MANY professional magicians and mentalists use this in their repertoires. probably not the curry version but some variant. the lorayne version i was referring to was his impromptu method not out of this universe. this effect can garner more applause and astonishment than any ambitious card routine...potantially. I have only had two people ever figure out the workings completely. that's it. i have done it hundreds of times and it is frequently noted as my best effect. in fact one group of friends always asks me to perform this particular routine for their friends at the bar or wherever. it is a GREAT trick. not dated....how many variations are still coming about?? Penguin should not be selling this but since they are i think it should be more like $50 to keep the curious from the secret.

man, for the last time, i was bummed out that penguin is selling OOTW at such a low price. i put so much effort into learning this effect. just think about it: suppose you try and find a way through the dark forest of germany. although its a curved route, it still gets you through. you use all of your skills in order to find this route. then, some team of professionals come and bulldoze a straight routine right through the forest. i for one, would be upset. oh, and david blaine specifically mention's in his book that many professional magicians consider it to be one of the greatest card effects of all times. just look in his secrets of cards chapter, look at the first few pages. i rest my case

oh, and the ambitious card is an entertaining routine, but never can it imply deep astonisment, like OOTW can.

ambitious card screams sleight of hand. when done well, out of this world supplies no explanation....sleight of hand is eliminated.

you rest your case.

1) You can get Out of This World much cheaper than Penguin sells it for all over the place. In books.

2) It's not necessary to put much effort or money into learning it. I'm sorry for you that you did, but it wasn't necessary.

3) I don't consider Blaine to be an authority on what other magicians consider great card magic. Maybe you do. I have noticed that when professional magicians are asked to name their best card effect, the one they would do if they could only do one card effect for the rest of their lives, one effect is named over and over. It's the Ambitious Card Routine, not Out of This World.

4) Done well or badly, Out of This World always screams one explanation: the cards were sorted into red and black before the trick started. The Ambitious Card Routine, done well, as for example Daryl does it, defies explanation. If you don't think it can engender deep astonishment, you haven't seen a master perform it. Daryl does indeed get exactly that reaction.

5) No matter what you do with it, Out of This World is a one-shot wonder. It takes a long time, as card tricks go. You can't make it shorter. It's inflexible. The Ambitious Card Routine can be a quick little three-phase routine, or a whole half-hour show all by itself. It's infinitely adaptable. There are hundreds of moves and endings you can do with it.

And I rest my case with that!

Robert V Frazier

answer to #3:
ambitious card is a walkaround effect...thus many magicians use it frequently. out of this world is a showpiece effect. Used best ofr house parties or places where you have a table for people to come around. it is used less frequently and optimal conditions for its use is a bit limited thus it is less popular among most magis.

answer to #4:
It screams nothing. Ambitious card screams sleight of hand. they know the magi is manipulating the cards. Done hands off, OOTW has no visible explanation...not even red black separation. If they suspect that, you are not presenting it right.

answer to #5:

Inflexible? It has spawned more variations than any other trick except for probably triumph. You can't make it shorter??? Says who? there are many short OOTW type of routines. You just have to look for them.

And I rest my case with that!



I have nothing against the ambitious card...in fact I still perform it rarely. it is a beautiful piece of magic. in fact these two routines cant really be compared. but since this is in the mentalism forum, OOTW is by far a superior mentalism/mental magic effect. It can elicit gasps and is inexplicable when presented well. I rest my case.

what if you had the spectators shuffle the deck before you do OOTW? then they would rule out the possibilty of being pre-sorted.

You can do that, if you use a gimmicked deck. (Which one should be obvious.) Or, if you're not, you could do Lorayne's Out of This Universe, in which the cards are shuffled several times during the performance (can be by the specs, if they can do a good riffle shuffle), precisely to rule out the idea of a set-up.

Robert V Frazier

First off, concercerning ESP. By proving Uri Gellar is a fake, you are not proving the ESP doesn't exist. You can't prove a negative across the board. . . only specific cases. But whatever.

Oh, and Ted Lesley has always been straight forward with people that he is a magician and mentalist. . . an entertainer. Any claim he's made to real esp has been strictly tongue in cheek.

Secondly, if your OOTW isn't fooling people, you're doing it wrong. And by the way, the cards need not be in any specific order at all for this effect to be done. Hunt up the John Tremain version, which I'm sure borrows from others before him. I just can't recall from whom. Oh right, I should have paid attention to the post before me, Harry Lorayne.

Thirdly, there's nothing to say you have to do OOTW with the entire deck. You can use half if you want. You can speed things up by doing two, three, or even four cards at a time. All it takes is a little thought.

I agree with Robert...
1) OOTW takes a long time to perform, unless that guy is really expecting a 5 min magic from u, they would get bored easily and frowns...
2) Be it whether they get bored or not, they would attempt to open up few of the cards that they "predicted" to see if that's true...
bad thing, if you say no, they'll get suspecious...
like wise happen to me when i saw it...
it takes way too long for this trick to complete, and my mind is totally not interested if i got the correct colour or not..
all i want to do is to open up the cards and see for myself...
3) When you ask them to guess the colour of the cards, have you ever realised that SOME PEOPLE might actually count the number of reds they "predicted", and when you open up the cards, u r busted, cuz they are going to count the num. of red cards...
4) My bro, who i performed for, is a very logical person, he immediately mentioned, all REDS... and say he would admit i'm good if it's all reds...duhz...
5) I'm not saying OOTW is bad, i'm just saying, it might work for people who are patient enough to guess the colour of all cards, believe in magic and not logic, not much maths conscious and maybe have too much time that they can't think of any other things to do....
6) Of cuz, i have not bought OOTW, but, it's seems so simple to understand how it's done...

you DONT have to go through the entire deck. No one has ever counted the cards when I perform it.

Okay, so, i was unlucky...
i performed only to 3 people, 1 counted the cards they said (it dosen't tally which what she mentally counted), another simply says all red(my bro) and the last simply flip over all the cards...(i can't simply protect the cards, do i? i need to deal them onto a table or something)..

okay, so conclusion: I'm unlucky to have performed to 3 spoilers