The Devil's Tailor wrote:If you do need to tell people to cut rather than shuffle or whatever, maybe you can say, "I want the choice to be random, otherwise I can probably just guess the sort of film you'd pick, so I'd like you to cut exactly three times and that will be your choice..." I guess that would work? That was my only concern about the trick. It just looked a bit obvious that he's trying to ensure that they cut rather than shuffle.
The cards are a tool, there are many things they can be used for. You are (through no fault of your own) over fixating on one video of one performance which involved the speactator cutting.
I have been using them for many years, and I the routines I use don't get the spectator to cut them at all (with the exception of the drawing dupe - which the spectator does cut - but does so under the table, so makes a lot of sense).
For the main effect (and remember there are many, and many presentations of many at that), the cards are mixed and they select one at random (or they choose a specific one), and using whatever presntation suits you, you can tell them what they are thinking (albeit the film name, actors, scenes from the film, music etc.)