Cheers to Darryl & D onna Plunkett, Sarah McKenzie, M ike Pisciotta, Nick Diffatte, Michael Feldman, Elliott Terral, Paul Vigil, Adam Rubin, Harapan Ong, Jeff Corn, Andi Gladwin, Joshua Jay, Joseph Cranford, Chad Long, Griffin Watt, Pix Smith, James Murphy, James Sanden, Jared Kopf, Denis Behr, Ricky Smith, Mike Helmer, The Chicago Magic Lounge, and The Magic Castle. V! NISHING1Nc. © Copyright Vanishing Inc. Magic & Ryan Plunkett, 2020. All rights reserved. This material is protected and no portion may be reproduced without express written permission by the publishers.
••••• •••••••• - By Ryan Plunkett Photographed by James Murphy Designed by Andi Gladwin Proofread by Edward Colussi, Michael Feldman, Andi Gladwin, Joshua Jay, Harapan Ong, Mike Vance, and James Sanden.
It •• • ••••• • •••• Foreword (Mike Pisciotta) - vii Introduction (Ryan Plunkett) - xi Any Card At Our Numbers - 3 Fan Mail - 21 Ace on Top - 39 Magnetic Silver - 65 The Time Machine - 85 Out Of Sight, Out of Mind - 101 Versatile Transpo - 131 Paper and Silk- 149 Muck Off- 171 Gravity Deck- 197
Mike Pisciotta here's a secret to being a good magician, and my friend R..yan Plunkett has figured it out. In the interest of brevity and to save you years of trial and error, I'll just tell you what it is. Besides the undeniable importance of practice, 1 I 1c real secret is simply performing for as many people as possible, as often as you can. l•ivc nights a week at The Chicago Magic Lounge, Ryan guides 1 I 1c audience on a respite from the ordinary. Some nights he docs formal close-up shows in the 654 Club and some nights it's walk around magic or parlor-style shows. Regardless of how I hc audience might get to experience his magic on any particular 11 i ght, I can guarantee that what they see will transcend their c·xpectations of what a card or coin trick is and most certainly l,ow it can make them feel. .. viz
V t1.t I think he surprises a lot of people in that way, because they often don't expect to care. Although the audience doesn't know it, what they are seeing is a magician who takes the time to analyze their reactions to the material time and again all while honing and fine tuning each piece for maximum impact. Every word and each moment are carefully studied. It's not enough just to perform for people, you have to be honest with yourself about how it went. What was good-and more importantlywhat wasn't good about your performance? You must carefully analyze each moment to find out what could have been better. You can perform for thousands of people and still be blind to the fact that your material isn't getting the reactions you hoped. Try changing the timing or changing one word here and two words there before you try performing it another dozen or so times. Only with this type of self-editing and honesty can we hope to get our material to a place where it doesn't feel like doing tricks but instead feels like real magic. Far too often magicians seem to rush their untested or only lightly tested material to market. The book you are holding is not like that. The material in this book contains the effects and methods that Ryan has been working on for years. These routines have been performed and polished in front of real audiences many times to ensure that they get the maximum amount of impact possible. I urge you to study all of the pieces in this book whether or not you think you might use them in your own act. The thinking and the subtleties involved in each piece make them worthy of
11ot only your study but also your time. What you'll find within 1 I 1csc pages is of immense value to anybody who wants to be a better magician. lh.:st in magic, Mike Pisciotta . ix
I •• • • •••••••• • ,• I Ryan Plunkett here is a fascinating method for aging whiskey known as Solera Aging. With each distillation, half of the oldest batch of barrels is bottled, the remaining whiskey is mixed in with the younger barrels in a tiered system, and the youngest barrel is topped off with the newly distilled whiskey. By blending aged whiskey with new whiskey, the younger whiskey adopts some of the qualities of the older whiskey, which makes the finished product more consistent, balanced, :1 11d mature than the typical aging process. It is this idea of 1nixing the old with the new, then letting it age, that struck a rhord. W hen I first moved to Chicago, I was a regular at the Green Mill, a jazz lounge opened in 1907. Al Capone and his gang owned it at some point, and to this day they have renowned . xi
. . Xtt jazz musicians playing seven nights a week. It's quintessential Chicago and, at the time, was one of the few places I could go in this unfamiliar city to find bliss. I would sit there for endless hours, letting the music wash over me with nothing more than a glass of Scotch, a deck of cards, and a notebook. The ambiance was straight out of a movie. This, from my notebook: The room was dimly lit. The sounds of a thumping upright bass and a saxophone blended beautifully with the rattling of cocktail shakers and the low buzz of people chattering. The dark blue and hot pink neon saturated the lingering haze in the air, and nostalgia was palpable. The sounds of cards riffiing together from the corner of the room could be faintly heard when the music dipped in intensity. The whiskey flowed slowly, but the shrimp cocktails came at lightning speed. This was my happy place. My most ideal location. I've clearly romanticized this place, but the stories I heard of Dai Vernon at the Magic Castle and Bert Allerton at the Pump Room could just as easily have been set in the Green Mill. You can lose yourself in its atmosphere, night after night. The great music, seductive lighting, and warm ambiance combine to enrich every interaction and enliven the memories made within. For me, magic has new life when the sun goes down: intimate interactions between the audience and the performer, cocktails and card tricks. That's why the Chicago magic scene pulled me in so completely. Magic lives in an almost dream-like state .
