Tricks with the Reverses

  • Spellbound
  • A Tipsy Trick
  • Double Reverse
  • Mentalivity
  • Mountebank Miracle

Spellbound

This feat has been devised for the purpose of showing the use of the reversed card as a locator and the reversal of a card against the performer’s leg. In effect, a chosen card is unmistakably buried in the deck and then discovered by the spectator himself in a mysterious way.

  1. Have a card freely selected by a spectator, and have him show it to everyone as you turn your head. Take the opportunity of secretly reversing the bottom card. It is not necessary to note what card it is.
  2. Turn to the spectator, key undercut the pack for the replacement of the card, and thus place the reversed card above it at the centre. Square the pack very openly.
  3. Turn half left and shuffle overhand, thumbing off the reversed card as explained above under reversed location. Drop the cards remaining in your right hand on those in your left, and pick up the fallen card with your right hand, at the same time reversing the chosen card on your leg. Show the card you dropped, asking, “This doesn’t happen to be your card?” The answer, of course, is “No.” Thrust the card into the deck.
  4. Turn your left side to the front and, holding the pack in your left hand, with the bottom card facing the audience, say, “I want to show you that your card is not anywhere near the bottom.” The chosen card is now facing you; suppose it is the seven of clubs. Pull cards off the face of the deck with the left thumb, rather rapidly, but showing the full face of each card; at the same time mentally spell s-e-v-e-n o-f c-l-u-b-s, taking one card for each letter. Stop on the s and ask, “Have you seen your card?…. No.” Drop the cards in your right hand in front of those shuffled off on to the left hand, run two or three more cards on to the left hand, and drop the right-hand cards behind these. The chosen card, the seven of clubs, is now in position to be spelled out from the top of the pack and to appear after the last letter in the spelling.
  5. The next move is a bold one, but in the many times the feat has been performed it has never been challenged. Turn the deck face downwards in the left hand, take off a bunch of cards-seven or eight– and fan them face outwards, asking the spectator, “Is your card among these?” These cards have already been shown, but that is never noticed and the answer again is “No.” Replace these cards on the top of the pack.
  6. Hand the pack to the spectator, instructing him to hold it in his left hand behind his back. “Now, sir, you must think intently of the name of your card, the full name. For example, the king of hearts or whatever it may be, and don’t forget the ‘of.’ Your concentration will put a spell on the cards, and you must spell the card’s name mentally, bringing forward with your right hand one card from the top of the pack for each letter. Will you do that, please?”
  7. The spectator acts accordingly, bringing forward one card at a time, and you keep check as he does so. When he has brought forward the card for the last letter he stops. Nothing has happened, and you affect to be a little embarrassed. “You have spelled the name of your card?” you ask. He assents. “Very strange!” you say. “I wonder what has happened. What was the name of your card?” He names it. “Kindly bring the pack forward!” He does so and there face upwards on the deck staring him in the face is his card, leaving him spellbound. “The cards will have their little joke,” you remark.

A Tipsy Trick

A chosen card is found reversed in the deck under peculiar circumstances. The trick is an amusing one and is used by many of the best card conjurers in their intimate performances.

