Written by

Luke Jermay

Edited by
Andi Gladwin & Mike Vance

Designed by
Luke Jermay & Andi Gladwin
The Story Deck

INTRODUCTION
The story deck is a classic piece of entertainment with a
deck of playing cards. In performance a deck of shuffled
playing cards is used to illustrate a narrative spun by the
performer, with each card from the deck being dealt
face up onto the table as it corresponds or relates to the
narrative as the story unfolds.

While the story deck is not strictly a ‘magic trick’ in the

strictest sense, it is to my mind the perfect addition for
a performer looking to provide their audience with a
highly entertaining bit of light-hearted fun.

The story deck has remained ever popular over the years for several reasons; first and foremost it is
a highly entertaining demonstration. Second it is unusual and novel and offers the commercially
minded performer a real change of pace and texture when included in a longer performance.

Maybe it has remained so popular because the story deck has the mythical qualities that so
many seek in performance pieces: it packs small and plays big.

Personally most appealing to me is that with the right delivery, the story deck is as well matched
to an intimate gathering of a few spectators around a dinner table as it is to a larger formal
performance in a theatre.

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With all of these benefits in mind, it is no surprise that so many expert practitioners and
commercially successful performers have opted to include a story deck in their public
performances.

Many versions of the story deck have been published in varying forms over the years, from
the classic “Diamond Jack” by Jean Hugard found in The Encyclopaedia of Card Tricks to more
modern interpretations from the likes of Simon Lovell, Michael Ammar, David Regal, Eugene
Burger and famously Bill Malone, with his expert rendition of Steele/Everhart’s “Sam The
Bellhop.”

As a child I read “Diamond Jack” in the already well-thumbed pages of my copy of The
Encyclopaedia of Card Tricks, and frankly it did little to excite me. Some years later, as a teenager,
I saw Bill Malone perform on the BBC1 television series Paul Daniels’ Secrets. Bill’s masterful
performance of “Sam The Bellhop” opened my eyes to the brilliance of the concept of the story
deck, brilliance I had missed when I read “Diamond Jack” years earlier.

I have always suspected that the story deck can only be appreciated when you witness a good
performance of it, as the printed word simply cannot capture the real essence of the routine.

For a few years, both “Diamond Jack” and “Sam The Bellhop” made appearances in my
performances for friends, family and even in a few of my very first table-hopping performances
as I entered into the world of professional magic.

As time went by, the story deck fell out of my professional use. However, the concept of the story
deck was something that I returned to from time to time. I think it came and went because deep
down I never really felt it suited me. It wasn’t until I decided to bite the bullet and to put all of

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my basic thoughts and feelings about the story deck together to create my own handling and my
own story that I felt it had the potential to become a strong performance piece for me.

These days, a deck ready to tell my story is always in waiting in my performance case. I hope you
enjoy my approach to the classic premise of the story deck and that my presentational additions
and the changes I have made find favor with you. Maybe those changes might even be the
missing elements that have stopped you from putting a story deck into your own performances.

I hope one day I will see you telling a story with a deck of cards; until then and as always, thank
you for supporting my work.

Luke Jermay
York, 2012

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PART ONE
Early Decision
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PERFORMANCE APPROACH
Before we begin to really delve into the routine as I perform it, I feel it is worth our while to
examine an important aspect of the routine that tends to go under the radar when people first
begin considering the story deck.

When I decided I wanted to create my own version for my own use, it became clear to me that
there were two main approaches in the performances I had seen from those who had come to
the premise before me. I feel that deciding early on in the process of practice and construction
which of these approaches you will take is vital. Let’s take a moment to consider both of these
performance approaches:

Magical control of cards illustrating the narrative:

This option is the one that we most commonly see presented by modern magicians, famously
by Bill Malone. This approach displays the performer’s ability to control/manipulate the deck
in order to produce the cards to illustrate his narrative as the story progresses. The perceived
effect here is that the performer is able to cause the correct cards to appear at the correct time to
illustrate his story, despite the apparent shuffled condition of the deck.

Often this approach will include flourishes, magical productions, colour changes and generally
‘flashy‘ handling. At the core of this presentational option is a demonstration of technical
ability with the cards themselves and the performer’s control over them. In this respect, I like
to think of this approach as being loosely related to a gambling demonstration. In essence, it is
a demonstration of skill. The audience is amazed by the performer’s ability to manipulate the
deck. The story is simply the vehicle to demonstrate this skill.

