FORCING A CARD





Forcing a card- Method 1


Get a member of the audience to shuffle the pack well.
As they hand it back to you, glance at the bottom card.
Holding the pack in your left hand, use your forefinger to pull the bottom card (which you've looked at) back about a centimetre from the front edge of the pack.
Begin to deal from the bottom of the pack, putting the cards face up on the table. Be sure to hold on to the very bottom card! Tell the audience to shout stop, and that the next card you put down will be their secret card which you will later find.
When someone shouts stop, bring out the card you have been holding back and slam it face down on the table.
Tell the audience to look at the card, put it back in the pack, and shuffle while you turn your back.
You can now look through the pack and find their chosen card.
Variation
This trick can be very effective if you deal from the bottom of the pack and when the audience shouts stop, you slam down the card and shout out what it is. You can then see their amazement as they turn the card over and see you were right!



Forcing a card- Method 2


Fan the pack out in your hand with the cards facing downwards.
Ask a member of the audience to come and select a card. As they select it, open the pack up a little and look at the bottom card in the top half of the pack. Lets say for this example it is the ace of spades.
Ask the person to replace their card in the gap, close the pack, and get someone to cut it. The chosen card will be the one below the ace of spades. You can go through the pack and find the card, chatting while you do so. To add mystery, spread the pack out on the table and say things like "I think it's black, yes, it's black...." to add mystery. It might sound quite sad, but it adds mystery and makes it harder to guess how you did it!
Four Aces
Arrange the pack so that the four aces are on top. Shuffle the pack in front of the audience, but make sure you keep the four aces on top.
Ask a member of the audience to come and cut the pack four times from right to left, putting the top quarter of the pack (which has the four aces in) on the right, the next quarter to the left of it and so on.
Ask the person to take three cards from the top of the left hand pile and put them to the bottom, and then to take three cards from the top and put one on each of the other three piles.
Ask them to repeat the process with the other three piles.
Ask the person to turn the top card of each of the piles over. Magic! They're all aces!



Kings to the rescue!


This trick is designed for children.
Before you start: Remove the four Kings, Queens and Jacks from the pack, and place one of each on top of the pack without anyone knowing.
Place the pack face up in front of you and begin to tell the following story:
"There was once a block of three flats. The pack of cards represents this block. In each flat lives a beautiful woman. One in the top flat (put a Queen face down on top of the pack), one in the middle flat (put a Queen somewhere in the middle of the pack), and one in the bottom flat (put the last Queen at the bottom of the pack).
One night, three robbers broke in. One went to the top flat (put a Jack on the top of the pack), one went to the middle flat (put a Jack somewhere in the middle of the pack), and one went to the bottom flat (put the last Jack at the bottom of the pack).
The trouble was, the robbers weren't very good at their jobs, and they made a lot of noise! The women started screaming (demonstrate, if you don't mind embarrasing yourself a bit!). They screamed so loudly, that three policemen heard them and came to their rescue. One rushed to the top flat (put a King on top of the pack), one rushed to the middle flat (put a King somewhere in the middle of the pack), and one rushed to the bottom flat (put the last King at the bottom of the pack)."
Ask a member of the audience to cut the pack. Begin to deal the cards out face up, saying "I do hope the police got there in time to catch the robbers." Somewhere in the middle of the pack, three Kings, Queens, and Jacks will come out one after the other. The police did catch the robbers!



Forcing a card- method 3


This is one of the more complicated methods of forcing a card, but also one of the most effective. You will need an opaque handkerchief (a duster works well if you don't have one!)
Get a member of the audience to shuffle the pack and steal a glance at the top card. If you like you can have the card you want to use on top of the pack to start with and then do a false shuffle yourself, making sure you keep the card on top. For this example, we'll call the card on top the ace of spades.
Using your handkerchief cover the pack which should be face down in your left hand. As you cover the pack with the handkerchief, turn it over so the bottom card is facing up. Ask someone to cut the pack to wherever they like under the handkerchief, and explain that the top card of the part of the pack they cut to will be their card, which they mustn't show to you. As they take what they think is the top half of the pack off, turn the remainder back over in your hand. The card which you know at the top of the pile is now on top.
Take the handkerchief and it's contents from the volunteer and put it to one side. Ask the volunteer to look at the top card without showing you. He thinks it is a random card which he has cut to, but it is of course the ace of spades.
You can now put both halves of the pack back together (be careful to take the other half out of the handkerchief the right way round) and get the volunteer to replace his card and shuffle the pack.
You can now use any mysterious way you like of going through the pack and finding the chosen card.



