A few weeks ago I showed you how to perform a really fun ‘twist’ on the classic Any Card at Any Number by revealing my method for…
Any Number at Any Card!
However, spoiler alert: it required a force card.
What if we want to perform it without a force?
That’s what I’ll show you today…
Here’s a quick reminder of what this effect looks like:
You hand a deck to your spectator and show them that it’s a regular deck—with one key exception.
Each card has a number on the back—from 1 to 52.
You shuffle the deck, and then ask your spectator to name a number out loud.
He then names any card out loud.
You pick up the cards from the table and spread them face up until you reach his card. You ask him to repeat his number. Finally, you turn over the chosen card to show that the number on its back is the exact number the spectator chose!
Here’s the method:
The first part of the method is the same as last week’s, so let me remind you of the set up:
“Here’s the simple secret that makes this whole thing work:
We just write the stack number of each card on the back!
For example, let’s imagine we’re sitting together at the table, creating this deck.
We have a shuffled deck in front of us, and we’re going to add the numbers to the back of each card as we go through them.
We turn over the first card and see the KC. In our stack, this is card #18, so we write the number 18 on the back.
Next, we turn over the JS. In our stack, this is card #45, so we write the number 45 on the back.
Next, we turn over the 8C. In our stack, this is card #33, so we write the number 33 on the back.
We do this for each card in the deck, and by the time we’re finished—we’re perfectly set up for this effect.”
The only other piece of ‘prep’ is to make sure this deck is in stack order before we perform. I’ll be using Mnemonica for this example.
Now, let’s dive into this new method, step by step:
- You hand a deck to your spectator and show them that it’s a regular deck—with one key exception.
Each card has a number on the back—from 1 to 52.
As I pointed out last time, it’s probably not the best idea to show them too many of the faces—so they don’t recall which card paired with which number.
- You shuffle the deck, and then ask your spectator to name a number out loud.
This time, we’re simply going to be false shuffling the deck ourselves. Once we’ve done so, we ask them to name a number.
This next part of the process is the same as last time:
“They really can name any number. Once they do, you just convert that number into its card.
For example, if they say 18, we think about the #18th card in our stack—which is the KC.
If they said 24, we’d think about the #24th card in our stack—which is the 10C.
Let’s imagine they chose ‘43’. We’d think about the #43rd card in our stack—which is the AC.”
Here’s where the real magic happens…
- He then names any card out loud.
While we ask our spectator to name any card out loud, we’re simply going to estimation cut the AC to the bottom of the deck.
(hence why we kept the deck in stack—to make that estimation cut simple, so we can pull it off while they name their card.)
If you’re not comfortable with an estimation cut, you could take the deck and overhand shuffle run cards one by one from the bottom of the deck until you see the AC. Toss the cards in your left hand to the top of the deck, keeping the AC on the bottom.
However we get there, the end result is the same—the AC is on the bottom of the deck.
- You pick up the cards from the table and spread them face up until you reach his card. You ask him to repeat his number. Finally, you turn over the chosen card to show that the number on its back is the exact number the spectator chose!
Here’s the other sneaky part…
Once they’ve named their card, we pick up the deck and spread it face up.
(heck, if you wanted to, you could use THIS as cover for shifting the AC to the bottom. Just spread as if looking for their card, and separate your hands so that the AC is the bottom card of your left hand packet, then replace the right hand packet beneath the left and spread again.)
When we come to their card, we place it on the table face up without showing the back.
Square up the rest of the deck, keeping it face up, and then pick up their named card, placing it on top of the AC.
We remind them of the number they freely chose.
Then, we simply double lift the top card—the named card with AC below—to show the number on the ‘back’ of the named card.
The disadvantage of this routine is that we can’t hand the cards out for examination—but some of you may think the advantage of having the card be freely named makes up for it.
It’s your call either way!
I’ll be back next week with a very interesting effect. Here’s what it looks like:
The spectator freely chooses a card—for example, the 6D. You pick up the deck and count cards equivalent to the value of their chosen card—in this case, 6 cards. When you turn over the 6th card, you see the 6D!
Now, you might be thinking that’s a ‘one-off’ case. Next week, I’ll show you how you can actually ‘land’ for nearly 50% of the cards in the deck!
Your friend,
Benji