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The improvisational approach:

The second approach is when the performer attempts to create the belief in the minds of his
audience that he is really making up a story from a truly shuffled deck right there in the moment.
This approach is a showcase of the performer’s wit and improvisational skills and a vehicle to
demonstrate his story-telling abilities. At the heart of this presentational choice is the performer’s
ability to create mental images as he weaves an imaginary world around whatever cards are dealt
to him from the shuffled deck. The audience is entertained by the performer’s wit, imagination
and his ability to take them on a journey as he transforms playing cards into psychical objects,
places and people inside their minds. The audience is amazed by the cleverness and speed with
which a story is seemingly constructed.

Vital to this approach is the belief that the deck in use is genuinely shuffled, and a key skill in
presenting this approach is the performer’s acting ability and the authenticity he creates as he
seemingly plans his story in front of the audience from the cards he is presented.

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THE DIFFERENCES
The major difference between these two approaches, as far as I see it, is that the first approach
aims to produce a magical effect. This is most clearly illustrated when playing cards are produced
from the deck with flourishes or magical transformations. The second approach aims to produce
a solid and entertaining routine without any outward magical/amazing happenings in play.

Later in this manuscript, we will consider a third option, one I have never seen presented by
another performer. It is an option that I feel opens the story-deck premise to mentalists no
matter how ‘heavy’ or ‘psychological’ their performances might be.

The routine in this short manuscript can be played whichever way you wish, depending on your
own performance preferences. I cannot tell you which is right for you, only my choices and
the experiences I have enjoyed with the story deck and the approach I have decided to follow.
However, in the interest of disclosure, I think it is important to clarify that this story deck was
created to serve my performance preference for the ‘improvisational’ style of performance.

Consequently, the stack and the story are created to look honest. There are no multiple four of a
kinds appearing, nor killer poker hands. I felt that to include such runs of cards would only tip
the prearranged nature of a stack, which when performing the routine as if improvised would
be the kiss of death.

Vital to the audience buying into the improvisational approach is authenticity in the telling of
the story and the performer’s ability to act authentically as if constructing a story in the moment.

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Losing the authenticity so important to sell this idea to the audience through the use of overly
convenient and reoccurring runs of cards would, I believe, be a huge mistake. It is worth noting
that if you were to take the first performance approach, in which you demonstrate a magical
control/manipulation of the deck, having such runs of cards is totally within the boundaries of
that presentational approach.

With this in mind, if you feel the best option for your use is the control/manipulation performance
style, this might not be the right story for you. However, I think that the method itself might be
of interest since it does allow the performer to shuffle the deck throughout the story in a manner
that appears very fair. This would only heighten the impact of the apparent manipulation/
control of the deck and is therefore worth your attention. Even if you were set on performing the
story deck as a display of skill, I would urge you to at least try the improvisational approach in
performance once before you make that decision final. I suspect that once you have, you might
rethink your position.

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WHAT THE AUDIENCE SEES

The performer hands a deck of cards to a member of the audience sitting in the front row, and
he asks that he shuffle the deck. As the deck is being shuffled, he addresses the audience proper:

“I want to try something a little unusual. It is not really a trick, but it is really fun, and some
of you might have even played this game yourselves. It has reached a kind of cult status
within the world of late-night poker...and looking around I can see the glow of many gambling
addicts in the room, so I think you will like this!

“For those of you not regularly risking the kids’ university fund on the turn of a playing card,
let me fill you in. At the end of a long session of gambling, the players often need something
light-hearted and fun to break the mood of the room, and ‘the story deck’ is often the game
of choice to do exactly that.

“The aim of the game is really simple: you have to try to tell a story using each and every card
in the exact order in which they are randomly shuffled. The golden rule is that the story has
to make sense from start to finish. The other rules are easy to remember: every time a Seven
shows up, the cards have to be shuffled again; this is to stop a player from planning too far
ahead. You are allowed to pass or skip on up to three cards, but if you do, you have to take a
shot, which makes keeping track of the story even more difficult!

“One final rule: someone has to pick a random card at which the story begins and the card
on which the game ends. So let’s have a few people join me up here onstage to do exactly that
and get things started...”

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The performer retrieves the deck and confirms that it has been shuffled by the spectator. He
then removes three shot glasses from his case and a small bottle of Vodka. He lines up the
glasses on the table, pours liquid from the bottle and then invites two spectators to join him at
the table onstage. The performer shuffles the deck, but before squaring it, he spreads it in a wide
arc on the table. He has the onstage spectators assist him in squaring the deck. The performer
then turns to the spectator on the left and has her select a card. This card is turned face up as
the performer explains that this will be the random starting point. The spectator on the right
selects a card that is placed sight unseen to the extreme right end of the table. The performer
then spreads the deck face up on the table and continues:

“I am going to quickly take a look at how your shuffling did. To be honest, this doesn’t look
like the worst shuffle in the world. There are a few cards that can be relatively easily worked
into a story. The picture cards are well spread out, which is good. I think I have a decent
chance of actually getting through the entire deck with this one. Let’s see where we are starting
tonight’s story.”

