
because frequently people are seeing the regular
card on the bottom as you're handling the deck,
and you don't want those two cards on the top.
So you're going to have to do that.
You're going to put the card on the bottom as you're handling the deck,
and you don't want the five to be showing,
because that's the one they're going to take.
So get the five on top, and that means then
that every other card is a five,
so all of the odd cards in the deck,
if you were counting from the top, are fives.
The even ones are regular cards.
So there's one, two, three, four, etc.
So now, we'll get into the trick.
You can have it shuffled at the top,
or you can shuffle it rather,
make sure that people believe that it's well mixed.
And you say, okay, here's a great trick.
What you want to have happen is to have you select a card.
Okay. And here's another way to have somebody
select a card while we're at it.
If you riffle the cards, and just let them spring from your hands,
okay, you're ahead of me,
the fives will be the cards
that land, because you're still dropping
two cards each time you do that.
So you can let them stop you. Now it's your turn.
Stop. Okay.
And that'll be a five. So you let them take that out,
look at it, show it to their friends.
So that's the first stop, and tell them to put it back.
They're going to get the five, and then you can let these
riffle back on top and say, okay, you've got a card.
Now we're going to see if we can find it
in a magical way. In fact, let's shuffle them again
so that there's no way that I can know where it is.
And the cards still stay in order.
You're going to stop me now.
You explain that you're going to deal cards on the table in a pile,
and I want you to yell stop. Now, when you
start dealing, begin counting to yourself
so you know where you are in the deck.
So I'm going to start counting in my head.
Actually, I'll count it out. So Brad, stop me anywhere.
One, two, three,
four, five, six,
seven, eight. Now, he stopped me on an even number.
I know the next one to come is a five of hearts.
So I'll say, great.
I'm going to put that next card aside.
You could have stopped me anywhere. You could have stopped me
right here, but you didn't. Now, I can show them this one's
an ordinary card, because it is.
And I can also show this one. You could have stopped me over here,
but you stopped me right here.
And that is, of course,
the five of hearts.
There's one other scenario that could have happened.
When Brad stopped me, he stopped me
on the eight, and I put the ninth card aside.
Had he stopped me on, say,
an odd card, I could have just said,
okay, what was your card?
And you would have said five of hearts, and immediately
turned over the card on the table.
And, of course, that would have been the five of hearts.
So it's either the next card when he stops you
on an even one, or it's the card
you just dealt, which is the odd one sitting on the table.
And that makes it very magical,
because you can't lose no matter where they
stop you.
Hey, how'd you like to see a card trick?
Great, I got one all set for you.
It involves, guess what, a deck of cards.
Hey, how clever. I need a volunteer, though,
to come up and sit on my hot seat here.
So who's that going to be? I bet Karen will.
Thank you for volunteering. Let's give her a big round of applause.
Have a seat here, Karen, if you would.
What I'm going to have you do is take one card out of my deck of cards.
Okay? And here's how we'll do that.
I'll just run it through my hands like this, and just take one as it falls down.
Okay? Got one?
Okay, good. Show it to everybody. I don't want to know what it is.
Because you're going to send me a picture of it
mentally. Put it back on the deck.
I'm going to now lose it somewhere in the pack.
We're all done with those. You and I will try some
mental telepathy now.
I want you to send me an image, an actual picture
of that card, and I'll see if I can't pick it up as it's floating
around here in space, okay? So concentrate
good and hard. Send it to me, okay? Concentrate on your
card.
Okay, you concentrating on it?
Okay, I'm not getting anything. Concentrate on it.
You got it?
No, no, I'm not getting anything. Really hard. I want to see some
real concentration. No, I said concentrate,
not constipate. Okay, okay.
Concentrate. Concentrating on it?
I don't know. I'm sorry.
It's just not working here. You're supposed to be...
You are concentrating on your card. Yep.
Wait a minute. I have an idea.
Stand up for just a second.
We'll see if you have been actually concentrating
on your card. What do you know?
What is the card you took, Karen?
Five of hearts. Oh, she was concentrating on it.
What do you know? I'll be darned.
There's the five of hearts. Thank you very much, Karen.
Silly me.
All right, this trick is a lot of fun
because it gets into a whole different presentation.
It's not just pick a card. Now, I find it
involves another person and some humor
and some staging
and actually is a great deal
of fun. It uses, of course,
your Svengali deck. Now, you want to have the Svengali deck
set in its normal position
with the key card, the five of hearts, in this case
with this deck, on top. The first thing you want to do
is get the deck out of the box
before you call your volunteer.
