Encode entire deck 1 card (clear zip bag and sharpie pen)

The magician sends his assistant (in my case it's my wife) to another room saying that we will pretend she is Agatha Christie or Jessica Fletcher.

The magician removes four sevens from a little clear sandwich bag claiming they are spies.

Note: these four cards are from a cheap Maverick or Crown deck from Walmart $1 because they have a plastic coating and are dry erasable.

From a complete nice deck the magician has a spectator select (or name) any card as the target card to be the criminal and shows the card to the magician and places the target card face down on the table (or in their hand).

The magician takes one of the sevens and hovers it over the target card saying "this spy is now a witness and can identify the criminal" then places that seven back into the bag.

The magician also takes a Sharpie pen from inside his breast coat pocket and places it into the clear bag and tells the spectator to take the bag to the assistant and she will use the sharpie pen to write the name of the target criminal card on the back of the spy card.

The spectator takes the bag to the assistant and then the assistant opens the bag and writes the name of the target card on the back of the seven and then the assistant returns to the audience with the bag card and pen.

Then the magician does a buildup and reveal that the assistant has indeed named the criminal card on the back of the seven!

How it's done:
This is essentially a modified version of my 0, 2, 4, 6 version.

https://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/view......forum=99

But instead of using four animals this method uses four Sharpie pens.

Inside the breast pocket the magician secretly has four Sharpie pens:

0. one with the black number "0" written in front of the word "Sharpie",
2. one with the black number "2" written in front of the word "Sharpie",
4. one with the black number "4" written in front of the word "Sharpie",
6. one with the black number "6" written in front of the word "Sharpie".

Note: each pen has two places that have the word "Sharpie" so be sure to write the number in both places.

Note: I have the "0" and "2" pen clipped to the left side of the pocket and the "4" and "6" pen clipped to the right side of that same pocket. This makes it very easy to obtain the correct pen. If a shirt pocket is used then of course a jacket must be worn to hide the fact that there are four pens.

For the "0" pen you don't need to write a "0" you can just leave it un- gaffed.

Note: there are many alternatives where only one sharpie pen is needed but the four pen method is the easiest for my assistant:

First she orients the bag correctly (If it has a slider make sure the slider is to the upper right or if it has pre-printing make sure it is facing her, or I prefer a plain sandwich bag where the front lip is a little lower than the back lip because there is no tip off to the audience or a little black dot can be permanently marked on the upper right corner of the bag):

Then she:
1. Looks at the pen number to get the starting value of 0 or 2 or 4 or 6.
2. If the face of the seven is facing her then add 8.
3. If the oddball pip (middle pip) on the seven is to the left then add 1.
4. Look at the suit of the seven then advance one SHoCkeD fashion.
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After the show the magician uses a big dry erase pen to mark over the Sharpie pen writing on any of the sevens and a little black cloth to use as an eraser to clean it up. Between shows the black cloth, the big dry erase pen, the four sevens and the four Sharpie pens are kept in a separate bigger bag so it's easy to have ready.

Reminder DO NOT WRITE ON THE BACK OF GOOD PLAYING CARDS, do any writing only on the back of the plastic coated cards, in this case the sevens.

If doing this trick more than once for the same audience then:
1. The magician must put the pen back into his pocket into the proper place each time.
2. The assistant should leave some room on the back of the spy card that she is writing on so that she can write another target card (should that spy card be used a second time).
3. After the the reveal the magician can just draw a line across the assistant's revelation instead of taking performance time to do the dry erase cleanup.
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I thought the little clear plastic bag was necessary because of the introduction of the Sharpie pen otherwise the magician's instructions to the spectator would be difficult to get them to hold the card correctly. By using the clear plastic bag the spectator can hold the bag at the top anyway they want (mistake proofing, Toyota poka yoke).

With the introduction of a little clear plastic bag and a Sharpie pen there are many signals possible with many pros and cons involved.

Possible binary signals:
1. Pen in front of the card vs in back.
2. Pen slid to the left versus to the right.
3. Pen cap to the left versus to the right.
4. Pen clip down versus up.
5. Card slid to the left versus to the right.
6. Card facing assistant versus card back toward the assistant.

Note that with six binary signals that is enough to identify any target card using any spy card (not needing a one-way pointer card) however the mental gyrations for the magician and the assistant become very taxing. Also some of those signals could be accidentally jiggled incorrectly by the spectator when taking the bag to the assistant.