The performer retrieves the first of the random selections and shows it to the audience. It is the
Queen of Hearts. He smiles and comments:

“I have a good feeling about this story. A nice easy start! A beautiful redhead walks into a bar.
See...a red head! I did not say that this story was going to be Kafka-esque in its scope of depth,
did I?! I just said it was going to be a story, and our story has a nice predicable beginning with
a woman walking into a bar. She had a rough day. She had been trapped in a lift with [insert
spectator’s name], so needless to say the conversation was not easy. She needed a drink!”

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As the performer states the above, he is looking ahead in the deck, picking up a few cards and
then replacing one of them as he seemingly has a revelation about the cards he has in his hands.
He continues:

“She glanced up at the clock and saw it was ten minutes to eight.”

Suiting actions to words, the performer deals three cards on top of the Queen of Hearts, forming
a line spreading from the left side of the table to the right. These three cards are the Ten of
Hearts, Two of Clubs and the Eight of Spades. Each card is dealt at the corresponding moment
in the story. The performer seems pleased with this and comments:

“Ten minutes to eight. Ten, two, eight...it could have been worse!”

The performer again looks ahead in the deck, and this time instantly stops at the next card and
triumphantly continues:

“Even at that early hour in the night, the Queen of so many men’s hearts, the beautiful redhead
with which our story begins, was greeted with an all too familiar sight: a man with fire in his
eyes swaggering toward her. It was clear from his hands in his pockets and the look in his eye
that he did not want to talk to her about Jesus. He had other plans in mind!”

The performer, suiting actions to words, turns over the next card of the deck and displays the
Jack of Diamonds. Again looking ahead in the deck, the performer stops, and with a smile
continues:

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“The man paused, and then with a smile said to her, ‘Do you have ten pence [or a dime] I can
borrow? I told my mum I would call her the minute I fell in love!’”

The performer turns over the top card of the deck, showing the Ten of Clubs. He places this off
to one side as he turns over the next card, revealing the Queen of Diamonds. He turns the next
card over; it is the Ace of Hearts, which he holds over his heart and flexes it. The performer
continues to look ahead in the deck and then continues, again suiting actions to words, turning
over the corresponding cards as they relate to the story being told:

“She considered the situation, and for a moment gave the man a point for effort, but eventually
she looked at his bright red shoes and decided he was probably just a four-King Joker!”

The performer turns over three cards; they are the Four of Clubs, King of Diamonds and a Joker.
When the Joker is dealt onto the table, the performer comments:

“I am glad I did not take those out now!”

The performer continues looking ahead in the pack and smiles to himself. He then pauses and
says:

“You know what? Sometimes the stars align. Sometimes things just work out. Sometimes
things come together. Tonight is not one of those times, so I want to apologize in advance for
what I am about to say! Sorry!”

The performer pauses again and then deals the next cards onto the table, each card corresponding
to the story as the narrative unfolds.

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“The man changed his approach. He decided to ask our Queen of Hearts, our beautiful
redhead, to dance. She said...nein!”

The performer shrugs his shoulders and then apologetically continues:

“Did I mention she was German? I already said sorry! Come on, there are a lot of cards.
What would you have done with that? Nein...German for no. It’s not that bad!”

The performer, looking ahead into the deck, continues:

“If that was bad, then this is probably the most amazing combination of cards I have ever
seen. Remember, he asks her to dance. She says nine; she is German. But...our man...he
doesn’t hear her over the music in the background: the Jackson Five!”

The performer turns over the next three cards. They are the Jack of Hearts, Jack of Clubs and the
Five of Diamonds. The performer continues:

“Come on...Jackson Five. Jacks and Five. What are the chances of that ever happening again?!
Right here and right now you have been a part of history. In late-night poker sessions around
the world, people will talk of this great moment, this great moment in history, when Michael
himself came back from beyond the grave to arrange the cards in a random shuffle in the
perfect order to remind us of him. Please give [insert spectator who shuffled the deck name]
a round of applause for the best shuffle I will ever get!”

The performer leads in the round of applause. He spreads the deck on the table again and then
comments:

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“We should probably end it right here and right now. Nothing is going to be better than that,
but that’s not the game. The game is to use every single card. So from this point onward it’s
probably just going to be about six or seven minutes that will slowly tailspin more or less into
tedious inevitability....”

Suiting actions to words, the performer begins back at the start of the line of cards dealt from
left to right on the table. Addressing the audience:

“So our lady has gone into a bar. It is early, but someone has already hit on her. She is
German, remember, so she said nine. The Jacks and Five were playing in the background. She
has been at the bar for some time now, probably....seven minutes.”