So you take it out and say,
Tiffany, would you help me
with this trick? Come on up here and give her a round of applause
and that kind of covers it. Or if there's not a lot of people
and nobody to applaud, then you say, just come up
if you would. Have a seat right here. And what you do
is you simply
deal the card right off underneath
her bottom as she sits down as though
you're trying to help her adjust the chair.
I'm going to give you a close-up shot. If you'd stand up
again, Tiffany, you'll see the five is already
there. I'll give you a shot from the
side angle as this were happening.
Tiffany would be coming from over there now
and say, Tiffany, could you come up and help me
have a seat right over here? Great. Okay, good.
And just before she sits down, you just
deal it underneath. And it's just a matter of,
one more time, it's just a matter of
just kind of toss. It's not a big
sweeping motion. It's just a little
push of the card off the deck.
And depending upon
how big the bottom is on the person,
it's probably going to be pretty well concealed.
So you've got that now loaded
underneath. And we'll turn this
around front so Tiffany is sitting on a
five. We'll give you one of those.
And at that point,
you've got the rest of the deck here
ready for someone to take a card. You say, here's what we're
going to do. We'll have you take one out. You shuffle it.
And you do all the things
to lose it in the pack. And
at that point, you say, we're done
with the pack. Everybody's
seen your card. You've got the
name of it. The rest is presentation.
Hey, how many people
believe in limitation? Yeah.
Lighter than air. All right. We're going to see if we can
make something become lighter than air.
Manuel, will you help me with this? Yes. All right.
I'm going to take the deck of cards and give them a quick shuffle.
Then I want you to take a card simply by shoving
your finger in the deck somewhere and just drag one
out. Okay. You got one? Pull it out.
Show it to everybody so they can see it.
All right. And I'll
put it right back here. Okay. And I'll
cover it up in there. And then we'll give it one more quick shuffle
just to mix it up and lose it in the pack
somewhere. Okay? And then a quick cut.
All right. Now I'm going to see if I can find
your card in a levitation
type fashion. Okay?
Tell me the name of your card. Five heart.
Okay. Watch. We rub my finger here. I get
a little bit of static electricity. And watch.
One, two,
three. And there's
your card. Wow.
Cool. It rose right out of the deck. Now watch.
I'm going to take the five. We'll place it back on top.
Cut it back into the center of the deck somewhere.
We'll try it again but make it a little more
difficult for me by covering it all up with a
handkerchief like this. Okay?
Now a little more static electricity here on
my arm. Let's see that five of hearts.
One, two,
three.
Whoa. Whoa. Come back here.
Whoa.
Let's see if I got it.
Wow.
That's good.
This clever trick is really great because it gives
a very nice way to
reveal a chosen
card in a very magical way.
Of course being a Svengali deck you know that no
matter what card they take it's going to be
your key card. In my case the five of hearts. So you
shuffle it, have it mixed back in the deck
and of course you know the five is going to be on top
and you're ready to do the presentation.
Now what you do of course is you hold the deck
like I'm holding it now with the thumb up
the side because it actually gives you
some support for the card as it rises
in the deck. I'll show you from behind in just
a second. But you get your static electricity
and notice
the position of my right hand.
So when you touch the top of the deck you go
once, twice,
and here's what's happening behind the deck.
Now I'm going to flip this around. On the third
time watch my
right hand index finger. It comes out
just like that and just
pushes against the card and allows
you to rise it up like that. And the
thumb actually holds
it in position against the finger here. So
it just stays there. So from the back
it'll look like this.
One, two,
three.
Now when you get to this point you want to
bring your finger back in before you bring your hand
out so it'll look like it just stayed
there. It came up attached
to the index finger and that this little finger
didn't have any play in it at all.
Alright, so now you've made the one card
rise and all you have to do is just peel it right off the top
of the deck and say, tell you what, let's make it
a little harder on myself. Let's cut that
five right back into the deck. And of course
being that it's a Svengali deck there's still
another five right on top. Then you're
ready to try and make it rise again. Say I'm going to
make it more difficult on myself though. I'm going to
use this pocket handkerchief and
you take that out and then you're going to cover the deck.
Now let me show you what happens as you cover
the deck. When the handkerchief goes over
you simply push that five out about halfway
like that. Straight sideways.
Makes for a little wider deck but nobody can tell
under cover of the handkerchief. It just simply
looks like that.
Now I'll remove the handkerchief again and show you what I'm doing.
You get the static electricity
again. It's the same business. One,
two, and then what
you'll do is extend that finger and right through
the material you actually grab
the bottom of the card here. That's
why you want it jogged out like that so you can
carry it and the handkerchief right up in the air
like that. And of course
even if the handkerchief is slightly see-through,
can't be real see-through, it
even makes the card look better because they can see the five
through the material and they really can't see
the tip of your fingers so that's kind of cool.
