ABSTRACT

In our chapter closer, “Any Mathemagician” (9♦), we finally get some joy out of a kind of double-dealing with a largely unprepared deck.

Shuffle the deck over and over, and then place it on the table. Have a spectator take off roughly the top quarter, then name a mathemagician and a descriptive word. The spectator uses the mathemagician’s name to count out and reverse some of the cards in his packet, and the word to transfer some cards from top to bottom. This is repeated. Finally, the spectator presses down hard on the top card as you request that he turn it into a specific card, say the Jack of Diamonds. Despite the fact that you never touched the cards after the spectator selected his packet, and you had no control over the choices of the two words used to mix up the cards, the top card turns out to be the one you requested.