Forcing a card- method 4


This trick needs to be done sitting behind a table. It can look very effective if done properly, but needs a lot of practice to stop it looking amateurish and obvious (like it does when I do it)!!
Fan the pack out face down and ask a volunteer to select a card and look at it.
Ask someone to shuffle the pack.
When the volunteer is looking at his card, take the remainder of the pack and turn the top and bottom cards over.
Turn the pack over so that the card with the back side up is on top.
Hold the pack closely together in front of you. The volunteer will see the back of a card on top of the pack, and the face of a card on the bottom of the pack. Ask her to replace the card in the pack.
Take the pack down to your lap again and pick out the chosen card. It will be the only one that is face down!



Making a card change places with one in a moving pack


This isn't a trick on its own, but it's a very effective way to end any card forcing trick. When you've found the chosen card in the pack, pick it out along with the one below it, holding them closely together so that they look like a single card.
Hold the two cards up to the audience, looking pleased with yourself. Ask them if the card you're holding up is their card-it won't be!!
Look heartbroken and replace the cards on top of the pack.
Say something like-"Wait, I think I can put this right" and take the top card (the real chosen card) and put it face down on the table.
Ask the member of the audience to hold the card down so it "can't escape".
Put the pack close to the card and fan the top of the pack with your finger to make a rushing noise.
Say "good, you didn't hold it hard enough, I've made you're card jump across" Ask the person to look at the card. They'll be astonished to see it has changed into their chosen card!



Forcing a card- method 5


Ask someone to shuffle the pack and hand it back to you.
Secretly take a peek at the bottom card. Let's call it the ace of spades.
Ask someone to choose a card from the pack and show everyone except for yourself.
Ask them to put the card on top of the pack and cut the pack a couple of times.
Fan the pack out in your hands. The chosen card will be the one below the ace of spades.



X-ray vision 1


It is very obvious how this trick is done unless you do it quickly and smoothly.
Get someone to shuffle the pack and pass it back to you.
Cut the pack and secretly look at the bottom card. Let's call it the ace of spades.
Put the pack behind your back and put the ace of spades face up on top of the pack.
Bring the pack back in front of you so the audience can see the ace of spades. They will think the whole pack is facing so that you can only see the back of the cards.
Look as though you are squinting to see through the pack and say "I can see through the pack to the ace of spades". While you are doing all this, look at the face of the next card in the pack. Let's call it the jack of hearts
Close your eyes, bring the card to the front of the pack so the audience can see it. Open your eyes and say that you can see through to the jack of hearts.
Repeat the process until the audience is convinced of your X-Ray Vision.



ESP


Preparation
Divide the deck into 26 black cards, followed by 26 red cards.
Performance
Pick an audience member and tell them that you selected them because you sensed their telekinetic powers. Say you will try to duplicate the card identification studies the Russians used in their ESP experiments in the 1950's, and that anything over a 75% success rate at predicting card colors would be unprecedented.
Take a card off the top of the pack and ask your subject to concentrate, then say either black or red, depending on what they think the card's color is.
Repeat step two until 26 cards have been selected. Make sure to keep count of the cards as you separate them into two piles as per your subject's instructions.
After 26 cards have been selected, you will have two piles of black cards. Pause and say that to keep repetition from being an influincing factor in the study (which might invalidate it), you will now switch piles, putting the cards identified as red onto the pile that had been for blacks, and vice versa. The cards you are dealing are now all red.
When you are done, what you have is two piles, each with one portion (probably close to half) all reds in sequence followed by all blacks in sequence.
Take a minute or two to build suspense., saying that if they do have ESP, as you suspected, there should be sequences of five and as many as six cards in a row in sequence broken up by the invariable odd cards of the other color, telling them not to be disappointed if it has not happened.
When you reveal the cards, most people will be amazed as you turn over red after red after red, then black after black after black. 100% accuracy. ESP indeed. This trick is all in the banter, but I have rarely failed to amaze with it.



Guess Rising Cards


Fan the pack out face up in your hands and look at the fifth card from the top.
Say you're going to pick three cards, saying the name of the card that is fifth from the top.
Then pick the other three cards that are the same number as the fifth card from the top. Set them to the side, in a little stack of three.
Say you are going to seperate the cards.
Lay two cards from the top of the main deck on the table, then one of the three cards, then two more from the top of the deck, then another one of the three, then one from the top of the main deck, then the last one of the three, ask a member of the audience to tap the deck three times, then flip the top three cards over!!!


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