Bulla I don't think that the biggest surprise in the routine is your KINGS! Is the spectator having the ACES that's the real surprise, especially after cuting, shuffling, and dealing from wherver he wanted, whenever he wanted. Just my opinion.

Umm...I never said it was.

I think what Marian meant was:
In the original routine the spectators aren't surprised by you having the 4 kings, if you place extra emphasis on them making sure that you don't cheat then they will actually be expecting you to cheat, they will watch out for it but still see nothing unnatural. Then when you have the 4 kings they may be thinking, "wow, I know he cheated, but I have no idea how... I was watching the whole time!". Whereas if they focus entirely on their half they may end up thinking "well, I wasn't watching his packet, I thought it was a shuffling lesson... he could have done anything"
And then when they see their aces the effect will have a great impact either way. It could go to "well I couldn't see how he cheated, but there is no way I cheated/ no way he could have done anything to my cards".

I guess it potentially diverts some attention away from the procedure, which COULD divert their attention away from the method. There is a risk with this effect that the spectator (having no other method to fall back on) could consider the fact that they held the cards the whole time, they did all of this dealing and cutting... there must have been something specific about the procedure to make the effect work.
Potentially - if they think the effect is going to happen with your cards, then they may place less importance on the procedure.

I don't know if any of the above is true or not, but it is interesting to think about

Thanks,

Sam

I actually think the spectators not being surprised by your kings is a good thing. It puts them at ease and completely sets them up for the climax. They reason that you're the magician and are able to manipulate the cards so it's no surprise that you got four of a kind. But when you show that they have apparently done the same thing and on top of that they've beaten you, I feel you get a much better reaction that way. I like having the first production more or less as a throw away then to create a moment out of it. This is a routine where I want 100% of the focus to be on the spectator and not me.

Actually what I meant was that it doesn't matter if the spectator focuses on you.....you don't cheat anyway...but I don't think the spectator will focus that much on your anyway...The reall surprise is in he having the aces that's exactly what I said:

"Is the spectator having the ACES that's the real surprise, especially after cuting, shuffling, and dealing from wherver he wanted, whenever he wanted."

The shuffling lesson is Chad Long's I believe correct? I do this effect all the time takes 10 seconds to set up & surprises them all the time

KokoB you can find my version in Secret Sessions.

Yes it is Chad Long's.