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What Number? (Encyclopaedia of Card Magic)

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Before doing this trick some preparation is required. You will need to arrange and order your deck of cards in the following way:


On the bottom of the deck you should put the eight and the nine of any suit. Make sure that it is the eight which is on the very bottom in such a way that if you turn the deck over to show the bottom card, it is the eight that the public will see.

On the top of the pack you need to place a six and seven of any suit. Now, make sure that the seven is the one on the very top, so that if you turn over the top card it will be the seven that the audience see.

That done, you can begin to perform the effect.

The first step is to fan the cards out. Now, ask a spectator to choose a card. Make sure that the first and last cards of the fan are layered on top of each other so that there is very little chance that the spectator will pick one of the prepared cards. Now you can ask the spectator once more if they are sure that they have committed their card to memory. As you do so, make eye contact with the spectator and smile, secretly slipping your little finger under the top seven cards.

Now put the pack out (held in your left hand) towards the spectator and ask him to replace the card in the deck. As you do this, casually lift off the top seven cards to the point break marked by your little finger. In this way, the spectator will replace the selected card on the top of that section of the pack and the seven cards will be resting on top of it.

You should now perform a couple of false shuffles so that the sectator is convinced that the deck is well mixed when in fact you have not altered the order of the cards at all. Now you move on to the final phase of the effect. Ask the spectator to name a number, any number between five and ten.

It is a curious fact of psychology that most people will instinctively choose the number seven. If that is the case here, turn over the top card, showing the seven. Say, "You said seven, a free choice and look, here's the seven! Perhaps you have psychic abilities or a mystic affinity with that number. let's find out. If you truly have an affinity of that nature then the seventh card down from here should be your chosen card." Leaving the seven on the tabletop you then count off to the seventh card from the top, which is, of course the selected card!

If six is given, just glide the top card to the bottom of the deck, turning over the new top card and showing that, which clearly will be the six. Then you proceed exactly as detailed above.

If eight is called for, then you must turn the pack over, showing an eight on the bottom of the pack. Say, "That's incredible, truly incredible that you've chosen the eight! The eight is this card here at the bottom of the deck - we call it the indicator card, the one at the bottom, because it always tells us where to find a card that's lost in the deck. Count down eight cards from the top and see if it's right this time."

If nine is given, then you must slip the bottom card to the top of the pack, show the nine and carry on as for the eight. The chosen card will now be the ninth down in the deck.




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