China

Here’s an effect that demonstrates the idea of leverage-- it only requires one sleight, looks impossible and can be adapted to your performing style and audience because you can play it seriously or comedically. Not only that, it can be done as a Platform Trick OR for a small group of people. Thus, with one sleight you get a versatile, powerful effect with more than one style of presentation.

Effect:

The performer explains the idea of tells in the game of Poker-- the concept that an astute player can tell what type of hand the opposing players have by their mannerisms. He further explains that since he’s not allowed to play poker, he needs better odds so he’ll read the tells from various audience members.

A spectator shuffles a regulation deck of cards and selects one while the deck is in her hands. The card is shown to the audience and replaced while the deck is in the spectator’s hands-- at all times the deck is held by the spectator. By asking the audience direct

questions and deciding if the answers are true or false based on tells, the performer discerns the identity of the card.

Method:

Start out by having a deck shuffled by a spectator who is directly to your right and while she’s shuffling address the audience:

“In Poker and other games of chance, there is something called “Tells”, which means that a very good player can figure out how good of a hand the opposition has by

detecting very small changes in his mannerisms. It could be almost any type of facial tick or even differences in the length of time it takes someone to blink. This is a crucial skill when it comes to bluffing or as we say in the business: LYING! For those of you who think I’m not serious about this, when you get home, look up the standard text on the subject: “Caro’s Book of Tells. Or you can look up former FBI Agent Joe

Navarro’s book called Read 'Em and Reap.”

Speaking of the FBI, I’m not allowed to play poker anymore so I’m really out of practice. But if you’ll give me a little room, I’d be glad to demonstrate how this works.

Judy, take the deck and spread it out a little with the faces towards you. Go through the

cards until you see a card you really like and push it up a little-- about half it’s length, like this. Make sure you hold the deck tight, like a poker player would.”

Demonstrate what you want Judy to do by

spreading the cards faces towards yourself and up jog any card near the center of the deck. When you do this, hold the cards at chest level and very close to you-- much like a poker player trying to keep the other players from seeing their hand (Figure 6).

Once she understands the procedure, hand her the deck and have her shuffle it again, saying

“Shuffle the deck well before you pick your lucky card so there’s no way I could possibly have anything memorized...”

When she’s sure the deck is shuffled, let her run through the procedure you described a few seconds ago. She’ll end up holding the deck slightly spread with a single card upjogged.

“Now since I’m out of practice, I’m going to need more than one person involved so that I have a wider variety of tells to read...”

As you say this lightly grasp the upjogged selection by the upper right corner and gently lift it up and remove it from the spread. Turn your entire body counter-clockwise,

including your right arm. As soon as the card is facing the audience, freeze the right arm, but continue to rotate your head and body counter-clockwise. Execute the Flicker

Glimpse as you do this, saying

“THIS is Judy’s lucky card...”

The flick should be done at the same time you say “THIS”. The flick then becomes a gesture of emphasis.

Essentially what you’re doing is rotating your body and your head at the same time, but your head rotates slightly faster. When your right arm is holding the card in front of the audience your head continues to rotate. The time to take the glimpse (and flick the card) is at the moment your right arm stops. In this way, you’ll catch sight of the card at the very last second out of the corner of your right eye.

Figure 6

You’re now in the following position: Your head and body are turned to the extreme left, your right hand is holding a card in front of the audience. I know it sounds painful, but you already know the card, so you should be very comfortable anyway.

Now rotate your body clockwise, but keep your right arm in it’s relative position so when you’re facing the audience, the card will be right in front of the cards spread between Judy’s hands.

This entire procedure should take about six seconds and if properly done, no one will have the slightest idea that you could have seen the card. The timing, however, is crucial and will require practice. Once you have the timing down, though, you will have a selection procedure that can be leveraged into a large number of effects.

You are now facing the audience and holding the card right in front of Judy’s face and/or the cards spread between her hands. It should be clear to everyone that you’re head is turned away from Judy and the cards.

“Judy, turn the deck around and put this card face-up somewhere in the middle of the face down deck. I won’t look until you tell me the card is hidden. OK? Fine. Now I’m left with nothing but my rusty ability to read tells...”

