Stars of street magic – David Blaine & others
Want to perform David’s street magic tricks?
Get this Best-of-breed beginners DVD How to do Street Magic
Street magic is also known as “street performance”. Street magic first appeared as a form of performing for money from passersby. It included card tricks, eating fire, illusions, and even mentalism.
It has very few tools and appliances as the magician puts in all his skill to entertain passersby. The audiences in street magic performances are not regular watchers of magic on stage or on television
In street magic, there can be no special effects or props that are available in regular stage shows. Audience just gathers and usually there are no extra hands or lighting changes that can fool them.
Who are the street magic masters?
David Blaine – is an American stunt performer and illusionist. He’s famous for his highly visible deeds of endurance, e.g. Buried Alive, Frozen in Time and Vertigo. On November 21, 2006, in Times Square, Blaine was suspended 50 feet in the air while strapped by shackles inside a giant gyroscope.
Jeff Sheridan – the most amazing thing about Sheridan – his cards manipulations. His silent approach to performing tricks is even more astonishing because usually magicians like to use patters in order to distract their audience attention. Sheridan is the teacher of two great magicians – David Copperfield and David Blaine.
Cyril Takayama – is a very popular street magician in Japan. Some of his most famous tricks include ‘the hamburger in the menu’ and the ‘card through the window’. One of his spectacular performances was his bungee jump into a pool with a sword in hand. There was a deck of cards floating in the pool, including the card chosen by his co host. He was then able to spear that chosen card with the sword.
Criss Angel – is famous for his TV shows and collaborations with Acrobatics group Cirque Du Soleil. Levitation is a big part of his repertoire. He has fascinated crowds all over the globe by floating off the ground, seemingly without any supporting device, wires or special equipment.
David Copperfield – starting to perform at the tender age of 12, he progressed onto becoming the youngest person to be admitted to the Society of American Magicians.
Currently he is the thirteenth highest paid entertainer and has been featured on the cover of Forbes Magazine. He has taken the art of magic and illusion to great heights and has a charming presence on stage.
Derren Brown – an English magician, illusionist, and mentalist, is considered a radical thinker in the world of close-up magic and mentalism. He stuns audiences with his amazing illusions and baffling tricks.
Awesome card tricks you can easily perform
This easy to perform card effect will be a very valuable addition to your Street Magic repertoire. It can be done with a borrowed deck, and thus can be used for emergency
work. These effect provide excellent entertainment.
BIRDS OF A FEATHER
EFFECT:
A deck of cards is thoroughly shuffled. Spectator then cuts deck into two portions, gives one to the performer and retains one himself. Spectator is then asked to remove a card from those he holds and place it on the table. Performer also removes a card from his packet, shows it, and places it on the table. Assume that it is the Ten of Diamonds. Magician then places spectator’s packet on top of his and shuffles them together.
Spectator then cuts deck in half again and places his selected card – say, the Jack of Spades – on one half of the deck. About half of the remaining packet of cards is placed on top of his card and then performer places his selected card on top of that. The rest of the deck is placed on his card. Though the two cards are widely separated in the deck, the Magician causes them to come together and in a moment shows them to be side by side.
SECRET AND PATTER:
Have deck shuffled by spectator, then say to him: “Cut the deck, please, and keep the packet that you lift up.”
You pick up the remaining packet and place it in your left hand, backs of cards up. Fan cards a little to the right and place little finger of left hand under top two cards. Square cards again.
“Now, sir, remove any one of the cards in your packet. look at it, and place it on the table. I, too, shall take a card at random.”
Do the Double Card Lift with the upper two cards of your packet and show the outer or second card. Suppose this card is the Ten of Diamonds and the King of Hearts is the top card concealed back of it. Replace the two cards on your packet and slide the top card a little to the right with your thumb.
“My card is the Ten of Diamonds. I shall place it on the table also.”
Place your card, really the King of Diamonds, on the table, back up. Audience believes this card to be the Ten of Diamonds, but the Ten is on top of your packet.
