Gray’s Spelling Trick
A spectator replaces a selected card in the pack, which is honestly squared and shuffled. The name of the card is then spelled mentally by the spectator, who applies one letter to each card dealt by the magician. On reaching the last letter the spectator calls “Stop!” He names his card. The last card dealt is turned face upwards and proves to be the very card he selected. [Note: This effect is named after Frank Gray, a prominent 20th-century magician. Spelling tricks were particularly popular during the golden age of card magic as they combined mathematical principles with dramatic presentation. – RJW]
- Hand the deck to a spectator and have him shuffle the cards thoroughly. Take the pack back, glimpsing the bottom card, and then shuffle overhand retaining the card on the bottom. Suppose this card is the five of spades.
- Spread the pack and have a card freely chosen, noted by the drawer, and shown to several persons near by. This is a precaution it is wise to take, because it gets others interested and prevents any subsequent misnaming of the card, either by carelessness or by design. [Note: Having multiple witnesses to the chosen card is both a practical safeguard and a psychological principle that increases the impact of the revelation. It also prevents potential disputes about what card was actually selected. – RJW]
- Holding the deck by its sides at the tips of your thumb and your middle and ring fingers, draw out the lower half with your right thumb and middle finger, making what is termed an undercut. Let the packet in your left hand fall on to the palm, and hold out that hand for the replacement of the chosen card on top. Immediately drop the right-hand packet on it and square the deck openly.
Be careful to hold the right-hand packet face downwards, and do not glance at it. Some performers take the glimpse of the bottom card at this time. A very bad practice, widely open to detection.
- The position now is that the chosen card is in the middle of the deck, with the glimpsed card, the five of spades, immediately above it. Shuffle overhand in this manner: Lift the whole pack and freely shuffle off about one-third of the cards, let about another third of the cards fall in a block, and then shuffle the remaining cards freely. Thus the two cards, the glimpsed card and the chosen card, must remain together in the middle. It is true that a casual shuffle is not likely to separate them, but it is best to be certain.
- Square the cards and say, “Some people imagine that a magician can steal a card out of the pack without anyone seeing him do it. Let me show you that your card is still buried among the other cards.” Turn half left, hold the deck in your left hand, the bottom card facing the spectators, and push the cards off one by one, with the left thumb taking them with the right hand. Do this at a fairly rapid pace, but not too fast. As you begin, say, “You might think I detect your card by your expression when you see it; therefore I shall not attempt to watch you.” This is your excuse for looking at the cards as you run them off.
- Watch for the index of the five of spades. The moment you see it, note the card you have just taken in your right hand, which will be the chosen card. Let us suppose that this card is the ten of hearts. Begin at once to spell ten of hearts mentally, saying to yourself t for the ten of hearts you have already taken in your right hand, e as you take the five of spades (the glimpsed card), n for the next card, o and f for the next two, and so on until you arrive at the letter s.
- At this point separate your hands rather widely, look at the spectator, and ask him, “Have you seen your card?” He replies, “Yes.” Bring your hands together, at the same time gripping the packet in the left hand between the thumb and index finger and extending the other fingers so that you can slide the right-hand packet under the left-hand packet smoothly. Do this quietly, without looking at your hands, while saying to the spectator, “Very well. No use going any farther.”
- You now have everything set for the climax, so you tell the spectators what you are going to do. “I shall deal cards from the top and as I do so I want you, sir, to spell the name of your card mentally, one letter for each card. Suppose your card is the queen of hearts; as I deal the first card you will say to yourself q, for the next card u, the third card e, and so on; and don’t forget the o-f. Is that clear? Very well. When you come to the last letter just call ‘Stop!’ and the card in my hand at that moment will be the very card of which you are thinking. Impossible, you say? Well, let’s try it.”
Deal the cards deliberately and keep a check on the spelling yourself, for you know the card.
