talkmagic.co.uk

Hi everyone,

I've put together a short video that shows how to perform a nice little trick that could work for magicians or mentalists, depending on how you dress it up.

Here is the basic effect:

1. The performer places an envelope on the table.
2. A spectator chooses any position in a deck of playing or ESP cards.
3. The two cards at this position are removed face down. The spec. can choose either.
4. The chosen one is seen to match the card in the envelope.

No sleight of hand required.
The spectator has a genuinely free choice of position in the deck.
The spectator has a genuinely free choice of either card (no magician's choice)
The envelope is examinable.

The version I have demonstrated works well with ESP decks. If you have the MK-MOD ESP test cards, the Beyond ESP or the Paralabs ESP cards then you have everything you need. It is also possible to perform this with playing cards, which opens up other possibilities.

The link to the video is available in the Forum of Visual Curiosities

Have fun!
T.

Thanks Ted.. food for thought here , got me thinking

you could also use the Henry Criste force on this and avoid the DF card. Just need one DB card. they cut the pack anywhere and turn the top half face up to mark the cut...game over. This was the 102nd force that got left out of Annemans forcing book and one of the best..according to Jon Racherbaumer

Max Maven has a great subtlety to use when cutting the deck but i think its for those that have bought his new DVD..about the top or bottom card choice thing. Eugene Burger was pretty impressed with this and its one of those things that you think " why has no one thought of that before"

just a thought

good stuff Ted and i shall now brush the dust off my ESP deck over the weekend

Antera wrote:you could also use the Henry Criste force on this and avoid the DF card. Just need one DB card. they cut the pack anywhere and turn the top half face up to mark the cut...game over. This was the 102nd force that got left out of Annemans forcing book and one of the best..according to Jon Racherbaumer

Thanks so much for the Henry Christ idea. It's great! That force was staring me in the face from the Encyclopedia of Card Tricks and I'd never noticed it

If you don't want to use the DF then this would work, but actually so would the double card prediction, because you could just use two of the same. This obviously only makes sense if you use ESP cards (or are prepared to introduce a duplicate playing card).

This is why I use the DF option - because there are so few unique designs in an ESP deck. It helps reduce the apparent likelihood that the prediction will be correct *and* you can show how close you were to missing.

Other options, to avoid using the DF, could include a Himber wallet. I've used one from Cards4Magic to good effect in the past. It's a Z-fold type, so it looks pretty normal. This would obviously work with ESP and playing cards equally well.

T.

Out of mathematical interest if the customer just shuffled the cards and set them down theres a 40% chance of a top card hit with yr prediction. Make out this was the intention. " and you shuffled the cards Geoff etc etc"

If not a hit then tell them to casual cut give you another chance of a top card hit

Then you could do your routine if no hit

Just some thoughts

Thanks for this. I don't use ESP cards, but this would be great with a deck of cards.
To be honest, I personally think it would be more impressive with a deck of cards, as you only have a 1 in 52 chance; whereas with the ESP cards you have a 1 in 5 chance of "guessing" it right.
For the record, I just tried this on my missus (with my hidden D/B and D/F cards of course ) .... my missus knows quite a few of my tricks and is not easily fooled ..... she had a bit of a puzzled look on her face after this one hehe.
Thanks again .... this might just sneak its way into my repertoire

Although 1 in 52 seem impressive im not sure if the spec may feel that way as ESP Cards a have special something to those that are aware of them. If you put your house on Red at the casino all of a sudden a 50-50 is a big deal ..

for the prediction you could have one prediction on paper and the other in the form of a plastic star that u can shake out the envelope onto the table ( or plastic cross or circle).

Thanks to Ted for reminding me about ESP cards. I might have to go and
buy one of his decks now..they look quite clinical