The performer deals the next card onto the line; it is the Seven of Spades. The performer continues:

“That seems like a terrible cop out after that, doesn’t it? Well, good news. Remember, every
time a Seven arrives, we shuffle. Maybe we will get some more lucky breaks.”

The performer shuffles the cards, and before squaring them spreads them along the table with
the spectators pushing the shuffled cards square. The performer picks up the deck, glances ahead
and then continues:

“You know what? It was probably longer than seven minutes, probably more like Nine or Ten.”

The performer states the above as he deals two cards onto the table. These cards are the Nine
of Hearts and the Ten of Diamonds. The performer glances one card ahead and smiles. He
continues:

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“Then she catches the eye of the bartender. It is the man of her dreams: her soul mate. Even
though they had not met, she knew as soon as she saw him that this was her Mr. Right.”

The performer turns over the next card of the deck; it is the King of Hearts. He glances several
cards ahead, and then with speed and a sense of enthusiasm continues:

“Her heart skips a beat....or Three, but she had a flash of doubt. Her man could not have been
older than twenty-four, and she had just turned thirty-eight.”

The performer deals one card from the deck: the Three of Hearts. He then displays two pairs
of cards from the top of the deck; the first of these pairs is the Two of Spades and the Four of
Diamonds, and the second is the Three of Spades and the Eight of Hearts. He then deals the next
card onto the table as he continues:

“But before she could even catch his eye, he blew a kiss to a dark-haired girl at the bar. She
was stunning, much younger than our Queen of Hearts. She was probably twenty-three, and
her eyes sparkled like Diamonds...all three of them!”

The performer deals the Queen of Clubs, Two of Diamonds, Three of Clubs and the Three
of Diamonds onto the table as they illustrate each of the narrative elements in his story. The
performer again grasps a handful of cards from the top of the deck. He pauses and removes one
of them sight unseen from the spread in his hands and continues:

“I am going to take a pass, and skip on one of these.”

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He removes a card without showing it and places it face down next to the still sight-unseen
ending card. He then continues:

“Our love interest knew she had to act fast. She reached for her lipstick and wrote her phone
number on a napkin.”

The performer spreads a selection of number cards and comments:

“That is her phone number. Trust me, it is. That’s the area code for Berlin!”

The performer pauses for a beat longer than is comfortable and then continues:

“I passed on one card, which means that I have to take a shot. I suggest if you are playing this
with your friends, you pass on more than one card. Try to resist the urge to become obsessed
with not making mistakes like I have, as the game is more fun with more mistakes!”

The performer picks up one of the shots and downs it in one. He coughs and then continues:

“I thought I could make that look Clint Eastwood-style cool, but to be honest, I hate Vodka.
That was horrible! Anyway, back to the story. She finally caught the attention of her soul-
mate bartender and ordered a drink…a Seven-Up...and…”

The performer deals the next card onto the table; it is the Seven of Clubs. He then comments:

“Seven means shuffle.”

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The performer quickly but fairly shuffles the small packet of cards in his hands with an overhand
shuffle. He then continues, glancing at the cards.

“This is good. This is a good night. I hope you appreciate this; it doesn’t happen often. A
Seven-Up and Jack.”

The performer deals the next card face up onto the line of cards. It is the Jack of Spades. He then
continues:

“She downed it in one.”

The performer deals the next card onto the table; it is the Ace of Diamonds. Instantly, he
continues:

“Suddenly she wasn’t so Ten-se. Tense...”

The performer deals the next card onto the table; it is the Ten of Spades. He continues, picking
up pace after quickly spreading the cards in his hands:

“You know, I think we are going to have a very good finish here. I am pretty sure the only card
I cannot remember seeing during this is exactly the one on which I want to end. We will see!”

The performer turns the next card face up; it is the Nine of Diamonds. He continues:

“She asked the bartender what time he finished. He said Nine. She said, ‘You don’t have to
be rude. A simple no thanks would have done!’ He didn’t know she was German. After the

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hilarity that followed—much like is happening right here—she now realized he meant he
finished at 9pm!

“It was lucky, since she arrived at ten to eight, and all of the things that I have told you have
happened took exactly 70 minutes to play out, so now it was exactly 9pm! I know these
things; there is no need to question this!

“She said, ‘Great. Do you know somewhere we can go?’ The bartender said, ‘Yeah, there is a
place around the corner called the Six Fifty-Four club. I know the owner, Bill.”

The performer deals three cards, suiting actions to words, onto the table. They are the Six of
Hearts, Five of Clubs and the Four of Spades. As he says “Bill,” he turns the card on top of the
deck over to display the King of Clubs. The performer continues:

“Bill liked to dress like a King. That isn’t really the thing that was weird about him. More
worrying was the fact that he always carried a sword.”

