So I have a card trick that is almost perfectly impossible. There is one little bit that I have been trying to perfect that would really make this trick gold. Basically I need a quick discreet way to apply a playing card size sticker perfectly on the face of a card without drawing too much attention to it. This is something that will have a few moments to take place thanks to the how the routine plays out. At the time of this move the focus should be on the spectator looking through a deck of cards. If you think you have the macgyver brain to help develop a move to make this happen then please PM me and I will give you the details of the trick.

There is no way to do this perfectly unless you can make some sort of jig like you'd use to put a CD sticker on a CD..

That being said...if you're thinking of doing something like putting it on while it's in your pocket or something...you're probably out of luck..

Perhaps there's a different solution than a sticker?

Well, the goal is to apply a thin piece of cardboard or a sticker that has the back design of a playing card printed on it to the back to of another card. During the course of the trick, two different cards are signed by two different spectators. One card is signed on the back and the other is signed on the face. In the end they are supposed to be revealed to be the same card. My first version of this trick was simply sticking two cards together, but you can't really hand out the card for inspection because no matter how well they are stuck together, you can feel and see that it is two cards.

The card that is signed on the back isn't really handled by the spectator. It is either in the magicians hand or resting on the table when they sign it. So having an unpeeled sticker resting on a card could be pulled off, or what might be better is having the thinner side of a split card which would could still appear as one card if applied to the back of another card with adhesive.

This is a tough one. I have been throwing around the idea of constructing a card box that could combine the two parts evenly using a rectangle hole just slightly larger than a playing card. The thin adhesive part could be placed in the hole with the adhesive side up and the card that it would be stuck to could be pushed in after it bringing them together so the all the sides are even. Not sure if that makes sense.

This might be something that just might not work.

I might just not be able to hand out the card at the end.

I have been doing this effect for years. I even included it in my lecture notes a few years ago. I called it, "Repositionable, Inc." One card signed on the face, and another on the back. Both signatures end up on the same card, and the spectators are allowed to become good friends, or fight over who gets to take it home. Normal deck, no gimmicks, no terrifically difficult sleights... just stuff any card man should already know how to do.

I developed my handling mainly as a way to combat the large number of decks I was using in family-friendly restaurants. It seemed that once you had a kid sign a card, EVERY kid wanted to sign one. This cut the number of consumable cards in half.

FYI, I also came up with a neato ending to the Card Warp idea, with the two halves rejoining in the "warped" condition. This was justified because part of the routine involved a torn and restored card, so it wasn't just a fancy-schmancy kicker. Anyway, this did require a double of sorts. Actually it was a composite made of laminated printed gaffs. It did not feel like a real card when it was unblemished, but once folded into quarters, it was very hard for most people to distinguish the difference, and I felt safe handing it out.

Well, to put a finer point on it.. I was hoping to have the card with the back signed in full view while the other card was being signed. This arrangement is dictated by the narrative. However, it may mean that I have to adjust when the card on the table is signed and just perform a switch.

The audience will perceive the effect based upon the information you give them to focus on.

I hate to be the pessimist but I think you are going in the wrong direction. As a magician you are propably familiar with tricks like Anniversay Waltz and are trying to do something that fools people who know that sort of thing.

But what you are doing is actually moving toward the method that laypeople think is the obvious answer. "These were separate when we signed them and now they are togethor...He just glued them togethor".

The reason Anniversary Waltz works is because the card IS a real card. There is really no faking that. People sho play cards all their lives will touch that card and say "this is only one card".

The routine has to use some subterfuge to make them think the cards are not togethor at first but this works very well. There is no heat on that part of the routine.

Great suggestion Mike

I like to separate the WHAT from the HOW

first think about WHAT the effect should be

then worry about HOW to best accomplish this

obviously there is a give and take involved...

sometimes the HOW is very compelling, and you reverse engineer the WHAT

but still your audience only sees the WHAT, not the HOW

hopefully

Hey Brad, I just posted my own idea for a trick and couple of people posted that they didn't think much of it. They were polite and I told them I respected their opinions but disagreed. A few other like the idea.

I hope I didn't come off too strong here. You should take in the various opinions but if you like your idea you should push on. You might see beyond what I see. Or you may agree with me to some degree but just want to give it a shot any way.

Good Luck

You might consider having the card signed at one end on the front and at the opposite end on the back. This would allow you an "Out to Lunch" solution using just the one card.

I don't think you came off too strong at all. Sorry I haven't visited this thread in a while. Had a busy week. However, I think I have taken the method of my trick in a new direction. It doesn't involve sticking anything together, which was getting way more complicated than it needed to be. Just like an above poster said, it is what the audience would suspect, and I my goal was to have something that looked and felt like one unaltered card. However, sticking things together have a way of changing how things look and feel no matter how well it's done. Since I came up with my much improved and much simpler method, I wonder what insanity came over me that made me think I could pull off the sticker thing to begin with. I guess it was my first stab at a potential method for the effect I wanted to achieve and sometimes we have to get through our more ridiculous ideas before we find the workable practical one.

The method I use now doesn't involve altering any cards at all, but instead relies on very specific timing to convince the spectator that the same card is written on at the same time but in two different places. The effect basically is a time travelling card. A single card is written on the back and left on the table face down before the effect even begins. A cased deck is handed to a spectator. They pull out the cards and cut the deck themselves. They sign the face of the card they cut to and reassemble the deck. The deck is returned to the case and left in the spectators possession. A few moments are taken to explain an unusual phenomenon where mini wormholes pop in and out of existence all around us constantly altering reality, which is why things sometimes appear in places you don't remember leaving them or even appear in places that you could have swore you check only moments earlier.

At that moment the cards are removed from the case and held up by the spectator. The magician directs their hands where he believes on of these mini wormholes will be appearing. After a moment, the magician has the spectator look for their card in the deck. When they discover that it is missing the card that has been on the table the entire time is flipped over to be revealed to be that it was their card the entire time. It appears that their card travelled back in time just minutes ago before the effect even started and had been present the whole time.

There is no palming, no writing done by the magician during the performance, and it is possible for the magician to never even touch the cards with the right audience management. This is still in it's infancy stage. I still need to take it out and perform it for people, but I think I have finally found a way to achieve the effect I want. I am something of a science nerd and liked the idea of trying to implement time travel into a trick. I guess I'll see how it plays next week.