“Now place your packet on top of mine.”
Have spectator place his cards on top of yours. Keep the two packets separated by your left little finger, in readiness for the pass.
Riffle shuffle the cards once, being careful to keep the Ten of Diamonds as the top card. Then turn your left side toward the audience, lift up the back packet and shuffle it in front of the other as you were taught to do in the Simplified Pass. The Ten of Diamonds is brought to the top of the deck in this matter.
Now place deck on table. Ask spectator to cut cards again and place the packet he lifts up on the table.
“Please cut the cards again, sir, and place the portion you lift up on the table. Now place your selected card on top of the part you just cut from the deck. By the way, what is your card? The Jack of Spades?”
Spectator places his card on the packet. Unknown to himself and the audience, this brings his card on top of your selected card, the Ten of Diamonds.
“On the Jack of Spades, we shall place a few other cards. Lift off a few cards from those I hold in my hand and place them on top of your card. Now, I shall place my card, the Ten of Diamonds on all these.”
Take your card from the table and place it on the packet on the table. Then put rest of deck on top of your card. Square up the deck.
“I have completed the! deck by placing the rest of the cards on top of my Ten of Diamonds. Note carefully that your selected card and my selected card are separated by a number of cards. Your card is the Jack of Spades and mine is the Ten of Diamonds. Strange as it may seem, certain cards in the deck are like the birds of a feather that flock together. It is impossible to keep them apart. Your card and my card often act that way. Will you cut the cards again, sir?”
Have spectator cut the cards and place bottom pile on top.
“Cut them once more.”
Have him repeat the cutting.
“Now, look through the deck and you will find that your card, the Jack of Spades, and my card, the Ten of Diamonds, have come together somewhere in the deck.”
Spectator runs through cards and finds both of the selected cards together.
NOTE:
This effect rests on the law of probability. You count on the chance that the two selected cards will not be separated in the cutting. They rarely are, but if it happens that they are, merely pass it off with some appropriate remark and repeat the experiment.
Street magic tricks revealed
Street magicians like David Blaine perform card tricks, sleight of hand illusions, and even mentalism in public locations. People are excited by these tricks because they make unbelievable and unexpected things happen to every day objects like cards, coins, watches, and more.
Want to see more street magic revealed? Get this Best-of-breed beginners DVD How to do Street Magic
Here are a one of street magic tricks to get started.
ROYAL CARD DISCOVERY
EFFECT:
A deck of cards is shuffled. Performer turns up the top card and shows it (suppose it is a three spot). He places it on the table, back up, and counts other cards on top of it, starting from three — thus: three-four-five-six-seven-eight-nine-ten. He stops at ten and then turns over the next card. Say it is a five spot. He places this down and starts another pile of cards, counting from five to ten. Then he turns over the next card and starts counting another pile from whatever number that card happens to be. Court cards count for ten. If a court card or ten spot are turned up, they are placed by themselves as they already count ten. When the whole deck has been laid out in piles in this manner, performer takes all piles of less than four cards and places them together.
Turning his back to the audience, he asks a spectator to select three of the remaining piles and push them aside a little. The rest of the piles are to be placed together and thoroughly shuffled. Magician turns to audience again and asks that one of the three selected piles be chosen. The other two packets are turned over. Magician then names the bottom card of the selected packet, and turns packet over to show that he named card correctly.
SECRET AND PATTER:
Take a full deck of 52 cards, remove the joker, and have the cards well shuffled by a spectator. Lift up the “top” card and show it. Suppose it is a three spot. Place it on table, back up. Begin to count from the number of the card—in this case, three. Place a card from the deck on first card and say, four Continue this until you have counted to ten. This makes a pile of eight cards.
Now turn up the next card and start counting from whatever number the turned up card is until you have no more cards or not enough to make a ten pile.
Repeat this routine of counting to ten from whatever number the turned up card is until you have no more cards or not enough to make a ten pile.
