Do as I Do
There are some tricks which stand head and shoulder above others. The trick now to be described has without doubt surprised and puzzled more people than any other trick conceived in the past two decades. It has everything a good trick should have-a good plot, ease of execution, and a terrific impact on those who see it. We have mentioned that the wise magician never reveals his methods to the curious, and in describing this trick we reiterate this counsel, for, once you have told how simple the trick is, you have lost the use of a superb feat of card magic. [Note: “Do as I Do” is considered one of the classic self-working card tricks ever created. It was likely developed in the 1920s-1930s, making it relatively new when this book was published in 1948. – RJW]
The plot is this: A spectator thinks of a card and you think of one. You each show the card of your choice. They are the same!
- You will need two packs of contrasting colors, say red and blue. Invite a spectator to choose one of the two packs. You take the other and shuffle it. “I want you to do everything I do. Please shuffle your cards.” Turn your pack with the face toward yourself a little as you square it after shuffling, and remember the bottom card as your key card. [Note: Using two different colored decks is crucial for this effect – it prevents confusion and adds to the impossibility of the effect since the spectator can clearly see they’re using different decks. – RJW]
- Hand the spectator your pack and take his. “I’ll take your pack and you take mine,” you say. Ribbon-spread your cards face downwards on the table from right to left and instruct him to do the same with his cards.
- “Remember, you must do everything I do. First of all, each of us will take a card from his pack. You will take one from the pack which I shuffled, hence you cannot possibly know beforehand which one you will take. Similarly, I will take one from the pack which you shuffled, and I therefore cannot know which one I shall get.” Run your right index finger back and forth over your line of cards and insist that he duplicate your actions exactly. After a moment, touch a card in the centre of the spread and have him touch one in his spread. “Take out the card you touched, look at it, but don’t let anyone else see it,” you say. You say this because you do not want any of the others standing around to see the card you draw. Look at it but forget it, for it plays no part in the trick.
- Place your card face downwards at the left end of your spread of cards and have him do the same with his cards. Gather your cards without disarranging them and have him do the same with his. Finally, make one complete cut and have him do the same. His cut places the key card which you noted in step No. 1 above his chosen card.
- “Let’s exchange packs again,” you say, taking his pack and giving him yours. “Now I’ll find my card while you find yours.” Run through the pack you now hold until you come to your key card, then take the card below it and place it face downwards on the table. Try to have your card on the table before he finds his card. [Note: The timing here is important – placing your card first creates the impression that you found “your” card independently, rather than locating his card through the key card method. – RJW]
- When he removes his card, have him place it face downwards on your card, but at right angles. Take the rest of his cards and place them at right angles on your pack, both groups of cards face downwards. Do this deliberately and neatly, adjusting the cards until you are satisfied that they are placed exactly as you want them. This is window dressing, but it is important.
Now recapitulate what has been done. “You will remember that you did exactly as I did. You shuffled my pack and I shuffled yours. We each took a card and remembered it. I have placed my card on the table and so have you. Would you be surprised if we both took the same card?”
- The spectator admits that he would indeed be surprised. Do not say anything further, but slowly pick up the two crossed cards and drop them face upwards on the table. They are the same!
The Three Piles
The use of delay in performing a sleight is of great value to the conjurer. A moment’s consideration will make it clear that to attempt to perform sleights at the start of a trick, when the attention of the onlookers is concentrated on your actions, is poor strategy and invites disaster. The element of surprise also is of inestimable value. This use of delay, to gain surprise, is applied here to the use of the key card, and the result is that even those who are familiar with it will fail to recognize its use. [Note: This principle of “time misdirection” – performing the secret move when attention is elsewhere – is fundamental to magic. The authors are teaching not just tricks but essential performance psychology. – RJW]
Briefly the plot of the trick is that a card which has been merely thought of is discovered and revealed by the magician in a surprising fashion.
- Have a spectator shuffle a pack of cards and cut it into three portions, about equal, while your back is turned. Instruct him to choose any one of the three piles, then to take it and, spreading its cards with the faces towards himself, select mentally any one card and commit it to memory. When he has done this, tell him to shuffle the cards he holds so that he himself will not know the position of his mentally selected card among the others.
- Turn around and say, “I think your card is about twelfth from the top. Deal the cards face upwards and see if I’m right, but don’t tell me where the card is if I’m wrong.” Begin to turn away again but contrive to sight the first card the spectator deals, then turn away completely. This first card is your key card; remember it. Later, the spectators will forget that you turned around for a moment and will maintain that your back was turned all the time. This is the impression you wish to make. [Note: This is a classic example of “audience management” – people tend to remember the overall impression rather than exact details, especially when the glimpse seems incidental to the main action. – RJW]
- When he has completed the deal, the spectator tells you that you were wrong. “Oh, well,” you say, shrugging off your supposed mistake, “it makes very little difference.”
