Module 2 – Part 6: Rock N’ Roll, baby…
Benji
Rock N’ Roll, baby…
- Musical.
Improvise, jam, and put together miracles on the spur of the moment—creating unique ‘one of a kind’ moments that will never be repeated!
Just like watching rock n’ roll concerts, the memorized deck is the greatest tool in magic for creating the ‘moment’ with your audiences—moments that have only happened once, and won’t happen again for anyone else! It’s special, and they feel it too.
This is a hard one to talk about, because so much of it is based on subjective things like how an effect ‘feels.’
The best analogy I’ve found is that of watching a live music concert.
The feeling of ‘what’s going to happen next?’, the focus on ‘the moment’ and how things just ‘happen’ and then are over before you know what just hit you.
Again, maybe that’s too abstract.
Maybe an example might help:
It was hard to find a suitable ‘demo’ of this because the very nature of the ‘musical’ view is that it is so often unplanned, unpredictable, spur of the moment stuff—and so there’s no one carrying a camera around and taping the performance.
However, I did manage to grab ONE, and it’s a doozy.
It’s an apparent impromptu close-up show by Juan Tamariz at Magic-con in 2010.
The funny thing is, I don’t believe this performance even uses a memorized deck—so don’t watch it trying to spot that kind of thing.
Rather, watch it to get a sense for the FEELING I’m trying to describe. That feeling that you’re watching something that is truly a ‘one of a kind’ performance, that no one but you will see.
Here’s part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0MLJ1u0_KE
Here’s part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3YqC93GPHM
Another good example of this view is the Chan Canasta footage we watched earlier in the module. In this performance, he interacts with his audience and adapts what he performs based on what THEY ask him.
At one point, one of the audience asks him how he made her pick a certain card. He then demonstrates with ANOTHER baffling coincidence effect.
See how he used a ‘coincidence’ effect within a ‘musical’ context?
As far as we know, he wasn’t planning on doing this effect. But since they asked him to, he improvised and pulled it off ‘on the spot’ just like a Live music group might ask their crowd to ‘suggest a song’ for them.
(or at least, that’s how it looks—which is what we care about.)
As far as I’ve found, there is no one ‘type’ for this kind of magic.
In fact, it can combine some of the three categories we’ve already talked about—creating a hybrid, unique experience that can only be described as ‘musical’ in its nature.
It’s by far the most difficult view to pull off—but when you do, the rewards are the greatest.
I think you should ALWAYS be aiming for this view, but don’t worry if it takes time to get to.
You need to be confident in your understanding of the memorized deck and how it works to get there.
Official Effect: ACAAD
NOTE: If, at any point, this becomes too confusing, just refer to the Live session to watch me handle this effect Live on camera.
Here’s an effect I think is a good example of this type of performance. That’s because it’s different each time you perform, requires a lot of ‘improvisation’ skill—and can create a real magical moment.
This effect is similar to Juan Tamariz’ Mnemonicosis and Dai Vernon’s ‘The Trick that Cannot Be Explained’ in the sense that—most times you perform it, the outcome will be different.
I call it ‘ACAAD’.
What does that stand for?
‘Any Card At Any Dice.’
It’s a version of the ‘Any Card At Any Number’ plot (which we’ll talk more about later on in the course) that looks something like this:
You place the deck on the table. Someone names a card FREELY. You then give him a few dice to roll. The result on the dice tells you where to count to in the deck. You let the spectator count to that number, and what do they see?
THEIR card.
This routine is a hard one to ‘pin down’ with a description—because it changes every time you perform it—but in many cases, you’ll be able to do it exactly as described above.
For that very reason—this routine is a great one to use to ‘drill’ and work on your improvisation skill. You’ll need to be able to think on your feet and understand how to use the mem deck to your advantage—essential skills for improvising.
Here’s the method:
The card really can be ANY card named.
However, if they name the top card or bottom card, you’re all set up for a miracle already, so I would just do something with that rather than this.