Court cards count for ten. If a court card or a ten spot are turned up, place it by itself for it already makes a ten pile. When piles are completed, remove all containing less than four cards and place them together, away from the other cards.
“The cards have been thoroughly shuffled and I have divided them into various packets on the table, starting with whatever card was turned up and counting to ten for each packet. In this way, we got a variety of packets. Now, I shall turn my back. Will you, Sir, please select three of the packets and place them aside? Keep
the three packets separate and do not expose the faces of the cards. Now gather up the rest of the packets and place them together in one pile.”
Turn to spectator and take this last pile from him, placing it with the first pile you set aside on the table when you gathered up the packets of less than four cards. The three selected piles are now the only ones remaining on the table. Thoroughly shuffle the big pile of cards, which is the whole deck except for the three selected packets.
Fan cards from left to right, faces up, secretly counting off nineteen cards. Separate these with your left little finger, make a jog, or place these 19 cards aside on the table.
“I trust the pack was complete at the start. You have selected three piles of cards while my back was turned. Choose one of these piles and push it aside a little. Now turn over the remaining two packets.”
When two of the three packets are turned over, notice the cards that were on the bottom of each. Assume that one is a four spot and the other a two spot.
If you have removed 19 cards from packet in left hand, fan the remaining cards to the right. If you have merely separated these 19 cards, fan only those cards under your little finger, disregarding the 19 cards. Add the numbers on the two exposed cards of the selected packets — in this case, four plus two, making six. Count off six cards mentally from those fanned in your left hand.
The number of remaining cards will tell you the number of the bottom card of the elected packet. If five cards remain, then that concealed card is a five spot, and so on.
“We have one pile left. None of us know what the bottom card is on that packet. That is where Magic comes to the rescue. A little spirit of Magic jumps on my shoulder and whispers in my left ear that the bottom card on the selected pile is A FIVE SPOT!”
Turn over the selected packet and show the card to be a five spot.
NOTE:
This effect works on a mathematical principle and will never fail you if you do each move properly.
Magic tricks for beginners
There are a lot of beginners magic tricks which can amaze your friends and spectators.
Here is a fine example of how a strong effect can be produced by
simple means.
THE BENT CORNER PREDICTION
The effect will be apparent as we proceed and as no initial preparation is required, we can proceed with the explanation of the method of performance.
PERFORMANCE.
From a shuffled pack remove any card and without showing its face, place it face down on the table.
Write a message on a piece of paper, beginning “The card at the number you select will be . . . “. Now raise the back edge of the card on the table so that only you can see its face, then fill in its name at the end of the message. Fold the paper and give it to someone to hold. The excuse given for using the card is that it is your guide card which provides a number from which a certain result can be calculated.
This is not too far from the truth!
Pick up the face down pack in the left hand, place it behind your back, then pick up the face down card in the right hand and place this also behind your back. Holding the card between your right first and second fingers at the inner right corner bend down the corner with the thumb. Push the card under the top card of the pack, fan off these two cards as one and for the sake of appearance, also fan off the next card then bring the pack forward. Figure 1 shows an exposed view of the pack at this stage, the bent corner of the important card can be seen under the top card. From the spectator’s view it looks as if only the top two cards of the pack are fanned in readiness for counting.
Fig 1
Ask a spectator to give you any number between one and fifty-two. We will assume that the number is eleven. Count the cards from the top of the pack, taking the first two cards as one as you count “one”, then push the next card on top of the two cards as you count “two”, and so on until you have counted eleven.
Push forward what appears to be the eleventh card for about half its length over the outer end of the pack then place the cards in a block from the right hand onto the pack. Deliberately bend down the outer left corner of the protruding card, then push it back into the pack.
Point to the message held by the spectator and say, “Remember, I wrote this message before you made your selection”.
Take the pack by the outer end and turn it over, end for end, so that it comes face up and say, “To make sure that the order of the pack is not disturbed in any way, you may remember the bottom card if you wish”. Turn the pack over sideways to bring it face down again.
