talkmagic.co.uk

Dear Magicians,

My name is Tim Edwards and I am working as a researcher for this year's Royal Institution Christmas Lectures. These are a series of televised science lectures that will be broadcast over the christmas period.

This year the topic for the five lectures is Mathematics, and there will be a lecture on chance and randomness.

We are desperately looking for someone who can perform the riffle or Faro shuffle eight times in a row.

As many of you are aware, this returns the pack into it's original order and is a very interesting demonstration of how order can be preserved in a system even though it appears to be totally random by e.g. the fifth shuffle.

You would need to be available to come to London, England for the recording on the evening of Mon 18 December and to come in at some other time to demonstrate that you are capable of performing the trick.

Travel costs etc would be covered, but it is hoped that the promotional opportunity of appearing on the television would be sufficient payment. The audience for each lecture has previously been stable at about 1 million viewers.

If you would like to participate please let me know either through this forum, through sending me a private message or through sending me an email at tedwards (at) ri.ac.uk.

Best wishes,

Tim Edwards

Thanks for your message Tim, stand by for a deluge of replies !

As many of you are aware, this returns the pack into it's original order

That's assuming that you do them perfectly!

I mention this as it may cut down on a lot of time wasters.

I'm nowhere near a perfect faro...but good luck with your search! I always enjoy watching those lectures, I shall be especially sure to tune in this year .

As someone who grew up watching the lectures (and can do the required eight faros) it would be a dream come true.

Unfortunately, life gets in the way. Bother.

Take care, Ian

Doing a perfect faro eight times in a row. I could do it but it may take me quite a while.
I would have loved to have done this, the christmas lectures rock. Good luck with your search and I'm sure there will be one of the very talented peeps on here that can help.

I can do it... but with the pressure of a live lecture, I'd surely make a mess lol.

Just got it right 2 times out of 3, with a brand new Masters deck and lots of coffee!

In all fairness, even Marlo's 8-in-a-row was something of a showpiece!

I wish the lectures luck (I was an avid watcher years back too) as it's a great thing to demo.

Hopefully it will be someone we know!

As an option, StackView can demonstrate as many faro shuffles as you need. It might be a nice counterpoint to showing just how difficult 8 in a row really is!

lol

I've just spent the last hour trying this out. My record so far is 4 in a row. So I'm definitely out as the lectures pacing may be affected slightly if the audience has to watch a bumbling magician shuffle for 3 hours.

lol

Got to 7 just now, and have frayed the edges of a couple of cards, and I only have one deck at work

never mind... will try later

The faro is one of those things that's always got me however I feel a concerted practice effort coming on Tim so if I get it down I'll be in touch!!

I can do it - i just got 9 out of 7 but I never was any good with fractions

As I said in another thread - I enjoy the occasions white lie

hmmm, i am a magician AND a mathematician, this is VERY tempting actually. i could rant for ages about probabilities and randomness

This guy seems to know how to do the faro shuffle quite well
http://youtube.com/watch?v=r3hyP3m-k4o

I can do one, but I can't get to London (I live in Canada) . If anyone is interested in doing the telivised video, and needs a little help, give me a P.M. and I'll be happy to help.