magical powers and running off to fight crime, our server clearly realized I was the source of her newfound “powers.” The result was that I got a new customer for my bar gig. The first routine I performed was Darwin Ortiz’s Test Your Luck (from his latest book, Lessons in Card Mastery), which is a card stab in which the participant finds a card she freely named. I followed up with the following simple Stop effect inspired by my friend Michael Vincent.
Begin with a memorized deck in play, in one to fifty-two order (or a few cards off in either directions, as per my June 2014 column). Ask your participant to name any card in the deck she likes, and stress that she has a completely free choice. (I encourage people to change their mind as much as they want before settling on a card.) Once she’s named a card, you have to cut that card to the top of the deck. The best strategies I’ve learned for this can be found in Darwin Ortiz’s Lessons in Card
Mastery, and Michael Close’s Workers 5. If
you do this kind of Open Index card work, I highly suggest getting these sources. I find the trick plays stronger if you can get to the named card with as little finagling as possible.
Once you have the card on top, place the deck on the table. Place your left hand palm up directly next to the deck. Ask her to take a card from the top of the deck and to place it face down in your left hand. Il- lustrate this by taking the top card yourself and placing it into your left hand; have her imitate what you just did. Once she’s done that, have her do it again, and then again. Tell her to keep going as much as she wants; whenever she feels like it, she should simply stop. (Choose your wording carefully; you don’t want her to get ahead of you and take a card or stop with one in her hand.)
When she stops, you’ll have a short pile of cards in your hand. The bottom card of this pile is her named card. Push the top card of the pile about halfway off the top
with your left thumb. You’re now going to turn a couple of screws that always get a nice reaction. Say that you’ll let her choose: she can take the last card back, deal one more, or leave everything the way it is. Regardless of the eventual decision, I find just being at that crossroads has a really weird effect on people.
If she chooses to leave things as is, fine. If she takes the last card back or opts for one more, do as she asks, and push the subsequent top card halfway off the packet with your left thumb. You’re in position to do a very well-covered bottom deal, in the style of Larry Jennings’s TNT bottom deal. Under cover of the side-jogged top card, push out the bottom card with the left second, third, and fourth fingers. Bring the left hand to the right hand, and rest the right thumb lightly on top of the side-jogged top card while the right first and second fingers contact the side-jogged bottom card (Photo 1).
Once the left hand delivers the packet to the right, several things happen at once. The left hand moves forward and to the left, turning palm down to spread the packet on the table. The right first and second fingers take the bottom card of the packet as the left thumb pulls the top card back flush with the rest of the cards (Photo 2). Timed correctly, it looks like the left hand delivered the top card to the right hand, then spread its packet face up on the table.
Now you milk the suspense. You point out that she could’ve stopped on any of the cards on the table. Turn over the top card of the remainder of the deck to show what would’ve happened if she had gone one card further. Ask her to repeat which card she named, and reveal it.
While my participant and any other spectators are reacting to this, I reset the deck as follows. I drop the selection on the face of the face-up spread. I sight-count six or seven cards from that end, and as I scoop up the spread I place my thumb down at that point so I can get a break. I do an overhand shuffle and run all the cards above that break singly, reversing the order, and throw the rest on top. I turn the top card of the rest of the deck face down and drop the packet face-down on top. Then I do another overhand shuffle, running six (or seven) cards singly to finish reversing the order, then finish with an Erdnase Overhand Blind Shuffle. All of this is done briskly but casually, as we’re between tricks and people are still freaking out over the previous one. I welcome any questions or comments. If any M-U-M readers want to get in touch, please feel free to contact me at antoni- [email protected]. I look forward to answering your questions and opening a dialogue or two.
Photo 1
Photo 2
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