So it can be a little bit transparent.
So let me show you then what I'm doing now with the handkerchief.
I've got, as soon as I cover it,
I'm jogging the card out about an inch
from the side. There is the edge of this
the card. And I go one,
two, I'm going to turn sideways now
so you can see, three, and wait
till you're behind before you stick that finger out
and just grab the bottom of the card and it
goes up like this. And from the
front it goes, it looks like it's stuck to the finger
and just check, whoa, like it's pulling you away
and then as soon as you grab the card,
pull that little finger back in so when you take
your hand away, that finger's not sticking out
and then you can grab the card from the top
and just dump the handkerchief over
revealing the five and it looks very magical.
That's the way you do
a rising card.
So I'm walking down the street the other day
and I looked down on the sidewalk, there was a deck of cards.
Wow, lucky me, I found a deck of cards, right?
Until I took the deck out and looked at it
and you'll see what I mean in a second. I was a little
dismayed by the whole thing because when I looked at half
the deck, they were all different and ordinary, just like
cards should be, right? But when I looked at
the other half of the deck, well lo and behold,
I find nothing but five of hearts. I think that's pretty
weird. What am I going to do with that? So I took one
of the fives and I put it over here with all the ordinary
cards like that and the strangest thing happened.
All the other fives got jealous and jumped
right over here and joined.
I said, wait a minute, where's all the ordinary cards?
Sure enough, they were over here in this pile.
I said, hey,
what if this works in reverse? So I took that ordinary
card and I put it over here where the fives were
and sure enough, all those other ordinary
cards just got jealous and all those other fives
came right back where they were when they started. I don't
know how this works, I don't know what I'm going to do with the deck
but it sure is weird.
All right, this is a great trick.
It's a lot of fun to perform. The only thing that's required
on this one is that you've taken the time to learn this
little move of
letting the cards flop from one stack
to the other, whether it's frontwards or backwards.
And once you've mastered that,
you're ready to move on. I like to start
with one of the key cards. That is the card
that's the same all the way through the deck. In my case,
it's the five of hearts.
Your deck may be a little different, a different key card
but anyway, put one of those on the bottom and you're ready
to start. So here's how you start. You take out
the deck, you talk about finding it on the street
and then you cut it into two piles, always
cutting in that riffle fashion,
putting half the deck here and the one
with the five over here. And you say, you know,
I cut it into two piles and when I
looked at this half and you pick it up this way
and you run it this fashion so you
can show them all different. Say, and half
the deck was all ordinary cards just like it was
supposed to be. Now when you reach and pick up
this deck, you put it this way so
you can now let them fall and show fives.
And say, but when I looked at this half, they were
all five of hearts and let those fall
down. Now you flip it over and put it
back. Say, well, I thought this was pretty odd
but I did notice when I took one of
the cards and you take the five of hearts that's on the bottom
and you just slide it off and you show it
and say, when I took the five from this pile or one
of the fives and put it on the bottom of this
pile and you just slide it underneath
this ordinary card, a funny
thing happened. Now you can pick up the deck like this and
run these backwards and say, all the other
fives got jealous and they jumped over here with it
and you let the five show
this time and then you put this stack
down and say, well, I wondered where the ordinary cards went.
They must have been over here. Now you pick up
this stack and you'll have an ordinary card on the
face and say, yep, sure enough, all
the ordinary cards were over here. It's just
a matter of which way you're letting them fall.
You can show them all fives this way
or you can show them all ordinary this way.
That you practice. Okay. So now
you've made them transfer once. Say, well, I thought
that was really odd and I thought I'd try
and see if it worked in reverse. So I took one of the
ordinary cards from this pile and
put it over here and you're just transferring it to the bottom
and you pick it up and say, and sure enough,
sorry, turn it this way, say, sure enough, all
the other ordinary cards jumped over with it
and then you pick up this deck backwards and
say, and all the fives jumped right back where they started from.
It's a pretty weird trick.
I'm not quite sure what to do with this deck, but it sure
is a lot of fun and you reassemble it and
you're right back in sequence.
I got a question for Steve.
Steve, are you mechanically inclined? No.
No, you're not. No.
I don't know how this is going to work if you're not.
Well, we'll give it a try. First thing I want you to do is
select a card. So I'll just dribble the cards
here on the table. You all stop any time you want
as I'm dribbling. Stop. Okay, right there. Look at the card
on top there and take a peek at it.
Show it around to everyone. And then as soon as
you've done that, put it right back where you got it.
