Question:

Hi all, this is slightly connected to my other post but different enough to stand alone.
I am very often asked to do a card trick with a borrowed, well shuffled, often beer stained, dog eared deck of cards.
This means a lot of sleights I can do fairly well with cards in good shape, are simply not possible.
I wondered what you Pro guys are doing in this situation.
I know you always have cards with you, BUT for the sake of this thread, indulge me.
I do a Karl Fulves preditiction trick after glimpsing the TC and BC which is quite strong, the written prediction being inserted into deck by the spec.
I do a rising card revelation using only my fingers from the Royal Road that goes down well.
Sometimes I will say I must count the cards to make sure there are 52 and sight a certain card near the centre of the deck.
This allows another great apparent feat of prediction.
From Royal Road again.
I do the 10 sets of pairs from "Blackstones Modern card tricks" but never look at the face on any of the cards from start to finish.
I feel the vibrations as I run my hand over the backs of the cards accompanied by lots of drama and acting.
So that's roughly what I do if put on the spot OR with friends.
I of course have many decks of my own from invisable, BW, blank, stripper, Svengali, marked, etc... but as you know.. there is a certain something that happens when you simply take a set of house cards and appear to do something unbelievable.


Paul's response:

Try the Professor's "The Trick that Cannot Be Explained." It is a terrific way to practice many subtle principles and it can be done with any deck regardless of condition.

Dick Zimmerman once did this for a group of Magicians after a night of magic in Detroit. His lecture was outstanding, but all they talked about was this trick. Of course, Dick was incredibly lucky, but you'd be surprised how often this trick works out that way.

Dick wrote the name of a card on a matchbook, allowed the spectator to shuffle and cut, turned over the top card and the card staring us in the face was the prediction in the matchbook. That was quite a few 24 hours ago now, and I've done the trick literally thousands of times since. The ending is always a surprise - to me! and that makes it as much fun for me as it is for the spectator. PSC