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ALWAYS carry an ID with you. It's the perfect out for most card tricks that hit a bump.

With your seven spectators tho, I think I have z solution. Ask for volunteers who have phones with a camera. Get them to take a pic of their chosen card. For the big reveal, have them hold the pic for all to see as you produce the same card for each person.

No need for pens or constant replacements of decks of cards that way.

Alec

kobain wrote:With your seven spectators tho, I think I have z solution. Ask for volunteers who have phones with a camera. Get them to take a pic of their chosen card. For the big reveal, have them hold the pic for all to see as you produce the same card for each person.

Personally I dont think that will work, or heighten the effect. Your breaking your flow and you will lose your audience if you ask them to get their phones out, put it on the camera setting, save the picture etc. You will lose your connection with them, and unless the effect is completely mindblowing, your creating too much work to justify the effect.

Mark Waddington wrote:

kobain wrote:With your seven spectators tho, I think I have z solution. Ask for volunteers who have phones with a camera. Get them to take a pic of their chosen card. For the big reveal, have them hold the pic for all to see as you produce the same card for each person.

Personally I dont think that will work, or heighten the effect. Your breaking your flow and you will lose your audience if you ask them to get their phones out, put it on the camera setting, save the picture etc. You will lose your connection with them, and unless the effect is completely mindblowing, your creating too much work to justify the effect.

If its a trick for 7 people then i think it would be a fantastic end to the routine.
It takes me about 5 seconds to open the camera feature on my phone. get 7 people to do that at the same time and combined it will take........approx 5 seconds to do.
I dont know what phone you have but it sounds like its time to upgrade

This is a solution to the given problem and i think it strengthens the act as the people also have a visual aide to help them explain to others how amazing the trick was.

With a trick of this size (7 people) then i dont think it would ruin the flow at all. if i was asked to do that for a magician it would get me thinking "well this is different"

Its a clear solution to the problem. No one can lie. the audience will not lose track of trying to remember 7 cards themselves and you dont have to write on any cards which would spoil the pack.

Alec

kobain wrote:It takes me about 5 seconds to open the camera feature on my phone. get 7 people to do that at the same time and combined it will take........approx 5 seconds to do.
I dont know what phone you have but it sounds like its time to upgrade

Alec

I am with Mark; If a magician asked me to take a picture of a card on my phone I would just sit down and opt out. Life is too short. This solution will work with very few people over thirty.

If 7 people have got to pick a card,take their phones out of their pockets or their wifes handbag,take a photo of it,put their phones away,loose the cards somewhere in the deck and then find them again,one by one i dont think you are going to get around many tables/groups are you.
EASY,pick a card and show him/her so that you dont forget it.
Simples eh!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Deano

I genuinely cannot remember the last time someone lied about me finding their card. I think if you're establishing the kind of rapport with your spectators where they feel the need to throw you off guard, you may wish to address the presentation a little.

When in doubt, have them show the card to two or three people around them. Audience reaction will betray anyone who tries to lie.

Serendipity wrote:I genuinely cannot remember the last time someone lied about me finding their card.

Me neither.

Yeah, just having them show it to most people at the group will pretty much stop them from lying to you about it. Or you could have them sign it, which would also put a stop to that as well. Unless ofcourse the guy/girl you're performing for is a complete idiot and doesn't recognize their own hand writing or name.

Arkesus wrote:

Serendipity wrote:I genuinely cannot remember the last time someone lied about me finding their card.

Me neither.

It's happened to me, just once so far. And when I showed surprise that I'd got it wrong (and I would have allowed myself to 'fail'), she owned up and agreed that it was her card. She was just being a bit cheeky, I guess, and there were no bad feelings on either side. And yes, there was an audience.

I'm sure there are all sorts of strategies for avoiding the problem but mine is to not worry about it. If it happens again my mind-reading will have failed on that occasion and that's that.

this has happened to me only once in the past five or so years and I had my ID with me.

I knew that they had the card that they selected despite them not acknowleding it. I simply asked 'what was your card'? and then produced it from the ID.

It blew them away and the girl, who the two guys were trying to impress looked a bit silly afterwards, so much so that the girl then admitted that I did have the right card.

Lesson - be prepared for anything.

Tony,

I was talking from a stage presentation point of view so you just wouldnt volenteer if you didnt want to do it.

Deano,

As above.

I think that it would work fine. If you say that you would like people with camera phones to join you on stage then only people happy to oblige would come up.

Deano, you make it sound like a massive ordeal. Well its not. i can take my phone out of my pocket, go to the camera option and take a photo in little over 5 seconds. Is that as big a deal as you make it sound?
You are forgetting that there would be talk from the magi aswell during this so it would all be smooth.

Alec

Kobain.
Figo didnt say it was for a stage presentation,he also said that 7 people to sign cards was too time consuming,forgive me if im wrong but i think i could sign a card quicker than taking a photo of it.
He also said he didnt want to ruin too many decks.
If he is performing a stage show,and is concerned about wasting a deck of bikes that cost a whole £1 then i think he should ditch this effect now.
I didnt think i was making a big deal of it at all,i was simply saying that he should tell them to pick a card and show him/her.

Deano

I've seen Ricky Jay and Michael Vincent perform an effect like this. Both of them slowly go through the deck and the spectator calls out 'stop' whenever they like. The magician then holds up that card for them to see, asking them to remember it. The whole audience sees the card, which lessens the chance of a spectator trying to catch you out because he knows that the audience have seen it (even if, as is likely, that he's the only one who remembers the card). Hope I explained that clearly.

Ricky Jay goes as far as saying to the person next in the row to 'help remember the card'.

With this form of presentation you don't need a get out clause since the danger is elimated before it's given a chance to rear its head. I also prefer it over getting people to sign their card.

A J Irving wrote:You could have a pocket index set up (with an entire deck of cards?!) so when your spec says that you didn't find his card you can ask him what card he thinks he selected and then reply:

'no, you couldn't have selected that card as I took that card out of the pack earlier and put it in my pocket'

You then pull the card from your pocket and with any luck he'll either admit his was lying or it'll look like an impromptu thought of card to pocket style effect. If the rest of the audience never saw his original card, they'll just assume it was part of the act and the way that the trick was supposed to end anyway.

This was my initial thought when I read the original post (although I think I'd prefer to produce the card from my wallet), but the simplest solution is to let someone else see the card too. Sometimes, a spectator might just forget the card, or even be so unfamiliar with playing cards as not to know Spades from Clubs.

Part-Timer wrote:...or even be so unfamiliar with playing cards as not to know Spades from Clubs.

Which is why it's advisable to force a heart or diamond if possible. These are familiar shapes from everyday life, and so easier to remember (and to distinguish from each other).