If not, do this:
Note the position of their card. Let’s say it’s the 6S.
Hand them 4 dice. However, you’re going to give them the dice one by one, which allows you to ‘stop’ at any point it’s convenient. After all, you don’t say in advance you’re going to use 4 dice. You just say something like:
“We’re going to use dice to find your card. Here, roll this…”
This is purposefully vague—so we leave ourselves open to many different options.
NOTE: If I’m using two spectators, I’ll give the first two to the first spectator and the second two to the second spectator.
Once the dice are rolled, I’m going to examine the numbers and see how to make them ‘add up’ to the number I want.
Let’s say they pick the 6S (position 15 in stack.) The first dice rolls a 3. The second dice rolls a 2. The third rolls a 6. And the last one rolls a 1.
In this case, I’d hand the ‘1’ and the ‘6’ to the spectator that named the card and hand the 3 and a 2 to the second spectator, promising that we’ll ‘come back to these later.’
I’d then move one card from the bottom to the top, count 16 cards (1 and 6) and show that the last card is the 6S.
But what do we do with the remaining dice?
Now we ask the second spectator to name a card.
I got my laptop to generate a card at random: the KS.
In the stack I’m using for this example, the KS is the 31st card in the deck.
Now look at the numbers on the remaining dice—3 and 2.
Hmmm…looks like we can combine them to get ‘32’…which just so happens to be conveniently close to our desired 31.
In fact, we could once again simply move one card from the bottom to the top and we’d be all set to reveal that the KS is in the 32nd position.
You might think I just engineered that example to make it convenient for me. I didn’t, but I suppose there’s no way of proving that.
So instead, I’ll show you that we can make it work again with another set of random dice rolls.
This time the random dice generator gave me these numbers:
6, 3, 6, 1.
Huh…pretty similar to last time.
But this time, I can make it even cleaner. This time, I’ll deal cards equivalent to the TOTAL of those numbers.
That’s because when we add up these numbers in our mind, we get 16 (6 + 6 + 3 + 1), which is one card away from the 6S. So again, we just move one card from the bottom to the top and we can deal to the exact named card (or hand the deck to the audience and let them do it.)
I’m going to make it feel like this was ALWAYS what I intended to do. Indeed, it seems natural to add the dice up to give us a number.
But it would also feel natural to combine the dice visually to give us a number. And, if we needed to, we could justify multiplying one of the dice with the other. We can do all kinds of things—the important thing is to act as if that was the plan all along.
One way of doing this is to say:
“As promised, I’ll use the sum of these dice to find your card.”
Well, actually…we didn’t say that. All we said was that “we’re going to use dice to find your card.”
But it’s similar enough that it’s readily accepted, and before long, your audience might even ‘remember’ it this way when recounting the experience to others.
Let’s try with one more dice roll:
2, 2, 4, 6.
This scenario is actually the best yet. In this case, 2 + 2 + 4 + 6 = 14. We can, without touching the deck, let the spectator take the cards, deal 14, and then turn over the card left on the top of the deck.
As you’ve noticed, we can do a lot of devious things that look natural when presented right. We can deal cards and THEN turn over the selection, or we can reveal the selection as the last card of the count. We could also do a double lift to instantly add another card to our range. We can count from the bottom of the deck rather than the top. We can combine the dice in a number of ways.
And often…we get very ‘lucky’.
Or at least, that’s how it feels.
Time will show you that these kind of scenarios are far more common than you think.
But what about for other cards?
The best way is really to try it out yourself by grabbing a few dice and shuffling a deck. Roll the dice and then draw a card at random and look at all the ways you can combine the two to get the desired result.
Below I’ve included a ‘case study’ of dice rolls and cards that I collected at random by drawing a random card from an indifferent deck and then rolling the dice.
Be clear with people, sometimes this will be weaker, but sometimes it will be such a direct hit it makes up for it.
You can double your odds by either counting from top down or bottom up.
