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"Tell me when to stop."
"Stop what?"

Solution:
"I'm going to run down the corner/edge of the deck, tell me when to stop and we'll use that card."
"Okay... stop."

Oh, sure, that's fine in a situation where they've accepted that you're a magician and you're going to show them a trick. But I don't want to walk up the spec and say, "I'd like to show you a card trick, and I'd like you to pick a card" etc if I don't need to. It's kind of slow, and while you're doing this, the spec might be thinking consciously about whether or not they actually want to see a trick. And they may decide that they don't want to.

If you walk up with a spread deck, the spec feels tempted to pick a card before they even think about whether or not they want to see a trick. Walk up, smile, spread the deck, they pick a card, and you're away. It's just such a smooth and easy (and reliable) way to approach a stranger...

Yeah, I can see that.

Fair point.

... and here it is.......

Mandrake wrote:... and here it is.......

Now that's MAGIC!

I keep a spare deck for replacements. If they pick and sign the ace of spades, I take the same card from the spare deck to replace it.

When the same card is selected multiple times you'd need multiple spare decks but with a 1/52 chance you should be fine for a few goes at which point you could start forcing or duping.

Ste Porterfield wrote:I keep a spare deck for replacements. If they pick and sign the ace of spades, I take the same card from the spare deck to replace it.

When the same card is selected multiple times you'd need multiple spare decks but with a 1/52 chance you should be fine for a few goes at which point you could start forcing or duping.

Makes sense.

Here's another thought.

The easiest thing is to go out with a 1 way deck, plus however many cards you need for replacing the signed cards. You'd buy two 1 way decks the same, 104 identical cards.

They pick a card fairly. It rises to the top -- no sleights needed as they're all the same. Keep doing this until the spec suspects foul play.

"Maybe you've got two the same!"

"Actually they're all the same!"

Spread them to show. Comedy moment.

"Tell you what, sign your name, write your PIN number and inside leg measurement on the card..."

The magic should now be even more powerful, because they thought you were relying on a gimmicked (1 way) deck.

You can of course then replace the card.

What is wrong with learning a classic force? Really it comes down to a confidence issue and seeing as you are not currently forcing a card for your ACR then this is your perfect chance to learn the classic force. Do not change your ACR just try to classic force the card each time, this way it doesn't matter if you are successful or not, just continue with the trick as usual. Over time you will see that you are going to be 100% (well okay nothing is 100%) successful. Go ahead give it a whirl. How can it possibly hurt?

Yes, I did start doing that once and I got to about 50% with the classic force, but for some reason I totally forgot about it and haven't tried it for ages.

(I've no idea whether 50% success is considered particularly good or not. Does anyone get it to 100%?)

I'll make a note to myself to remind myself to practise it.

With bicycles costing about £1 a deck just throw it away when it starts to feel thin. If you do the routine say 20 times in an evening and use £3/£4 worth of cards that is nothing in relation to your fee.

Dave.

http://www.madetomeasuremagic.co.uk" target="_blank

Ste Porterfield wrote:I keep a spare deck for replacements. If they pick and sign the ace of spades, I take the same card from the spare deck to replace it.

When the same card is selected multiple times you'd need multiple spare decks but with a 1/52 chance you should be fine for a few goes at which point you could start forcing or duping.

I usually let the specs pick their own card sign it and keep it at the end, I let the deck go down to about 35 - 40 then open a new deck and keep the one i've been using for spares and tears (cards to tear not to dry my teary eyes).

Ste's method actually makes more sense to me because that way you always get to work with a full deck.

I have the same issue with one of my card transpostions where you need a duplicate of the specs choice in order to do a tear and repair but you actually end up ruining two cards.

I'll mention this, as it hasn't come up yet. Pros often don't give (or throw) the card away. It goes back in the deck and so in the course of a busy evening doing walk-around one card may end up signed three or four times, making it even more unique (just to annoy the pedants). At the end of the evening (or maybe longer), chuck the cards.

Hadn't thought of that.

Though, if you're ending with card-to-sealed-envelope-in-wallet it may seem rude to take the card back. Otherwise, shouldn't be a problem.

Nice to give out a souvenir though. Something for the spectator to leave on the bus on the way home, along with their umbrella and scarf.

I openly change decks when I am moving from an ordinary trick to a card destroying trick. I tell the spectator that a card will be damaged so I am using an old deck, there may be duplicates in there because this is how I use up my old decks etc. I do Wayne Dobsons Nailed and Mark Wilsons torn and restored several time each performance so would get through a lot of decks if I used new ones.

I have found that in magic as in the rest of life the easiest explanation is often just to tell the truth. That way also it makes it easier to tell the big lie when you need to.