One of my all-time favorite ideas is a set of effects I call ‘Fingertip Fumbles’…
If you own the Skyscraper Method, you’ll have read all about them, but the basic idea is that I took Ed Marlo’s ‘Fingertip Miracle’ and created a whole new bunch of variations and ideas.
Well, this month I’m returning to that well with a brand spanking new set of ‘Fingertip Fumbles’, based ever so loosely on Marlo’s excellent work (and my own previous ideas.)
We’ll start with the first idea I had, and then watch as we gradually ‘level it up’ step by step.
Here’s what I wanted the effect to LOOK like, once I was finished:
Two cards are freely chosen. An audience member freely chooses a number. Finally, you ask the audience how many shuffles you should give the deck. Whatever they choose, that’s how many shuffles you give the deck.
After you shuffle, you deal through the cards one by one, turning them face up. When you reach the first named card, you start counting.
Lo and behold, the second named card turns up on the exact number asked for!
To see the result, read below:
Alright.
Let’s dive into it…
First things first, we’ll want to get Expert Card Technique handy.
Turn to page 146.
(If you don’t have that, I’ve kindly provided the below to cover your back—but really, why don’t you have Expert Card Technique yet?)
Let me remind you what the effect is meant to look like:
Two cards are freely chosen. An audience member freely chooses a number. Finally, you ask the audience how many shuffles you should give the deck. Whatever they choose, that’s how many shuffles you give the deck.
After you shuffle, you deal through the cards one by one, turning them face up. When you reach the first named card, you start counting.
Lo and behold, the second named card turns up on the exact number asked for!
The keyword here is ‘looks like’.
In truth, we’re going to employ some dastardly deceptive techniques that will make it LOOK like we did the above, when we in fact didn’t.
But you already knew that, didn’t you?
Ready?
Let’s go…
Method:
We start out in a memorized stack.
(any stack will work for this, as long as you know the stack—which really goes without saying)
Here’s the one ‘prerequisite’ for this effect. We’re going to need to have that chart I shared with you above handy. Whether you print it on the back of an ad card that you conveniently discard, or have taped to the table edge closest to you—this is the one part of this routine that will need to be determined by you.
(Here’s the other note: the ‘shuffles’ used in this effect will be, of course, faro shuffles. If you can’t perform a perfect faro, I would refer you to Module 4 of the Skyscraper Method.)
But let’s continue…
The key to this routine is the ORDER in which the choices are made. We want to make it FEEL like this sequence is inconsequential, but really, it’s the secret to this whole thing.
Here’s the ‘skeleton’ of the procedure:
- The first choice is a card—this one is a free choice
- The second choice is the number of shuffles—this is also a free choice
- The third choice is a second card—this is a force
- The fourth choice is a number—this is a force
Let’s go through that again, but ‘filling in the blanks.’
- The first choice is a card—this one is a free choice
Here’s what you DO need to do.
As they name the card, convert that card into its stack number in your mind.
For example, if they were to name the 8S, I’d be thinking ‘22’ in my mind.
- The second choice is the number of shuffles—this is also a free choice
Here’s what you DO need to do.
As soon as they give you a number of shuffles, figure out where you’ll ‘land’ in the shuffle chart.
For example, if they say ‘4’. I’m going to glance at the ‘4th shuffle’ section of the chart.
NOTE: Most people aren’t going to say anything higher than 8, but even if they do, we’re fine—that’s the beauty of the faro wheel. Just go through the chart, and start again after 8.
Now, I’m looking for one thing in particular…
…the number ‘22!’
As soon as I see it, I know my new number—in this case, 31.
Where on earth did I pull that from?
Well, each row has 8 numbers. I see that 22 is the second from the last number on the 4th row.
8 x 4 = 32, so the last number on that row is in the 32nd position. Since mine is one less, it’s 31.
If you’d rather not do the maths, you could simply look at the location of the number, and then ‘cross reference’ that against the first chart.
For example, if the number we were looking for was the third number in on the 4th row down, we’d just look at the original shuffle chart, and look at what number is the third one in on the 4th row down.
As it happens, that number would be 27.
Go and check, and you’ll see how it works.
Either way, once we know the position of their chosen card after the number of shuffles (in our case, that’s 31) we’re going to do something pretty sneaky…
- The third choice is a second card—this is a force
This is, of course, the first ‘sneaky’ part.
We’re going to force a card on the second spectator. However, not just any card.
