EL POLEN DE LAS MIELES

Marc became a full time professional Performer in 1988 performing close- up magic at London's top hotels. In 1995 he felt he needed a change so turned his talents to mentalism. Since then Marc has made regular appearances on British TV. They include…

Equinox - Secrets of the Psychics (Channel 4) Paul McKenna’s Paranormal World (ITV1) Mysteries (BBC1)

and Secrets (BBC1)

In 1999 he got the opportunity to create and perform in his own 16 episode series for cable TV called “Mind Games”. This show was seen by the judging panel for the World Magic Awards in Las Vegas and as a result Marc won the title of “Best Mentalist” for that year. On Christmas Eve 2002 he appeared on the BBC’s Parkinson show and amazed Michael and his guests Tom Jones, Martine McCutcheon and Alistair McGowan. More recently you may have seen him heading up the mentalism show as part of the BBC’s History of Magic series and crossing swords with Ann Robinson on a special "psychic" edition of "The Weakest Link"

Marc lives in rural Southern England with his wife, two children and one small dog.

38. SHUFFLE CHALLENGE TOO

To an audience this appears to be a really impossible mental card effect. The inspiration for it came from an effect in Stephen Minch's book 'Mind Novas' called 'The Sure-Fire Shuffle Challenge'. In the original, Minch used ESP cards and a completely different method, but it was the effect that intrigued me, so here is my version.

EFFECT

The performer shows a deck of cards to all be different. These he then shuffles and sets in front of the spectator. He does not touch them until the end of the effect. The spectator is asked to think of a number between 1 and 52. This number is a free choice and is never revealed to the performer. While the spectator is concentrating on their number, the performer makes an open, verbal prediction of a playing card, let’s say the Five of Clubs. The spectator now

shuffles the cards, and then they deal down to their secret number. When they turn over the card that they randomly arrived at it is the Five of Clubs.

METHOD

Before I reveal the secret, think about it for a second, try and figure it out. The points to remember are:

The performer does not touch the cards until the end;

The spectator never reveals the number, and they have a free choice; The verbal prediction seems to prevent any opportunity for 'outs'; The spectator shuffles the cards themselves.

If someone really did this then maybe you would have to consider the possibility that they were genuinely psychic!

Of course you don't have to be psychic to do this. All you need is a pack of cards consisting of 26 indifferent cards and 26 all the same, in this case the Five of Clubs. All of the Five of Clubs are subtly marked on the back. I use a blue or red ink pen to fill in a small area of white on the back of each card.

Start with all the Fives face down on top of the face-down indifferent cards.

With the cards in this condition you can casually and genuinely shuffle the top half of the pack without changing the order, because they are all alike! You can casually show the faces of the cards to the spectator by cleanly spreading up to half the deck, OR you can shuffle them with the faces towards the audience, so that they will see loads of different cards being mixed up. This is the subtle approach and the one I tend to use.

At this stage you openly announce your prediction as the Five of Clubs.

Place the cards face down in front of the spectator and ask them to think of a number between 1 and 52. The spectator is now asked to cut the cards into two approximately even piles and to riffle shuffle the two piles together. During your other effects you have observed someone who normally shuffles in this way. The nature of the riffle shuffle ensures that the Fives are regularly distributed throughout the pack, it won't be perfect, but it will be close.

The spectator now deals to their secret number and when they stop you need to observe the backs of the cards, looking for a marked Five. With luck you won't have to do anything. There may be one on the pile of discards, or there may be one on the pile still in the spectator’s hands. If not you simply may have to do a double or triple lift with either pile, it all depends on how good the shuffle was. You have to be on your toes at this stage so that you can act accordingly, without

hesitation. Sometimes you will be able to reveal the card on either side of the five as being different, which makes a nice convincer.

This effect was originally published in Volume 3, Issue 3, Feb 1998 of the now defunct “The Conjurer Magazine”. Since then I have had some further thoughts:

What is the effect on the audience?

This is a rather unusual effect. I was never quite sure how to present it. It could be framed as a prediction or even as telekinesis; you mentally move the card to the right place!

I perform it now as a demonstration of the power of the spectator’s unconscious mind and the amazing things it can do. I explain that they have just seen me shuffle and display the deck, and so, subconsciously they are now aware of the location of every card (this subtly reinforces the fact that all 52 are different). I get them to riffle shuffle the cards and explain that even though they have just shuffled, their unconscious is still aware of roughly where every card is. I say “Let’s put it to the test. Tell me roughly where you think…say the…Five of Clubs is?”

The beauty of this presentation is that if you are unlucky and the shuffle has not been particularly even, you can be a few cards out and the effect still seems amazing to the spectator…after all they did it. This is now my favorite way of performing the effect. It is a clear plot that has an amazing conclusion. Exactly what a good effect should be.

MATTEO PERLINI (Italy)