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In discussing The Convincing Control with Ron Bauer, he mentioned that he had a

particular way of doing it that took out the tells. I asked him if I could include it because I thought it was a brilliant example of an Elegant Solution. Ron re-wrote the description specifically for these notes. Every magician owes it to himself to own Ron’s Performance Scripts and you can find out more by going to www.thinklikeaconjurer.com.

Following is a description that Ron adapted from his monograph Fair and Sloppy:

The principle of secretly slipping a card from among the cards near the center, and secretly moving it beneath the spread to another location was first published by J.N.

Hofzinser. Though this idea is very clever, as translated into English, the procedure has no inherent misdirection. The slipping and substituting of the selection for an indifferent card happens immediately following the replacement. Everyone’s attention is riveted on it. This is the type of cause and effect relationship to be avoided.

Ed Marlo came up with a solution to this tell by apparently outjogging the selection (actually a different card) as misdirection from the under-the-spread mischief. So

convincing were his results that he called them The Convincing Control. There are certain elements of it, though, that aren’t always completely convincing.

For one thing, the objective of the Convincing Control is to give the impression that a card is touched by a spectator, outjogged, shown to the audience, and then, turning the deck faces downward, cleanly squared with the other cards.

That’s not what happens, however. In reality, a card is touched by a spectator, shown to the audience, the deck is turned faces downward, the selection outjogged, and then cleanly squared with the other cards.

Did you discern the difference? It’s the order of the actions. In the Convincing Control, the card is outjogged after the deck is turned faces downward. It’s the order that leads to the tells. But, the order is necessary because that’s where the manipulation happens.

So, since we can’t change the order, we must strive to change the perception of the order.

To accomplish that, and take care of a few other tells in the Convincing Control, several handling techniques and finesses have been integrated into the presentation for Fair and Sloppy. Study them judiciously, and I’m confident that you’ll experience some genuine satisfaction from your results.

Here we go...

The Convincing Control begins with offering a spectator a free selection of a card...

“I don’t push cards at you. No. I let you JUST TOUCH ANY CARD with the TIP OF YOUR FINGER... THIS WAY you can SEE that I’m being COMPLETELY FAIR. Go ahead. Touch one...”

When you spread the cards between your hands for the selection, you not only convey

“fairness” by the way you lightly spread them, but also by your body language, i.e., your palm up hands. Actually, you don’t want any card selected. You want one selected from those ten or fifteen cards near the center of the deck. This more or less obliges the spectator to select from that group.

In the traditional handling, this is where the first “tell” occurs that’s most likely to destroy the illusion, i.e., the alignment of the selection with the card above it, occurs. Once the audience fixes on this action, the resulting suspicion is never resolved. (They may not know how it affects the trick, but they’ll be satisfied that they “saw something,” which effectively spoils the illusion.)

So, don’t align it. Instead, as soon as the spectator touches a card, tap it with your left thumb tip “to verify.” Then, press the selection against your left fingers, which are below the spread, with your left thumb. Split the spread at the selection by moving the spread cards above it to your right, then raise your left hand to show the clipped card to the audience.

As if to show more of the selection, raise the spread cards in your RIGHT hand, and bring your hands together so you can deposit the selection against the card nearest the audience. Clip it in place with your right fingers.

NOTE: This cancels the first “tell” by replacing the standard alignment at the time of selection with one that is motivated by the need to openly display the selection to the audience. Therefore, the alignment will make sense, and create no suspicion.

To help reinforce the innocence of the alignment, move your left hand with its cards out of the way as though to avoid obscuring the view of the selection. An additional throw off is to make an obvious squaring action of the cards in your left hand.

“There it is. Your card. Don’t forget it...”

As you say this, move the left hand packet back to the front of the selection so you can clip the lower left corner of the double card against it with the tip of your left thumb. The selection covers the upper right quarter of the packet in your left hand. You can rest the selection and the card aligned with it on the side of your left third finger to help stabilize the cards during the action to come.

This position, while necessary for the course of the action that follows, should appear to the audience as though you’re merely putting the cards together while trying to “fairly”

keep the selection in their view; not yours.

It’s at this point where the worst tell of all typically occurs in the standard handling of the Convincing Control. It’s the great downward sweeping gesture made to show the backs of the cards.

Eliminate this awkwardness by only do just that. Simply lower the assembly enough to bring the backs into view by bending at both WRISTS. (If necessary, you can slightly unbend at the elbows, too. But, only move enough to get the job done.) And, DON’T RUSH. I’ve seen this move done with such sudden speed that the perpetrator came close to flipping his entire body over. True, that could be a spectacular moment in a magic act, but I don’t believe the big move would “fairly” cover the little one. So, I really don’t think you should bother.

Remember, don’t hinge at the elbows. It’s all in the wrists!

As soon as you reach a position in which the faces can’t be seen by the audience, STOP, and slightly relax the pressure of your left thumb against the back of the card above the selection. THEN, with your right second and third fingertips, slip the selection to the right ABOUT AN INCH. The audience will assume the card beneath your left thumb to be the selection.

KEEP IN MIND that it’s very important that you don’t move the selection to the right until you’ve stopped the downward movement of the cards. This is to ensure that you don’t flash any under-the-spread activity.

You’re safe doing this for several reasons. First, the audience can’t see beneath the spread if the backs are toward them. Second, they can’t immediately focus on which face-down card is the selection, even with your left thumb supposedly touching it. While they adjust, you make the secret move. And, third, they see that all the cards have remained in their original positions. You reinforce this situation by saying:

“Keep your eyes glued on it...”

Now you’re going to apparently outjog the selection and show that it’s in the center of the deck. Actually, you move all the cards in your right hand (including the selection which is resting on the tips of your right fingers) into alignment with the packet in your left hand leaving the card beneath your left thumb tip outjogged.

To do this, first move the cards in your right hand to the right until you can feel the selection clear the top of the left hand packet. (The audience can’t see it because the card clipped against the lower half of the deck with your left thumb covers it.) As soon as the left side of the selection clears, move your right hand spread inward until it aligns with the left hand packet.

Spreading all the cards beneath the jogged card will give the illusion that the selection is still in the center, but outjogged.