And then I'll just dribble these back on top
and it's just sort of lost in there somewhere.
I'll square the whole mess up like that
and give it a quick shuffle
and lose it into the deck
somewhere even more.
Now, the objective, of course, is to find it.
I asked if you were mechanically inclined because
we're going to do something with
an elevator. I don't know
if you knew that every deck of cards comes with a built-in
elevator. Did you know that?
No. You did not know that?
They do. You have to take my word
for it. And I'll even point out where the elevator button is.
If you look right in the center of this deck of cards,
you'll see every card has a little dot
right in the middle. That's the elevator button.
What I'd like you to do is just put
your finger right on the elevator button, give it a press.
And if all worked correctly, the elevator brought it right to the top of the deck.
Is that the one you took?
Five of hearts? Oh, wow, that's great.
Let's cut that right down into the center
of the pack somewhere and see if it works every time.
See, it's a fail-safe elevator. Give it another push.
And you'll see the five of hearts comes right back to the top of the deck.
Isn't that amazing?
Here, we'll cut it one more time, and I want you to give it another push,
and I'll show you that the elevator button never fails.
That's why I wanted to know if you were mechanically inclined,
because, oops, oops.
We lost a spot somewhere, didn't we? Yes.
Actually, that's because you pushed the down button, you see, over here.
Oh!
So I'll tell you what we'll do, we'll cut that back into the deck like that,
and then we'll find it one more time.
Push the button.
Okay, and it comes right back. Oops.
Son of a gun, this is not working.
And you didn't hit the down button, because there's a three of clubs.
I'll tell you what, let's take the jack of hearts.
You would just give it a shake like that.
You know how to shake it, don't you? Yeah, okay, good.
Turn it over and take a look at that jack.
Now it's a five of hearts. Oh, my gosh!
Sometimes the elevator is just a little bit slow.
All right, another great trick with this Bengali deck,
and it utilizes the principle I explained
in the how this Bengali deck works section,
and that is the process of picking up two cards as one.
With the short card on top,
it's very simple just to use a light touch
with your fingers on either end, your thumb and finger,
and pick up two cards as one.
That's the final revelation of the cards.
The rest of it is just simply cutting
by riffling the card, riffling the deck,
and always bringing a five of hearts to the top.
So I'll take you through the routine real quickly.
Of course, you have a card selected.
First, it's cut back in. You can shuffle it.
Cut it in as many times as you want.
Explain about the elevator button, and then cut the deck.
Say, we're going to bring your card right to the top,
push the elevator button, and then simply show the top card.
Like that.
It looks kind of nice when you can rotate it around like that.
It's a nice way to display it.
So if you want to practice that.
Say, okay, there it is on top.
Let's cut it back to the center of the deck again.
Of course, it's right back on top.
You press the elevator button.
It makes its cut back right all the way to the top of the deck.
And actually, after you've done it twice,
it's kind of fun now to make it go to the bottom.
Remember, whenever you cut a deck, a Bengali deck,
and you're running it from the face to the back,
you'll always get ordinary cards on the bottom.
If I were to cut this, I'd get an ordinary card on the bottom.
If you want to get a five on the bottom,
you don't want to riffle it this way.
You want to riffle it this way.
Then you'll get your fives.
So instead of cutting like this and bringing a five to the top,
now you can use your thumb to help you here
by bringing a five to the bottom of the deck.
And then you cut it now,
riffling it the other direction.
So this third time, you say,
okay, I tell you what, we'll cut the cards one more time
and have you push the elevator button
and say, okay, there's your card right on top.
Oh, geez, that's supposed to be the five.
You know what you did?
You pushed the down button.
And of course, they get a laugh out of that
and say, all right, let's cut that back into the middle of the deck again.
And you cut it the regular way and bringing the five back to the top.
And you say, push it one more time
and I'll show you that it is fail-proof.
And that's when you do the move
where you pick up the two cards as one,
say, dog on it, it's goofed up twice in a row.
And look, you didn't push the down button
because it's not there.
Hold on to it, just shake it, will you, Tiffany?
You know how to shake it, don't you, baby?
Turn it over and, of course, it turns into the five of hearts
because you put it on top of the deck and slid it off.
And you say, sometimes the elevator is a little slow.
So that's kind of the routine.
Twice to the top, once to the bottom,
and the third time, neither place.
You show them the card and then it magically changes places.
Nice little routine, very simply done.
Hey, how'd you like to see another card trick?
Yeah!
Okay, good. Well, I just happened to have one ready for you here,
but I needed someone to take a card.
So, Tiffany, would you help me with this?
Sure. Okay, here's what we'll do.