Only when the night is over and you're back out on the street do you begin to come back to reality. So it was a dream come true to help create such a space in the form of the Chicago Magic Lounge. Of course, designing such an environment is much tougher than just providing a place to see card tricks and drink Old Fashioneds. Our team had to cultivate an environment that attracts the ambitions of worldclass performers to its stages, while building a local community of stronger performers. Together we have been able to create a true playground for magical exploration. Night after night, I do magic for real people, surrounded by a community of insightful peers, who together help me refine 1ny magic a little bit at a time. Not to mention the countless world-class performers who stop in to perform and session, thus making both our magic stronger. It has cultivated a society of like-minded cohorts, presenting good magic to the public. Immersing myself in this environment and performing constantly have been the two greatest drivers in my becoming the best performer I can be. The ability to do roughly as many shows as there are days in the year took material that I thought was pretty good and sharpened it to a razor's edge. Every performance adds a little bit of "new whiskey" to the equation through the process of refinement and adaptation. Over time, my material has become a more complex product, taking the best ideas from magic's history and refining them with each performance. Curation and a critical eye are the untaught secrets to the equation. Xtzt
. xiv The process never ends. You always have a bit of the original whiskey in that bottom row of barrels, and you just keep adding to the complexity over and over again. That's exactly what I have done with this collection of material. The magic in this project combines some old routines with some new, but what brings them together is that they were all conceived, developed, and refined over countless performances for real people and endless nights of sessions with some of the world's finest magicians. I've let them age and now I'm ready to let you crack open the first bottle. Cheers, Ryan Plunkett
'll start this book the same way I start my close-up show, with a strong coincidence effect that gets the two people sitting at the table involved from the very beginning. While my goal is to entertain and fool regular people, I often find magicians in my audiences. Therefore, this trick works as a perfect opener because it will fool magicians, as well as laypeople. 3
My starting point was an Any Card At Any Number effect published by Al Baker in 1933 that used two decks of cards.1 Both decks start in a memorized order, one of which is placed aside and the other shuffied. A number is named, and the card at that stack number in the shuffied deck is found, then forced on the spectator. The named number is then dealt down to in the still-stacked deck. The named card is found at that number. Boom, classic. However, the fact that the spectator named a number before you ever commit to a card telegraphs the method. I also wanted to take the memorized deck out of play. With the memorized deck becoming so prevalent with the ACAAN plot, using other methods added to the deceptive nature of this version. I saw an opportunity to use Al Baker's routine and build upon it. Over the years of performing it, I changed the plot slightly. Instead of the spectator naming a card, one is apparently randomly selected, then set aside without revealing its identity. What this allows for is a card being determined before the spectator ever names their number. Only after the spectator names their number and deals to it do you cleanly reveal the card and show they match. I believe these changes have amplified the deceptiveness of the routine. 1. The Secret Ways of Al Baker (1933), p.76. 4 -------