- QS, dice roll 4, 6, 3, 2. The QS is the 48th card.
In this case I would give two of the dice to each spectator – and give 4 and 6 to the spectator that named the QS, count 46 and do a double lift at the end or just displace one card and reveal the QS is the top card of deck after the count. HIT. 1 for 1. (Or displace one card to bottom and count the sum total of the dice rolls from bottom up – 53 (the displace card acts like the 53rd card) – 15 is 48.)
- 2D, dice roll 5, 5, 6, 1. The 2D is the 19th card.
Total of all dice is 17. Displace 1 card and reveal that the 2D is the top card of the deck after counting 17. HIT. 2 for 2. OR – count 17 and then do a double lift to display the 2D.
- 6D, dice roll 4, 2, 3, 2. The 6D is the 6th card.
Either do 3×2 or 4 + 2, gets 6. Just give 4 and 2 to guy that said 6D. HIT. 3 for 3. NOTE – in this case, after the first spectator had rolled the first two dice, I would have stopped there. We already have the numbers we need, and we didn’t specify how many dice we were going to use, so let’s just stop while we’re perfecting lined up.
- 3C, dice roll 4, 1, 2, 2. The 3C is the 4th card.
Either 4 x 1 or 2 x 2. Either way = 4. Or equivoque force the 4. HIT. 4 for 4.
- 7C, dice roll 3, 2, 2, 2. 7C is the 47th card.
Give two dice to each spectator. One does 2 + 2 and the other does 3 + 2. The results are 4 and 5, combine them for 45. Displace one card, count 45, and pick up next on deck. (or count 45 and then double lift.) HIT. 5 for 5. (Or for an even cleaner version do 3 + 2 for 5 and count up from bottom, 5th card is from bottom is 7C – HIT).
- AD, dice roll 2, 1, 5, 1. AD is the 39th card.
Give two dice to each spectator. One does 2 + 1 for 3, one does 5 + 1 for 6. Displace 2 cards, count 36, pick up next on deck. WEAK HIT. 6 for 6. OR combine the dice so you can do 51 – 12 = 39. Count to 39. NOTE – in this case, as we look at the dice results, we just swap the physical location of the 2 and 1 so it forms 12 rather than 21.
- 3H, dice roll 6, 5, 1, 4. 3H is the 28th card.
Give the 6 and 5 to guy that named it, multiply them for 30. Displace two cards from bottom to top. Count to 30. It’s the 30th card. WEAK HIT. 7 for 7. (OR do 6 x 4 for 24 and count 24 from bottom up, 3H is 24th from bottom. HIT.)
- 10D, dice roll 5, 3, 3, 2. 10D is 49.
Two ways – either do 2 x 3 for 6, times by 5 + 3 for 8. 6 x 8 is 48, 10D is the next card. Or force the 3 and count from bottom up (10D is visible on the face of the deck after counting 3.) HIT. 8 for 8.
- 9D, dice roll 3, 3, 1, 6. 9D is the 52nd card.
Forget the dice and build up the moment, then reveal the 9D on the face of the deck. But if you do use dice, just force the 1 and it’s the 1st card counting from bottom up. HIT. 9 for 9.
- 6H, dice roll 6, 4, 6, 1. 6H is 24th card.
Give the 6 and 4 to the spectator, do 6 x 4 for 24. Displace one card from bottom. It will be the 24th card. HIT. 10 for 10.
Here’s something I haven’t talked about yet:
In some cases, you want to select two of the dice that aren’t next to each other. How do you justify this?
Let’s imagine the dice are in a row like this…
A, B, C, D.
…and I want to combine B and D.
I’m going to assemble the dice in a square formation like this:
AC
BD
I start by placing A in the top left, then moving B beneath it (which is entirely natural). Then placing C in top right and D in bottom right.
Now, if we introduce a time delay between assembling the dice like this and the rest of the routine (here would be an appropriate place to insert your patter), when we return to the dice, we can treat ‘AC’ like one unit and ‘BD’ as another.
