Any Card at any Number

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Tarotist
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Any Card at any Number

Postby Tarotist » August 18th, 2022, 9:57 pm

It has just dawned on me that I am of great importance and a historic figure in magic for two reasons apart from my obvious genius which must be apparent to everyone.
1. I was the first magician to appear on colour television in the United Kingdom.
2. I am the only magician in circus history to do a card act in a circus ring!
3. I have come up with the best version and most direct version of any Card at any Number (and I don't even like the trick in the first place)

Here is the description. I fan a pack of cards in front of a persons eyes and ask him to think of any one he sees. I then shuffle the pack. Now I ask someone to give me a number between one and 52. I give him the deck and he counts to the number.. Then and only then do I ask the first spectator to name the card he or she thought of. It will be right there at the number counted.

There. Figure that one out!

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Re: Any Card at any Number

Postby RobFromNZ » August 18th, 2022, 11:13 pm

One way deck and a spectator who can 'play along'.

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That card at every number

Postby Jonathan Townsend » August 18th, 2022, 11:14 pm

From audience perspective that’s a stronger effect than the Berglass item.

I figure a force pack or svengali would get that job done :)

The Svengali approach offers the card above/below display option.

Jack Shalom
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Re: Any Card at any Number

Postby Jack Shalom » August 18th, 2022, 11:50 pm

Heavens, Mark would never be using a Svengali when he could be pitching it!

Tarotist
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Re: Any Card at any Number

Postby Tarotist » August 19th, 2022, 7:01 am

I also invented a method of knowing what card a person will name. However, I have never figured out the number part of things. Oddly enough I suspect from reading a description of Berglas doing the trick that sometimes he uses the same principle which I highly suspect he got from me in a roundabout way. He probably figured out the number part of things but I never did. What I do instead is reverse the card in the deck and ask him or her to name a card at random and it will be found reversed in the deck. A sort of brainwave deck trick with a regular deck. I told Martin Breese this little idea some decades ago and he published the secret, referring to me in about 4 little lines in one of his more obscure publications. So obscure in fact I can't remember where it was. I actually used the principle on Berglas himself although I wasn't there at the time. Figure that one out! And it worked!

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Tom Frame
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Re: Any Card at any Number

Postby Tom Frame » August 19th, 2022, 8:56 am

Reverse Svengali deck.

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erdnasephile
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Re: Any Card at any Number

Postby erdnasephile » August 19th, 2022, 11:23 am

Tom Frame wrote:Reverse Svengali deck.


I think David Britland published a really good ACAAN-type routine using that deck.

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Re: Any Card at any Number

Postby Tom Frame » August 19th, 2022, 12:53 pm

Bingo!

Britland's version is the one I use.

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Re: Any Card at any Number

Postby MagicbyAlfred » August 19th, 2022, 1:04 pm

Tarotist wrote:...Here is the description. I fan a pack of cards in front of a persons eyes and ask him to think of any one he sees. I then shuffle the pack. Now I ask someone to give me a number between one and 52. I give him the deck and he counts to the number.. Then and only then do I ask the first spectator to name the card he or she thought of. It will be right there at the number counted.

There. Figure that one out!


I NEVER underestimate Tarotist. So I'm going with actual powers of mind control. Derren Brown, eat your heart out.

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Re: Any Card at any Number

Postby Richard Kaufman » August 19th, 2022, 1:40 pm

ACAAN with a Svengali Deck was published in The Encyclopedia of Card Tricks 70 years ago.
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Re: Any Card at any Number

Postby I.M. Magician » August 19th, 2022, 6:07 pm

It is like someone said a long time ago, if you want to fool a magician, get the trick out of a book…or something like that.

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Re: Any Card at any Number

Postby Tarotist » August 19th, 2022, 10:56 pm

You all have it only half right. What about the other half? Furthermore I have an almost identical procedure with a regular deck. The only difference in this case is that I have to deal the cards myself. I do NOT use a one way deck, I do NOT use a reverse Svengali deck, sometimes I use a svengali deck but sometimes I don't. This is the bit than none of you have figured out. I fan a deck of cards in front of someone's eyes and I know what card they are thinking of.

I actually have four versions of this trick that I came up with with my own most brilliant mind. However, probably the most entertaining version of them all is not of my conception but however, I did write it up in my Annotated Royal Road to Card Magic. It is called "the Magic Breath"

Oh, that reminds me. I will now give you a clue as to how I know what card a person is going to think of for my brainwave trick without the trick deck. The clue is in the routining chapter of the Royal Road to Card Magic. I don't have the book handy so I can't give you the page number. However the clue is in that chapter and in fact that particular clue gave me the idea in the first place.