  1. “Magicians often have disconcerting adventures. I would like to show you something that happened to me the other night. To illustrate the mishap exactly, will you select a card?” Offer the deck to a spectator and have a card chosen.
  2. “Remember that card, please. Better show it to the others so that they can enjoy the fun. Right? Replace the card, please.” Control the chosen card to the top by the overhand shuffle control.
  3. “At this point I always hand the cards out to a spectator to be shuffled. Generally they shuffle like this.” Shuffle overhand, running the chosen card to the bottom and back to the top. Then make another overhand shuffle, retaining the card there. “That is called the overhand shuffle, and with long practice it is easy to follow the movements of the chosen card among the others.
  4. “Sometimes the cards are shuffled like this.” Split the deck and execute an end-to-end riffle shuffle, finishing with the waterfall flourish retaining the chosen card at the bottom. “That is somewhat more confusing, but with a keen eye the gyrations of the card can still be followed.
  5. “On rare occasions someone will use the Chinese shuffle, like this.” Spring the cards from hand to hand and bring the hands together with a loud slap. “That really is confusing, but nothing to what happened to me the other night. I offered the deck to a lady to shuffle, and a man just behind her reached out and grabbed the cards. ‘Here, I’ll migsh ’em up for you,’ he said. He’d evidently had several drops too many, so I knew I was in for it. This is what he did.”
  6. Holding the deck face downwards in your left hand in dealing position, with the left thumb push off a small packet of cards, say half a dozen, over the side of the deck. Turn your right hand with its back upwards, and take the packet with the thumb underneath and the fingers above; then turn that hand palm upwards, bringing the cards it holds face upwards.
  7. Push off another small packet with the left thumb, and take them with the fingers of the right hand underneath the face-up packet it holds. Turn the right hand with its back upwards, and take another packet with the right thumb. Again turn the hand, this time palm upwards, and take some more cards with the fingers. Do this rather rapidly.
  8. Continue these actions until one card only, the chosen card, remains in the left hand. Slap this card face down on the top card in the right hand, which will be face upwards. Throughout these movements simulate the actions of a slightly tipsy individual. Handle the cards sloppily and keep talking: “I’ll migsh ’em up. Fash up, fash down, fash up, fash down, thash the way to migsh the cards,” and so on.
  9. “Finally he tried to square the deck.” Do so, holding it in your left hand, the outer end between the thumb and middle finger toward the onlookers. The result of all the apparently higgledy-piggledy mixing has been simply to divide the deck into two portions, one face upwards and one face downwards; thanks to the bend given to the cards by the spring flourish, there will be a break between them at the inner end of the deck.
  10. Seize the lower half by the end with your right hand, between the thumb and middle finger; draw it out with a little upward flourish and hold it face downwards against the table top. Follow this action with your gaze. Immediately move the left hand toward the right, turning it back upwards in the action, and place it beside the right hand in position for making a riffle shuffle. Both packets are now face downwards, whereas the chosen card is face upwards at the bottom of the left-hand packet. Riffle shuffle, dropping the chosen card first, and cover the shuffle with your hands so that no one can see that the cards are all turned one way.
  11. Square the deck, turn it over so that the single face-down card is uppermost, then cut at about the middle and complete the cut. The audience will be convinced that the cards are really face up or face down indiscriminately. “‘There,’ he said as he handed the deck back. ‘The cards are migshed. Lash shee what you can do with ’em.’ Well, he had me in a fix. The most skilful card conjurer living could not have followed the movements of the chosen card. Luckily I called to mind an emergency spell. ‘Arbadacarba,’ I muttered. That’s abracadabra backwards and the most powerful incantation we have. Be very careful how you use it. If it has worked for me, all the cards will have righted themselves, face upwards, while the chosen card will remain face downwards. What was your card? The seven of diamonds? Let’s see.”
  12. Spread the cards ribbonwise with a flourish, and they are seen to be all face upwards except one card in the middle, which is face downwards. With the tip of your right forefinger push this card forward out of line. Turn it slowly face upwards. It is the selected card!

The feat is one of the most amusingly effective tricks that can be performed for an intimate group.

Double Reverse

You will get great satisfaction from this trick, for its simplicity, ease of execution, and strong climax make it one of the best of the self-working feats.