We'll just have you stick your finger in the deck somewhere as I run through it.
Anywhere you like, drag that one out,
take a peek at it, show it to everybody here,
and they all know what it is,
and then put it back here, and I'm gonna lose it
somewhere in the deck, okay?
And we'll give it a little shuffle like this just to mix it up.
Now, of course, it's the objective
for me to find your card.
If I were any kind of a trickster,
I wouldn't be able to do that. So here's what I'm gonna do.
Use this handkerchief.
Now, I'm not gonna use it as a disguise.
I'm not gonna get under here and do anything sneaky like that.
I'm gonna do everything right out here in the open.
We're gonna place the deck right here on top,
and then we're gonna fold over half the handkerchief
right over the top of the deck,
and then I'm gonna take and fold the sides in like this.
Now, what's the name of your card?
Five of hearts.
All right, let's just give this a little shake like this
and see if anything happens here at the bottom.
There's something coming through the handkerchief there.
What in the world?
Would you just grab a hold of that, Tiffany, and turn it around, pull it out?
Is that the five of hearts that we need?
Would you take this, Manuel, and see if all the cards are inside?
Yes!
I'll be darned. How did I make that happen?
What a penetrating experience that was.
Good job!
All right, another very magical-looking
revelation of a card
involving a pocket handkerchief.
This will work with a table napkin as well.
A pocket handkerchief is kind of nice
because it's a little bit silky,
and it allows for the card to penetrate through the handkerchief
a little quicker than a rough cotton handkerchief.
You might have to shake a little longer
to get it to fall through if you do that,
but it still works.
Simply, you have, again, a card selected,
put back in the deck, you do the shuffle
with the Svengali deck.
It's still in the same order, do a couple of cuts,
and you're right back in the position you want to be
with the top cards on top of the deck.
So with that, now you say,
okay, I've got a pocket handkerchief,
and this is the boldest move in the world
because you say, now what I don't want to do
is go underneath the handkerchief and do anything sneaky,
and at that point you're doing everything sneaky
because what you're doing underneath the handkerchief
is simply dealing off the top card
into your hand underneath the handkerchief.
So get yourself pretty well centered
under there, under the middle of the handkerchief,
and say, now I'm not going to do anything sneaky
like go under here and do anything.
So I'm going to put the deck right there.
Now I've taken the deck and put it directly
on top of the card underneath.
So there it is, sitting in my palm.
It's very bold to say I don't want to do anything sneaky
under handkerchief and do everything you need to do
underneath there. I like that.
That's one of the fun parts of this trick.
So now I've got the deck sitting there.
Now you'll notice the way I have this sitting in my hand,
I actually have the square edge of the deck
sort of parallel to the edge of the handkerchief
as opposed to diagonal.
So that all depends on how you draw
it over your hand because you want it that way.
You say, look, we're going to wrap the deck up
in the handkerchief. Take the back edge now
and I'm tilting the cards forward
so the deck is resting against my finger
here at the front of the deck.
It's kind of fingers could have curled over the deck
here and holding it in place
and the cards right flush even with the deck
under there. And you fold this over
and say we're going to wrap it up in the handkerchief.
So now you've folded this edge over
and then right from behind you just take
your thumb underneath and grab the card
that's against your palm and the whole stack
and stand it up.
Now I'm going to give you a back side view of this.
You're just standing it up and there it is,
their chosen card, held right against
the deck. Can we see under there?
Yep. Good.
Now you see I'm going to take the sides
and fold them in and you just fold in the one side
right on top of the card
and hold it there with your thumb
and fold in the other side and just sort of
crisscross it like that.
And that's the whole deal. Now that's what it looks like
from the front.
So you fold it in, I'll do the whole folding process again.
These are hanging there.
So you say, okay,
now I'm going to fold in this side
and I'm going to fold in this side and then you just reach down
and sort of scoop up the whole thing
and when I'm turning it, notice I'm not turning it
back to front like that so you see that.
I'm turning it this way.
So the five is still
staring me in the face back here.
There it hangs, it just kind of hangs in the folds.
So say, what card did you take Tiffany?
And then you start shaking.
What card did you take?
The five of hearts. And you just gentle little shake
and the thing just kind of creeps out of the folds
and if I shake hard it will drop out faster
and you can either let them
pull it out or let it drop
and of course they'll see the five of hearts
as it drops out of the bottom of the little handkerchief.
Now you can just hand that to them just like this
and say, well actually you've got to be careful.
You can hand it to them and let them see it at that point
like that and say, see it's inside
and then take it back because you don't want them to examine
it and just open it up.
The whole purpose of that is just to let them see that there's
it really truly is inside the little
pouch that you folded and everything is above board.
