EFFECT
Two decks of cards are shown and the spectator asked to
choose one.
He then names any one of the fifty-two cards. It’s an
absolutely free choice. He is asked to open the deck of cards, which has been
on view throughout, and remove his chosen card. To his amazement, it isn’t
there. In fact when he counts the cards he discovers that there are only 51.
His chosen card is missing.
The second deck is now opened. All the cards are blue
backed, except for one. One card is a stranger card and has a red back. Believe
it or not this is the missing card. The same card that the spectator names
right at the beginning of the routine.
HISTORY
In 1949 Eddie Joseph released his now famous effect
Premonition. Shortly after, George Armstrong released his version of the trick.
He said he had devised it some years earlier, inspired by Bill McCaffrey’s
Prize Winner routine from Greater Magic (1938), but it was only when he read
advertisements for Eddie Joseph’s routine that he decided he had better publish
his method if he wanted to receive credit for his handling.
The effect, in all cases, is that a freely named card is
shown to be missing from the pack. The named card is then reproduced from the
pocket or, in McCaffrey’s case, a hat.
There are two disadvantages to most Premonition routines.
The first is that the pack of cards is not on view from the beginning of the
trick. The second is that the missing card is usually produced using a card
index, a device that is not very popular with magicians.
Double Impact solves both problems and yet manages to keep
the routine virtually self-working.
BASIC METHOD
Before proceeding to a full description of the method it is
best to give a simplified description of the working, which is the same
principle that McCaffrey employed.
Imagine a deck of cards that is made up of two sets of
twenty-six different cards. In fact the pack consists only of odd red cards and
even black cards. Throw one of the cards away so that you have only 51 cards in
the deck. Now arrange the deck so that no duplicates are together.
If you asked someone to name a card and they named, say, an odd black card, you could count through the cards and show it to be missing.
What’s more there are only fifty-one cards in the deck. No one notices that
some cards are duplicates.
That’s the basic principle of Prize Winner and Premonition
and the same principle is used in Double Impact. The difference is that the
decks are not only used to show a card missing, but can be used to reproduce a
missing card, an idea that came to me after reading McCaffrey’s original
routine.
REQUIREMENTS
DECK A - ODD RED DECK
This deck is in a RED CASE.
The deck is made up of 25 red-backed cards and 26 blue
backed cards.
The red-backed cards are shorter than the blue-backed cards.
The red-backed cards consist of:
Odd Diamonds
Odd Hearts
Even Clubs
Even Spades
So that the deck consists of only 51 cards, the red-backed
Ace of Hearts is not used.
The red and blue back cards alternate through the deck. The
top card is a red-back card. Because there are less red-backed cards than
blue-backed cards, you will have two blue-backed cards at the face of the deck.
The card on the face of the deck should be the blue-backed Ace of Hearts.
Think of this deck as the Odd Red Deck. That
shouldn’t be difficult as it is in a red case.
DECK B - ODD BLACK DECK
This deck is in a BLUE CASE.
The deck is made up of 25 blue-backed cards and 26 red
backed cards.
The blue backed cards are shorter than the red-backed cards.
The red-backed cards consist of:
Odd Clubs
Odd Spades
Even Hearts
Even Diamonds
So that the deck consists of only 51 cards, the blue-backed
Ace of Spades is not used.
The blue and red back cards alternate through the deck. The
top card is a blue-back card. Because there are less blue-backed cards than
red-backed cards, you will have two red-back cards at the face of the deck. The
face card of the deck is the red-backed Ace of Spades.
Think of this deck as the Odd Black Deck. Again, not
difficult because it is in a blue (almost black) case.
NOTES ON THE TWO DECKS
One final point: Before performing the trick you should
ensure that the decks are arranged so that no duplicate cards are near each
other. That goes for values too.
That seems to be a lot to think about but if you have the
cards in front of you, you’ll find that it is actually quite simple and
logical. The two decks mirror each other. Once the cards are set up (and that
is just a matter of commonsense) all you are remembering are two phrases: Odd
Red Deck and Odd Black Deck.