  1. Secretly note the bottom card and reverse it, so that it is face upwards in the face-down pack. Let us say that it is the ace of diamonds. Spread the cards between your hands as if to have one drawn, then change your mind and square the pack. This shows that the cards are all face downwards without your stressing the fact.
  2. Invite someone to cut off the top half of the pack and retain it. Hold the lower portion in your left hand, being careful not to expose the reversed card at the bottom. Have the spectator remove a card from the centre of his portion, look at it, and remember it. You do the same thing, but actually you only pretend to remember the card.
  3. Say: “Let me put my card in your packet,” and do so, pushing it flush into the centre of the cards he holds. As you do this, drop your left hand with its packet and turn it over, so that the single reversed card is at the top. Everyone is watching you insert your card in the spectator’s packet, and the reversal goes unnoticed.
  4. Take the spectator’s card and without showing it say, “Even Stephen is fair play, isn’t it?” Thrust his card, face downwards, into your half of the pack. Do not spread the cards when you do this. Because of the reversed card at the top, your packet appears to be face downwards and the audience will be satisfied that his card is lost in your packet.
  5. Reach for his packet, saying, “This is the fairest trick I know, up to this point. From now on I cheat!” Drop your left hand to your side as you say this, again turning over your portion and returning the reversed card to the bottom.
  6. Place his packet on top of yours and square the pack. “Did you see what I did?” you ask. “Nothing. Not a single solitary thing.”
  7. Make one complete cut, saying, “You surely saw what I did then? Nothing. Just a perfectly honest cut. At this rate, it won’t be much of a trick, will it?”
  8. “But I did cheat a little, just the same, when you blinked. My card was the ace of diamonds–” (here you must give the name of the card you reversed at the bottom in step No. 1) “–and yours–what was your card?” The spectator names it. “The seven of hearts! Just as I thought. Let me show you how I cheated.”
  9. Spread the cards face downwards on the table in a long ribbon, and the two cards, amazingly enough, are seen to lie face upwards in the spread.

Mentalivity

In this puzzling feat the card of which one person thinks is found at a number thought of by a second person. You cannot have known either number beforehand.

  1. Have the pack shuffled and returned to you.
  2. Request spectator A to think of a number between one and ten and, as you count the first ten cards, to remember the card which falls on his number. Show him one card at a time, counting them aloud, until you have shown ten cards. Replace them on the top in the same order.
  3. Invite spectator B to think of a number between ten and twenty. Gaze at him intently, nod your head knowingly; then turn and gaze at spectator A, as if divining his thoughts. Again you indicate that you have succeeded in an abstruse calculation.
  4. Place the pack behind your back. Silently remove the top twelve cards and place them at the bottom but in reversed position, that is to say, in the same order but face upwards. As you do this, explain, “I shall attempt to read your thoughts and prove that I have done so beyond a shadow of doubt.”
  5. Bring the pack forward, its outer end sloping downwards so that the reversed cards at the bottom cannot be seen, and ask spectator A to name the number of which he thought. Let us say that he thought of six. Deal five cards face downwards on the table and show the sixth card, saying, “Your card is no longer in the sixth position.”
  6. Turn next to spectator B, saying, “Kindly name the number of which you are thinking.” When he names it–say it is fifteen-nod affirmatively. “I thought so.” You now make a simple calculation, in which you deduct six from fifteen, giving you a key number of nine. Whatever may be this key number, which you arrive at by deducting A’s number from B’s, you must deal this number of cards from the top of the pack, turn the deck over, and continue the deal to the required number with the cards then at the top.

You do this in the following manner: Say to spectator B, “I was confident that you would think of the number fifteen, and I have placed this gentleman’s card at your number.” Deal the key number of cards from the top of the pack (nine in our illustration), counting each one aloud. Pause, pick up the last card dealt, turn it face upwards, saying, “The ninth card sometimes.., that isn’t your card, is it?” to spectator A. You do this to supply misdirection. While all eyes are on this card drop your left hand to your side, place your thumb under the pack and turn it over. This brings the reversed cards at the bottom uppermost.

