Mark Elsdon
The Trick That
CAN Be Explained!The Trick That CAN Be Explained!
Effect:
The performer introduces a small envelope and shows that there is a playing
card inside. He places it on the table and never touches it again.
A participant takes the deck and shuffles it. Then they cut the deck and the
top card is immediately turned over. It is, for example, the Seven of Spades.
The deck is turned face-up and clearly spread to show that there are no
duplicates.
The participant opens the envelope and removes the card inside. It is a
perfect match. There are NO other outs — the card in the envelope is always
the card they choose.
Alternatively you can have a photo of the card posted on your Twitter feed or
other social media, or you can message them at the beginning and they
check the message at the end.
Method:
You have been supplied with the prediction card in an envelope and three
pairs of roughed cards. Each pair is made up of a force card roughed on the
face and an indifferent cover card roughed on the back. The three force cards
match the prediction card, For the purposes of the explanation we will
assume that the force card is the Seven of Spades.
The upper card of each pair also has a Breather Crimp in it so that it will cut
to the top of the deck. It also has the small white dot in the center of the card
coloured in with red ink so that you can recognise it easily.To set-up your deck, remove the duplicates of the 7S and the three roughed
cover cards and place them to one side. They will not be used. Put one
roughed pair about 10 cards from the top of the deck, one pair about 25
cards down and the final pair about 40 cards down.
Performance:
Open the envelope to show the blue-backed card and then close it again and
place it on the table, explaining that you won’t touch it again. Tell them that
the card will be VERY important in about one minute so you want them to be
sure that it was in the envelope from the start.
Hand the deck to someone and ask them to remove it and give it a quick
shuffle. As you say the words “Give them a quick shuffle” you mime an
overhand shuffle. The wording and your example ensure they do indeed give
it just an overhand shuffle and don’t start getting adventurous with riffles or
faros.
Thanks to the roughing, the cards will stay in pairs. Next have them set the
deck down on the table and give it a cut. 99% of the time they will cut to one
of the Breather Crimped force cards. You will know immediately because you
will see the mark in the center of the card. If they don’t, simply have them
cut once more. This time they will hit.
Very cleanly and openly turn over the top card of the deck and name it — the
Seven of Spades. Explain that ina moment their mind will start searching for
a rational explanation for what they are about to see and that one possibility
that will likely occur to them is that there is more than one Seven of Spades
in the deck. Turn the deck face-up and spread it widely, giving them plenty
time to see every card. Thanks to the roughing they won't see either of the
two duplicates. Square the deck, turn it face-down and place it off to one
side.
Teil them that the next possible explanation is that somehow you switched
the card inside the envelope, so you won’t even touch the envelope. Tell
them that they might think that it is some kind of ‘tricky’ envelope that could
2hide more than one card somehow. Direct them to examine the envelope
without opening it. They will confirm that it is just a regular envelope. Finally,
tell them to open the envelope and remove the card. They will see that it is a
perfect match.
The Breather Crimp
In case you need to strengthen the breather crimp in one of your force cards
here’s how: hold the card face-up with the left fingertips. Place the tip of
your right thumb in the centre of the face of the card and your right first and
second fingers underneath the card, pressing up against the centre of the
back. Push down fairly hard with your right thumb, so that you can feel the
fingers through the card. Maintaining the pressure, pull the thumb and
fingers out to a corner of the card. This will make a slight indentation in the
face of the card running from the middle out to one corner. Repeat for the
other 3 corners. If you now place this card near the middle of the deck, when
the deck is cut the crimped card will be on top of the deck.
Credits:
Firstly, for the concept, mindset, styling and approach to this effect (and
much of my repertoire), thanks to Chan Canasta. If you don’t already own
them, please seek out the wonderful books that David Britland wrote on
Canasta: ‘A Remarkable Man’ Volumes 1 & 2. Martin Breese, who published
the two Britland books also released a DVD of Canasta performing {also
called ‘A Remarkable Man’) and there is some underground live footage that
circulates amongst Canasta fans too. All of it is worth finding, reading,
watching and studying.
The Trick That Cannot Be Explained is described in Dai Vernon’s ‘More Inner
Secrets of Card Magic’. The author, Lewis Ganson, was keen to get Vernon to
explain the method in the book, but Vernon was reluctant because the
method depends on a series of outs, meaning that the effect never plays the
same way twice. | have performed the Vernon trick (and variations) for a long
time and my experience with that effect led to this one. | have many, many
3methods and variations for this and similar plots (see 21% Century Canasta
that | released through Ellusionist for one example) and many of them rely
‘on my old friend the Breather Crimp. Having three BCs in the deck provides a
level of safety and security. Having just one BC card in the deck and chancing
that they will hit it is just far too risky. In that respect it is far worse than the
Vernon original: a miracle when it hits, but clunky and horrible when it
doesn’t. “Please cut the deck for the seventh time...” is not a path | wish to go
down.
If you are felting adventurous, you can allow the participant to handle the
deck throughout. If you do this, make certain that he spreads the deck on the
table, not in his hands. This not only makes the entire thing completely
hands-off it also offers a level of seeming fairness that cannot be matched
even if the performer is tooled up with multiple physical outs or has to
engage in some of the sometimes necessary contrivances of the original
TTTCBE method. It provides an experience of card magic for the participant
that is very hard to beat.