Module 5- Part 7: Norman the conqueror…
Benji
Norman the conqueror…
Try this:
Grab a deck of cards and arrange then so they alternate between red and black (red, black, red, black, red, black, etc.)
If the top card is red, the bottom card should be black, and vice versa.
Now deal the cards into a second face-down pile, stopping wherever you like.
Riffle shuffle those piles together.
Now cut the deck wherever you like and deal two hands of cards—dealing as many cards as you like.
Once you’ve finished, take both hands and spread them face up.
Do you notice anything strange?
Let me show you what happened when I tried this, and see if you can spot it there too:
Alright…take a minute and see if you can spot it.
Once you have, come back.
If you’re reading this, I assume you noticed it (or, perish the thought, you skipped ahead to the answers.)
Yes—the cards in each hand alternate color.
No, I don’t mean that the cards IN the hand alternate color. I’m talking about the relationship between the two hands.
Starting from the right and working to the left, we see:
- Black card on the bottom pile, red card on the top pile
- Red card on the bottom pile
In essence—when the top pile gets dealt a red card, the bottom pile MUST get dealt a black card.
This is what magicians know as the ‘Gilbreath Principle.’
It was discovered by a mathematician and magician named Norman Gilrbeath in the 1950s.
To this day, it’s a marvellous thing that not many people know about, let alone understand.
Fortunately for us, we don’t actually need to understand the complex math behind HOW this works. We just need to understand that it DOES work.
NOTE: If learning the mechanics behind this tickles your fancy, here’s an excellent resource:
http://assets.press.princeton.edu/chapters/s5_9510.pdf
(that link also talks about a concept called ‘Gilbreath’s Second Principle’ that is also fascinating)
Now, you might be thinking:
“This is all pretty fun stuff…but where does the memorized deck fit in?”
Well, here’s the one liner I’ve been waiting to drop:
Gilbreath’s Principle works with ANY alternating pattern, not just red and black.
Red and black is the most obvious, because we can visually SEE the difference. But this will work with any property of the cards. We could alternate the deck by Odds and Evens, high cards and low cards, and this would still work.
That’s a huge deal.
Because, if you recall, when we’re using a memorized deck we have a number of ‘secret properties.’
This genius idea was best explored by Simon Aronson, and I think it fits the Gilbreath Principle very nicely.
That’s because each card also has a number associated with it. That number is its secret identity, and that secret identity, being a number—has properties we can use!
We could arrange the deck so that it alternates by one of these ‘secret properties’, and the arrangement would be completely invisible to the audience.
What are some of these secret properties?
- Even stack number vs odd stack number
- High stack number vs low stack number (1-26 vs 27-52)
It’s that last one that I want to focus on. See, if we arranged the deck so it each card alternated—one card being a card from the lower half, the next being a card from the higher half, and so on—we could follow the Gilbreath Principle, and here’s what the result would be:
- Two hands of cards. If the first card of the first hand is a HIGH stack number, the first card of the second hand will be LOW. And so on.
So once we look at our first card, we know which half of the deck their card belongs to.
Here’s why that would be awesome…
We can have another memorized deck that has been cut in half placed on the table, forming two piles with no discernable pattern.
(although we know that one of the packets is cards 1-26, and the other packet is cards 27-52.)
For each card in the spectator’s hand, we can predict, with unerring accuracy which packet it’s in—before THEY even look at the card.
(simply by looking at our own hand—our hand is a ‘mirror’ of theirs. If the first card of our hand is high, theirs will be low. And so on.)
Each time it’s a 50/50 chance…and each time we get it right!
(That’s why I wanted to give this effect a ‘Which Hand’ style name. The beauty of the Which Hand routine is not that you get a 50/50 chance right…it’s that you get it right, every time!)
Here’s where this gets really cool…
Once we’ve done this enough times to really fry them, we can take it one step further. We tell them that we not only know WHICH pile their next card will be in, we know its exact IDENTITY—even though they themselves don’t even know the card!
To prove it, we’ll put it in a certain position in the correct pile.
Of course, this is a total bluff. However, it’s backed up by the fact we pick up and appear to move a card in the correct pile.
In their mind, they assume that whatever incredible power lets you know the correct pile is the same method you’re using to know the position.
Nope. In fact, you’re just using some of our ‘jazz’ principles to make it SEEM like, whatever position the card is in, you placed it there beforehand.
Here are 2 examples, one for each half.
Let’s say I’m performing for Jacob.
Example 1.
I look at the relevant card in my hand and see it’s from the lower half. I now know which pile Jacob’s card is in (the higher half), but I don’t know where. However, I act like a do and pick up the higher half. I then pretend to move a couple of cards around but I really just move a card and then put it back where it came from.
(you could also turn your back as you make your ‘prediction’ to hide the fact you’re not doing anything.)
I tell him I’ve done it, place the pile on the table, and get him to turn over his card.