The performer points out the sword being held by the King of Clubs and then continues:

“The King and Queen of Hearts walked around the corner to the club, and Bill was standing
on the door....holding his sword in his hand. He said the place was full, but because it was
them, they could come in. They said thanks and gave him a Two Pound tip, which when you
consider inflation in the past year alone is actually really insulting. The Queen liked this. She
liked an alpha male, and her man had just insulted a man holding a sword—proper alpha.”

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The performer deals the Two of Hearts onto the table. He then continues fanning the remaining
cards in his hands and looks a little disappointed. He then turns the next card over, and it is the
second Joker. He continues:

“On the way, the King of Hearts told the Queen a Joke. It wasn’t very funny. I won’t bore you
with it, as it’s really not worth hearing.”

Under his breath, the performer continues:

“Mainly because I can’t think of a joke at this exact moment in time...”

The performer then pauses with the packet in his hand and continues:

“Are there any children here? No? Thank god. Because honestly I can’t see a PG-13 way for
these to play out!”

He spreads the cards again and then continues:

“When they walked in they were shocked. On the stage there were Five sets of almost identical
twins, doing things that no family members should to each other. It didn’t seem to bother the
rest of the room. They were clapping and cheering like they were in Seven-th heaven.”

The performer, suiting actions to words, deals the next card onto the table; it is the Joker. The
next card is the Five of Spades. The next two cards are displayed in a pair. They are the Ace
of Clubs and the Ace of Spades. The next two cards are displayed as a pair; they are the Six
of Diamonds and the Nine of Spades. The next two cards are displayed as a pair; they are the

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Seven of Hearts and the Seven of Diamonds. There is one card left in the performer’s hand. At
this point, he reaches for the card picked by the audience member for the end of the story. He
comments:

“I knew it...perfect! Well, I can’t tell you all of the insane things that they saw in the Six Fifty
Four club that night. Actually, I can...to finish the story and to use all 52 cards and the Jokers,
which I originally thought I had removed from the deck. Therefore, what I have done here this
evening is actually even better than I thought!

“I can tell you...that...when they woke up in the morning and looked at their reflections in the
mirror, they were never quite the same again.”

The performer turns over the two remaining cards, holding one in each hand in an applause
position, revealing they are the Queen of Spades and the King of Spades. He throws these cards
onto the tabled spread and then reaches for the shots left on the table. He hands one to each
of the spectators at the table and indicates for them to drink the shot. The spectators drink the
shots under the applause and leave the stage. The performer then concludes:

“I am going to leave these cards in the exact order they were shuffled into here this evening; in
the exact order that told the story we created right here, right now; an order they have never
been in before and probably won’t be in again. However, there is someone here that created
the Jacks and Five combination in their shuffling of the cards right at the beginning, and I
think they deserve the story as a gift. Thank you. I won’t get that again!”

The performer places the deck into the box and hands it to the spectator.

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PART TWO
Important Presentational Points
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PRESENTING THE STORY

DECK
In my performance of the story deck, I like to introduce what is going to happen as if it is a game
that is played by card players. The introduction I use can be found in the full performance script
which appears earlier in this manuscript.

This introduction was written to address a few of the issues I saw with the manner in which
the story deck was often introduced into a performance. I felt that one of the missing elements
within the standard performances of the story deck was providing a reason for doing it. I feel
that a simple justification allowed me to introduce the idea and to have it take root in the minds
of my audience members with no resistance. Again, this is in the desire to establish a sense
of credibility to the demonstration. Since I feel this is the single most important thing for the
audience to feel, I wanted to create that credibility right from the outset.

By framing the demonstration around the notion of a drinking game, suddenly the odd nature of
the demonstration makes more sense to normal people. Drinking games are focused on funny,
nonsensical actions often involving difficult mental tasks, such as keeping track of various lists
of information, and usually with trivial outcomes. Any mistake made within the game by a
player results in them taking a shot. By including this in my rules, the story deck is instantly
accepted by the audience as a real game that lives outside of the world of magic tricks.

With my decision to frame the demonstration as a game, the next of the new presentational

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elements comes into play. Simply put: real games have rules. Therefore, this game has rules. The
introduction I use to frame the routine includes an outline of the apparent rules. Each rule is
actually a way in which we can increase the impact of the routine.

You will have two cards chosen: one to begin the story and one to end it. Of course, these
choices are controlled. They are forced on the spectator. This adds yet another layer of seeming
unpredictability to the proceedings, further strengthening the notion of improvisation on the
performer’s part. Thus, if the performer executes a deceptive force, the audience will have no
option other than to believe that these two choices were random and therefore could not be
planned ahead of time.