Effect Two decks sit out on the table: a red and a blue. A spectator is invited to take a deck (let's suppose she takes the red deck) and mixes it up by washing the cards on the table. Another spectator is asked to take the remaining blue deck and place it on the table in front of him. He is then asked to think of a number between one and fifty-two. You tell him you will do the same. You very cleanly count down to your thought-of number, face down in the red deck. Let's say that number is 10. The 10th card from the red deck is placed aside. You then ask the second spectator to name their number. Let's say that it's 24. The spectator removes the cards from the box himself and deals down to the 24th card, and then sets it next to your card. W hen both cards are turned face up they are both the Jack of Spades. A perfect match. Method Overview 'TI1e method is actually rather simple: it's a bluff and a force. The rest is all theater. The red deck has a few simple markings on a card, which you will force. The blue deck has four duplicate cards distributed evenly throughout the deck, allowing you easy access to one of the duplicates no matter what number the spectator chooses. You will never need to displace more than three cards in either direction in order to show a perfect match. 5
6 Moves There are no real moves in this routine, which is by design. The more I can do out in the open, the less I have to accomplish using sleight of hand. Props Needed • A red Bicycle deck • A blue Bicycle deck • A fine-point red Sharpie • A fine-point blue Sharpie • A fine-point pencil • Three extra, blue-backed,Jacks of Spades Preparing the Red Deck The red deck is unprepared with the exception of marking the Jack of Spades, which allows you to find it after the deck has been genuinely shuffled by the spectator. With the fine-point pencil, add a small marking on the top left edge and bottom right edge of the card, about an inch down from the corners. Figure 1. This edge mark will help you track down the card and put it into position at the right time. You can locate the edge-marked card by slightly beveling the pack. During the effect, the card
should end roughly 15-20 cards from the top, so if it's not in that range, casually cut the pack to relocate the card. r n addition to being edge marked, you'll add another mark, to tell you when you've reached it. This mark allows you to find the card when you are dealing down to your "thought-of" number. There are two ways to achieve this: a visual way and a tactile way. Visual Option With the fine-point red Sharpie, find the pattern on the back of the Bicycle deck that looks like a flower petal. Figure 2. Fill in the inner circle of the pattern in all four spots where it appears. J:-"'igure 3. 'When you see the mark as you deal the cards, it will let you know it's time to start bluffing. 7
8 Tactile Option If you find the visual marking system to be a little obvious for your tastes, there is a sneakier option. For those who are familiar with punch work, it is a simple task to punch the card in a spot where you will feel it as you deal it, allowing you to stop on the correct card without needing to look. Using a needle, or a punching tool (also known as a pegger, Figure 4), poke the upper left and bottom right corners of the face up Jack of Spades, creating a small raised bump on the back of the card that you can feel. Creating the correct-sized bump takes some practice, but is well worth the effort. If you want to go crazy and combine both types of markings, by all means, go ahead. The red deck is now ready to roll. Give it a thorough shuffie and slip it back in its case. Preparing the Blue Deck Take the blue deck and discard the Jack of Hearts, Jack of Clubs, and the Jack of Diamonds. You won't need them. Now add the three duplicate, blue-backed, Jacks of Spades into the deck.