  1. Now continue the deal with these cards until you come to spectator B’s number, fifteen. Remove this card, saying, “This is the card at the number of which you are thinking. That is correct?” He states that it is. Turn to spectator A: “Now, for the first time, will you name the card of which you are thinking?” He names the card, say the ace of clubs.
  2. Recapitulate briefly what has been done: “You will remember that you thought of a card at a certain position in the pack. This gentleman thought of another number and I have placed the card at his number before all of us. Would you be surprised if this card should prove to be your ace of clubs? You would. Then let us see if it is.”
  3. Turn the card face upwards, showing that it really is the required card.

To right the reversed cards which are lowermost in the pack, pick up one of the packets of dealt cards and drop them face upwards on the table as you talk with those about you. Drop the pack on them in an absent-minded manner. In a moment, pick up all the cards. Remove all the reversed cards at the bottom, right them, and replace them. It will seem that in gathering the pack you absently made an error and corrected it.

Mountebank Miracle

Someone thinks of a card without touching it. When you deal the cards a moment later the card appears reversed in the pack.

  1. Have the pack shuffled and placed on the table, saying, “In a moment I shall ask you to think of a card under conditions which will convince you that chance alone dictates the card of which you will think. When I turn my back, cut off any small number of cards, about ten or twelve or so. You will not know how many cards you have cut and neither will 1. Count the cards, remember how many there are, and put them in your pocket.”
  2. This done, turn back and take the rest of the pack. “You have a number arrived at by chance. As I deal the cards, kindly remember the card which falls on your number.” Deal fifteen cards, counting each one aloud, lifting each so that its face can be seen, and dropping the cards face downwards in a neat pile. This action reverses their order.
  3. Pick up the dealt packet and replace it at the top of the deck, then remember that he still has some cards in his pocket. Turn away and have him replace these on top of the pack.
  4. Deal cards face downwards rather swiftly, dropping them about a foot before you. Silently count the cards and when you deal the sixteenth card, which will be the spectator’s card, flip it face upwards, lengthwise, and continue the deal for two or three cards without the slightest pause. The effect is that the card was reversed in the pack and that you simply dealt it, for the spectators watch the cards as they fall on the table and not your hands. The effect of showing the mentally selected card reversed in the pack makes this a fine quick trick.

Tricks with the Hindu Shuffle

  • All Change Here
  • Ewephindit

All Change Here

In this effective feat the Hindu shuffle is used to show that apparently every card in the deck is the same. It is an artifice that is useful in several other good tricks.

  1. Have the deck shuffled by a spectator. Instruct him to remove one card and then pass the deck to a second person. Let this person also remove one card and then return the deck to you.
  2. Have the selected cards returned to the deck, and control them to the top by means of the Hindu shuffle so that the top card is the second spectator’s card.
  3. Hold the deck in your left hand and with the right fingers and thumb at the ends remove the top half, at the same time making the backslip and thus placing the second card on top of the lower half in the left hand. Place this packet aside for the moment.
  4. Ask the first man to name a number, say between five and fifteen. Suppose he calls ten. Have him name his card, say the five of hearts. Place the packet you hold in your left hand and count off ten cards, pushing them off one by one with your left thumb, and taking them one on top of the other in the right hand. On reaching the tenth card, turn your right hand with the back upwards, and slap the counted cards face upwards on to the cards still in your left hand. “There it is!” you exclaim. “The tenth card, the five of hearts!” Immediately remove these face-upwards cards and spread them, showing the five of hearts with nine cards above it. Close the spread, place the packet underneath the cards in your left hand, and place all face downwards on the table.
  5. Pick up the other packet, and in the course of an overhand shuffle place one card above the second spectator’s card at the top. Address him, saying, “Will you kindly name another number between five and fifteen?” As you say this push the two top cards off the pack to the right a little, and in squaring the pack again secure a left-little-finger break under these cards.

Let us say that the spectator names the number eight. Remove the top card and turn it face upwards, counting “One” and placing it squarely on the pack. Square the deck at the ends, grasping the two top cards at the ends between the right thumb and middle finger, moving them inwards so that they protrude over the inner end for about an inch. Immediately draw out the card which is under these two–the third card–and turn it over inwards, bringing it face upwards, and lay it on the first two, counting “Two.”