I’ll use a random card generator for this, although I’ll retry if it gives me one of the lower half cards:
Card = 7S.
Recall the list we made in the A.C.A.A.N section? That’s the kind of list that might come in handy for this (providing we haven’t already used it.)
The 7S is the 37th card, which means it’s the 15th card down (counting from the face up side) in the second pile.
What did I write for ‘15’ at the time?
“If you thought I was being crafty before, wait until you see this…
I also happen to know that Jacob’s middle name starts with a G. Therefore, I would be justified, would I not, in spelling ‘Jacob G Daniels?’
Jacob G Daniels = 13 cards. Now double lift/glide to show the named card.“
So I could tell Jacob:
“I knew your card was the 7S, so I put it in a location unique to you. Watch…”
Then I spell his name and reveal the 7S by counting from the face up and doing the glide move to show his card.
But wait!
It’s even easier than that.
Since we’re using two halves, we actually can count from the ‘top down’, treating the 2C (27) as the new top card.
That actually places the 7S as the 11th card, counting from the top down.
What did I say for 11?
“Jacob + Julia = 10 cards.
Spell ‘Jacob’ and ‘Julia’ and then turn over the card left of the deck (or show the card left on face for face up portion) to reveal the named card.”
If ‘Julia’ was involved in this effect, that would be a great option.
Alternatively (and this is only occurring to me now—shows you how many options you have!) I could spell ‘Jacob Daniels’ and form a second pile, and then double lift the top card of the new pile to show the 11th card (Jacob Daniels spells 12.)
Or I could shift one card from bottom to top and spell ‘Jacob Daniels.’
You can choose whichever you like the most, but it sure is nice to have options open…
Example 2.
I see that my second card comes from the higher half, so I know Jacob’s next card (that he hasn’t even turned over yet) comes from the lower half.
I feed him the same line and perform the same ruse using the lower half pile.
This time, his card is (and again, I’ll redo this if it gives me one from the higher half)…
Card = 8H.
That’s the 14th card down.
What did I say for 14?
“Spell ‘Jacob Daniels’ and double lift/glide to show the named card.”
That works pretty nicely, but we have more options…
See, the 14th card down in the lower half is also the 13th card up. So we could deal from the face up side and use the method I gave for 13.
What did I say for 13?
“Spell ‘Jacob Daniels’ and the card left on the deck after spelling is the named card.”
I think I’ll go for that. Nice and clean, no double lift needed.
Of course, if there are other convenient reasons for dealing a certain number or name…go for it!
I just figured it would be neat to come full circle and show you how that earlier list can come in useful for more than just ACAAN.
Well, all this already sounds pretty amazing, but there’s a few more details that I held back that I think you’ll like:
We could start in memorized order and give the deck a single faro to create this alternating pattern.
Now we’re really getting somewhere.
Or what if we split the deck in two, had two spectators shuffle each half (it doesn’t matter how much they shuffle, one half will always be high numbers and the other will always be low numbers)
We could then retrieve the shuffled packets and faro them together to create the SAME arrangement—alternating between high and low stack numbers.
Now we’re REALLY really getting somewhere.
Furthermore, because the Gilbreath Principle doesn’t require any sleight of hand…we can let the spectator do it all!
Wow. That’s a powerful combination!
NOTE: If this is hard to follow with a regular deck, try it with your number deck. It should help you spot the pattern easily.
NOTE: For more work on the Gilbreath Principle, check out Woody Aragon’s ‘A Book in English’ and ‘Memorandum.’
NOTE: Some people might be reluctant to spread their stack so openly. If you’re willing to sacrifice the final phase of jazzing to their card, you could instead shuffle the two halves of your stack separately and then cut. One half will still contain high numbers, the other will still contain the low numbers. So you can perform the first phase exactly as is.
(this has the other benefit of meaning you could let the spectators do that shuffling.)
NOTE: How do we justify US having a hand of cards?
I would start by giving the spectator a couple of ‘practice rounds’ on your cards. Of course, they should be right about 50% of the time…proving the difficulty of getting it right every time. To them, it looks like you’re just demonstrating how hard your task is—but actually you’re creating a reason to have a hand of cards.
Once they guess a few times, we can say:
“Alright. Let’s try it with your cards. We don’t need these anymore.”
Then we can openly spread our cards on the table. Since the alternating pattern is based on a ‘secret’ property, it’s completely invisible to the spectator. But with our cards in easy view, we can correctly call out which pile their card is in, every time.
NOTE: The idea of pretending to put a prediction somewhere, and then jazzing to it, came from Juan Tamariz’ presentation of Mnemonicosis.
Well, there you go.
This module has given you a ‘hol bunch of NEW principles and ideas wrapped up alongside stuff we’ve already discussed. The combination, as I hope you’ll agree, has been particularly powerful…
In the next module, we’re going to look at some very ‘unconventional’ ideas with the memorized deck.
Are you ready to join me?
Let’s go…