“Now it’s not just how GOOD the card is-- we’re looking to discover the exact identity of the card. So to do that, I’m going to ask different people specific questions about the card and they can lie or tell the truth. Hopefully by reading their various tells, I’ll know whether they’re bluffing or not. Everybody get it? You can lie or tell the truth when I ask you a question. Just put on your best poker face for me.”

Look at a specific audience member and ask:

“Sir, was it a red card?”

Regardless of the answer, make up a “tell” and explain to the audience that it allows you to know whether the spectator is lying or telling the truth. Assuming the spectator lied, it would be something like this:

“Well, one of your tells is looking up and to the right when you lie, so I’m sure it was a red card...”

Ask individual audience members different questions, make up a tell and claim that it allows you to know whether the respondent is bluffing or not. Make sure you personalize

the tells-- and if the spectator actually DOES change their expression make sure you use that and point it out to the rest of the audience. Let’s assume the selection is the Eight of Hearts. Here is a sample script based on that:

“Is the card red or black? Ah! You blinked your eyes for longer than most people do, so I’m sure you’re lying. So now I know it’s a red card!

“You Miss-- is it a heart or a diamond? Well you’re pretty good, but your facial muscles were too relaxed for you to by lying-- so now I know it’s a heart!”

“Sir-- the gentleman in the red tie-- was it a number or a picture card? Wow-- you’re even better that she was, but the left corner of your mouth turned up a little-- almost as if you were trying to hide a smile. So now I know you’re lying and it was a number card. Hmmm... so far all the men have been liars, but it’s my guess that all the women in the audience already knew that...!”

“The lady in the blue dress-- was it an odd or even number? Okay, I don’t want to panic you or anything, but there’s a small crease above your left eye when you lie-- so now I know it’s an even card...”

“You sir-- is it higher than a six? Ah, consistency. The men have maintained a

consistent record of lies... by the way, your forehead creases a bit when you lie. Make sure your wife never finds out about that!

“Let’s see... even heart, even and higher than a six. That only leaves ONE choice-- the Eight of Hearts!”

The odds are that it will be a number card since they greatly out number the face cards, however it the selection is a face card, you’ll have to ask fewer questions. One way I draw it out is to ask a woman “Was it a Superior Female or one of the lesser males?”

This will not only get a laugh if it’s played right (like some of the other comments in the script), but it will also give you one more question unless it was a Queen.

Comments

I’ve used this effect in various forms for over twenty years and most recently published the idea in Weapons of Mass Destruction. This presentation, however, allows you to involve more of the spectators and can even be done as a platform trick. (If it’s a fairly large audience, bringing out a pair of binoculars to see the faces you’re “reading” is very

funny...) Additionally, the glimpse specifically fits the presentation so I would caution you not to use any other.

Do not miss the fact that the card is replaced face-up into the face-down deck. This is a safeguard that will prevent anyone from telling you that you have failed. But once you named the card, do not run through the deck to prove it unless you have to-- it would be anti-climatic.

NumerAlphatology

Driving home the leverage that glimpses give you, here is an effect that utilizes the same selection procedure and glimpse as the previous one but gives you an entirely different performance piece. Not only that, but it can be played seriously or all-out total comedy.

Effect:

The performer demonstrates a “serious pseudo-science” he has developed that allows him to tell which card someone has selected.

A spectator shuffles a regulation deck of cards and selects one while the deck is in her hands. The card is shown to the audience and replaced and the spectator then shuffles the deck well. Only then does the performer take the deck. Telling the spectator that he is able to narrow the choices down based on the physical characteristics he’s already observed, the performer up jogs five cards.

He then asks the spectator various questions and based on the responses, eliminates one card at a time. After four questions there is only one card left and it is the selection.

Method:

Start out by having a deck shuffled and while the spectator (who should be directly to your right) is shuffling, start out by saying:

“Have you ever heard of Numerology? Numerology the belief that there is a

relationship between numbers and physical objects or living things. It’s an ancient mystical belief but over the years I’ve developed it into a serious pseudo-science. I’ve discovered that people have a certain affinity for specific playing cards and have developed a system to discover which cards match which people.