- Instruct the spectator to place his pile on the table, take the other two piles, and shuffle them together; cut the packet, place his pile on the lower portion, and then replace the cut. Finally, tell him to square the pack and make as many complete cuts as he likes.
- Turn around, take the pack, and run over the faces as you make some casual remark, such as, “Well, you certainly mixed the cards thoroughly,” or, “I forgot to notice if the joker is in this deck.” In reality, you find your key card and count five cards below it and casually cut the pack at this point. Your key card will now be the sixth card from the bottom of the pack. Put the deck on the table face downwards. [Note: The mathematical principle here relies on the fact that when the spectator’s pile was placed on the shuffled remainder and then cut, it maintains a predictable relationship between the key card and the selected card. – RJW]
- Review briefly what has been done–a card merely thought of, the pack shuffled and cut several times, and all done while your back was turned. Then add ruminatively, “You will remember that I failed to name the card’s correct position in the deck. I don’t understand that… just how far down was it?” This question does not seem important and your tone and inflection imply mild interest only. Actually the spectator’s reply tells you the present position of his card.
- If he states that its position was sixth, then the required card is now at the bottom of the deck; if seventh, at the top. In such instances you bring the trick to a surprising finish at once by showing either the top or bottom card. If the position was from the first to fifth, take the pack in position for the glide and remove cards from the bottom. When you come to the spectator’s card, glide it back and continue to deal cards until the spectator calls “Stop!” Remove his card and place it face downwards on the table. Have him name the card he thought of, then slowly turn that card face upwards. [Note: The “glide” is a fundamental card sleight where the bottom card is secretly pulled back to access the second-from-bottom card, allowing precise control over which card is dealt. – RJW]
If, however, the position was higher than seven, spread the cards and run your forefinger over them, hesitating now and then, and finally stopping at the right card.
Merely producing a card that was thought of makes a surprising finish to the feat, but it will afford the student excellent practice to devise more astonishing methods for revealing it.
The Twenty-Sixth Card
We have considered the use of key cards in close proximity to a chosen card; now we should like to tell you of a most ingenious application of the key card principle–that of the remote key. [Note: The “remote key” concept is mathematically elegant – instead of having the key card adjacent to the selection, it maintains a fixed numerical relationship regardless of position in the deck. – RJW]
- You must know the name of the card twenty-sixth from the top of a pack of fifty-two cards. Let us say that this card is the four of spades. Place the pack before a spectator at A. Have him cut off about two-thirds of the pack and place these at B. Finally, have him cut off the upper half of B and place these cards at C. The four of spades, your key card, is somewhere in the middle of packet B.
- Now instruct him to take packet C, and shuffle it well, then look at and remember its top card, replacing the packet at C. “Please remember that you first shuffled the cards and then looked at the top card. There is no possible way in which I can know the card of which you are thinking.”
- Next have him pick up the packet at A, shuffle it well, and place this on packet C. “Your card is lost,” you point out. “I give you my word I do not know what it is or where it is at this moment.”
- Finally have him pick up the combined packet A-C and place it on B, then give the assembled pack one or two complete cuts.
- Take the cards and run through them with their faces towards yourself until you come to the four of spades, your key card. Calling this card number one, count to the left until you arrive at the twenty-sixth card above it. Should your count take you to the top card before you reach the twenty-sixth card, continue the count from the bottom card. This card, the one twenty-sixth above your key card, will be the spectator’s card. [Note: This mathematical principle works because the spectator’s card becomes the top card of the reassembled deck, maintaining its distance from the key card regardless of cuts. The cyclical counting (top to bottom) accounts for the circular nature of a deck when cut. – RJW]
- Cut the cards at this point, taking all the cards above the spectator’s card in your left hand and the remainder in your right hand, holding the hands widely separated. Glance from one packet to the other, shake your head a little, doubtfully, and move a step or so forward as you say, “I’ll try to find it another way.” At the same moment bring your two hands together, placing the cards in the right hand above those in the left and in this manner placing the spectator’s card at the top of the pack.
- Take the pack in your right hand, holding it at the ends between the fingers and the thumb, at the same time pushing the spectator’s card at the top an inch off the pack to the right. “Please name your card.” Raise your right hand and toss the pack into the left hand. As it falls, air pressure against the protruding top card will cause it to turn over so that when the pack drops into the left hand, the card will be face upwards. “There it is!” you exclaim. The effect is that you threw the deck into the left hand and the spectator’s selected card somehow popped, face upwards, to the top. [Note: This “aerial turnover” is a classic flourish that adds a dramatic visual element to the revelation. The physics of air resistance on the offset card creates an apparently magical transformation. – RJW]
[Note: more advanced card men can utilize the Faro Shuffle with this trick. With practice you can split the deck exactly in the middle. This lets you spot the 26th card and use it for the key. Then after the selection and spectator cuts, you take the deck and look through it. Find your key and cut it to the top. The spectators card in now the 27th card. Split the deck exactly in halve and perform an in-Faro shuffle to bring the selection to the top – RJW]