Effect : On the table is a stand or easel and a pack of cards. The stand is
made to hold 25 cards in 5 rows of 5 each. A spectator counts off 25 cards.
He shuffles these and has five selected by other members of the audience.
The cards are replaced in the packet, and anyone shuffles them. The cards
are then placed on the stand in five rows of five cards, and they may be
placed face up, face down, or all mixed up, as desired. The performer then
picks out the five selected cards, one after the other.
This has been a very fine effect for a good many years, but heretofore,
the method on the market needed two reader decks, several switches, etc.
In this method, only one (ordinary) pack is used, and it will be found to
puzzle good card magicians.
Take your own pack, and sort out all even Hearts and Spades, and all odd
Clubs and Diamonds. Now block out some spot in the back design, or
pencil dot each card in some not-too-prominent place on the back. I use
Blue ink on Rider backs, and block out the inside curl at the upper left
corner. Two minutes with a pencil will suffice with a borrowed pack.
The pack is now stacked as follows : first, 25 of the above mentioned
cards, then 20 opposite, the odd Hearts and Spades, and even Clubs and
Diamonds, which are not marked on the back, then a short, or bent corner
card, and then the remainder of the pack. Put the deck in the case.
To present, state that you will offer a modern miracle along the mental
telepathy line, using a deck of cards. As you remove the cards from the
case, state that you will not use the entire pack as the little stand (call
attention to it) happens to hold conveniently by 25 cards, and you proceed
to count off 25 cards, and hand them to the spectator who is to assist
you. I find that this method of handing out the 25 marked cards is never
questioned.
The spectator shuffles and goes into the audience, and has FOUR cards
selected, and retained by the spectators. You ask HIM to select the 5th
card; and to do this you lay the deck you have been holding aside, and
take the 21 cards he has. Fan them for his selection. As soon as he has
taken a card, you close the fan and hold this packet in the right hand, and
pick up the pack again, in the left one.
You ask each person holding a card to show it to one or two near him,
and ask the assistant to show his around also. You turn your back for a
moment at this point, and immediately drop the 20 marked cards to the
bottom of the deck, and take off the 20 unmarked off H and S and even C
and D, the short or bent corner making this an easy operation. With a word
of warning, you turn around. To all appearance, everything is exactly the
same, and you hand the 20 cards to the assisting spectator, requesting him
to replace his own and each of the other four, and shuffle well.
He then deals the 25 cards onto the stand, face up or face down, or mixed
face up and down, just as he desires. When ready, you are able to pick out
the five cards, as you have only to look for even H and S, and odd C and
D in the face up cards, or your dot or mark on the face down ones.
And there are no packet switches, and the spectators will remember
this effect as one where “the performer never even touched the cards”,
forgetting, as usual, the one time !
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