June. 09/06

What The Audience Sees:

'Holy Smokes! Today Jamie had me shuffle the deck and cut it into 4, 5, or 6 piles (I could choose). I then picked up one of the piles and simply Thought of a card that was in it. I then put all the piles back together and gave the whole deck a cut. Jamie then shuffled the deck and threw 1 card out onto the table. You're not going to believe this- but it was my card!'

How It Went:

Is this the best Pick A Card trick ever? It just might be. I had the absolute pleasure and honour of seeing Sal lecture here last week and I was blown away. Not only are Sal's skills positively remarkable but he was such a nice guy that I almost couldn't believe it. This was one of the effects he performed, and it fooled me, so you can imagine how it went today (yesterday, actually, I didn't work today, so this is technically a Magic Thursday...)

It really seems impossible. I've also mentioned this in previous Magic Friday posts that the MF crowd really seems to like cards, so they were quite happy. 'There's No Way you know what my card is!' was said more than once. And unlike other pick a card effects, this one has the spectator Think of it. Strong stuff.

Best Lines:

'I have abso$#%$%$lutely no idea how you just did that...' -Angry Bob
'Ha Ha Ha Ha!' -very common reaction yesterday. I mean, really, what can you say?

Angry Bob Rating:

I have a co-worker (Bob) whose uncle was a magician and thereby has a good working knowledge of how magic works. He's pretty grumpy but likes Magic Friday's because he can tell me how he figured out how the effect is done... A high rating means he'll never figure it out.

5/5. I couldn't even figure it out.

My Rating:

Well, like I said, this is an absolute fooler. The only problem I could find was that you would probaly like to have a table, and as I usually perform walk around, that can sometimes be a problem. This trick gets a huge bonus though because the spectator shuffles the deck and then cuts it, so let's say, 9.5/10.

The JDG Tip:

Never play cards with Sal Piacente.

Closing Thoughts:

We've all had that one spectator who's a tad difficult and wants to shuffle the deck or what have you. I'll be saving this for him.

"You want to shuffle? Here, let's find a table so that we can make this as fair as can possibly be. Everyone, please come over here for a second..."

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE!

Jamie D. Grant