I just caught a Criss Angel episode on A n E, don't know if it is a repeat or not since I am not a huge fan, it is the episode where Criss gives thanks to his "loyals". He does a trick where he gives 9 volunteers a normal deck of cards each, and they are allowed to shuffle the deck then pick any card out and hold it face down on their chest. The 10th volunteer then gets to name any card, (in this case the 3 of spades), and when the other 9 volunteers turn over their cards, they are ALL the named card. I was just wondering if this trick is possible without paying off some volunteers or whatever, and if it is taught on any dvd or book in the magic community, thanks for your responses!

No paying off of volunteers required. Think of any kind of "force deck" that would do this for one person, and multiply by ten. I don't know if it would be practical on a regular basis. Too much room for error. Someone's bound to mess up something.

I'm not sure if I get exactly what you mean, the decks they used in this episode were not forcing decks, the spectators had the decks in their hands and looked at all the faces of the cards in their decks to make sure they are different...

http://www.aetv.com/listings/episode_de ... gid=328150

play the video on the right, thats the trick i tried to explain, it is apparently in episode 61-the loyals.

It may not be the exact method I was thinking of, but I wonder... I counted 40 (FORTY!) camera cuts for this one effect. With editing like that, anything's possible. We also don't know what other "pre-show" work was done that might have influenced their choices. Notice they're not picking just any old card. They're all looking for a specific one. Hmm???

haha awww I would love to believe that that was a genuine trick that we could do, can you think of any similar tricks? if not, thanks for your help, and i'd better get to work on thinking up a method that doesn't use forcing decks, hopefully within the next decade i'll figure something out

I know! Stooges!

Cris Angle is da bestest an dat is all tere iz 2it he be kontrolin der minddzzzzzz!!!!

Every time, theres someone who accuses him of editing, and stooges.

This can be done without editing, it's just that when you see so many cuts you start to wonder what was left out, or how many retakes there are until things were just right. His overuse of unnecessary camera cuts just adds to the belief that he's using "camera tricks" even when he's not.

I still vote for "pre-show work." No stooges, they don't know they're in on it. It's just that some subtle "coaching" was done (any card force could work here) that happened before the cameras were rolling. The spectators just did what they were told; to find the card they were "thinking of" (earlier in the show perhaps?) and then the cameras start. It's a time honored technique in mentalism and works in a live theater as well, but works even better on camera where the work is hidden from view.

yea that's definitely a possibility...