The Classic Force
Hi. My name is Andrew Musgrave. I‘m a magician… and I don‘t Classic Force.
It‘s a great technique, if you‘re able to use it. Frankly, when I‘m working, I‘m doing one of two routines, neither of which requires any kind of forcing. If I decide I‘m going to force something, I usually end up using something that‘s more fullproof, such as the Hofzinser Spread Force, which hits all the time, and also allows you to offer them the chance to change their mind on the card they‘ve chosen. It‘s not quite as open as a Classic Force, but then again, a Classic Force isn‘t quite as fair as a non-forcing card selection procedure (which is the sort I end u p using in the effects I do).
In any case, I told you that to tell you this. I have no idea whether or not Royal Road teaches this technique better or worse than other resources. For the most part the advice offered here sounds standard to me (considering what other sources recommend, such as Daryl‘s Encyclopedia). I do know that Dai Vernon had some great ideas, including a touch that makes it seem as though the force card is actually not the most obvious card offered to the spectator.
Sorry that I can‘t be of much help here.
One-Hand Force
This seems like a reasonable alternative to the classic force, but it‘ll take some practice to get into it without being detected. I think a force such as this one would look pretty good from stage, where it could read as nice and open, and any discrepancies in the fan would be impossible to see by anybody except your assistant.
Bottom Force
This is a bit of an affected selection procedure. If they‘re close enough to get in contact with the cards, I‘d want to work from a spread. Various people have been pla yingwith the idea of doing this force from a Biddle-style of grip, so that you‘ve got the slant along the wide edges rather than the short edges. I honestly don‘t know which I like better. Personally, I think this sort of thing is best-suited to something like a card-stab, as a revelation, rather than a card selection.
Slide-Out Force
I wouldn‘t have thought this could look good, but I saw someone do this once, and it wasn‘t bad. That said, it‘s another affected means of having a card selected — again, I‘d reserve it for a card- stab type of revelation.
Two Card Force
Again, I didn‘t think this could look good, but it wasn‘t bad. Bill Simon‘s Prophecy Move seems to be the most popular current force of this type, and it has the advantage of being doable from a spr ead. It‘s also got a more open feel to it.
Riffle Break Force
This has become a popular modern force. Tyler Erickson has some great touches on this force — it‘s worth getting lessons from him on card forcing in general if that‘s a strategy you plan on employing — and he also makes the great point that it‘s best reserved for those situations when you‘re forcing a card on somebody who‘s not close enough to touch the cards themselves. You could also possibly motivate it by saying that you use it to deal with people who are suspicious about marked cards, and for those who find themselves using something like a spectator-peak, this is a suitable counter-strategy for that situation. It also has a nice feature to it in that you can riffle to a spot that they fairly select, and you can even riffle off a few more cards one-by-one if they‘re not happy with where they‘ve stopped.
Sliding Key Force
This is gold. Now, it does hinge on getting the card off the bottom deceptively — I‘d prefer to get the card into position using a Hofzinser cull strategy — but it‘s a bullet-proof force from a spread. I would absolutely recommend trying to get this down, and if you‘re having any trouble getting the card into position, then look into the Hofzinser cull. The advice about not giving the cards out immediately for a shuffle is good as wel l, since that‘s the sort of thing that can signal to the spectator that you already know what the card is. Tyler recommends trying to goad them into wanting to shuffle of their own accord, as if thi s would mess up the trick.
Double-lift Force
The description of this force seems to have an error in it, since there‘s no way the card could get into position based on what they describe. If you shuffle it to second from the top, it should work properly. Now, this force doesn‘t really do anything for me, since there‘s counting involved and
the magician needs to handle the cards themselves to get everything set up. For the most part, I don‘t like the idea of a card selection being such a big event without good reason. If you‘re hoping to sell the fairness of it, I think there are better ways.
Cut Force
Known now as the Cross Cut Force, this is one of those techniques that is easy to hate if you know the mechanics of it… the discrepancy is just so blatant. Tyler Erickson, though, made the point that if you sell the force properly, this is a technique that actually allows you to have a card
selected without you ever touching the cards. That‘s a fairly big deal, especially if you‘ve
established that you‘ve got some really good card skills. Again, as somebody who almost never forces, it‘s hard for me to comment on this, except generally, which I‘ll get into later. Again, Tyler‘s worth contacting about this, as he‘s got some great ide as on selling the fairness of the force, including even eliminating the need for the ―time misdirection‖ aspect of it.
“Justice Card Trick”
I suppose this could be a good trick for somebody who wants to try to sell the idea of Extra
but the times I have done it, it was easy to forget that you need to have your eyes closed except the times you need them open. Definitely pay attention to that part of the trick if you want to work blindfolded. Some more great advice on this can be found in Corinda‘s 13 Steps to Mentalism.
Which brings me to why I‘m not totally sold on this trick. Mentalists have been doing wonderful things with blindfolds for a long time, and I don‘t think this is the strongest ESP-type of effect that can be done with a deck of cards. Something like Annemann‘s Par Optic Vision or Malini‘s Card Stab, for instance, let you reveal multiple cards in an impressive (and less lengthy) fashion, and there‘s no forcing involved. Similarly, you can do more impressive things ESP-wise if
you‘re able to force a card. I‘ll get into this more later on.
If I were to do this sort of trick, I‘d probably try to find some way to work with half the deck, just to cut down on all the dealing involved.
