Using two decks of cards, one is handed to the subject and the other kept by the performer. The performer shuffles and so does the subject. The performer now covers his deck with a handkerchief and the spectator cuts off a portion by lifting them through the cloth. The card below this cut is laid aside or given to another person. Turn about is fair play, so the spectator now is asked to cover his deck with the handkerchief. The performer cuts off a portion and the spectator himself removes the card below the cut and places it with the first. The two chosen cards are now shown and found to be alike! While the handkerchief force may not be entirely original with the author, the effect on the whole is new, clean cut, and very practical for club audiences. Both shuffles are genuine the decks are not confusingly exchanged, and the spectator’s shuffled deck is never touched by the performer excepting when the cut is made.

The pack given to the subject has one long card. In your deck, on top or bottom, is the same card. Both decks are shuffled, you finishing with your card on top. Cover your pack with an opaque handkerchief but under cover you turn the deck face up. Ask the spectator to lift off a few cards, but stop him before he removes this cut completely. This gives you a chance to reverse the lower half (actually upper half of the deck) as you ask if he is satisfied. Then bring out the lower half, have him remove the top card and put it aside. You take the handkerchief from him with your right hand, reach under, remove the cards and toss to the table turned over.

Now have the subject square his deck and at a glance you note the position of the long card as you give him the handkerchief to cover. You can easily feel the long card through the cloth as you cut at the ends. Press down on this with your thumb, making a break. Cut off the cards above to leave the long card in position.

Very appropriate to follow the preceding card test is this number divination feat. The subtlety used is quite ingenious, and a perfect example of misdirection. The routine is simple, direct and convincing.

Three people write mentally selected numbers on a pad of paper. The performer has correctly prophesied the total on a slate, and although this effect is not new, the method is certainly a psychological improvement over others of the same nature.

Use a small pad of paper about 2 by 3 inches. The small size scratch pads in the nickel and dime stores are just right. Take the backing off so either side may be used for writing. On one side, using two styles of writing, put any two two-figure numbers, for instance 34 and 86. I suggest using two numbers whose total ends in zero, as the total of these two figures must be kept in mind. For the above figures, you would remember 120.

Select a spectator on your left and have him think of a number from ten to one hundred. With pad and pencil in hand, as though you were about to jot it down, ask him to whisper his number to you. When he does so, start to write it down, then pause a moment, and state that before you start the test, you will write a prediction which will not be revealed until the test is finished. Write something on the slate, and put it writing side down in full view. Ask the first person to keep his number in mind for a minute while you go to a person on your right. Hand pencil and pad to him (don’t worry about the numbers on bottom as they never turn it over) and ask him to write a number of two digits. Another person rear the center is asked to do the same.

Now return to the first person on your left, and as you approach him, the left hand at side turns the pad over, bringing the previously written numbers to the top. Ask the spectator if he is still thinking of his number…then have him write it below the two on the pad. For further identification have him initial the paper, tear off and keep. You pocket the pad.

As you walk away, stress what has been done. Three numbers were thought of, and you wrote on the slate before anything at all was written down.

Spectator with sheet adds the numbers, and then stands and reads the total aloud. The slate is shown and the predicted sum is correct.

How? Because after the first spectator gave you his number, you remembered (?) to make the prediction on the slate, and this predicted total was his whispered number plus the total of the two already written by you on the underside of the pad. Thus, with 34 and 86 you would have kept in mind 120. If the first spectator had whispered 24, the prophecy would have been 144.

I suggest taking the paper from the spectator after he has read the total, and show it to one or two people nearby. Then pocket it and reveal what is on the slate. This principle gets entirely away from the old 9 principle which many know and the fact that the last writer keeps the paper and adds does away with any thought of exchanges.

Editor’s note: Both of Mr. Meyer’s effects are excellent for club and home work. One person I showed the card test immediately got three packs and had one trimmed a trifle shorter. Using that and an ordinary deck he has been able to put a long card from the ordinary spare deck into the short deck which the spectator handles and change the card used at each performance. The two effects together, starting with the card test, make a very nice pair of simple yet effective mental and coincidence items. I tried them out twice on my way back from Cuba, and I think it is their directness that makes them good.