During the performance, you will pass (skip) on one card. This, I feel, adds a real sense of
authenticity to the story being created truly in the moment, and it also provides a funny moment
with the performer having to take a shot. More importantly, this passing or skipping of a card
will serve a silent purpose. I want the smart audience members to think that I am passing on
this card in order to reserve it for the end of the story. In this way again, it appears that the
performer is using genuine improvisation and applying a tactic to help him later in the story. If
you perform the routine for comedians or writers, often they will pick up on this element. This
means you have done a good job, and they have bought into the skill of improvisation and not a
stacked deck. I feel to remove this would be a mistake.

Finally, my stack is created so that each time a Seven arrives, you shuffle the deck in a very real,
very fair looking fashion. This helps really sell the fact that the deck is shuffled, and once again
strengthens the audience’s belief that true improvisation is at work.

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LOOKING AHEAD
One of the most important elements of selling the false impression of improvisation is looking
ahead in the deck during the story telling. I tend to begin by spreading the deck in a wide arc
across the table and mentioning a few cards that I explain will be useful in constructing a story.
I tend to say something along the lines of:

“Ok, that’s not too bad a shuffle. There are a few cards that are easy to work into a story. You
can use picture cards as people, and I can see they are spread out pretty well. All in all, it is
not the worst shuffle in the world.”

I then spend a moment skimming my eyes over the deck before squaring it up. As the story
progresses, I pick up cards from the top of the deck, and without changing the order look at
them. I will continue to add cards to this group until something seemingly ‘clicks.’ At that
moment, I will smile and then reveal the narrative contained within that group of cards. When
I reveal a particularly ‘lucky’ run of cards, I will often celebrate it! After all, if this were true
improvisation and I were handed a particularly good run of cards, I would be happy with my
ability to turn them into a clever story element. My goal in celebrating these moments is not to
gloat or boast about the cleverness, but rather to be clearly, but quietly, pleased with myself and
the connections that I have formed with the cards presented to me.

A simple tip to help sell this to an audience is to force yourself to attempt to create a new story
as you are looking at the cards in your hands. This will feel real, because (for once) you are really
doing what you are telling the audience you are doing. Just be careful not to confuse the stories
as you reveal the narratives; the made-up story should be forgotten about the moment you
square the deck!

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REALLY DO IT
One of the big secrets to creating an authentic feeling of true improvisation is to truly improvise
within the structure of the story itself. I like to view the story and the stack as the framework
for what will happen within the narrative. Use the framework of the story as the base on which
you will expand. In this way what you say will change each time you perform the routine, as the
expansion you make on the framework will be different each time.

My goal within this expansion is to tie the framework to things that have happened and people
who are present at the show. For example, if a spectator called Richard had been a little difficult
earlier in the performance, you might expand on the Queen of Hearts by saying:

“A beautiful red-headed woman walked into a bar. She had suffered a particularly difficult
day. She had been trapped in a lift for several hours with a man called Richard.”

In this fashion, you are actually doing what you are pretending to do: improvising call-backs
within the framework of the story. Calling back to things that have happened previously in the
show is a very easy but highly effective way to increase the comedy within the routine, but also
and more importantly to create an even stronger feeling of authenticity within the story as it
unfolds. This, I believe, is a real secret to the routine, and one I have not seen in play in other
performances of the story deck.

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CELEBRATE SUCCESS
One of my favourite moments within the performance is my own celebration of apparently
‘good’ combinations of cards. I think this is a really worthwhile addition to any performance.
This is what you would really do, should you really have this happen to you. In fact, you would be
over the moon with happiness if such lucky breaks presented themselves. This is a small point.
However, refer to the full performance script to see how I incorporate this into the performance.

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THE GENRE ADDITION

When you begin to feel more comfortable with genuine improvisation based on the framework
of the known story/stack, another simple but highly effective ruse to increase the authenticity
of the feeling of true improvisation within the performance is to allow an audience member to
pick the genre of the story.

You can then colour the framework of the known story contained within the stack. For example,
if “film noir” was chosen, when the Queen of Hearts arrives:

“A beautiful redhead walked into a bar. The room was filled with smoke, and all the men
wore hats with the brims obscuring their eyes. It wasn’t the type of place a woman like her
walked into without looking for a man to leave with, and everyone knew that.

“However, she was there for a different reason. She was looking for the secret messages she
knew would be left in the empty cigarette packet on the bar. All eyes turned to her as she
made he way to the bar. She exchanged glances with the jazz band onstage. It had been a
hard day, as she had been forced to spend a train journey from Paris to Spain with a man she
suspected was a spy. That man was called Richard.”