And that's how you do
the hanky panky card penetration.
Hey I'd like to show you a trick. Morgan will you help me with this?
Great. Now I don't know if you know anything about
card sharps and card manipulators
and these guys that go to Vegas and you know
can really make anything happen with a deck of cards.
But guys who really study a deck of cards
are so in tune with a deck
that they literally can tell
any card in a deck by the feel of it.
I mean they can take a deck and cut and as they're
holding the edges of the deck actually tell
oh I'm splitting between an ace of clubs
and a king of diamonds. Do you believe that?
Okay. If you want me to.
Well listen I don't want you to take my
word for it. And I want to test
your ability to tell one card from the other.
So first thing we're going to do is have you take a card.
So I'm going to take the deck here and just run them on the
table. You just yell stop somewhere anytime you want.
Look at the card you said stop at.
Show it to everybody so they can see it.
And as soon as you've done that
put it right back where you got it and we're going to bury
it in the rest of the deck like that.
Now I'll pick it up and I want you to tell me
if truffling this deck
is fair enough and as soon as you feel that
I've got it fairly well lost in the deck
then you just say stop. Because
it's important that you don't know where the position
of the card is in the deck nor do I.
Although you're going to be doing all the handling after this.
So when you want me to stop, sometime today though.
Okay good, that's better.
I'm going to place the pack right there.
Now if I ask you to reach over and cut
over some cards and cut right to your card
what are the odds of that?
Pretty slim right? I mean you don't know
where it is, I don't know where it is.
Would it even get harder if I
were to cover it up like this? Would that even be harder
for you? Okay. Let's
make it really hard. What I want you to do
is reach over, grab the end of the deck and cut off any amount
that you want and just lift straight up.
I'm going to take what's left here in the pack
and there's probably half a deck. So you cut it pretty much
right in half. Were you going for the
five of hearts? You were?
That's the card you picked isn't it? Yeah.
I know everything. Turn over the top card.
You cut right to it.
I wouldn't play poker with him
if you paid me.
Here's a great little
trick and a nice way to reveal a card
in the spectators hands.
All you do again is of course is hand over the card
randomly selected. It's going to be the five of hearts.
You shuffle, cut it back in. And then
do the whole story about how a gambler
or a good card sharp can tell by
just the feel of a card
when he's arrived at an ace or some
special card that he might want to arrive at.
When you put the deck down for them to cut
you make sure that you're putting it
with the ends facing them, the long
way, not this way. Because when you
want them to cut the cards by grabbing the
long and short ends, not the width
of the card. Because cutting from the side
they could break it anywhere. They could break it between a five
and a regular card. You want them to make sure
that when they cut, and they naturally will always
cut to a five because they're grabbing
the long ends of the cards and leaving the fives
on top of a long card.
And there's nothing more to it than that. I mean
if they do it with or without a handkerchief the same
thing's going to happen. But somehow
adding that handkerchief as part of the trick
saying of course what would be the odds of you
just cutting somewhere and hitting the five.
And of course as the fellow said in the presentation
he went, you know,
who knows, I could just, I'd be just total
luck. And I'd say it would even be harder if we covered
it with a handkerchief, wouldn't it? Now I like
to bring the sides in like that so it makes
the ends nicely defined like that
and square up the deck so when he reaches for it he knows
right where to grab. Say go ahead if you would
Tiffany, just cut off any amount.
And when he does that, say lift it straight up
because you don't want them to cut it to the side. Say good
why don't you give me these. And I just pinch them like
that and then say oh gee that's about
about half the deck or whatever it is.
And as just as a safeguard,
just as a bit of insurance, I look at
that card because if for some reason
they've hit a five you go, wow isn't
that amazing. You cut to your card
the five of hearts. That's the end of the trick
and it works just as well that way.
But 99% of the time
this will be the card on the table
and you say well you cut off about half the deck.
What card did you say
you selected? Of course they say the five of hearts.
They say wouldn't be amazing if you, just like
a card sharp, could find your card with
a cut. Let them turn it over and see the five
of hearts and they'll be duly impressed.
I got a neat
card trick involving a knife and
a deck of cards. We'll try something
interesting here. I'm going to have a
card selected. Chloe would you help me with this? I'm just going
to have you say stop as I go through the cards like this
okay? Say stop anywhere
you want. Okay right there. Take the card out.
Take a look at it. Show it to everybody. So I
can't see it. Put it back.
And I will just bury it in there somewhere
like that okay? In fact what I'll do is I'll give the deck
a bit of a shuffle just to mix
them up. How's that? Fair enough.
