The Genii Forum

I had a deck of cards and my co-worker picked them up. He shuffled the deck and took out a card without my asking. He then said," Tell me what card I have."

Now I had no idea what card he chose. I did a fan and pretended to memorize the deck in a split second. I then said confidently "Eight of Spades!"

To my absolute amazement, I guessed right. However, my friend was not impressed. He said, "You looked at the cards. If you're good, then you'll know what it is." He shrugged and walked away.

I would have been blown anyway if someone did this effect on me. Any comments about this or, have any of you done an effect where you thought you pulled off a miracle but it went unnoticed? :confused:

I once took a card out of the deck face down and told the person name any card. Upon naming the card I had them turn it over and by chance they were the same card.

I floored him. I stopped doing tricks. I could not do anything stronger

Of course, such things do happen, in compliance with the odds. But it pays to be prepared for it or you 'll lose the effect. It's crucial to appear unaffected as if this is what you expected, even if you're more surprised than they are. Sometimes you can make more of a lesser effect because you have built up to it. I'd do my best to build up before revealing the result.

A while back I was doing a gig with a caricature artist. He mentioned seeing a magician who simply held up a card, asked him to name one, and showed that indeed that was the one he was holding. Knowing the other magician, I figured he was bored and took a chance. So I pretended like that was standard stuff for magi. I held up a card, asked him to name any card...Yup, he named the one I was holding! IMAGINE his amazement, to this very day! Imagine it!

Gentlemen, these are fascinating stories you relate, but they're not responding to the original query.

I have done tricks like triumph which get huge reactions when I usually do them but gotten no reaction. These are the hardest to to take since they are rehersed tricks that always work. They were performed woth perfection but this spectator for some reason was just not getting it.

With an effect created by chance its a hit or miss thing. This person sounds like he didn't have a good attitude to begin with and when you hit he didn't react. It was a miracle which was wasted on a guy with a bad attitude.

I think it's a matter of being able to sell the effect before the result is revealed, as build-up is better than sheer surprise. You should never need to say, after the effect is over, "...and remember that you shuffled..."

Now I had no idea what card he chose. I did a fan and pretended to memorize the deck in a split second. I then said confidently "Eight of Spades!"

To my absolute amazement, I guessed right. However, my friend was not impressed. He said, "You looked at the cards. If you're good, then you'll know what it is." He shrugged and walked away.

This is precisely the effect of Harry Lorayne's Epitome Location, except that you must spread through the deck more slowly before revealing the missing card. It has likewise worried me that a good card player could do just that (sans subterfuge) and therefore no one would be impressed. But some, such as Geno Munari, champion this trick. Any thoughts, Geno?

Your friend told you the mistake you made: You looked at the cards. Since you really had no idea which card he chose, you might as well have presented it as a mentalism effect and never touched the cards, or even looked in his direction. By fanning through the cards, you suggested to him that you were doing a trick and therefore there was a logical explanation for your revelation. You gave him an out in one of the few situations when one was not necessary.

thats another good point. If you were really just guessing, you might as well not have looked at the deck. The way he remembers it is you looked at the deck and the 1 card that was missing was the card he was holding.

Try this one... I have HIT several times.

Let someone shuffle cards. Square up on table and have them lift off a portion of deck look at card cut to, replace and square 'em up.

YOU HAVE NOT TOUCHED THE CARDS.

Have them hand you the top card, turn it face up and place it at the edge of the table.

FLICK IT HARD toward the deck and it goes in next to the selected card.

Luck?

Skill?

No method.

Believe me I have hit this so often it is scary.

Did it two in a row at Portland convention last year.

To answer Areeb's original post, I never accept a challenge like that from anyone. If I am asked to perform, I have to be in control or I simply won't do it.

You could have nailed his card 10 times in a row and he would have been no more impressed because he wasn't looking to be entertained. He was looking to trip you up.

The only time I perform when asked is if the person wants to be entertained or wants me to show a trick to their friends. I don't like challenge situations.

That's just my personal opinion.

I had a similar experience: I was doing Bannon's "Discrepancy City" prediction and the spectator happened to pick the fourth queen, rendering the sleight of hand finish that usually occurs at that point unnecessary. I showed him my three correct predictions, he muttered something about "trickery" and walked away completely unimpressed! I was much more amazed than he was, that's for sure. Some spectators are just not open to allowing themselves to be fooled amazed or even entertained. You just have to go on and find the next spectator who is. ;)

Given the situation. I would either produce the eight of spades from a card index, or show the selected card face down in an invisible deck, or quickly locate the card in the deck and load it into a wallet. I have been in this situation before, and usually I just tell them the line "i'm not as good as the other guys"

I performed Chicago Opener recently, (in this version you spread the deck face up and a spec. calls out a random card which proves to be the odd colored prediction) In this case she called out the "actual" blue backed card (no double lift required), when I showed her the amazing prediction, she wasn't impressed. I'm still not sure why.

It is interesting how magic can be very threatening to certain peoples belief systems. Stan from Al's Magis Shop told me of an incident that is opposite to the ones we've been discussing: He performed the "Floating Bill" for a female customer and she became visibly upset. She accused him of witchcraft (!) and refused to believe him and ran out of the store even when he revealed the modus operandi! I guess I'd prefer to perform for this sort of spectator. :p

A few years ago, I was working at the TriCom Data booth at Comdex (a major computer show) in Chicago.

As part of my routine, I was using the Brainwave deck as a straight mental effect, not an Invisible deck presentation as so many people do.

For ONE ENTIRE DAY - every person who came up and helped with the effect named the QUEEN of HEARTS! I finally got to the point where I put a duplicate of that card under my close up mat and simply stood back and asked the volunteer to look under the mat.

Since that day not one person has named that card for this effect.

Since I work for places including Medieval Times, Sandals resorts, Siemans, the Chicago Bulls, Oprah and the now-gone Michael Jordan's restaurant, I have done this effect literally thousands of times since that day.

Statistically, I would have to say that this was 'WAY beyond the limit and that Randi would probably have a tough time explaining it. ;)

Respectfully,

Lee Darrow, C.Ht. http://come.to/Lee_Darrow