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Re: Any Card at any Number

Postby Brad Jeffers » August 20th, 2022, 1:12 am

Some guy who went by "performer" and used to post stuff here had an interesting method ...

performer wrote:I am going to give away my second method of doing this trick. It is very similar to the svengali method but it is done with a regular deck. You simply fan a deck of cards in the reverse direction. A pressure fan that is. In other words the indices will not show and it will appear to be a blank fan except for the bottom card.

You then do the well known (to older and wiser magicians anyway) stunt where you ask someone to think of a card and keep it to themselves. You say, "think of any card you see. Don't move a muscle, don't say anything-just think of one"

Of course they will think of the bottom one as it is the only one they can see. Shuffle retaining the card on the bottom. Deal to any number named and when it comes to the correct number just bottom deal the bloody card and have done with it.

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Re: Any Card at any Number

Postby Tarotist » August 20th, 2022, 6:47 am

Oh, what does "performer" know.....................

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Re: Any Card at any Number

Postby katterfelt0 » August 20th, 2022, 7:44 am

It's been done before, as a 20 second search revealed.
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Re: Any Card at any Number

Postby MagicbyAlfred » August 20th, 2022, 8:30 am

Brad Jeffers wrote:Some guy who went by "performer" and used to post stuff here had an interesting method ...

performer wrote:I am going to give away my second method of doing this trick. It is very similar to the svengali method but it is done with a regular deck. You simply fan a deck of cards in the reverse direction. A pressure fan that is. In other words the indices will not show and it will appear to be a blank fan except for the bottom card.

You then do the well known (to older and wiser magicians anyway) stunt where you ask someone to think of a card and keep it to themselves. You say, "think of any card you see. Don't move a muscle, don't say anything-just think of one"

Of course they will think of the bottom one as it is the only one they can see. Shuffle retaining the card on the bottom. Deal to any number named and when it comes to the correct number just bottom deal the bloody card and have done with it.


However, the description of the presentation/handling described on this thread by Tarotist, f/k/a Performer, appears to be significantly different than the foregoing, unless the spectator has not only been converted into an instant stooge AND can do a bottom deal.
"Now I ask someone to give me a number between one and 52. I give him the deck and he counts to the number."

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Re: Any Card at any Number

Postby Brad Jeffers » August 20th, 2022, 4:46 pm

Tarotist wrote: I have an almost identical procedure with a regular deck. The only difference in this case is that I have to deal the cards myself.

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Re: Any Card at any Number

Postby Tarotist » August 20th, 2022, 11:09 pm

katterfelt0 wrote:It's been done before, as a 20 second search revealed.


I have looked carefully at that link. My method is NOT listed there and it has NOT been done before!

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Re: Any Card at any Number

Postby Tarotist » August 20th, 2022, 11:20 pm

Not a single person here has explained how I can fan a deck in front of someone's eyes and instantly what it is. That is with an alleged trick deck. I do not use a one way deck since I can show all the cards to be different. I do not use a reverse svengali deck whatever the hell that is. There seems to be a lot of chatter about a svengali deck here but no explanation how such a deck can be fanned so that no indifferent cards show.

Not only that not a single person has explained how I can get any person (not a stooge either impromptu or prepared) to name any card and they find it reversed in the pack. Regular deck. Probably nobody has looked in the routining chapter of the Royal Road for the secret because they are far too lazy to do so.

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Re: Any Card at any Number

Postby DennisLisi » August 25th, 2022, 12:20 pm

Tarotist wrote:Not a single person here has explained how I can fan a deck in front of someone's eyes and instantly what it is. That is with an alleged trick deck. I do not use a one way deck since I can show all the cards to be different. I do not use a reverse svengali deck whatever the hell that is. There seems to be a lot of chatter about a svengali deck here but no explanation how such a deck can be fanned so that no indifferent cards show.

Not only that not a single person has explained how I can get any person (not a stooge either impromptu or prepared) to name any card and they find it reversed in the pack. Regular deck. Probably nobody has looked in the routining chapter of the Royal Road for the secret because they are far too lazy to do so.


The only way I can think of for this effect is to reverse a card in the deck, and fan the cards so that only that card is showing (the others displaying only the blank edges).

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Re: Any Card at any Number

Postby Tarotist » August 25th, 2022, 11:44 pm

Nope!