Of course, one other option would be to force B and D by equivoque (fancy word for the ‘magician’s choice’ force). I’m usually not a fan of this, but when handled right it can be effective. The other benefit would be that it discards the two remaining dice we didn’t need, so we don’t need to worry about them.
Which brings me to my next point…
As you see in the list above, in a few cases we make this work by giving the two most convenient dice rolls to the spectator that named the card, and handing the other two to the other spectator.
What then?
At this point, you could simply force a card based on the result on the dice.
For example, let’s say in the first phase you added together 6 and 5 to count to 11 and reveal the QH. The second set of dice are 3 and 2. We could, using a different deck, force the 4H on the second spectator (the 4H is the 5th card in our stack.)
Since the first spectator freely choose their card, it seems to ‘cancel out’ the idea of using a force. After all, since the first spectator could have chosen any card…surely the same holds true for the second?
It’s clever and a surefire way of doing it, however you’ll find that in the majority of cases you can perform the same stunning effect with the remaining two dice!
In this case, I get the second spectator to name ANY card. I then make it work using the same principles we already discussed.
For example, here are a few test rolls and selections I combined where I used a random card and TWO dice:
- Card = 10H. Dice roll = 5, 3. 10H is the 38th card.
In this case, swap position of 3 and 5 to visually create 35. Count 35 and do a triple lift on the card on top of the deck to display 10H. (or displace 3 cards from the top and show 10H is the 35th card.)
- Card = AH. Dice roll = 1, 1. AH is the 51st card.
In this case, I would do 1 + 1 = 2. Count from the bottom up. The AH is the second card from bottom. Luck? Perhaps. Although we seem to be seeing an awful lot of that the more we do this…
- Card = 4C. Dice = 6, 1.
In this case, I would do something interesting. Since the 4C starts on top of the deck, usually I would just use that as the reveal after a bit of dramatic tension. However, since the point of this exercise is to see how we can ‘cleanup’ when we leave two dice on the table, we have to use those dice.
However, don’t worry. We can still do something quite devious.
I’d take the cards and deal to 7 very quickly (6 + 1). Then I’d pause, and put the dealt cards back on top of the deck and say: “No, perhaps it’s better if you do it!”.
Since the 4C started on top of the deck, in the action of dealing it to the table and then dealing the other cards on top, you’ve placed it in the 7th position. Now they can count for themselves and see the card they named at the position they ‘rolled.’
- Card = JH. Dice = 5, 4. JH is the 20th card.
5 x 4 = 20, which happens to be the exact position of the JH. I guess we got lucky again. (notice how that keeps happening?)
- Card = 7H. Dice = 4, 4. 7H is the 41st card.
In this case, I’d move 3 cards from the bottom to the top, which would position the 7H in the 41st position.
As you see, we still have a surprising amount of options open to us even using TWO dice. That’s why I tell people to start this routine by giving them the dice one by one…often after two dice rolls you’ll have exactly the numbers you need, and you don’t need to bring out any more dice!
One last note – the only danger of doing this ‘cleanup’ is doing a process that is drastically different than what you did in the first round. If you added the dice in the first round, it might seem strange to multiply them this time.
Often, you’ll find you can make both phases feel the same. But sometimes it doesn’t seem practical.
Here’s a couple of solutions for that:
- Stick to the same ‘rules’ of the first phase and just do a regular ACAAN method using the number generated. (again, we get to this in Module 5.)
- Say: “Hold onto those dice, and remember your card. We’ll come back to you later.” – create the element of time misdirection so the exact process you took the first time is less clear.
Another question on your mind might be how we go about turning the deck face up without making the action look contrived.
My simple solution would be to start with the card in the card case. We can then simply remove it face up or face down based on which outcome we want.
But what if it, after all this, it doesn’t work?
In the absolute WORST case scenario, we’re just going to treat it like a regular ‘ACAAN’ and do an appropriate ‘shift.’
