A.R.C.A.A.N.E

I was trying to come up with a name so that I could call this trick S.H.I.T.C.A.A.N but I couldn't think of something that fits. So 'A Random Card At Any Number, Easy' it is, although I reserve the right to change this because I'm still not in love with the name. I've only performed this twice but I got great reactions both times. I'm sure I'm not the only person to do this, in fact I would be shocked if I was. Still, I feel like this is something that could be overlooked. Give it a shot.

If you were buying this trick, the ad copy might look something like this:

A deck of cards is shuffled. The spectator can shuffle if they choose. The spectator selects a card, changing their mind several times if they wish. The card is returned to the deck and shuffled again. A number is named between 1 and 52 and the cards are slowly dealt to the chosen number, where the spectator's selection is found! No memory work, no forces, no complicated sleights, no instant stooges, or assistants! Perform this in minutes!

 A performance for my wife went pretty much exactly as described above. I shuffled, she touched any card and I gave her the chance to change her mind. I shuffled again, had her name a number and dealt down (I believe it was 17) cards to find her selection. She was very impressed,

A performance for a friend who's always asking if I'm working on anything new went the same way. If anything, he was more impressed.

The secret is exactly what you think it is. A one-way forcing deck. As I said, I know I'm not the first person to do this because it's probably the first thing someone does when they pick up one of these. It works (or at least worked in two isolated cases) though so it might be worth messing around with. If anything else, it could work as an opener (or what I'm going to call a "pre-out" because I have a specific scenario in mind that I'll write about in the future and I don't know if there's already a term for it) for a real ACAAN.

Let me know what you think if you give this a shot. Whoever's reading this. I'm just screaming into the abyss at this point.

- Andster

Field Test: Hallmark

Recently, my wife celebrated her birthday and because I'm broke I showed her a magic trick instead of getting her a real gift. Luckily she loves me and this blatant display of cheap-assery didn't end in divorce. The trick that I used is one that Andy from The Jerx posted last year called Hallmark. It's also featured in his book which I intend to write about one day here.

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of Andy's work. His MCJ blog is what got me started in blogging ten years ago, and when he came back with The Jerx it inspired me to pull the trigger and get my blog going again. He is incredibly creative and I liked the concept behind this trick from the moment I saw it.

Instead of mailing the birthday card, I gave it to her in the morning and told her to hold on to it as the day went on. We had a bunch of things to do during the day, some fun some not, but I planned on performing the trick over dinner. I did a version of his Reverse Psychology Force but I don't think it went well, Honestly, being my wife, she's familiar with the idea of forces in general. It's not so much that I bungled the force, it's that I think there's very little I can do to make her think she's getting a free choice. I do think the RPF is a great idea and would work well for a lay audience, but for this particular performance I probably should have done something else.

In reading the description of the trick, I thought "There's no way in hell this torn-corner handling is going to work." I was wrong, and I think that's my favorite part of the trick. Getting your spectator to ring in your duplicate while vanishing the pieces feels so weird, but it works. Granted, I have an incredibly small sample size of one but I can see this working in the real world for sure. Really though, Andy puts out magic that works so if he says he uses it, it's not just a pipe dream. Being seated made this part incredibly easy too because I was able to just drop the pieces on the seat next to me instead of trying to get into my pocket casually.

Overall my wife really liked the trick. I asked her about it later, wanting to get her thoughts on it but also not wanting to destroy the whole thing for her. She said, "Well, I'm pretty sure you forced the card on me so I'm also pretty sure the card in the envelope wasn't the same physical card I picked. But I don't know where the other card went, either." So for someone who knows a bit about magic just from being associated with me, I think that's pretty good. I definitely think this would work quite well for someone with no magic background.

A couple thoughts I've had:

I could see this working well for the professional magician as a closer or an encore type trick. Give a card to the birthday kid or host of the event and have them hold it the whole time. At the end of the show bring them up and do the trick. Inside the envelope is a custom printed greeting card saying "Thanks for having me" or "Have a magical birthday" or some other crap. Have your contact info printed on the back of the greeting card. Put a couple strips of double sided tape on the inside of the greeting card so that after you show the playing card is healed and the corner matches, you can quickly tape the playing card inside the greeting card leaving them with a reminder of the magic that also has your contact info on it.

I don't remember if I wrote about this before (I think I did, but I'm going to say it again so it's all together), Hallmark would go well with The Envelope Concept. You're losing the signed card aspect, but I think the torn corner works well enough. I love the idea of creating a long-lasting piece of wonder with the spectator and this handling would make it more accessible.

I might be overthinking this, but I feel like taking a piece of the card that's not the index corner could make this slightly stronger. I haven't tested this beyond seeing if it was easy enough to tear out a middle section of card (it is), but I think it's worth exploration. I feel like if you were to tear a card into eight pieces and have someone pick one, you only have a 25% chance of getting an index corner while you have a 75% chance of getting something else. Again, I'm probably overthinking this and running without being chased and all that jazz, but it's something to consider.

I think that's all I wanted to say. I don't know; I've been writing this off and on for about a week now. Having a kid is a pain in the ass sometimes. But definitely check out Hallmark and if you like it and the other things on the blog, consider picking up the book.

- Andster