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Re: Any Card at any Number

Postby Tarotist » August 26th, 2022, 6:57 am

The secret of fanning a deck in front of someone's eyes and knowing what card they think of is on page 14 of the greatest book on the svengali deck in magic history. In other words "The Long and the Short of It" which can be obtained here:

https://www.marklewisentertainment.com/ ... short.html

With regard to the Brainwave deck idea without a brainwave deck I shall give you a massive clue. Time Misdirection. And read the Royal Road routining chapter.

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Re: Any Card at any Number

Postby DennisLisi » August 26th, 2022, 8:15 pm

Tarotist wrote:The secret of fanning a deck in front of someone's eyes and knowing what card they think of is on page 14 of the greatest book on the svengali deck in magic history. In other words "The Long and the Short of It" which can be obtained here:

https://www.marklewisentertainment.com/ ... short.html

With regard to the Brainwave deck idea without a brainwave deck I shall give you a massive clue. Time Misdirection. And read the Royal Road routining chapter.


Well I figured you would fan the cards normally a few times, before actually asking someone to pick a card. Then do a left-handed spread, showing perhaps the right edges (a few pips but no numbers or letters). Obviously, if you know which card they will choose, there can be just one clearly visible.

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Re: Any Card at any Number

Postby Jonathan Townsend » August 27th, 2022, 5:03 pm

We're drifting from the first "A" in the effect. Forcing a card is not part of the plot. Nor is having the performer deal down to the number.

@Tarotist - the sven pack can be handled as two 26 card blocks which are merged with a Faro shuffle when the time comes. ;)
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Re: Any Card at any Number

Postby Tarotist » August 28th, 2022, 8:42 am

In one of my methods (the brainwave deck concept) a card is NOT forced. You just have to know what card a person is going to say. After reading a newspaper article of Berglas doing the trick I realised he was probably using the same concept that I came up with on that one occasion and it was actually the same concept I used on him even though I wasn't there at the time. And if that last sentence doesn't make sense I haven't the energy to explain. I do know what card a person is going to say because of my obvious psychic ability. Alas however, I haven't yet worked out which number a person is going to say although some impractical ideas did come to me.

Anyway, I have always said that the most entertaining version of the trick for laymen is the one that is donkey's years old written up by Hugard in "Modern Magic Manual". It doesn't have all the "conditions" that daft magicians go all gaga over but the reaction will be just as good if not better. I have also described it my most superb "Annotated Royal Road to Card Magic" and it is known as "The Magic Breath". It is the most amusing version of them all.

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Re: Any Card at any Number

Postby Tarotist » August 28th, 2022, 8:47 am

Jonathan Townsend wrote:We're drifting from the first "A" in the effect. Forcing a card is not part of the plot. Nor is having the performer deal down to the number.

@Tarotist - the sven pack can be handled as two 26 card blocks which are merged with a Faro shuffle when the time comes. ;)


My method has nothing to do with bloody Faro shuffles! Furthermore I am not a great believer in spectators dealing to numbers even if it is possible. It takes too bloody long and there is a chance they will mess up the counting especially if they do not have a British education. I will accept the boredom aspect of the spectator counting can be avoided if the performer is a good showman but alas good showmen in magic are as rare as good magicians in magic clubs.

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Re: Any Card at any Number

Postby Tarotist » August 28th, 2022, 8:54 am

DennisLisi wrote:
Tarotist wrote:The secret of fanning a deck in front of someone's eyes and knowing what card they think of is on page 14 of the greatest book on the svengali deck in magic history. In other words "The Long and the Short of It" which can be obtained here:

https://www.marklewisentertainment.com/ ... short.html

With regard to the Brainwave deck idea without a brainwave deck I shall give you a massive clue. Time Misdirection. And read the Royal Road routining chapter.


Well I figured you would fan the cards normally a few times, before actually asking someone to pick a card. Then do a left-handed spread, showing perhaps the right edges (a few pips but no numbers or letters). Obviously, if you know which card they will choose, there can be just one clearly visible.


Nope! Now with a svengali deck anyway!

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Re: Any Card at any Number

Postby MagicbyAlfred » August 28th, 2022, 12:55 pm

Have long wondered what, as Vernon called it, the emotional hook to ACAAN is?

