Magic Tricks

There are a few effects I perform, where the selection of a card is almost incidental. That's because the meat of the routines concern the process of how the selected card was identified. In those cases a 50/50 deck and/ or a single card deck (meaning all the cards are the same value) can be invaluable.

The 50/50 deck allows you to spread the cards in such a way that the deck appears to be ungimmicked. This is accomplished by inserting the force cards into the middle of the deck, with different valued cards on either side. It's easy to spread the cards in your hand to show the top and bottom portions of the deck. Or you can deal cards face up, one by one.

When using a single card deck, I place an indifferent card on the top and bottom. I then use a riffle slip cut or any force that places the top card to the area of the deck where the spectator calls stop. This is an indifferent card and not the force card. I show the spectator the face of the card and ask if they can identify and oddities or markings of any kind. They will respond that they do not. Then I flip the card around, so that they are now looking at the back of the card and I am looking at the front. I ask them the same question, as to whether there are any markings.

It's interesting how many times the spectator won't be aware that you are now looking at the face of the card, because they are too busy looking for markings. However. the rest of the audience clearly sees and will often laugh. If the spectator has not caught on, I then pretend to read their mind and identify the selected card. If the spectator does catch on, I then admit that I tried something sneaky and to make this even more difficult, I ask them to touch or remove any card.

When using a single card deck, they can actually remove any card, without you having to specify to remove one from the center. Even when using a 50/50 deck, I don't specify that a card needs to be selected from the center, because most people will pick one from there any way. If I see they are venturing away from the center, I will simply say, "make this more difficult for me by removing one from the center."

Subconsciously or consciously, exposing an indifferent card at the start of the trick, can often be convincing enough for many to think that it is a normal deck. By not requiring a slight, you are able to focus on your performance.