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Just yesterday, my friends were lazing about alongside me started digging into my drawer full of decks. One of them tossed me a deck with a look that said "Do Something"..

Now this guy is a real sucker for shuffling - you know what I mean, the typical skeptical twenty year old. I removed the deck out of the box and realized it was THE deck for John Bannon's Dead Reckoning, and so I went on about how I taught this deck English 101 and Mathematics 102.

And after Dead Reckoning , BAM - They was blown away to bits as the look on their faces suggested. The same guy grabbed the deck, shuffled it and threw it back at me, with a look that said "Do that again."

Suddenly, like a lightning bolt, it struck - The Shamus Card - from Roberto Giobbi's CC1 .. Wow what a time to remember a trick like that.. And I performed it and they were really taken aback - because he DID shuffle the deck..

He grabbed it a third time - and my mind started racing the index of my limited repertoire of tricks involving speller effects - and would you believe it - The Card Trick That has No Explanation by Steven Youell - a third knockout speller effect came to my mind.

This time he was shuffling for over a minute - and handed me the deck back. And there - The Card Trick That Has No Explanation did it's job - everyone was just flabbergasted at how the cards seemed to spell out themselves.

After they left, I tried out the same combo on my parents - and it really resulted in a strong effect - and I think The Shamus Card and The Card Trick That Has No Explanation really strengthen Dead Reckoning as an effect.

To those of you who know about these effects. try them out as a mini speller routine and tell me how it goes..

Also, any other suggestions to add to this routine ?

Dave Cambell has the most ridiciulously free choice four card speller in it, it is just stupidly amazing. Not sure how well it would fit thought.

As for The Shamus Card, I usually perform that effect to a couple. Have the man select a card and return it, I then ribbon spread the cards across the table in a wide spread and talk about their connection, I ask the woman to take a card with her right hand, and hold her partners hand with her left whilst she does it.

It turns into quite an emotional effect with enough build up!

That's a wonderful idea.. Maybe I could do that after Anniversary Waltz.. The Shamus Card is really a superb effect - honest to god simple and effective card magic.. Btw, if you don't mind where can I find the Dave Campbell effect you mentioned ? I could take a look into it..

It's in a book of his effects that was compiled after his death called The Dave Cambell Legacy. It's a brilliant book full of great ideas, not stocked by many. It was published by London's International Magic. I'll type up the effect later and you can see what you think!

As for the Anniversary Waltz idea, I think it's great. I think it would have to come AFTER the shamus card as it is a lot more powerful.


I think a two effect routine for a couple that consisted of opening with The Shamus Card, and then using one of the cards, or both if you were very sneaky to perform The Anniversary Waltz would be brilliant.
To make it really fantastic you might have to force a card during The Shamus Card but I think it's a small price to pay for the finale.

Yes, obviously the AW is much more powerful. The idea you mentioned is a great one. I would definitely want to try it out if I'm stuck with a couple and a deck of cards