To do this, simply think of a film, story, book or anything of the named genre and use it as an
additional framework. Use this known information in combination with the known framework
of the story stack, and genuine improvisation including call-backs to things that have happened
within the show, to really create a bulletproof feeling of authentic improvised story telling.

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DEALING IN A LINE:
LEFT TO RIGHT
Rather than dealing the cards into a pile, I prefer to deal the cards into a line, from left to right
from my audience’s perspective. This allows me to display the entire story across the tabletop.

I also use the randomly picked start and end points as ‘bookends’ to the story, with the face down
‘random ending point’ in place on the table from the beginning, creating a sense of completion
as we move further and further toward it in the dealing/story progression. It also allows me to
easily track back in the story to display certain relationships between the cards. A good example
of this is when the Jack of Diamonds is tied to the Queen of Diamonds as being mother and son.
I can move the cards together to show them side by side to highlight/clarify the relationship.

Finally, dealing the cards in this order is easy for the audience to follow, as it mimics the reading
of an actual book. On this level, it makes logical sense, even if no one really notices!

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PART THREE
The Mechanics of the Routine
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LEARNING THE STORY

To learn the story, simply read the presentation outline with the full performance script that
appears earlier in this manuscript. Once you have a sense of the script and the presentational
elements I have highlighted in the earlier ‘Important Presentational Points’ chapter, sit with the
deck in the stack and deal through it as you tell the story. The main thing to remember here is
that this story needs your voice added to it.

The story/stack is intentionally not a great collection of great combinations. This is the real
secret to making it entertaining. Sell the authenticity of the apparent improvisation and you are
set for an entertaining performance piece.

Now let’s take a look at the mechanical elements of the routine.

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THE STACK
If you wish to make use of my shuffle process and also random selection of the starting and
ending points, then the deck will need to be stacked as follows in ‘The Shuffle Process’ as outlined
in the next section. However, if you wish to forego these presentational elements (even against
my advice not to!), then simply stack the deck for the story. The story stack is outlined below.
With the deck in this order, you can simply use false shuffles to retain the order as you perform
the story.

The stack from the top down:

QH, 10H, 2C, 8S, JD, 10C, QD, AH, 4C, KD,
Joker, 9C, JH, JC, 5D, 7S, 9H, 10D, KH, 3H,
2S, 4D, 3S, 8H, QC, 2D, 4S, 3D, 6S, 8C, 8D,
KS, 4H, 6C, 5H, 7C, JS, AD, 10S, 9D, 6H,
5C, 3C, KC, 2H, Joker, 5S AS, AC, 6D, 9S,
7H, 7D, KS, QS

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START AND ENDING

SELECTIONS
To force the starting and ending points of the story, I simply make use of an under-the-spread
cull force. The shuffle process as outlined previously will bring the Queen of Hearts to the fourth
position from the top and the Queen of Spades to the fifth position from the top.

After the shuffle, I spread the deck in my hands and cull the fourth card in the spread, beneath
the spread. I then pass cards one at a time from my left hand to my right hand as the spread
builds. I then have someone call stop or touch the back of the card they want before I square
this spread. This loads the force card into position. I roll this spread face up to display the first
selection: the Queen of Hearts.

I then square the deck and repeat this process, spreading the deck and culling the fourth card
from the top of the deck. I then pass one card at a time from the left-hand side of the spread to
the right until someone calls stop or touches a card and then square the spread. I place the card
on the bottom of this spread onto the table face down. This card is the Queen of Spades.

With the forces completed, you are ready to being the story from the apparent random starting
point.

If you are not familiar with the under-the-spread force, I highly recommend reading Card
College, Volume 4 by Roberto Giobbi for an excellent description.

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THE SHUFFLE PROCESS

When the deck is stacked in the order shown below, the shuffling process is built-in within the
story. To shuffle the deck to tell the story, before any cards are dealt or the story has begun, cut
the deck at the Nine of Diamonds and give the deck one perfect out faro. After this shuffle, the
deck will be ready for you to perform the force of the starting and ending points with the Queen
of Hearts and the Queen of Spades in positions four and five. Perform a force of these two cards,
removing them from the deck.

From here, deal the cards from the top, until you reach the first Seven in the story. This will be
the Seven of Spades. Cut the cards at the Nine of Hearts and perform a perfect out faro. You will
be faro shuffling an uneven number of cards, so this means that both the top and bottom cards
of the packet with the Nine of Hearts on top will remain out of the shuffle. You will end with the
Five of Clubs on the face of the deck and the Nine of Hearts on the top of the deck.

Continue to deal the cards as the story develops. When you reach the Seven of Clubs, you
will perform a simple combination of running and throwing blocks in an overhand shuffle
fashion. While it is possible to create a faro option at this point, the packet is so small that an
overhand shuffle seems like the more natural method of shuffle. Run seven cards and then throw
everything on top of these. Run four cards and then throw everything on top of these. You have
now completed the shuffling process, and you are ready to complete the story.