And one cut just for good measure. Now
we're going to take the whole deck and we're going to
wrap it up inside of
a paper napkin. So we'll just take
it and roll it up like this and make a
nice tight little package out of the whole thing.
And now what I want you to do with the knife is
cut the deck.
It's a silly joke
but what I actually want you to do is I want you
to put the knife edge anywhere you want in the deck of cards
and actually shove it right through to the other side
anywhere you want. Good.
Alright so there it is right?
Now make sure I don't do any funny business here
but I'm just going to rip the whole thing open with the knife
exactly where it is. Chloe you tell me
what card did you pick?
Five of hearts. How in the world did you know?
Exactly to the spot where the five of hearts were.
You did cut the deck.
Good job.
Alright this is a great way to find a card
and quite dramatic using a knife.
As with the usual
routine you have somebody select a card
she stops you, looks at the five of hearts
you can shuffle it back into the deck
cut it as many times and now it's
just how you're going to reveal the card.
So you bring in
the napkin and you roll the deck
up.
No matter where she sticks the knife
of course it's going to go between a regular card
and a five but it kind of has some bearing on
how you split the deck. Now she shoves
it in. You take all the cards
above the knife and split it open and if you hit
a five great it's staring them right in the face.
But if it's not a five
and this card let's say is over
here then you split
it open and you see
that you've got an ordinary card and say
okay now you've just cut
the deck. Let's see where
you stabbed in and you just put these aside
like this and say let's see
the card that you cut to and the knife is laying
cleanly on top of the five and you
say this is exactly where you cut the deck
and let's take out that card and
of course it's the five of hearts
and it's lying right underneath the blade
so that's quite dramatic when it's revealed that way.
And a lot of fun. What a
cut up.
Hey
here's something I like to call the old switcheroo
we'll see if it works. It involves
a deck of cards here and someone to
select the card. Karen you want to take a card?
Sure. Don't do it just yet. First what I'm going to do
is take the deck and give it a few cuts like this
to mix it up and what I'll do now is take the
top card of the deck. That's the four clubs
okay. I'm going to place the four right here on the
table so it doesn't walk away. We'll cover it with the box
like that. Now I'm going to have you take
one card. Reach in and grab any one that you
like as it falls down. Okay you got one?
Good. Show it to everybody.
All righty. Everybody sees
it? Good. Now put it in the deck but leave it
sticking out half way okay. Good.
We're going to put the rest of the deck on top like that.
Now the object of this trick is to make your card
the five of hearts change places with the four clubs
underneath the box okay.
Now I do that by pushing it right through the box.
Watch close you'll see it go. There's the five there's the
four. Did you see it go?
Not really.
Actually if you take a look you won't find that five
of hearts anywhere in the deck. It's gone. It's disappeared.
And I have the four clubs right here.
If I have the
four it can't be under the box.
Would you turn that card over?
There's the five of hearts.
This is a fun trick causing two cards to
change places with each other. Now obviously
you have to have the card selected first but
before you do that what you want to do is show
the top card and you do that the way I
showed you earlier simply by
having a five on top but actually picking
up two cards. And you show the top card
and that's the jack of spades. Of course it's really
two cards. Say I'm going to place the jack of
spades. Now you put it back on the deck right here
on the table. That gives you a reason for putting it on the deck
to point. Right here on the table.
Then you slide it off. In fact let's put it under
the box so it doesn't walk away okay.
Now you say I'm going to have you take a card. If you would reach it and grab one
will you? Okay you can take that one that's
fine. And whatever they take of course it's the
five. Tell them to put it back but only halfway
you're going to leave it sticking out and just
reassemble the deck. Now turn the whole thing
over and just adjust your grip so you got it
like this. Say where the object is to
make the five change places with the card
the jack on the table. We do it by pushing it right through
the box and you just let it go right
into the deck. Ask them if they saw it. Of course
they say no or yes whatever they say.
You say well you weren't watching or you were
watching very closely because the five is
vanished from the deck and of course you can show it without any fives.
And then when you get to the last
card it'll be the jack of spades.
Say but I have that jack right here on top. Or
you can do it this way. See the five is gone
and I have the jack right here on top.
If I have the jack it sure can't be under the box
why don't you turn that card over would you?
And when she does of course it's the five of hearts
you put there right at the start. They look like they
change places.
I'd like to try
something a little bit on the unusual
side. We're going to take a deck of cards
here. As you know cards are made
different so you can tell them apart right? That's very
convenient when they make them that way. I'm going to take
the deck and we'll divide it into about halves
like this. And what I'd like
to have happen here is actually I'll spread the cards
like this so Rollie you can take one from there
and I'll spread them like this so Manuel can get one card.