(more juicy details on that in Module 5.)
Often though, you’ll be surprised at how ‘lucky’ you get with the remaining two dice and named card.
And if our ‘worst case scenario’ is being forced to perform the ‘holy grail of card magic’…I think we’re doing pretty well for ourselves!
NOTE: If you’re still skeptical, you can see me do this on camera in the Live Session that goes with this module. I show you a bunch of examples, and in a few of them I make it work with two dice.
How does this work?
It’s so clever. The use of dice makes it FEEL like the most random result possible (after all, dice have been used to symbol chance and random choice for hundreds of years) but actually, we limit our spectators to a certain range of numbers.
If we asked them to ‘name a number between 1 and 6’ it would feel limiting…but because we’re using dice, it feels like the most random result possible.
We could even say: “I could ask you to name a number, but I could influence what you say. Instead, if we use dice, that’ll ensure the final outcome is as entirely random as possible!”
However, when you actually sit down and list out all the different combinations of 4 dice rolls PLUS the fact that we can count from either the top down or bottom up, we reach a surprising number of possibilities.
For example:
Imagine the dice roll is 2, 4, 6, 4.
You could conceivably arrive at any of the following positions based on the above numbers –
2
4
6
(by using equivoque/magician’s choice to force one of the numbers rolled)
24.
25.
26.
42.
(by visually combining two of the dice)
2 x 4 – 8.
2 x 6 – 12.
2 + 4 + 6 + 4 = 16
Given that you also have a leeway of 1 anyway when dealing (i.e you can either deal 16 cards and show the the 16th card, or you can deal 16 cards and show the next card on the deck – the 17th card) this also covers you for all the positions we already listed, plus one:
2 (3)
4 (5)
6 (7)
8 (9) ((10))
12 (13) ((14))
16 (17) ((18))
24 (25)
26 (27) ((28))
44 (45) ((46))
42 (43)
20 possibilities.
Then if you add in double lift – shown in ()() you’re at 25.
Plus you can count from the face of the deck, which means you can essentially double the number of possibilities based on whether you start the count at the top or bottom of the deck.
Again, I think the best way to really get a feel for how I handle this effect is to watch the Live Session.
Final thoughts:
I believe the most ‘average’ result of rolling 4 dice and adding up the totals is around 14.
Here’s a nice subtlety that occurred to me: ask them to name their card. As they say card, you act like the dice was meant to come first, after rolling you ask them the name of their card. Set it up so it feels like they name the card after the roll already happened.
This effect can be done after they’ve cut the deck, but we need to recalculate based on the new top/bottom card.
Here’s one example:
They cut the deck so the 3S is on top and the JH is on bottom.
We glimpse the JH. We know the 3S is on top.
That means our new starting number is 21.
Time for our trusty random card/dice roll generators:
Card = 9C.
Dice roll = 2, 6, 3, 6.
Usually the 9C is 44th. However, since the 3S is now the starting position (21.)
We need to do 44 – 21 to calculate the new difference.
In this case 44 – 21 = 23.
If you cast your eyes back to the dice, you see the numbers 2 and 3 are sitting there pretty nicely lined up for us. If we use them in combination, we can use the number ‘23.’
Hold up…that’s the same number we need!
Sweet.
What about the 3 and 6?
Let’s see what card my card generator gives me next:
6S.
The 6S is usually 15th. Since the 21st card is on top, the 20th card is on the bottom. Which means the 15th card is the 15th card is the 6th card up from the bottom.
(20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15.)
In this case, I would use equivoque to force the 6 on them and then count 6 up from the bottom to show the 6S.
Final note – if you don’t have dice on you or readily available, your audience could even roll the dice in their mind. Or use an app. It might make it harder to visually combine/move stuff around, but the effect is still entirely possible.
(perhaps you could write down the numbers called out on pieces of paper and then assemble those papers the same way you would with the dice.)