Here is the complete secret of the Twenty Card Trick which I honestly believe is one of the most effective card tricks that can be presented before an audience.

During the early part of the century a Prof. Agostin, calling himself a mentalist, made his appearance in Philadelphia. He was at the very height of his career around 1910 and 1911, doing, for the most part, muscle reading, thought problems, and the general type of pseudo-scientific feats.

In his performances Agostin did a card stunt using any deck, calling it a sort of super-normal, and super-memory demonstration. Carl Brema was a good friend of Agostin’s. The friendship, however, didn’t reach the point where the professor explained the one trick wherein Brema was being fooled over and again. It might be accounted for because or the reason that both were true professional mystifiers. It’s only among the beginners in magic where individual accomplishments and secrets are swapped around indiscriminately. The more one works at magic as a vocation, the more he respects the tricks of his friends in the same game, and expects to be treated likewise. You never will hear the professional ask outright how a trick is done after he has seen it. It’s up to him to figure it out, or buy the information for what it is worth to him and his show.

Around 1923 Carl Brema told me many stories of Agostin and his work. He said that the only thing he ever had caught on the card trick was a shift of cards to the bottom, but it didn’t mean much for Agostin had called for them at random, and Carl meant random. Card tricks, at that time and still, were my forte so I was more than interested. I evolved a duplication of Agostin’s effect and first published it in one of the series Practical Card Tricks. Quite a few years later I inserted the trick, with improvements, in an issue of Seven Circles magazine. Herein, now, I give you the proven best routine and am glad to add several kinks which add greatly to the presentation. As when first I heard of it, I still consider it one of the very few card tricks of high professional calibre.

The effect is this : Twenty cards are selected. They are gathered on the pack, the performer numbering each person as he takes the card. He gives the numbers in rotation, from 1 to 20, as the people have taken them freely, telling each to remember both his card and his number.

The performer puts the pack into his pocket and then proceeds to blindfold himself. He calls numbers at random, between 1 and 20; each person hearing his number calls out his card and the performer immediately produces that card. No numbers are repeated and none are missed.

The 20 cards are selected as fast as possible, passing down one aisle and up the other, letting them be taken freely from the pack, and giving each person a number from 1 to 20. Telling all to remember their cards and assigned numbers, the collection is made, from 1 to 20, each dropping his card on the top of the deck.

In gathering them, the performer has but few secret card operations. First, he bends up the corner of the eleventh card deposited on the pack. Then, when all are gathered he lifts the ten cards off the top (thanks to the bent corner) and shifts them to the bottom. Thus the eleventh card is on top when the deck is put in the pocket. A dovetail shuffle or so which does not disturb the top ten or bottom ten, or a false mixing of any kind at this spot does not hurt.

Now the blindfold is put on and the effect gotten under positive way, and mind you, as fast as possible. The performer need only perform a certain routine in drawing cards out. Combined with a certain arrangement (memorized), which he calls out, of the numbers from 1 to 20. I have made these more or less regular in their operations. It is not as difficult as it MAY appear.

The performer draws out the cards in this order :

Top card, second from bottom, third from top.

Bottom card, second from top, third from bottom.

Top card, second from bottom, third from top.

Bottom card, second from top, third from bottom.

Top card, second from bottom.

Top card, second from bottom.

Top card, second from bottom.

Top card, bottom card.

As he reaches for the cards, he calls these numbers : 10-12-7; 11-8-15; 9-14-4; 13-5-18; 6-17; 3-19; 2-20; 1-16.

The performer calls the numbers, the spectators call their cards, and it appears from the magician’s pocket. Show them and let them fall to the floor, one after the other.

You reach the last two. You stop. Say that only a few can be left and that those people should stand and call out their cards. They do and at the same time you pull out the last two together. Being on top and bottom makes this a simple matter as per the old, old card trick of fingers on one side, thumb on the other, and one pull brings them both. As they come out below your range of vision under the blindfold you see the face card of the pair. This is transferred to the other hand, and then you repeat its name saying “That was number 1.” Then show the other saying “And the — of — was number 16”. Tear off the blindfold, and as the hand starts take the remainder of the deck from your pocket and let it dribble to the floor. If you are going to pick up the 20 you already have dropped, you may as well pick up 52, and this finish is nice showmanship.

One last kink. Once you have become proficient and sure of yourself, you’ll have many occasions when, during the selection, you’ll get glimpses of the cards taken. Remember two or three of them with their numbers. Then, during the production process, say, of a sudden, “Who took the — of — ? Call your number.” And you have it. It’s a cute variation.

Please stay away from any “hooey” as a buildup. Simply make it a card problem of 20 cards being chosen and found. Make it it more or less of a card trick to end all card tricks. If possible, make it the only card trick in your show. In short, make it THE card trick.

Don’t try to halve it and use 10 cards instead of 20, please. It’s the magnitude of the thing that counts, plus speed. Excuse the blindfold as an aid to concentration — and excuse me now while I pray you’ll try it out yourself instead of waiting for someone else to do it first.