All that remains is to have the message read out, then spread and count the cards slowly to the number stated. In our case the eleventh card will have the outer left corner bent down. This card is removed and turned over dramatically to reveal that the prediction is correct.
If the instructions are followed it will be found that the count reverses the order of the cards, which automatically brings the card with the secretly bent corner to the correct number. By turning over the pack end for end, then sideways, the bent corner comes to the outer left corner of the pack, while the corner of the card which was bent deliberately is out of sight at the inner end of the pack.
Three easy card magic tricks
These are three easy to learn card magic tricks.
Learn and enjoy!
Card Detectives
With any pack, after it has been well shuffled, secretly sight the two top cards. Riffle shuffle retaining these cards on the top.
Put the pack down and have a spectator cut it at about the middle.
Invite him to touch one packet. Whichever he touches interpret his choice so that he gets the one with the two cards you know on top. Tell him to do just as you do.
Take the bottom card and put it in the center of your heap. He does the same. Put the top card in your right-hand pocket. He does the same. Put the bottom card in the middle and the top card in your left-hand pocket. He does the same. Lastly put the top and bottom cards in the middle. He follows suit.
“It is a most peculiar thing,” you say, “but through some strange sympathy that exists amongst the cards, the one in my right-hand pocket will indicate to me what the card in your right-hand pocket is, and the one in my left pocket will tell me what the one in your
left-hand pocket happens to be.”
Take out the card from your right pocket, show it and then deducing from it any plausible or fanciful reason, name the card in his right-hand pocket. Do the same with the other cards. The putting of the cards from the bottom to the middle is merely to confuse and misdirect the spectator.
The “Easy” Card in Wallet
THIS method has several good points. The wallet is not prepared and the hand taking it from the pocket is empty.
Use a wallet that opens lengthwise and slip a heavy rubber band around one side. Open it so that the covers touch, back to back, and hang it over the edge of your inside coat pocket, the rubber band side in the pocket, the other side hanging out.
From any shuffled pack have a card freely selected, marked, returned, and bring it to the top. (Chap. 19.) Place both hands with the pack behind your back. Take the marked card in your left hand, reach up under your coat at the back and push the card under your right armpit, retaining it with a slight pressure of the arm against the body. Bring the pack forward and throw out a card, any card, as you say, “Your card?” The answer will be “No.”
Place the pack on the table, casually letting it be noted that your hands are empty. Take hold of the right edge of your coat with your right hand. With the left take the card from under your arm, slip it into the wallet, lift this from the pocket, flipping it over and closing it, and bring it out with the band side to the front. Put the right fingers under the band and pull it off as if it really encircled the wallet, open this and invite a spectator to take out the marked card.
Prediction
YOU have any pack freely shuffled by a spectator. Take it back face up and mentally note the face card. Secretly reverse the lowest card, as the pack lies and remember it also. Put the pack on the table, reversed card face down, pack face up. Invite a spectator to cut about two-thirds of the cards and put them face down beside the remainder of the pack. As he is doing this you write a prediction (the names of the two sighted cards), on a slip
of paper and hand it to a second spectator.
Now have the spectator cut the second pile about the middle and put the cut face up alongside. You now have three piles in a row, the middle one face down, the two outside ones face up. Place the first pile (reversed card at bottom) on top of the middle pile and
both of these on the third pile. Invite the spectator to remove the face-down section from the middle, put it on the table and cut it into two parts. Have your prediction slip placed on the top portion and the lower packet placed crosswise on that. The slip is thus between the two cards whose names you wrote on it. This way of placing the cut confuses the spectator into thinking the slip is placed at the place at which he cut.
Ball of Mahomet – continue
Working
The secret depends principally upon a length of fine black thread, the exact size being regulated according to the height of performer.
One end of the thread is fastened by a pellet of wax to the back of performer’s hair, the other end being similarly attached to the lowest button of his vest. A small sheet of tissue paper is freely exhibited and, whilst being held out for examination with the left hand, the
right hand secures the lower end of the thread from the vest button.
