For a quick close up and impromptu effect this one is hard to beat. It is far from being complicated and that alone helps make it great in the eyes of the victim.
Selecting a card freely, the spectator initials the face and it is replaced in the pack. The performer now selects a card, initials it and shows it to all. This he places in his own pocket and the deck is given to the spectator to hold.
This person now attempts to say where the two initialed cards are but he is wrong. The deck is looked through by himself and in the center he finds the performer’s initialed card. Then the spectator himself removes his initialed card from the performer’s pocket. It can be done anytime, with any deck.
Giving the deck to a person, the performer asks them to shuffle and remove a card. He takes the deck as they initial their choice. Holding the deck face down on his left hand, he takes their card face down with his right hand and explains that to really put the card into the deck at random he will do it behind his back. Both hands go behind back for a second and then the left hand brings the deck back out with the card sticking out an inch around center and this is now pushed in and lost. Actually however, the chosen card was dropped on top of the deck and any card near center pulled out a trifle.
Remarking that he will now take a card, the performer turns over the top card of the deck, really making a double lift of the top two cards. He initials the face up card, letting everyone see it. Now, while this card is still face up on the deck in his left hand, the right hand shows the right trouser pocket to be empty. The double lift is again employed and the face up card is turned over. Then the left thumb openly pushes the top card over and the right hand as openly puts it in the right trouser pocket. Carelessly cutting the deck once, it is then handed to the spectator to hold.
Questioned as to the location of the cards, the spectator will always be wrong. He is told to look over the deck wherein he finds the performer’s initialed card. As a finale he reaches into the performer’s pocket and finds his own.
Editor’s note: I might suggest that just before the deck is handed to the spectator to hold, the top card (the performer’s card) be reversed or turned over in getting it to the center. There are many standard moves for this. Then later have the spectator spread the deck out with the backs up and the performer’s card will appear face up and be instantly found in a more startling manner. It seems to me that having a spectator fan over the deck is not so good because he will be looking for his card and the performer will have to reveal what has happened in order for the spectator to locate the right card.
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