Remove the next card–the fourth card–and turn it face upwards and lay it on the first three, counting “Three.” Continue counting cards in this manner until you have turned one less than the number named–in our example, seven. Under these, and hidden by them, is the chosen card, which is face downwards.

“I want you to be satisfied that my count is accurate,” you say. Push the protruding cards squarely on the pack and slowly deal the cards which are face upwards at the top, counting them. “Seven cards,” you point out. Tap the chosen card, which is now the top face-down card. “This is the eighth card, the card at your number. Will you name your card, please?”

“The jack of clubs,” let us assume he says. Slowly turn the card face upwards, showing his card.

  1. Drop this card, face upwards, on the seven cards which lie face upwards on the table. Pick them all up and place them at the bottom of the deck, thus placing the jack of clubs at the bottom.
  2. “Now, really,” you continue, “I do not as a rule explain how these feats are done. But this one is so delightfully simple that I will show it to you, and you will be able to have some fun with it yourselves.” Place the packet you hold to one side and pick up the first packet, holding it in position for the Hindu shuffle. “The fact is that all these cards are fives of hearts, hence it made no difference to me what number you called. Look!” Begin a Hindu shuffle by pulling off a small packet into your left hand, then lift your right hand, bringing its packet to a vertical position with the bottom card facing the audience squarely. Lower the right hand, continue the shuffle by pulling off a few more small packets from the top, and again lift the right-hand packet, showing the five of hearts. Repeat the same motions until only the five of hearts remains in the right hand. Drop it on top of the packet, square the cards, and palm it in your right hand.
  3. Pick up the second packet by drawing it back towards yourself, and in the action add the palmed card to the top. The second person’s card is on the bottom of this packet, and you show apparently that all these cards are jacks of clubs by using the moves detailed in step No. 7, with this difference: In the first movement, draw off the top card only–the five of hearts–into the left hand, so that when the action is completed it will be the bottom card of the packet. When you have apparently shown that all the cards are jacks of clubs, drop the jack on top of the packet as in step No. 7. Square the packet and palm the jack in your right hand, placing the rest of the cards on the table.
  4. Pick up the first packet with your right hand, adding the palmed jack of clubs. Force it on the first spectator by means of the lift shuffle force. “These cards are all fives of hearts,” you say. “Take one and put it face down on the table.”
  5. Put the packet down, take the second packet, shuffle the five of hearts to the top, and force it on the second spectator by the backslip force. He places it face downwards on the table before him.
  6. The trick is done; it only remains to bring out the climax as strongly as possible. On turning their cards face upwards, each spectator finds he has the other man’s card. Then with a flourish you spread each packet face upwards, ribbonwise, and all the cards are seen to be different, making up a regular deck.

Ewephindit

Suitable for close-up and impromptu work, this fast revelation of a chosen card has a spectator locating his own card without knowing how he did it.

  1. Have a card drawn, noted, and returned to the pack, bringing it to the top by means of the Hindu shuffle.
  2. Overhand shuffle, taking the card to the bottom.
  3. Spread the cards, remove one at random, and hand it face upwards to the spectator, saying, “That’s not your card, is it? It’s not? Good, then we’ll use it for the trick.”
  4. Spread the cards in a fan between your hands, in readiness for the sliding key move, drawing the chosen card under the fan with the right fingers. “Kindly push that card into the pack, face upwards, anywhere you like.”
  5. When the card has been inserted in the spread, place the chosen card above it as you would place a sliding key card above a chosen card.
  6. Square the pack, saying, “There is only one chance in fiftyone that you placed the marker card next your chosen card.” Run through the cards until you come to the face-up card. Turn the card above it, showing the chosen card. “And that’s exactly what you did!”