PERFORMANCE
STEP 1 – CHOOSING THE CARD
Toss the two decks onto the table and ask for the assistance
of a volunteer. Say, “I’d like to try some with these two decks of cards. Do
you play cards? Well, it doesn’t really matter as long as you know the
different values. It’s not really a card trick. What I want you to do is just
think of a card. Don’t tell me what it is yet, but just imagine it. Imagine the
colour, the suit, the value. Have you got one in mind? Good, because this
morning I had a card in mind too. It’s in one of those two decks on the table.
By the way, which card are you thinking of?”
The volunteer names the card and upon hearing it you work
out which one of the deck does NOT contain it. Remember, it will be missing
from one of them. Now there’s a quick way of working out which deck it’s
missing from. Let’s try a few examples. Let’s imagine that the volunteer names
the Eight of Spades.
Now you know two things about the decks on the table. The
one in the Red Case is known as Odd Red Deck. The one in the Blue Case is known
as Odd Black Deck.
As soon as you know the colour of the chosen card think of
the deck that matches it. In the case of the Eight of Spades you will think of
the Odd Black Deck. Immediately you know that this case contains only BLACK
cards that are ODD. And since the Eight of Spades is even, it is not in that
deck. So right away you know that this is the deck you need to work with.
Let’s try another example, say, Queen of Hearts. It’s a red
card so you think of the ODD RED DECK. Since that deck contains only ODD cards,
once again you know that the chosen card is missing from it. This is the deck
you will work with.
A third example; Three of Clubs. You immediately think of
the ODD BLACK DECK. The Three of Clubs is an ODD card so you know that it is in
that deck. Since you are looking for the deck that it is missing from, you know
that it is the other deck, the red one, that you should be working with.
That’s it. It’s a very simple system and you’ll find it
useful in other tricks which use similar set-ups. Far easier than trying to
remember which decks contain which mixtures of cards.
STEP 2 – CHOOSING THE DECK
So far the volunteer has named a card and you know which
deck it is missing from. Let’s go back to our first example, the Eight of
Spades. You know it is not in the blue deck, so this is the deck you want to
work with. The next step is to bring that deck into play. So you say, “Would
you choose one of the decks of cards on the table, any one it doesn’t matter…..”
You are about to work a Magician’s Choice. If the volunteer
picks up the red deck, ask him to place it in his pocket. You then pick up the
blue deck.
If, on the other hand, he picks up the blue deck, you move
the red deck aside and work with the deck he has “chosen.”
That’s it.
STEP 3 – THE MISSING CARD
Take the deck, open it and remove the cards face up from the
case. Hand them to the volunteer face up.
“There are fifty-two cards in a deck. I want you to deal the
cards face up onto the table. Count them aloud as you go and stop when you get
to your Eight of Spades.”
When he does this you don’t want him to flash the backs of
the cards. So either make sure he is holding the cards close to the table or
that he is seated at the table when counting.
He will deal right through the deck, not find his Eight of
Spade, and yet count only 51 cards. Now along the way he will have passed lots
of duplicate cards but he won’t notice them because a: he is only looking for
the Eight of Spades, b: he is also busy counting, c: you ensured that no
duplicates were together. Having said that, see the End Notes for further
thoughts on this.
It’s best that he deals the cards into a fairly tight pile
so that duplicates are not noticed after they have been dealt to the table.
Occasionally you might want to straighten the dealt cards. You can even pick up
the cards and look though them as if checking that he hasn’t missed his Eight
of Spades. Try to act as if you expect the Eight of Spades to turn up.
When it doesn’t. Ask the spectator to look inside the blue
card box in case it got left inside. It didn’t.
Finish by saying, “That’s strange. The Eight of Spades, the
card you thought of, is missing. Do you know why that is? I’ll tell you. I
snuck the card out while you weren’t looking. Really! In fact to make sure you
wouldn’t see me do it I took the Eight of Spades out of that deck this
morning.”