A chair is now moved slightly to one side of the platform, thus giving the performer an opportunity of fixing the end of the silk thread to the front of the chair-back. This is not noticeable, even at a short distance, and the thread will be found capable of sustaining a
greater strain than if fixed to the back of the chair-back. By carefully moving backwards the thread is drawn fairly taut and the sheet of paper is formed into a ball around the thread, which is now allowed to slacken, the ball being thrown on the floor. Various passes are now made with the wand, and, by raising or lowering the head, the ball can be made to rise or fall as desired, thus providing excellent opportunities for a really effective display. The importance of perfect showmanship throughout the whole of the presentation, however, cannot be too greatly emphasized. The wand is now passed underneath and over the ball, care being taken that it does not come into contact with the thread. Some performers keep a small hoop around their necks which is passed over the ball, but this effect is far more difficult to work successfully than the wand. The ball is finally allowed to drop to the floor. It is then picked up, the paper ball opened out and passed for examination.
There is another method of performing this trick which is more suited to the stage. The black silk thread in this case stretches right across the floor of the stage and is held by two assistants, or, if only one assistant is desirable, one end of the thread may be fastened
about three or four feet from the ground to one side of the stage. The thread lies along the floor until wanted, and this of course allows the performer perfect freedom of movement both before and during presentation. The sheet of tissue paper is shown, the performer
taking care to stand behind the thread on the floor. The assistant then raises the thread to the required height, and the ball is made around the thread as before. Several additional effects, however, are possible in the stage version of the trick, which if well worked create a really first-rate illusion. For instance, the ball may be allowed to descend slowly to the floor and a chair placed over it, the chair rungs being to the front and back of the thread. The rising and falling of the ball may still be effected, being only limited by the
height of the chair seat. This little maneuver effectually removes from the minds of the audience any idea that the movements of the ball are actuated by a thread from above. The ball may also be placed on a plate which is held by the performer with both hands,
and at the word of command the ball jumps off the plate to the floor.
A further good effect is obtained by standing a plank of wood in a slanting position against the table and, at the performer’s call, the ball travels slowly up the plank and on to the table. Finally the ball is ordered to jump into the performer’s hand, when it can be opened
out as before, or the thread may be pulled sharply by the assistant, broken, and pulled free of the ball, which is then handed out for examination.
Patter
Ladies and Gentlemen. Some of you may have beard the story of Mahomet’s coffin, which is said to remain for all time in mid air, without any visible means of support. To some this may seem to be incredible, but I propose to demonstrate here this evening, by means of this piece of paper, that there may, after all, be a certain amount of truth in the story. I will just roll the paper into a ball and place it on the floor. Now, if our pianist will kindly oblige with a little mahomety music, we may be able to induce the ball to show us its possibilities….
I think that the ball has now proved the case successfully and justified its title, so I now command it to jump into my hands to be demobilised. Thus you see, obedient to the last, it obeys my bidding and I shall feel obliged if you will please examine it to see that there
is no internal mechanism to account for the phenomenon.
Two easy paper magic tricks
Mind Divination
Effect
A word or sentence is written on a slip of paper and folded. This is held against the performer’s forehead for a moment, but he does not touch the paper. He then writes upon another slip and hands it to a gentleman to hold. The first slip is opened and read out, upon which the gentleman holding the slip written by performer acknowledges that it agrees with the other writing.
Working
This is really a catch, but if due care is taken in the selection of an assistant the secret is not given away, and credit is given for a mystifying trick. It may at once be stated the performer has no knowledge whatever of the subject written upon the first slip until it
has been called out. He simply writes on his slip “Yes, exactly the same,” and this he hands to his temporary assistant. The remainder of the working can be followed in the patter. An alternative method of producing the same effect is by writing “Say Yes” on the slip. The performer in that case asks his assistant, “Have I written that word upon my paper.” It will be found that in most cases the assistant will appreciate the joke and answer “Yes.”
Patter
Ladies and Gentlemen. Just a little experiment in mind divination.