Sometimes, there need not be one other than the sheer astonishment a layman experiences in seeing their dollar bill levitate, float and dance in the air, or in beholding a signed card end up on a ceiling, or in seeing their chosen card rising up out of the deck as they hold the box in their hand? But I don't think ACAAN stands on its own in that way. For many magicians, it apparently does; for laymen, beyond posing a cerebral puzzle, not so much. I know this has been commented on and debated for eons, but I find myself unable to resist the opportunity to return to the gravesite of the proverbial dead horse, exhume the poor animal's carcass, and beat it some more.

(***I am leaving town for a while after writing this, to avoid being confronted, and possibly tarred and feathered, then drawn and quartered, by an angry mob of magicians).

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Re: Any Card at any Number

Postby Leo Garet » August 28th, 2022, 1:32 pm

I've always maintained that ACAAN is a genuinely mind-blowing effect. As stated.

Spectator names a number, spectator names a card. Card is at that number.

Because it's impossible, as stated, and because it's not actually Magic, it needs a bit of jiggling, just like all tricks. And the more jiggling it gets, the more the effect (as stated) is diluted. It's still strong, generally, but it's not as direct as the effect states. And, therefore not as mind-blowing as it should be.

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Re: Any Card at any Number

Postby Tarotist » August 29th, 2022, 8:16 am

I have to confess that despite my obvious genius I haven't the slightest idea what a reverse svengali is. What advantage does it have over a regular svengali deck with regard to this trick?

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Re: Any Card at any Number

Postby Dave Le Fevre » August 29th, 2022, 8:57 am

Tarotist wrote:I haven't the slightest idea what a reverse svengali is
Mark, instead of the key cards being short, it's the indifferent cards that are short.

Tarotist wrote:What advantage does it have over a regular svengali deck with regard to this trick?
http://cardopolis.blogspot.com/2007_12_16_archive.html

(I've never used a reverse svengali, merely passing on what info I've read.)

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Re: Any Card at any Number

Postby Jonathan Townsend » August 29th, 2022, 10:46 am

It's 1/52 and might be interesting if you could repeat the effect for several people in the audience as a running gag.
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Re: Any Card at any Number

Postby BarryAllen » August 29th, 2022, 2:37 pm

I've got an ultra-clean method of getting any thought of card arriving at any number from 1-52, with any borrowed pack (if necessary).

I worked it out years ago and showed it recently to Keith Bennett, who as a lifelong Magician and dealer, said its the most direct and commercial method he'd ever seen. He said I should sell it - but I really can't be arsed.

It's not even a trick that I perform any more. Despite being an entertaining chap (to the most part), even I can't stop my own eyes glazing over when I count down to the (for example) 46th card from the top of the pack!

ACAAN is on par with Oil & Water routines to my mind.

I'd rather just perform 'think a card' and read palms.

I better leave it there!

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Re: Any Card at any Number

Postby Bob Farmer » August 29th, 2022, 5:24 pm

My take on all this is here:

https://www.penguinmagic.com/p/S9615

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Re: Any Card at any Number

Postby Tarotist » August 29th, 2022, 11:52 pm

Dave Le Fevre wrote:
Tarotist wrote:I haven't the slightest idea what a reverse svengali is
Mark, instead of the key cards being short, it's the indifferent cards that are short.

Tarotist wrote:What advantage does it have over a regular svengali deck with regard to this trick?
http://cardopolis.blogspot.com/2007_12_16_archive.html

(I've never used a reverse svengali, merely passing on what info I've read.)


Thank you for the link. I just read the description but alas I can't do backward somersaults over it. I see no advantage whatsoever over a normal svengali deck and in fact I think it is a weaker alternative. The spectator cuts to a card rather than takes it out of a long spread on the table. And in my own version the spectator doesn't even touch the cards. He just looks at the fan and thinks of one. I think that is obviously the most direct method.

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Re: Any Card at any Number

Postby MagicbyAlfred » August 30th, 2022, 12:14 pm

BarryAllen wrote:...I'd rather just perform 'think a card' and read palms...!


IMHO, the I.D. and/or the Brainwave Deck, generally speaking, are far more impactful on laymen than ACAAN. But yes, of course the particular performer and presentation are significant variables as to the impact of pretty much any routine.

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Re: Any Card at any Number

Postby Tarotist » August 30th, 2022, 12:41 pm

I suspect that to a layman any of the old standard methods written up in beginners book get just as good if not better reactions than this thing that Berglas came up with. They might not have all the "conditions" that everyone is so excited about but they are more direct and less convoluted. This Berglas thing is really what old time performers call "Conjuring for Conjurers". Very nice for solvers of puzzles but that has never been my priority.


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