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@ftho and cc100 you probably right!!:p i do understand what u mean ... it s the same as performing a dl and letting a little kid hit it with a magic wand...

At the end, before the reveal, I'll sometimes say "are there any cards that you'd like to change?". They usually move one or two from the red pile to the black pile or vice versa (facedown of course). Then at the reveal they are even more amazed because they have apparently corrected a couple of "mistakes" without any idea how they did it.

I think it is understood that a covincer is not really necessary. However there are two bits of business I like to use. The person who taught me them died not too long ago and at the moment I cannot remember his name.

First is I start with a shuffled deck. I talk about luck, if you have seven of the same colour cards in a row you are indeed very lucky. So we quickly go through the cards, it is rare to have seven, or even five in a row. Doesn't matter the spec see's the cards are well mixed. As I go through the cards I use Green's angle seperation. The deed is done.

During the effect usually about a third of the way through the spectator names the colour and it goes into it's respective pile. (obviously sight unseen), if we are working on reds, and they say 'black' just as I am about to drop the card I pause and say, "no, I have a suspicion you may have gotten this wrong" I flip the card over and show the card to be red and put it in its 'respective' pile. I only do this once and it works nicely.

Just thought I would share.

bmat: I think that second part was a part of the original Paul Curry presentation. I forgot exactly how he did it, but I read that midway through the procedure, he spiced things up by doing little things like that.

I perform the wonderful "From Hell" variation of this and believe me, no convincers are needed
Much shorter, (something that always niggled me about OOTW), and incredibly powerful, with reasons for all the choosing etc. built in.
Brilliant, (but not necessarily suitable for all audiences )
Bruce

lol that's a brilliant application of OOTW BrucUk. Seems similar to Dead or Alive, but perhaps even more macabre. Although, as you've pointed out, it wouldn't be suitable for all audiences or occasions.

A stripper deck. Show them all shuffled then do the thing.
Take a look into Devil's picturebook - Derren brown has a cute version there

Referring to the original post, I think the ideal thing for cc100 is to try and get hold of Luke Jermay's book, Building Blocks.

Here there is an effect called Out Of T(his) World, whereby the spectator selects 3 red cards from a mixed packet of 6. 3 red and 3 black. Luke provides a safe method but for me the more interesting method is described afterwards, where he provides information on anchoring the colours of the cards in the spectators mind. You can then effectively influence the spectator into separating the colours.

Jermay admits that its 'the most challenging of all the effects I have ever put in print'....and I would, from what I've read of his material, agree...however I do try this every time before I perform OOTW for people, and the number of 'hits' I get is increasing, probably down to an increase in confidence on my part. The good thing is of course, if it doesn't work it can be fobbed off as a simple 'experiment' and you can then begin OOTW. If it does work, you can probably then do away with OOTW altogether.

Grimshaw, have you read Kenton Knepper's The Secret? It might help you to perfect Luke's idea.

When I do OOTW, and do a little convincer or whatever you call it, really just rearranging the cards after an overhand shuff, I want the spec to get it wrong.

Strengthens the patter of "the subconscious mind" or whatever other guff you hit them with, therefore strengthening the effect.

A convincer is there to convince them they can do something, and if you convince them that they can't/can only do it 50% of the time, then imagine how they feel after they have dealt the cards, you 'haven't' touched them and voila - they believe they are the next Jesus.

And aye, get DPB. So good. Not only for the effects, but just to watch. The 3 card routine teaches you not only a brilliant effect, but how to perform.

Part-Timer wrote:Grimshaw, have you read Kenton Knepper's The Secret? It might help you to perfect Luke's idea.

I have not, but I will endeavour to track it down if you think it will help.

I am not sure it's ever possible to make Luke's idea it foolproof, but The Secret might help. The book was actually co-authored by Kenton with Bob Sheets and Allen Zingg and it's definitely still available (and not just directly from Mr Knepper).

I'm not too sure if someone else has said something like this already in this post, I had a quick read over all the comments and only saw one that mentioned the devil's picturebook version on ootw.

I'm not saying that that's the best version out there as it seems that pretty much every great magician has adapted this classic trick in some way, but to me, this is one of the best I've seen and performed to people. I love that you just use all the cards rather than having to stop and change piles or something like that, that you have quite minimal contact with the cards, and in general, the simplistic nature of it.

Anyway, I only mention it because you asked about a way you can ask people at the start what colour they think single cards are. It's pretty much the same as he describes on the dvd, although it's not in a way that they guess them write the whole time.

If I do this though, I'll do that little bit for a couple of cards, for reasons described on the dvd, and if they guess them all correct, I'll say something like "well done, you seem to have a talent for this", and if they guess a couple or all of them wrong, I say something along the lines of "well, that was just guessing, see how you do with the entire deck, people will always tend to do better than they think".

Just a thought, if you'd like to discuss it more, send me a message as I kind of want to limit what I say in public.

I bought a version of this from the Supreme Magic Company about 30 years ago, I'm not sure if it was the Paul Curry original routine as I no longer have it but there were a couple of subtleties in there.

If a spectator hesitates over which pile to place the card you can say, 'you seemed unsure about that, do you wish to change your mind?' and they can if they wish. If they placed it on the wrong pile you could show the card and say, 'you lost your concentration there.'

Another move if the spectator really hesitates is to take the card and say, 'You seemed really confused by the that one, we'll just place that aside' you then do the old breast pocket dodge (if you have a breast pocket) and switch the card for a joker.

At the end of the routine you show the joker and say, 'Now I know why you were so confused, it was neither red nor black.'

I like to have a small bend in the bottom half of the pack. It means you can let the spectator overhand shuffle the pack, and often the split makes a natural slide so the cards don't mix at all. Or you put the small amount of mixed cards back in the right places whilst asking the spectator what colour they think the cards are. There's 3 possible responses when you do this:

"Absolutey Corr-wrong... Let me teach you how to do it - we'll use the whole pack"

"Ok, you got some right and some wrong, that's statistically about right - how about we try and do it with the whole deck?"

or

"See you got them all right. How does that make you feel? How do you think you did that? Think you can do the whole deck?"


But if you want to prove to them that they can do it correctly from the start, you can shuffle the pack, the bend allows you to drop at the split so the cards are in the right order, the ask them to name the card on the top of the pack.

Either, take a card from the bottom and put it on the top, then use a topchange if needed to make their choice correct.

Or, instead, If they are right you can deal it onto the table to show them. if they are wrong, a bottom deal will fix that.


During the trick, the bend in the bottom half of the pack allows you to see when the spectator has passed the halfway point, and you can then "remind" them that they can choose from anywhere in the spread, don't have to go from left to right - it's a really good convincer.

Also after the halfway point just take one of the cards they put down and say "oh, you got one wrong", show them and put it in the right pile. Marvellous.