STEP 4 – PRODUCING THE THOUGHT OF CARD
Pick up the discarded red case, open it and remove the cards
face up. Toss the case aside.
Spread the deck face up between your hands. Look for the Eight
of Spades. There are two Eight of Spades in that deck, a short one and a long
one. You want the long one. Now I find it easy to spot which is which by
looking at the end of the card and noting whether it has been trimmed. But if
you want to be extra sure you could just scratch a line through the indices of
all the long cards in both decks. That would make it even easier.
Toss the long Eight of Spades face up onto the table.
“You see, I was so sure that you would name the Eight of
Spades that I took it from that deck and placed it in this deck.”
Because the deck is made up of long and short cards, just
like the Svengali deck, you can spread it face down across the table top to
show that all the cards have red backs. It’s a simple move, you just hold the
deck from above by the narrow ends. As you make the spread you let the cards
riffle off the fingers and thumb and drop onto the table. They fall in pairs,
the short red cards falling on top of the long blue ones.
Don’t spread the cards. Drop the cards. The hand is held
several inches above the table as the spread is made. You can do it in one
quick casual movement.
To finish, ask the volunteer to turn over the tabled Eight
of Spades. He’ll be surprised to find that it has a blue back.
When gathering up the cards be sure to put the blue-backed
Eight of Spades into the blue-backed deck. Putting it back into the red-backed
deck will look a bit odd!
END NOTES
Another way of displaying the cards is to let them drop from
one hand to the other. This is another handling associated with the Svengali
deck. The deck is held vertically in the right hand, the thumb on top and
fingers underneath. The right forefinger is curled behind the deck and applies
a little pressure. The right thumb releases the cards and they fall, in pairs,
face down into the waiting left hand.
The trick is even better if you use two volunteers. One
person names a card while another looks through the deck for it. He can count
the cards aloud as you ask the first person whether there was any particular
reason for selecting the card he did. Doing the trick this way means that the
rest of the audience don’t pay much attention to the cards as they are dealt.
They only become interested in that deck when they discover that the thought of
card isn’t there. And by then, it’s too late.
Finally, I should explain that Premonition is not
necessarily a good trick. It has the same flaw as The Open Prediction in that
the spectator has to deal through an entire deck to establish that the named
card is missing. This can be very dull. If you wanted a more straightforward
way to produce a named card, you’d probably just use a Brainwave Deck.
I think Premonition (and The Open Prediction) is a good card
problem and solving problems is part of what interests us about magic. However,
another potential hazard of solving card problems is to build upon sand instead
of concrete. The use of a deck that has twenty-six duplicates is a possible
cause for concern. Are we to believe that the spectator dealing through the
deck wouldn’t notice a single one of them?
The truth is that we don’t know. And there are too many
instances of tricks being based on older, unproven or little understood
principles. Ignore the fact that this idea has been used extensively in
published tricks. When did you ever see a great commercial performance of
Premonition? The same applies to The Open Prediction and, another bête noir of
mine, The Princess Card Trick. These are very common tricks in magic but
finding examples that work in a professional show is difficult. There are
probably good reasons for that.
Magicians never know what the spectators are thinking. One
aim of any performance is to ensure that the assisting spectator doesn’t have
the opportunity to give voice to any doubting thoughts. This means managing the
assisting spectator. You are performing for the audience. The assisting
spectator, though he doesn’t know it, is part of your cast. You cast him
because you hope he will play his role well and be convincing when he deals
through the deal and declares the card missing.
In creating a presentation for the trick you should think
about how you want the assisting spectator to react, how that reaction is
conveyed to the rest of the audience and why they might find it entertaining.
The entertainment value of your interaction with the assisting spectator and
audience, this magical tableau, will determine the success of the performance
not whether a duplicate card is spotted, but never mentioned, during the deal.