For this I should like to have the assistance of a gentleman with a good nerve. “I suggest an insurance agent. Not one present? Well, perhaps you, sir, would be good enough to assist. Please take this slip of paper to that gentleman and ask him to kindly write a word
upon it. When he has done that, please ask him to fold up the paper and return it to you. Thank you. I will now take the paper and hold it for a moment against the centre of my concentrated mind. It is gradually forming. Yes, I can now see the letters distinctly. I will
write them upon this slip and ask you, sir, to take charge of it. Now, will the gentleman who wrote down the word kindly read out what was written. Thank you. My assistant will tell the company what is written upon my slip. I am anxious that the audience shall see that my writing entirely agrees with that written by the gentleman. Now, sir (to assistant), You heard what that gentleman said was written upon his slip. What is written upon my slip? “Exactly the same.”
Ball of Mahomet
This weird and mysterious trick has the double advantage of being little known and easy to perform. After a little introductory patter, it is suggested that an effective pianoforte selection should accompany the moves, so that the whole attention of the audience is directed to the movements of the ball.
Effect
A piece of tissue paper is rolled into a ball and thrown to the ground.
At the performer’s word of command the paper ball slowly rises from the ground and remains suspended in the air. The magic wand is passed above and below the ball “to prove the absence of any support.”
Thought Reading trick – continue
He then returns to the platform, and is able to read off the message on his way back. In his right hand trousers pocket is a small piece of soft lead pencil and a small piece of cardboard with a slip of paper attached by two rubber bands, As soon as the question is read, a brief answer is written (within the pocket) upon the paper (after a little practice this will be found to be quite an easy matter), and the paper detached from the cardboard and folded. A blank piece of paper is next given for examination and the exchange effected with the “answer,” as described previously. (Spirit Calculator). The trick is now complete, and the effect on the spectator when the question and answer is read out is startling and inexplicable.
Patter
Ladies and Gentlemen. Most of you probably know that during recent years there have been surprising manifestations of hypnotic power and influence of mind over mind. To-night I hope to show you an example of how the thoughts of one mind may be transmitted to another, without physical contact. Will you, sir, please write a question upon this piece of paper. Thank you. Now please fold it, so that I cannot see what you have written, and place it in this envelope, which please seal and retain. Will you, madam, kindly examine this slip of paper and see that it is quite blank, and please fold it twice. May I trouble you to examine this envelope well, and now will you kindly put the paper in the envelope. Now, sir, will you please look straight into my eyes and think deeply of the question you have written. Keep on repeating it to yourself. Thank
you. The question you wrote was _______. “Will you please open the envelope and read out what is written on the slip, so that the company may be able to see whether I have been able to read your thoughts correctly. I am now going to cause a spirit answer to your question to appear upon the blank slip of paper. Just a touch with the magic wand and the answer is there. Will you kindly open the envelope, madam, and if the answer has been recorded, as I think it has, will you please read it out. Thank you. Thus you see I have successfully demonstrated the wonderful power of thought divination.
How to do paper magic
In this article you will learn how to do easy but effective paper magic tricks.
There are different types of paper magic tricks.
The first type, dealing with Toys, Models, Puzzles, etc. made entirely from paper, can provide a fascinating and at the same time, inexpensive form of amusement for the younger members of the home circle.
The first type will also be found useful to adults for the amusement of children at a private party, and with a little pre-practice in folding the children could be interested and entertained, by showing them how to make up some of the models. It will be found that this innovation will be gladly welcomed by the little visitors and in most cases prove a strong rival to the older forms of amusement usually arranged.
The following trick is an example of that kind of paper magic.
Saucepan
A novel and surprising use to which the pin tray may be put is to boil water. This is best effected over the flame of a candle. The tray, or saucepan as it should now be called, being supported on the top of a candle shade holder, as shown in Fig:
The water must be put into the paper saucepan before the candle is lighted, otherwise the paper will ignite. There is an interesting scientific reason why the paper will not burn while the water is inside: the water cannot, of course, get hotter than boiling point, and
as it will not, or cannot allow the paper to get above that point also, it will be seen that there is not, sufficient heat for combustion to take place.