- When the spectator calls “Stop!” keep the card in your hand face downwards and say, “Now, sir, you have thought of a card–” (ignore the fact that he actually took it from the pack and replaced it) “–and you have spelled its name mentally. Would you be surprised to find that the cards have arranged themselves automatically so that this card at which you called ‘Stop’ is your card? You would. Then name your card.” “The ten of hearts.”
Turn the card face upwards slowly and reveal that very card.
[Note: The psychological reframing here is masterful – by saying the spectator “thought of” the card rather than “chose” it, the magician enhances the impression of mind reading rather than mere sleight of hand. – RJW]
The above feat can be made even more effective in the following way:
- Follow the same procedure up to the point at which you have spelled out the name of the chosen card and have arrived at the last letter, in step No. 6. At once note the next card, which let us say is the king of hearts. Continue running cards and mentally spell this card, taking one card for each letter until you reach the s; then separate your hands and ask the spectator if he has seen his card. As before, in putting the two packets together you place the right-hand packet underneath that in your left hand.
- Turn the deck face downwards and you are set to spell out, first, the king of hearts. Explain to the spectator the peculiar property of playing cards by which, under certain conditions, they place themselves in position to be spelled out and appear on the final letter. “For example,” you say, “suppose I name a card, any card–let us say the king of hearts–and spell it out dealing a card for each letter. We shall find the king of hearts in that position. You don’t believe me. Very well, let’s try.”
Spell k-i-n-g o-f h-e-a-r-t-s, dealing one card for each letter, and turn up the king of hearts on the final s. “You see, the result is infallible if you concentrate on the card you want to appear. You take the deck, think intently of your card, then spell it mentally, dealing a card for each letter, as I did.”
- The spectator follows your instructions and stops the deal on his last letter. You ask him, “Have you spelled the name of the card of which you are thinking?”
“Yes.”
“Would you be surprised if the next card is your card? You would? Very well. Name your card.” He does so. “Now turn the card yourself!” He does so and you have a climax that will astonish the onlookers and one that you yourself will enjoy.
[Note: one presentation would be to discuss how many card tricks are mathematical. But this trick is not, it is “lexical” -RJW]
Round and Round
This fine self-working trick makes use of the Fan Peek.
- Take any ten cards from the pack and have them shuffled. Turn your back and instruct the spectator to look at and remember the top card, after doing which he is to think of any small number and silently transfer that number of cards one by one from top to bottom.
- Turn around, take the cards, and point out that you cannot know which card he has chosen; at the same time study the faces of the cards. Thumb them off, face upwards, into the right hand one by one, reversing their order. Scrutinize the cards closely and glance at the spectator occasionally as though plumbing his thoughts.
Shake your head and, still holding the cards with their faces toward yourself, take the five bottom cards in the right hand. Glance at them, then at those in the left hand, holding them well apart. Again shake your head disconsolately, saying, “I’m having trouble with you!” Bring the hands together and place the right hand cards above the others, at the top of the packet.
By this means you have, first, reversed the order of the ten cards, and, second, placed the first five cards below the second five. [Note: These seemingly random actions actually create a specific mathematical arrangement that ensures the chosen card will always end up in the fourth position, regardless of how many cards the spectator transferred initially. – RJW]
- Return the cards to the spectator, turn your back, and instruct him to transfer silently as many cards from top to bottom as he did in the first case, and then one card more.
- Take the ten cards and fan them between your hands, face outwards, as you request the spectator to concentrate on his card. Peek at the fourth card from the top, using the fan peek, and remember this card; it is the chosen card.
- Give the spectator the cards and have him place the top card on the table, the next card at the bottom of the packet, the next card on the table, the next at the bottom, and so on until he holds only one card.
Say to him, “You took the ace of hearts, didn’t you?” naming whatever card you peeked, and when he agrees ask him, “Do you know how I knew?…. No.” “Look at the card in your hand.” He does and finds that it is his card. [Note: The elimination process described here is a classic mathematical sequence that always leaves the fourth card as the final remaining card, making this an elegant self-working effect. – RJW]