“Fours of a Kind”
A good trick, although blech to the backslip force. Essentially, what we‘re talking about is the ―Matching the Cards‖ plot, a highly-regarded trick, and one of the most popular handlings for it is Dai Vernon‘s — a version that‘s well worth looking up. Plus, some magicians have taken this to the next level, so that you follow up the magical appearance of the ―right‖ four -of-a-kind by having the original ―wrong‖ four -of-a-kind jump to the magician‘s pockets (or wherever else he wants). Many car d guys swear by this trick, and considering the power of a simple ―Isn‘t/Is‖ trick (which only involves a single incorrect card changing into the correct card), it‘s easy to see why. If this sort of thing appeals to you, I‘d recommend looking up Dai Vernon ‘s ―Matching the Cards‖, and then Dr. Jacob Daley‘s ―Gambler versus Magician‖ — however, while those tricks will be considered superior to ―Fours of a Kind‖, in much the same way that ―Dunbury
Delusion‖ or ―That‘s It!‖ will be considered better than ―Design for Laughter‖, you should try it out in this form anyway just to see if it fits you as a plot.
“Pulse Trick”
This isn‘t bad — I like the idea of being able to turn the tables on the spectator so that you‘re doing for them almost exactly what they did for you. This approach is being very true to the effect. Since there‘s potential to flash the modus operandi to a larger audience, you might want to try to use a pulse-taking grip for when the magician reads the spectator‘s pulse that covers the spectator‘s fist adequately, so that you can motivate a similar grip for when it‘s time for them to read your pulse. I‘d say this is one of the better ―mental magic‖ type of effects in the book.
General Thoughts on This Chapter
Perhaps I‘ve been ruined by Tyler‘s teachings — specifically his thoughts on forcing, and trying to make sure that the techniques fit the same general aesthetic of non-forced card selections. If you design your strategies in this manner, then it basically makes it difficult to want to do some of the forces in this chapter. Now, it‘s hard to blame Royal Road for this, when you see plenty of
modern sources doing exactly the same thing. That aside, this chapter does have some good techniques in here that fit the three major card-selection contexts that Tyler identified. The first, having a card selected from a nearby spectator, can be satisfied by either the Classic Force or the Sliding Key Force (if you study your Marlo you‘ll find another one that‘s brilliant, but that o ne‘s too good to name publicly here). The second, having a card selected from a distant spectator, can be satisfied by the riffle force or the Hindu Shuffle force (the flash version described in the last
chapter) and if you want another strategy to look into, consider the Dribble Forc e (Carney
teaches this pretty well in various sources). The third, havin g a card chosen without the magician even touching the deck, can be satisfied by the Cross Cut Force (although one more that‘s worth looking into is the Balducci Cut Deeper Force, using Marlo‘s subtlety).
It‘s probably worth spending some time analyzing the role o f the force as a strategy. Both ―Justice Card Trick‖ and ―Pulse Trick‖ can actually be done using alternate strategies, and you might even find that working with a full-deck stack or even using a Key Card might offer some advantages over forcing, since both of them can allow you to give a truly free choice.
Considering that, you might instead consider researching those sorts of effects that actuall y must have a card forced, in order to really see the power of the technique. Unfortunately, it‘s difficult to describe specific effects that use forcing, since that‘d be tantamount to exposing the modus operandi of the effect, which I‘d be hesitant to do for things that are currently on the market. Now, if you are going to be using a force for the situations described in ―Justice Card Trick‖ and
―Pulse Trick‖, you might want to figure out how to leverage the strong points of your choice — if you can get a secret glimpse of the card you‘re going to force, then they can leave with the memory of having shuffled both before and after the trick.
I will single out predictions as an obvious application for forces. Essentially, you force a card and then show it‘s in a newspaper classified ad, on a tattoo, on your T-Shirt, etc. The real
challenge with this sort of thing is that, while it will have an impact if the technique fooled them, it also pretty much exposes the fact that you forced them to take a specific card. Again, you‘ll want to try to figure out the strong aspects of your chosen force technique, and leverage them so as to challenge the idea that you could have possibly made them take a specific card. A Sliding Key Force, for instance, lets them remember that they could have touched any card they wanted to, whereas a Cross Cut Force lets them remember that you didn‘t even handle the cards. Being able to psychologically sell a force is a valuable strategy at any point, but with a prediction it‘s particularly vital, since there‘s basically no additional layer of deception for the mystery —
unlike, say, using the paddle move to make the card‘s name appear on a pen or something. One fun tactic is doing one of those effects where you consistently force the same card over and over. Do this once to somebody who doesn‘t know about card forces, and you‘ll likely be hooked by their reaction. It creates two-fold problem, though. First, it pretty much exposes the fact that
requires you to up the ante drastically in order to complete the effect in a satisfactory way. For what it‘s worth, though, because I don‘t classic force, wh en it‘s been done well to me, I‘m always fooled by it, and it‘s a great feeling.
One more thing that‘s worth looking into is forcing strategies that require gimmicked decks of some sort. For me, the Cross Cut Force or the Cut Deeper Force might be acceptable for those situations where you‘re working FASDIU or with a borrowed deck or something, and when you‘re performing for a single person (or maybe a small group) where you know you can sell the convincers on those forces, but if I was going to go onstage and do something that needed a hands-off force, I‘d probably establish a regular deck in some preliminary routine doing card-to- pocket or whatever, and then try to find a way to ring in a gimmicked deck so that I could do a
fairer hands-off force that doesn‘t have a perceivable discrepant procedure to it. This idea — basically using one routine to offer proofs that make a latter routine stronger — is particularly
devious, and often overlooked, given that in magic we tend to only think one routine at a time. There are gimmicked decks that can make for very clean close-up and hands-off forces.
I might come back to this chapter later on, but now I think that‘s it. Up next, the frightening top change!