We’re going to force the first card in our memorized order. In Mnemonica, that would be the 4C.
We can do this in any way we like, as long as we don’t disrupt the order of the cards.
Since this card will already be the top card, it’s a simple matter to cut it to the center, catch a break, and riffle force it (and then ‘reset’ the deck under the guise of more cuts.)
Here’s where things start to line up…
The key idea is this:
When we do OUT FARO shuffles, the first card will always remain the first card. So the 4C, the second chosen card, will always be the top card.
And get this…
Recall how the number that we figured out in the previous step tells us where the first (freely chosen) card will end up in the deck?
Well, since the force card IS the top card, that number also tells us the DISTANCE between the two chosen cards.
For example, the number we discovered in the previous step was ‘31.’
Now all we need to do is subtract 1 from that number.
Why?
Well, the 4C is the first card, so we’re going to START counting on the card AFTER the 4C. So we’ve essentially ‘skipped’ 1 and started counting on 2.
Anyhow, let’s move back into the routine.
We’ve just forced the 4C, which means that after we do the number of shuffles requested, the first chosen card will be exactly 30 cards after the second chosen card.
Which brings us to the final step…
- The fourth choice is a number—this is a force
Perhaps you’ve already realised exactly what we’re going to do here.
Sneaky, right?
Yep.
We’re going to force the number we worked out in the previous step.
In our case, 30.
How?
There’s a bunch of ways to force a number (Add A Number Pad, iphone ‘Toxic’ calculator force, force bag, etc) but perhaps the most simple is this:
Buy a blank deck of cards, and write the numbers 1-52 on them. Have this deck stacked from 1 to 52. Once you know the number to force, cut it to the top, then genuinely shuffle the deck (keeping the top card in place.)
Then force that number card using any force you like.
You’re all set for the big reveal.
The reveal:
We’ve done all the ‘mental maths’ in our head – we’ve figured out exactly where the chosen card will be after giving the deck the number of shuffles requested (as long as those shuffles are faro shuffles), and the distance between that position and the second force card, the 4C.
Now we can give the deck as many shuffles as they requested in step 2. These are, obviously, going to be FARO shuffles (hence they’ll line up with the chart provided and make this whole thing work.)
After you finish, everything will be in place – the chosen card will be at the distance corresponding to the forced number.
If any of the above explanation leaves you confused, just read over it a few times and take it slow. It’s a little complex, but once you wrap your head around it, you’ll see how clever the construction really is.
(or at least, I think so 😉
One extra thing I would add is cutting the deck once after the final shuffle—placing the 4C in the centre of the deck. Cutting the deck won’t change the DISTANCE between the cards, it just means the 4C won’t be on top.
(although I’m sure a cleverer magician than me could find a way to make that an effect in itself, as a ‘freebie’ magic moment)
Either way, the end result is an effect that should LOOK like I described:
Two cards are freely chosen. An audience member freely chooses a number. Finally, you ask the audience how many shuffles you should give the deck. Whatever they choose, that’s how many shuffles you give the deck.
After you shuffle, you deal through the cards one by one, turning them face up. When you reach the first named card, you start counting.
Lo and behold, the second named card turns up on the exact number asked for!
Now, here’s the MOST important part of all of this:
This shouldn’t FEEL like a ‘sequence’ of choices. It should feel like, if they were to cast their mind back, all the choices were made at the same time—or rather, they should pay so little attention to the order of the choices that they can’t recall either way.
Juan Tamariz is a master at this kind of thing—asking people to name cards, then interrupting them, coming back to them, all of it is engineered to create a sense that stuff has happened at different points in time to when it really DOES happen.
NOTE:
One alternative way of presenting this would be for YOU to call out the number as a form of ‘divination’, or in a demonstration of card skill.
For example, you claim that you are so skilled you can track the positions of cards throughout shuffles. To prove it, you have two cards chosen, and then you ask how many times they want the deck shuffled. As soon as they give you this information, you call out a number.
(using the same method as we discussed, but this time you’re just calling out the number rather than forcing it.)
Then, you shuffle the deck as required and deal through the cards, revealing your prediction to be correct.
Of course, the danger here is that your patter gets dangerously close to the truth!
It’s up to you, dear reader…
What’s next?
I like the above idea. It’s cute. It’s fun.
But is it as powerful as it could be?
I’m not sure. I think there’s a better way to handle it.
I’ll share that with you next week.
See you then.
Benji