Hello,

This is my first post at the magic Café, so hope this is the right place for it.

When asked to name any card in the deck, the most popular choices are said to be queen of hearts and ace of spades. Has anyone here done any research on which are the next most likely cards to be named by a spectator. For example, if I said "name any card, but not an obvious one like the QH or AS..." do we know which other cards are most likely to be named?

Hope you can help. Thanks.

This is a very interesting subject which probably has discussed before but here's my opinion of it:

There are a few things that come into play when asking a spectator name a card. Generally speaking though the most likely cards would be the Ace of Spades for men and Queen of Hearths for women (this is my own experience, probably depends on culture a bit too) as for magicians have a tendency to choose either the 8 or the 4 of clubs.

Another thing that comes into play is the fact if the spectator is trying to catch you out. Which would result in an almost random card. But a tendency to be on the higher number diamonds.

But as I said it's rather depending on what card games they play in your area. Suits are normally spades for men and hearts for women. Also if you have performed for your audience before, they might name a card they chose in a trick before.

But the only thing you can do is experiment and do it as often as possible. If you ever drop a card ask someone to name one. It might be the greatest trick you will ever do .

This could be a good resource

Please put your vote here: http://magicjax.com/vote/
and ask everyone to put its own vote. In few time we will have
a good stat table.

;-)

M.P.

MP - I think that's quite good. Did you make it? If so, I think you should alter it slightly so that the first page just asks the question "Please think of a playing card - and please stick with the first one that comes to mind". Then have a link to click to go to the voting page. The reason for this is that currently the voting page itself influences the outcome by presenting the cards in a certain order at the same time that the question is asked.

wow,interesting! we need a couple thousand people to vote =)
it would be cool if there would be an option where you have to select gender,age,etc.


derren brown has some views on the "name a card" subject.
he says if you ask someone to name any card,but not an obivious one like an ace or hearts (notice how he restricts your choice alot,without it being obvious)...one that he couldn't possibly guess,then apparently the 4 of clubs gets named alot.

Thank you for the suggestions so far. I would be interested to hear others' views too!

This stat is not on my page...

But I started to build my own list.
If you help me to build this list I can post here the result...

Then I ask everyone to ask your friends to think of a playing card and
then everyone build a own list. When you have this list send me to:

m.parisi1979@gmail.com

In few time we can build a big stat.

Thank you.

M.P

I think all of this is great! The more we study human nature the more knowledge we gain. Just remember, 99% might pick a single card, but you will end up with the 1% who will pick something different. Be ready!

Derren Brown discusses this in his works! Derren published a 3 of diamonds force along with some others. You can suggest things and increase the possiblities. Let me break it down:

I tell the spectator "I'm thinking of a card right now and I'm going to send it to you. Don't worry, if you get it wrong it will be my fault". This removes the challenge from the magic trick since most people want to get "it" right, whatever "it" is!

Then I tell the spectator "Clear your mind. Don't try to guess what it is or you won't get it right. It's not an obvious card like the ace of spades. Just allow it to come to you as I speak. Imagine a blackboard, or a screen in your mind (Now you draw a diamond in the air, there's many ways to do this. See Derren Brown, Haim Goldenberg) There are some additional subtleties in Derren's works regarding the color and suit. For the value, you can simply resort to forcing a 7. Most people when asked to pick a number from 1 to 10 will pick 7, so we exploit this fact by suggesting that we eliminate the court cards. You simply say "Now draw that number on the blackboard / screen" as you draw a 7 in the air. You can also show 7 fingers, whatever you think might influence them. Who knows, it seems to help and it's fun

There's some luck involved in this but if the spectator names another card, you can resort to a NW or other out.