talkmagic.co.uk

One of my current magicial reading favourites is David Acer's 'Random Acts of Magic' and the end of the book contains some of the excellent articles he has written for Genii.
One of them is called Five Card Mental Farce, where he tries out the old Dai Vernon effect where five cards are shown to someone and they are asked to mentally select one with you handing them the card they have thought of.
I can't go into the subtleties here without exposing the effect, but Acer tries it out on a few people with varying results and comes to the conclusion that people's brains are wired differently these days which is why it may not work as well.

Not having tried it myself, I thought I would do the same and see what kind of results I would get. I first tried it out on my missus and she picked the Four Of Hearts - a direct hit - and was astonished by it.

I then thought I'd try a different tack and try it via text message on a friend of mine. I took a photo of the five cards and then added the text needed to divert the specs mind. He text me back telling me he was thinking of one and I text back 'Four of Hearts' which led to him replying "Strewth! That's the one! Very impressive!"
He then asked me if I could do the same effect on his wife, who dislikes magic (but believes in psychics, weirdly enough) but I thought that'd be pushing it a bit and said my 'energies' were used up.

Has anyone else tried this force? I have only tried it the two times, both successful and both wildly different situations. I was quite astonished it worked by text message.

I use it when I really don't need to because I'm leary of it. I'm not sure why I've only had it fail 2 or 3 times and I've used it a great many times.

Is that the same principle as Jermay uses for A Darker Dai? If so it's rather nice but I'm surprised (and impressed) you managed to get it to work by text. Mind you I suppose that Luke's handling goes in a slightly different psychological direction than the original force, but it's interesting to see how effective it can be. Might give it a crack myself.

I'm not familiar with A Darker Dai, so I'm not sure whether there are similarities. The routine is in Expert Card Technique.

I tried it again by text and WHAMMO! - another hit!

It's very strong as it's not like old "Think of a card" and then you show 4 cards and theirs is missing. It's the same picture and they're thinking of a card they've chosen which does make it eerily seem like you are doing some 'remote viewing'.
The person I did on today was more amazed as they said they changed their mind before they finally setlled on the four of hearts!

Lord frodrick i know exactly what your talking about from exper card technique and conclusively reveal i have never ever ever got this to work. It seems logical and straightforward in print but in these more magical times i think people are more prone to "second guess" the magician. Having said that... i have as ive been typing this,realised that ive never tryed to open with it so it might work then

Mr Spudgun, sir, try it again with the correct emphasis on the right cards (if you know what I mean). If they are listening to what you are saying and thinking they are enterting into a psychological trap, they will go the route you want them to and fall into it!

To be honest, when it worked by text, I was just as, if not more so, astonished than the recipient was!

I sent a photo with the five cards and started the text with "I'm trying something out" and then proceeded to use almost the same emphasis on the ace and black card as there is in ECT.

Try it again, you may be suprised!

PM me if you want to know more about it.

David Blaine used this with 4 of hearts being the "target card". It is all to do with the other cards you present to the spec, and (as always) the spiel.

It's a nice bit of fun, but certainly not reliable. One to try on the "just happy to be here" table at the back of the room rather than the top table before the best man hands over the cheque.

froderick i think you may be right by the way

Thanks mate, do try it out (if you haven't already) tried it again today on my sister and she was freaked out by it. She sussed that the two I mentioned would be ruled out psychologically but was still freaked out by it.

I think it works more on laypeople than us magi as I tried it out on my good friend who comes on here as russellmagic and he picked a different card because being a magician his brain is wired differently.