Sure just drag it out.
And Manuel you can take it out. And then each of you can show
your cards to look at them and show your cards to
the other people. Okay?
And now place your card over here
if you would Rollie and Manuel yeah good
swap them like that. So now they're in
opposite piles because I'd like you to stick it inside
your stack. Now Manuel's
deck goes in there and
Rollie's goes in Manuel's.
And now I can kind of tell where you put them so
just to make it a little more difficult we'll give them a little shuffle
okay both sides. I don't want anybody
to accuse me of cheating for crying out loud.
Okay. Now the object
would be if I could find these
cards it would be kind of an interesting experiment wouldn't it?
So what I'm going to do is take this behind
my back and see if I can't just figure out
where it might be. Oh I think I might
have found one card here. I'm going to bring it out here
put it right down here and we'll put this deck
inside. Let's see if I get
lucky with this one.
Alright let's see.
I think that it's probably
oh I think it may be that card
right there. Well when you do that behind your back
oh I tell you that's pretty hard but
wouldn't it be amazing if I got them?
What cards did you take? What cards did you
take? I had the Queen of Clubs. Yeah?
Queen of Clubs and the Final Hearts.
Let's just see if I got lucky.
Did I? Oh!
Sure enough.
Wow.
Yes.
There's a final trick with this Bengali deck.
I'm going to show you something that's a real departure
from the norm with this Bengali deck. I've actually
gone through the deck and separated it
with all the fives on top and all the
ordinary cards on the bottom. If we can get a real
close shot on this we'll see that the
fives in fact are all together right over here
and the ordinary cards are on the bottom.
That's not the usual way
to use this Bengali deck but it allows you to do an interesting
trick. So what you do is you come out with the deck
bring it out of the deck, flip it face
up and say you know every card
is different than a regular deck of cards. You actually
fan through the bottom stack of the deck
and they'll see that they look well shuffled. Of course you don't
show them get as far as the fives over there
okay. So you say here's an ordinary deck of cards
pretty well mixed. What I want to do
and then you tap it on the table and you've got all
the long cards right here sticking
up on the bottom and all the short cards about a
64th of an inch jogged
shorter than the other ones and it's quite easy to separate
the deck right at that point. Say let's put about half
the deck over here and half the deck here.
Now I've just placed all the fives over here and all the ordinary
cards here. Then you just kind of spread them and say
Tiffany these will be your stack of
cards and Brad these will be yours.
I want you to just slide on any card that you like.
Just move it out to the side. Brad do the same.
Now she's taking out a five, he's taking out a
long card. In this case it's the long and
short that's important not the fact that
it's a five or an ordinary card.
Say now what I'll do is have you look at those cards and they
do and they can show it to anyone
else that's watching and then you say now
just switch the places of these cards
and put yours over here and Brad you place yours
over there. Great. Now I want
you to put them back and they do. They put them in either stack.
Now we're just putting a long card into a
short pack and a short card
into a long pack. You say now the
object of course is me to find them. Now I can see just
about where you put them so maybe I should
give them a little shuffle and of course you shuffle these
this way and so nobody sees
the faces. Don't turn your hands like this. They'll see
that they're all five. So you just say let's give them a
little quick shuffle like that so we can't tell
where the card is in the stack.
Alright now that's done. Say I have to
find your card and your card. So you
put this one behind your back and
what's going to happen is the long card is going to be
sticking out longer than all the other cards.
So when you go behind your back you can simply
use your thumb and just feel where the long card
is. Just run it along the edge
and it'll pretty much stop right where that long card
is and the long one is
right there. My thumb's touching it.
You can just cut the deck behind your back and it's going to be
the bottom card. So you can just
take that out and bring it and this is all
happening behind your back. So then you can bring out a
card and say I found one card that just
feels peculiar to me. Which it
does. They don't know what you mean when you
say that. Then you say let's go find
the Tiffany's
card in Brad's deck and you
put it behind your back and now this is just
like the regular Svengala deck that when you riffle
it, it'll
kind of stop somewhere because of that
short card. Two cards have dropped with one of the cards
and if you cut at that point you're
likely that you have that short card right on top
and I'm sure I do. So you just riffle
it. It just feels different. You get a nice
even edge and then you go like that and you'll hear kind of a
click. Cut the deck there. You'll have the five
on top. Bring it down face down. Set it up there
and say well if I was lucky maybe I found
those cards behind my back. What cards did you take?
Ten of diamonds. And you took?
Five of hearts. At that point you just
turn them both over and you've got them both
and it's a very unusual way to use this Svengala deck
but I thought I'd show it to you.