I feel my decision to make use of a shuffle to place cards into the correct positions (rather than
a false shuffle to retain them in position) makes a big difference to the manner in which the
audience perceives the shuffles. Due to the construction of the stack, the shuffles can be burned

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and you can make it completely clear that the deck is being shuffled.

I always, always, faro shuffle the cards in my hands and do not complete the shuffle. Rather, I
spread the cards on the tabletop and have the participants shuffle the cards together by pushing
them square. This process of shuffling has been made popular by Juan Tamariz. I first saw it in
Arthur Buckley’s Card Control, and I think it is a really strong image of mixing the deck and one
I suggest you also use.

For the final touches on this shuffle process, you can, if you wish, include some of the wonderful
mannerisms which Juan Tamariz has developed for disguising the perfect nature of a faro shuffle,
as published in his book Sonata. It is well worth tracking down a copy for these concepts alone.

The shuffle-ready stack:

10H, 8S, QS, 10C, AH, KD, 9C, JC, 7S, 3H,
8H, 3D, KS, 7C, Joker, 7D, JS, 6H, KH, 3S,
4S, 8D, 5H, 5S, 3C, 6D, 9D, QH, JD, QD, 4C,
Joker, JH, 5D, 10D, 4D, 2D, 8C, 6C, AS, 9S,
10S, 9H, 2S, QC, 6S, 4H, AC, 2H, 7H, AD, 5C

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THE DECK SWITCH

You will notice in the performance outline section that my routine begins with the deck being
shuffled by a spectator in the front row of the audience. I always do this. I feel it is vital to have
the deck shuffled by a spectator. The only solution to this problem is rather obviously a deck
switch. Many options are open to you to accomplish this deck switch.

The Cooler from Vanishing, Inc. is a very good method. I have used this at the moment of
removing the shot glasses from a case behind me onstage. This allows me the perfect cover
for the switch. I will leave the exact choice to you. Some might think that I run without being
chased here, so I mention this only to give you the full information on the presentation exactly
as I perform it.

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THE STORY DECK FOR

MENTALISTS
Mentalists often display a level of self-limiting selection in their performance material. Often
this is driven by a desire to separate what they are doing from the standard fanfare of the magic
show. However, I often think this can lead to a limited vision in the material that mentalists
consider. With all of the benefits of the story deck, I feel it is a worthy performance piece to
carve a presentation that can work alongside mental-flavoured material.

After all, if you are performing this as a demonstration of improvisation, at the heart of it are
a set of skills well within the mentalist’s tool box: quick thinking, wit, memory (with the cards
being looked at and remembered to form the story) and general thinking on your feet. This is a
demonstration of the smart mind inside the performer’s skull, which often is the skill on display
in mentalism performances.

I feel a very easy fix for this is to change the stack slightly. If you remove the run of number cards
that are apparently the Queen of Hearts’ phone number (6S, 8C, 8D, 4H, 6C, 5H) and place
these on top of the deck, now you could have the deck shuffled, switch it and false shuffle the
deck (or construct a shuffle process as I have for the stack as I use it in a story-telling version).
Then simply spread the deck face up on the table, and after a moment or two, square the deck
and explain that you have memorized it.

Prove this claim by calling the top six cards out loud. Next, explain to the audience:

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“You could do this easily with a little practice. The secret is simple. When I look at the cards,
I am turning each one into a character or element of a story. Then I can remember the
positions of each and every card by telling myself the story. Let me show you what I mean.
The next card is the Queen of Hearts...in my story she is walking into a bar.”

Now continue with the story, but simply present it as a hard and fast delivery of information. This
is a demonstration of memory rather than anything else. In this manner, it forms an entertaining
and novel way to demonstrate super-human memory powers. I know for some, this alone is
worth the price of this manuscript.

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CONCLUSION
Well, that neatly brings us to the end of this short manuscript on my story deck. I really hope
you found something of value within this. I am very proud of the additions I have made to
the routine. While at first glance they may seem small, in performance they really make a big
difference.

I really hope this manuscript might encourage you to perform a story deck for real people. I
know you will enjoy doing so.

I will finish this book with a simple suggestion for those performing for corporate audiences:
maybe the story deck is a fantastic way to demonstrate quick thinking, and creative thinking.

Maybe the story deck could form an entire ‘break out session’ with those present each receiving a
deck and making their own story, as you teach them various ways to change their perspective on
information. The session could then conclude with your performing the story deck as outlined in
the performance overview. For some, I hope that this final note will make the entire manuscript
worth reading again.

Until next time,

Luke Jermay
York, 2012

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