The second type deals with some effective conjuring tricks, in which paper is the only or principal article employed, and some important remarks on this branch of paper magic will be found on these pages.
This trick is an example of the second type.
Thought Reading
Effect
A member of the audience writes a question upon a piece of paper which is sealed in an envelope, A blank piece of paper is placed in an envelope and given to a gentleman to hold. The performer now calls out the question, which is found to agree with the one written upon the paper in the first envelope. Upon the second envelope being opened, an answer to the question is found written upon the blank slip of paper.
Working
A gentleman is asked to write a question on paper. This may be done on a small writing pad with an interleaved carbon sheet, or a single piece of paper, the back of which has been previously rubbed with a candle or piece of soap, is handed out on a piece of glass or small photograph frame. The latter is certainly the better, as it appears quite free from any prearrangement. If a hard pencil is provided, a faint impression of the question will be found on the glass, or, if a pad is used, the impression will be found under the
carbon sheet. The performer hands an envelope to the writer of the question, requesting that the message be folded and placed therein.
Easy magic with cards
REPEAT “DO AS I DO”
The “Do as I Do” theme is a popular one in card magic. Although this method is basically the same as most other versions, his routine has two distinct advantages—the performer does not exchange packs with the spectator, and at the conclusion of the effect it can be repeated immediately, still without having to touch the spectator’s pack, or having to know the position of any card in it.
Assume that a red backed pack and a blue backed pack are to be used. It is necessary to have a card from one pack in the other. If the packs are the performer’s property, then obviously this can be arranged previously, otherwise it is a simple matter to slip a card from the bottom of one pack onto the bottom of the other when the packs are held face up, side by side. The pack containing the extra card is the one used by the performer, and again we will assume that this is the red backed pack containing the blue backed Six of Hearts. The only other requirement is that the three top cards of the pack are set up so that the top card (when the pack is face down) is the red backed Six of Hearts; the second card is an indifferent one and the third card is the blue backed Six of Hearts. In other words, if it has been necessary to slip a card from one pack to the other as described, then it is only necessary to spread the cards between the hands, sight the bottom (stranger) card of the face up pack, slip any card below it, then find the duplicate of the stranger card and slip this to the bottom.
To perform the effect, hand the blue backed pack to the spectator and ask him to shuffle and cut it. You false shuffle the red pack to leave the top three cards in position, then cut the pack, but hold a break above the original top card. Now tell the spectator to run his face down pack between his hands, take out any card and place it face down on the
table. Spread your cards to the break, place the next card (red backed Six of Hearts) face down on the table, then place the bottom half of the pack (in the left hand) on top of those in the right hand – the blue backed Six of Hearts is now second from top.
Pick up the red backed card from the table and place it on top of the spectator’s blue pack, telling him to pick up his card and place it on top of your pack. Instruct the spectator to cut his pack, then spread his cards across the table. Appear to do likewise, but when you complete the cut, hold a break with the tip of the left little finger above the top card; transfer the break to the right thumb, then with the tips of the left fingers curled between the two halves, push the original top card to the right. When you spread the cards from left to right across the table, the unwanted blue backed card, placed on your pack by the spectator, will remain out of sight under the spread cards, but the back of the blue backed card stolen in the first place will be revealed.
The position now is that both the spectator and yourself have a card with a different coloured back showing near the centre of the two spread packs of cards. Take the precaution of pushing together all the cards to the right of the visible blue backed card in your spread.
This appears as a neat way of separating the visible blue backed card, but it ensures that the other blue backed card is out of harms way. Ask the spectator to turn over the red backed card in his spread as you turn over the blue backed card in your spread. Both cards are the same.
As you have another blue backed card in your pack, the existence of which the spectator is unaware, by sighting the card and arranging a three card set-up on top of the pack as before, all is in readiness for the trick to be repeated.
