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These are the scissors I use. In the past I have also used the scissors from a swiss army knife<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> I try to cut off just about half the width of the scissor blade<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> I cut from just inside the corner to the middle, and then turn the card and cut the other side<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> When the deck is square the corners look normal<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> If you look close you can see the shadow where the short card is.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Using the short<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The basic technique is to use the short card as a key card, getting it placed on top of the spectators selection. I use two different techniques for this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First technique<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
I have the spectator shuffle the deck so I can see how they shuffle the cards. Ideally I want them to shuffle the deck by riffling the cards from the ends with their thumbs. This is the common way lay people shuffle. I then take the deck back and do an all-around-square up which lets me see where the short card is located. As you can see from the photos above, there is a small shadow which shows where the short card is. If necessary I perform a cut to center the short and then a riffle shuffle to bring it to the top. I then move it to the fifth position with an overhand shuffle. (undercut half the deck, run four cards, then six more, injog and shuffle off. Undercut at the injog, run six cards and throw on top.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I spread the cards for the spectators selection, but has I get to the fifth card (the short), I cull it to the right with my left fingers, allowing it to remain under all of the cards as they are spread. Once I have the short card culled, as I continue to spread the cards, that is when I tell the spectator to point at any card being spread. When they point to a card I outjog it and close up the deck, feeding the culled short card above the outjogged card. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I tell the spectator to peek at the outjogged card and then to push it back flush into the deck, cut the deck and shuffle it (assuming that they do a riffle shuffle from the ends).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Second technique<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
I start with the short card on the bottom, false shuffling\/cutting to leave it there. I give the deck to the spectator and ask them to cut it into three piles from left to right. You need to keep track of which third of the deck was the bottom, middle, and top as some people cut off two thirds of the deck in the first cut, then of that two thirds portion cut of another third, so that from left to right the order is bottom, middle, top. Others will cut of one third and place it to the right, then go back to the two thirds portion and cut off another one third and place it farther to the right, leaving the order, bottom, top, middle. In either case you can simply have them chose a card out of the middle portion, place it on top of the middle portion and reassemble the pack by placing the bottom portion (with the key card at the bottom) on top of the middle portion (which has the selection on top) and then place all those cards on top of the remaining portion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The nice thing about this method is that it places the key\/selection pair about a third from the top. Now have the spectator riffle shuffle the cards, which destroys any idea the spectator might have about using key cards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Obviously any technique can be used to set the key card, and as long as the spectator riffle shuffles from the ends, riffling the cards off their thumbs, the key card will remain on top of the selection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of my favorite effects using the key card when performing at restaurants was to have a card selected and returned (setting up the key) and as the spectator was shuffling I would bring out a pair of thumb cuffs. I would have another spectator thumb cuff my hands behind my back. I would ask the first spectator to hand me the cards face down and then turn to face them. While facing them I would escape the cuffs, slip the cuffs into my back pants pocket, riffle to the short card and pull out the card under. I would dramatically bring out both hands to the front and display their card. The revelation of the card would always bring a strong response, often the spectators would not even realize that I escaped the cuffs. So after a beat, I would ask if anyone was wondering about the cuffs, which brought a second response. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I was performing regularly in restaurants the scalloped or concave short card was my favorite tool in my card magic arsenal. For those who don’t know what a concave short card is, it is like a normal short card, but instead of the end of the card being trimmed off with a straight cut, … <\/p>\n
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