The Effect
A chest is seen resting on a table center stage. You hand a key to a lady in the audience. Two spectators select a playing card and a number from 1 to 52 in the fairest manner. They may even change their minds as often as they wish.
Card and number are written on a sketchpad for everyone to see. The lady takes the key and opens the chest. She finds a deck of playing cards inside. She takes the deck, deals through the cards and finds the selected card exactly at the selected number.
"If you're still searching for the ACAAN holy Grail then I recommend you check this out."
Peter Duffie
* No awkward counting or calculating
* No stooges
* No secret switches
* No rough and smooth
* No pre-show work
* The spectators may change their mind if they like
* The lady takes the cards out of the chest
* She deals the cards herself
* You don’t come near the chest
* You NEVER touch the cards!!!
What do you say now? Do you want to unlock the chest and turn the “Key to Your Card”? All you need is this PDF download and a few "secret means" that can be put together for less than 15 dollars (if you don't already own them)!
Cost $10 (8,- EUR) from Stefan Magie
Difficulty 1! I mean it!
(1=easy to do, 2=No sleights, but not so easy, 3=Some sleights used,
4=Advanced sleights used, 5=Suitable for experienced magicians only)
Review
First off, I haven't performed this. I'm merely reviewing the manuscript, so bear that in mind.
I'm a sucker for ACAAN methods, and have been burnt by some before now. Happily this isn't one of those occasions.
The majority of ACAAN effects stray from the purity of a thought of card appearing at a thought of number in a deck of cards that has not been touched by the magician. If the effect appears that clean, then perhaps a stooge, "insta" or otherwise, is used, or preshow is employed. The only method I know that doesn't involve that is from T A Waters and I daren't go anywhere near it.
Other methods tend to involve a modification of the strict controls of this minor miracle, and that is the case here. The card isn't thought of, but selected from a second deck. Although this trade-off has been made, Olschewski hasn't scrimped on minimising the compromise. The card selection is very clean and "moveless". I doubt it is possible to come up with a cleaner card selection process (though I'd love to be proved wrong!).
The number is a genuinely thought of number. The rest of the effect plays out exactly as described. Olschewski has taken a number of principles and methods and combined them into an almost effortless bit of business. There are genuinely no sleights, just a very simple bit of thinking to deal with a couple of times. In fact I suspect some readers may miss the beauty in the effect's simplicity. It's also one of those effects where an apparent control is the very thing that allows it to work. Which is always fun.
The finish isn't quite as clean as it could be, but readers of the Bogus Effect might be able to redress this.
The only criticism I have is that I doubt very much anyone would be able to make this effect up for less than fifteen dollars, as advertised. I suspect it would cost me this much to acquire a chest, let alone the extra bits and bobs (though the chest would likely be the most expensive bit, if that's helpful). But you're looking at a very clean, dramatic presentation of the ACAAN plot. One of the weaknesses of the plot is in a sense its simplicity - a card, a number, the card at the number. Perhaps one of the best aspects of Olschewski's method isn't to allow for a clean observance of the plot, but, with the locked chest, to give it a more dramatic presentation.
Overall
9.8/10
