Here’s what this week’s effect looks like:
Your spectator freely names ANY card. You let him shuffle the whole deck. While he does so, you tell him about your magic ‘Spidey Senses’ that let you sense the position of any card in the deck.
After he’s finished shuffling, you immediately call out a number.
He counts down to that number in his (shuffled) deck, and finds…
…his card!
Just when he thinks the effect is over, you point out a deck that has been on the table the entire time. You tell him that, although this sounds crazy, you think he managed to place the same card in the same position…in an entirely different deck!
You count down in the second deck to find…his card!
As you might have noticed, it’s similar to last week, with a major twist: THEY shuffle the deck.
How does this work?
Method:
The entirety of this method rests on a very clever ‘shuffle procedure’…and two stacked decks. I’ll be using the Mnemonica stack for this demonstration, but you can follow along with any stack you please.
If you haven’t learnt the stack, head here: https://innercircle.jasoncoppage.com/module-1-part-1-transformation/
Now, this method is definitely harder than last week’s, so it’s up to you: you can either use the easy method in which YOU shuffle, or the much harder method in which THEY shuffle.
The choice is completely yours, but don’t say I didn’t warn you…
Let’s start from the beginning…
- Your spectator freely names ANY card.
They really can pick any card.
As soon as they do (and not a second later), you convert that card into its stack number.
Let’s say they chose the 4D (#42.)
Our job now is to simply estimation cut that card to the top of the deck (estimation cut, glimpse, and correct).
However, don’t worry if that seems intimidating.
In fact, we really only need to estimation cut the named card to the top 10 or so cards of the deck.
(I’ll explain why in a moment.)
- You let him shuffle the whole deck.
How?
Place the deck on the table, and tell the spectator to cut about half of the cards. Have him hand the packet he cut off to you, and keep the bottom half for himself.
Let him shuffle his packet, while you shuffle your packet.
You might be thinking:
“But I’m not REALLY shuffling my packet, am I?”
Actually, you are.
However, there are TWO things you need to do first.
- Glimpse the top card of your packet
If you already successfully estimation cut the named card to the top, you don’t need to do this.
However, if you roughly cut the named card to somewhere near the top, this step is a must.
The named card was the 4D (#42.)
Let’s say you see that the top card is the KH (#35.)
This tells you that the 4D is the 8th card down.
(35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42)
- Glimpse the bottom card of your packet
Let’s say the bottom card of your packet is the 9S (#9). This tells us that your spectator has exactly 25 cards.
How?
Well, you have cards 35 through 9.
Which means he has all the cards after 9 and up to 34.
What’s 34 – 9?
25!
(sometimes you’ll need to do this calculation differently.
For example, if the top card of your packet is the 3D, #12, and the bottom card is 4S, #40. In this case it’s easier just to calculate how many cards WE have first, and then subtract that from 52 to figure out how much THEY have.
If the top card is #12 and the bottom card is #40, that means we have all the cards AFTER 11 and up to 40, so we need to do 40 – 11 to get 29. The fact WE have 29 cards means our spectator must have 23. 52 – 29 = 23.)
We now know that the spectator has 25 cards, and their named card is the 8th card down in our packet.
Those two bits of information are gold mines that will enable us to do everything that follows…
- While he does so, you tell him about your magic ‘Spidey Senses’ that let you sense the position of any card in the deck.
Here’s the other thing you’re going to do while he shuffles:
Now that you know their card is the 8th card down, overhand run shuffle 7 cards from the top to the bottom of the deck. This positions their card on top of the deck.
(if their card was already on top of the deck, skip the above.)
Now we genuinely shuffle the packet we’re holding, while keeping their named card on top.
(simply shuffle everything EXCEPT the top card.)
Once we’ve both shuffled for long enough, we’re going to swap packets with the spectator.
However, we’re going to do one itsy-bitsy piece of sleight of hand along the way.
Don’t worry—it’s nothing strenuous.
Simply get a pinky break beneath the top card of your packet. Make it a pretty decent size, but angle your packet so the break is only visible to yourself.
Now ask your spectator to hand you his half back. Place his half on top of yours for just a second. As you do so, the top card that you had elevated via a pinky break should slot onto the bottom of his packet. Adjust your thumb grip to grip the packet with the card attached and lift his packet up again.
Tell him:
“Actually…what the heck. Why don’t you shuffle my half too. That way, you’ve shuffled the whole deck.”
NOTE: the above sleight will likely work best if you adopt a similar movement as you would for the top change—making it feel like the hands barely came together, and the packets barely touched.
Your job is pretty simple from here on out.
You’ve attached the named card to the bottom of his packet. Simply shuffle the packet, while keeping that card on the bottom.
Since we previously worked out that his packet consisted of 25 cards, we know that the named card is now the 26th card.
Now, get him to hand you back the other packet once he’s shuffled it to his heart’s content, and place it beneath the packet in your hand.
The named card is exactly 26 cards down in the deck, and your spectator is convinced he’s shuffled the entire deck.
It wasn’t easy…but boy, we made it.
- After he’s finished shuffling, you immediately call out a number.
He counts down to that number in his (shuffled) deck, and finds…
…his card!
Of course, you’re simply going to call out ‘26’ and let him count down to discover his named card.
Now, if we wanted to, we could very well leave this effect right here.
But for the extra ambitious among us, here’s an additional step you might like:
- Just when he thinks the effect is over, you point out a deck that has been on the table the entire time. You tell him that, although this sounds crazy, you think he managed to place the same card in the same position…in an entirely different deck!
You count down in the second deck to find…his card!
Of course, the second deck is still in stack.
All we’re going to do is remove the deck from the card case, and make one cut.
That one cut will move their card from its current position (#42) to the new position (#26).
To do that, we need to move 16 cards from the top to bottom.
The 16th card is the 5S. Just cut a packet from the top, making sure the 5S is the bottom card of it, to the bottom.
Now, when we count—the 26th card is the named card (the 4D.)
Phew.
That was a gnarly piece to grind out, but for those of you who are more advanced with the stack—I’m sure you’ll be able to pick it up pretty swiftly.
For those of you who aren’t, this is a great piece to practice in private and set your sights on being able to perform for other people.
Let it motivate you to study harder and get that stack work more natural!
I’ll be back next week with a cracking effect. Here’s a quick preview of what it looks like:
Your spectator freely chooses ANY number. You hand the deck out to various members of the audience and let them shuffle. Next, another spectator chooses a card. You count down to the freely chosen number, in the shuffled deck, to find…
…the chosen card!
Your friend,
Benji