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Here a question for all you knowledgable card magicians out there. I have devised a routine and would like to know if anything exists in the same manner.

The effect:

As the spectator sees it:
I spread through the a blue deck (of course I wouldn't draw attention to it in my patter) of cards face up and up jog the 4 kings, the 4 jacks, or whatever suits the patter I'm using. Remove them and count the four cards - flashing the backs as I go. Put them to one side. Have the spectator select a card and place it back wherever they like. Whilst they're looking at their card I mention I'm going to remove something from my pocket, which is a red joker, and place it on the table mentioning we'll need it later. The deck is turned face up and the four cards (jacks/kings/whatever) are counted onto the face up. I turn the deck over 360 degrees in my hand and the four cards disappear (or depending on my confidence with the sleight involved I might do it blatantly by cutting the deck). Then I ribbon spread the cards face down to show five cards in the middle of the deck are RED. You let the spectator take them out and they are the four cards with the selection in the middle (now red, not blue).

Although the effect is not "completely clean" at the end of it the deck can genuinely be shown with no duplicates of the four cards used.

I've been working on this for some time and have hit brick walls with several ideas, including using four matching cards from a red deck and switching them somehow, and several other ideas, which escape me because they held no value after thinking them through. Until today I haven't been able to find anything as "clean" and "direct" as this (inspiration for which decided to hit me whilst I was in the shower whilst having to get to work in 30 minutes, inconvenient or what? Managed to jot the ideas down though).

As far as I know this is an original routine, or at the very least an original handling. I would post a video but although I have the theoretical workings down, my ability to perform it is lacking severely. For the amount of time I've been doing magic, an amateur like me could consider this a bit of a knuckle buster as it uses some sleights I've only learned recently and haven't perfected yet?

Does any one know of a routine that has the same effect as this? Does anyone think (without seeing it performed) that this could be a good trick? Any suggestions for the patter for why they change colour? At the moment I'm working on a "Red & Blue tribes" idea and converting the members of the tribe (hence the use of a joker) but I think it's pretty weak. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

This effect sounds similar to an effect by John Guastaferro (which was inspired by a few other concepts). Though the presentation is completely different, the end result sounds similar.

The key differences are - in the Guastaferro routine it's the deck that is believed to be changed (it's more a color changing deck routine).

Also - it doesn't involve a color changing selection.

Parts of the effect sound like things I've seen and heard of before, but with the proper patter and presentation, you could make it more your own.

My only problem is the joker doesn't seem to be necessary. Granted, you didn't mention the patter that includes the reason for the joker - but from what I see here, it seems like the joker has no real purpose. Could you perhaps explain the reasoning behind using it a bit more?

Of course. This is the first time I've really created a trick that needs significant patter, so it may be a little weak until I get into the swing of creating this stuff.

I spent a while thinking about the patter last night and at the moment I'm centred around some kind of "Red & Blue Tribes" and a kidnapping story. Before I show the colour change, I explain that the kings are in disguise as part of the blue tribe and that the joker is the leader of the red tribe. When I make a magical (or comical) move with the joker, this is the signal for the kings/jacks/whatever to attack and kidnap the blue tribe member (the selected card).

Also, I'll PM you with another aspect of the routine as I don't wanna give too much away if anyone uses a similar idea.

Nice to see another TM member thinking 'outside the box' and developing their own ideas. Work on it until you feel happy with it and enjoy creating Magic!

Thanks Mandrake. Will do!

It's something I've enjoyed sitting down and thinking about with a deck of cards and creating from the the initial concept up.

A Huge metaphorical flame was ignited when I started to work on this trick when the thought occured that maybe I've come up with an original technique. It forms the very start of the trick and although I'm sure someone has done it before, it made me feel quite clever for a brief moment, then it faded and I carried on brainstorming (sorry, politcal correction - thought-showering).

It's the first trick I've devised that needs any real skill to perform it, which I'm quite proud of as my greatest inventions of the past have been selected card slowly falling out of the deck back into the spectators hand after they put it back and shuffled it (my favourite use of a new, slippery stripper deck), and a selected card being placed in the deck and flying out of the deck at half it's size (mini bicycle card). Please don't misunderstand me though, I considered these tricks to be daft little things when I created them but the impact on the spectators of these trick is fantastic. They probably will have a bigger impact than the current trick I'm working on but what the hell!