7. Also twisting the cap clip in relation to the barrel to perhaps four different positions as a possible signal for the 0, 2, 4, 6 method is possible but the audience might detect that. The Sharpie pens I have encountered have caps that are not movable with one hand meaning two hands are required to twist the cap orientation in regard to the main gray barrel. I did find a non Sharpie cap that was ever so slightly bigger that I put on a Sharpie barrel that allowed the easy twisting with one hand using my thumb. But I found this too risky.
8. For clear bags that have a physical slider I thought about using the slider to indicate several things but I felt that was too obvious to the audience. I prefer to use a bag that has no printing and no slider because just before giving the bag to the spectator to take to the assistant I can always show the face of the spy card in the bag to the audience and it will look the same to them but my assistant will know how to orient the bag because the shorter lip will be in front.

Here's a thought:
Combined the four animals method with the clear bag and a second card that is blank on both sides and is dry erasable and use just one Sharpie pen.

The four blank dry erasable cards each one with a different border:
Whales or dolphins around the border of one card.
Birds around the border of another card.
Dogs around the border of another card
And honey bees around the border of the fourth card.
These borders are on one side of the card and the other side of these blank cards is totally blank.

So instead of four pens there is just one pen put in the bag, the appropriate seven and one appropriate blank dry erase card put in the bag that is sent to the assistant.

Reminder:
Whales or dolphins have zero legs.
Birds have two legs.
Dogs have four legs.
Honey bees have six legs.
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Actually if we use the four blank dry erase cards with the four different borders and a single Sharpie pen both properly put back into the clear bag I think we can eliminate using any spy cards (no sevens, no regular cards):
How:
By the magician selecting the proper dry erase blank card and orienting it (the border was created as a one-way border) properly it can totally communicate the value of the target card.
The border communicates starting value of 0 or 2 or 4 or 6.
The blank side facing the assistant means +8.
The one way border to left means +1.

The suit can be communicated:
Pen in front of the card means red suit else black suit.
Pen cap to the left means lower of the two suits else to the right means higher of the two suits.

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We could further disguise the four blank dry erase cards as follows:
Each card would have essentially the same border on both sides including an extra animal on one end to make it a one-way design front and back.
But one of the sides would have an inner border line going all the way around so that it could be thought of as the back of the card (or one side could have a thin border line and the other side a thick border line).

An advantage to the animal border on both sides is that the assistant once she orients the clear bag properly can see everything she needs without turning the bag over to look at the back side.
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Here is another very good variant method that we call the "two pen zero two" method:
This is essentially the same as the four pen method described at the beginning of this thread except only two pens are used: we use only the "0" pen and the "2" pen to signal the starting value.

A supplementary signal is also needed: after the target card is named and after the appropriate seven has been placed into the bag the magician places the capped pen in the bag so that the cap to the left means add 4.

The Magician can have a plain unmarked Sharpie pen in his breast pocket (it will be the zero pen) and the clear bag will initially contain the four plastic sevens and the Sharpie pen with the number "2" on it.

At the start of the trick the magician removes the four sevens and removes the Sharpie pen (marked with a 2) and puts it in the breast pocket next to the zero pen. Then proceeds with the trick.
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Here is my favorite variant method (not my wife's) that we call the "one pen zero two" method:
This is similar to the above method except only one pen is used.

Two supplementary signals are needed: after the target card is named and after the appropriate seven has been placed into the clear bag the magician places the capped pen behind the card to indicate a starting value of zero. Places the pen in front of the card to indicate a starting value of 2.

Also the magician orients the pen in the bag so that the cap to the left means add 4.

Note that since only one pen is used the magician never needs to put it in his pocket, just leaves the pen on the table until the trick is completely done and then puts the pen and four sevens in the clear bag and puts it all away in a bigger bag which also has the eraser cloth and big dry erase pen.

At the start of the trick the magician removes the four sevens and removes the Sharpie pen.

The reason this method is my favorite is because it is the least detectable because there is only one pen (un-gaffed) used. Also everything you need to do this trick can be purchased at Walmart (no special dry erase blank cards, you can buy the cheap Crown or Maverick cards to get the four sevens and throw the rest of the deck away).

My wife likes the four pens method best because it has the least amount of mental calculations and everything can be purchased at Walmart but you do have to purchase four Sharpie pens which is a little more expensive but no big deal. I don't like having to always wear a jacket when doing the four pens method. I don't like the logistics of hiding the four pens in and out of the carrying case before the show, it's somewhat of a nuisance. But you know who gets their way so I think I will mostly be doing the four pens method. Married 52 years and obviously love her very much. Maybe I can do a one pen method with a magician friend as the assistant.
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Note: for most of these methods a dry erase pen(s) can be used instead of a Sharpie pen.

This eliminates having a separate big dry erase pen and simplifies the erasing and cleanup.

However the negative side is the assistant's writing may get smudged before the reveal. Also most of the dry erase pens do not have a clip, but that may be okay because most of these methods do not require a clip.

Thanks for all of these posts, glowball. I figured that since today is my birthday I would pop by the cafe and find something interesting.

I did!

To MudMedic,
Glad you enjoyed it, how about giving this thread a "like".
Thanks!