“Mary, take the deck and spread it out a little with the faces towards you. Go through the cards until you see a card that you feel a connection to and push it up a little-- about half it’s length, like this.”

Demonstrate what you want Mary to do by spreading the cards faces towards yourself and up jog any card near the center of the deck. When you do this, hold the cards slightly below chin level and very close to you-- much like a poker player trying to keep the other

players from seeing their hand. This is the same selection procedure used in the previous effect. Once she understands the procedure, hand her the deck and have her shuffle it again, saying

“Shuffle the deck well so it’s a fair scientific test.”

Once Mary has decided on a card, ask her:

“Do you feel a strong attraction to that card? If not let me know and you can go through again. I want you to find a card that has a compelling attraction.”

When she’s sure she has a card that has “called to her” she’ll end up holding the deck slightly spread with a single card upjogged.

“Mary, do you know what a “double-blind scientific control is? It means that if you forget the card, I can still look good! So as a double-blind scientific control we’ll show the card to the rest of the audience.”

Lightly grasp the upjogged selection by the upper right corner and gently remove it from the spread. Turn your entire body counter-clockwise, including your right arm. As soon as the card is facing the audience, freeze the right arm, but continue to rotate your head and body counter-clockwise. Execute the Flicker Glimpse as you say

“Please remember that THIS is the card Mary is attracted to...”

Make sure you flick the card at the same time you say “THIS” so it’s a gesture of emphasis.

You’re now in the following position: Your head and body are turned to the extreme left and your right hand is holding a card in front of the audience.

Now rotate your body clockwise, but keep your right arm in it’s relative position so when you’re facing the audience, the card will be right in front of the cards spread between Judy’s hands.

This entire procedure should take about six seconds and if properly done, no one will have the slightest idea that you could have seen the card.

“Mary, put the card back in the deck and shuffle it really well so NO ONE knows where the card is. Once you’re done, let me know it’s safe-- I won’t look until then!”

When Mary tells you to turn around, take the deck and give it a shuffle as you say:

“Now from our interaction here and the way you carry yourself, I can already narrow the choices down...”

Spread the cards between your hands with the faces towards you and up jog five cards, making sure that one of them is the selection. Let no one see the faces of any of the cards.

“As I said, we’re going to use the pseudo-science Numeralphatology. Did I mention I invented it? I’ll have to ask you some questions regarding your preferences on other things and each answer should help me eliminate one of these cards...”

Look at Mary and ask a question that has to do with a numerical or personal preference, like:

“Do you prefer the number 16 or the number 246, 968?” or:

“Mary, do you prefer the color blue or cajun food?”

The idea here is to ask one question for each card and eliminate one of the cards after Mary answers. Each question should be about Mary’s preferences and some of the

questions should be about numbers, although it should never be a question that could give you a hint of what the card is, like asking if she likes even or odd numbers. This allows for a great range of presentation styles because you can play it seriously (non-funny questions) or comedically (funny questions). I try to keep a list of fairly funny

questions-- and I’m not going to tell you what they are. However I’ll give you one hint:

You can often make the question funny by a comparison between normal and ridiculous (as in the number question above) or by giving her a choice between two totally unrelated things, like the choice between the color blue and cajun food.

Once there’s only one card left, you can conclude the effect by saying something like this:

Mary, from interpreting your preferences to various things, I’ve been able to use the pseudo-science of Numeralphatology to come to only ONE conclusion-- that THIS is the one card that you would be compelled to choose-- the Nine of Diamonds!”

Comments

Once in a while, a spectator will try and give you an answer that avoids answering the question. For example, if you were to ask something like this:

Question: “Mary do you prefer blue or red?”

Answer: “Neither...”

Look at Mary, roll your eyes and upjog another card. If she gets a laugh, she may do it again. In which case, you roll your eyes, upjog another card and say something like:

“Uh... Mary? It’s only a 20 minute show...”

Finally, I’ll state the obvious and say that if you’re going to play this seriously, then you should tailor the script appropriately and tone down the humor. If you don’t know which parts are humorous, I only charge $100 an hour to teach comedy by phone.