These Jacks are visually marked the same as the Jack of Spades in the red deck. Figure 5. The markings aren't as important as they are in the red deck, but I include them to have another layer of confirmation while performing. If something goes wrong ( and with enough performances it will), the markings provide me plenty of time to find a way out and fix it. From the top to the face, the Jacks occupy every twelfth position. Those locations are 12, 24, 36, 48. From the face to the back, the positions are 5, 17, 29, 41.2 Depending on whether you deal from the top or the face of the deck, you will never be more than three cards away from having the Jack of Spades at the thought-of position. This works with any number between 3-50. If they name a number outside of this range it will still work. You will just have to shift more cards to make it happen. Once you have positioned the Jacks, put the deck back into the box with the fa<::e of the pack closest to the flap. Set both decks onto the table, leaning against each other as in Figure 6, next page, and you are ready to begin. 2. Others have used this spacing principle to force a card or cards; see Peter Nardi's effect "The Holy Grail", and Shin Lim's effect "Think". 9
10 Choreography This is the opener to my formal close-up show, so I begin with a man to my right and a woman to my left. Invite the woman (we'll call her Spectator #1) to choose one of the decks. I've found that people tend to choose the deck staring them in the face, so I place the red deck closer to Spectator #1. This doesn't guarantee she'll choose it, but I find it increases my odds of success. If she picks up the blue deck, ask her to hold on to it, and then ask the man (we'll call him Spectator #2) to pick up the red deck. Assuming Spectator #1 chooses the red deck, ask her to take the cards out of the box and shuflle them. To make sure everyone can see the cards being thoroughly shuflled, ask her to mix them in a wash on the table. Figure 7. I have her do this for two
reasons: I want to destroy any thought of a memorized deck and I want to cancel out the idea of a tapered or gimmicked deck of any kind. The haphazard nature of this shuffle is very disarming. Don't overlook it. While Spectator #1 is shuffiing the pack, turn to Spectator #2, who has the blue deck sitting in front of him. '1 want to make sure we are on the same wavelength. I'm going to have you think of any number between 1 and 52. I'll do the same, and at the end, we can see how close we got. " At this point, Spectator #1 should be tired of shuffling the cards and will have started to move them into a single pile. If she hasn't, start squaring them up for her. 11
12 This is the time to make sure your force card ( the Jack of Spades) is roughly 15-20 cards from the top of the red pack. Do this by slightly beveling the deck and looking for the pencil edge marking. If you find the card to be too high or too low in the pack, simply cut the pack. Figure 8. "Thank you for shuffling up my cards and keeping me honest. I have my number in mind, so I'll go ahead and count down to it, and we'll get back to yours in a moment. Will you count with me?" Now we set our bluff into motion. The Performer's Number - The Bluff The audience must believe that, no matter when you stop dealing, it was determined in advance. Of course, this is not the case. Instead you stop on the Jack of Spades, regardless of its position.
We could go to the trouble of shifting the Jack to a predetermined number every time, and there are certainly mathematically based moves that do it automatically. However, if I have the option of telling a lie or doing a move, I will always tell a lie. It's much harder to catch a lie than a move. Begin dealing from the top of the deck, counting out loud as you go. If you count confidently and deliberately, no one will question you when you stop. While you are dealing and counting, keep your eyes on the left hand's packet and keep a sharp lookout for the markings. By watching the stationary left hand instead of the moving right, it's much easier to see the marks, which will leave you enough time to end your count with an emphasis. More clearly, the counting doesn't just stop, it ends. Once you see the marking on the card, place it near the front of the table. Let's imagine that we stopped on number 17. Point out that if you would have dealt one card further or stopped one card earlier, you would have ended on a completely different card. '1 said this wasn't about the numbers themselves. It was about what they stood far. I wanted to make sure we were on the same wavelength, and I'm pretty sure this shows that we are a perfect match." This scripting accomplishes two things: by asking for their number right after revealing yours, you have time to do the mental math that might be required in the next part of the 13
14 routine. And it allows you to reference the difference in numbers to help clarify the plot. Gather the remaining red cards and place them to the side. The Spectator's Number - The Force In order to force the Jack of Spades in the blue deck you first need to mentally calculate how close to a hit the spectator's number puts you. Remember, the four force cards are located at 12, 24, 36, and 48 when dealing from the top; and 5, 17, 29, and 41 when dealing from the face. In my experience, without doing anything, it is very likely you will have a perfect hit on your hands. The math says that it will happen 15% of the time, but I find that it happens much more often than that. If not, never fear, because you will never have to displace more than three cards. A Perfect Hit Let's take a hypothetical example. Imagine that Spectator #2 names 24, a perfect hit when counting from the top of the pack. Invite him to take the cards out of the box carefully and hold them face down in his left hand. Ask him to deal cards one at a time face up into a pile so that everyone can see that all of the cards are different. If the number named is greater than 12, then the spectator will pass by one or more duplicate Jack of Spades as he deals. This won't be noticed because the duplicates are 12 cards apart, plus you haven't revealed your card yet, so they don't know what to look for.
Once he has dealt 23 cards, ask him to deal the next card face up, next to your card, at the front of the table. Show the audience that if he had dealt one more card, he would have ended on a different card. '1 said this wasn't about the numbers themselves. It was about what they stood for. I wanted to make sure we were on the same wavelength, and I'm pretty sure this shows that you are the perfect person for the job. " Turn over your card and show that it is a perfect match, and then figure out the tax benefits of starting your own religion. Figure 9. 15
16 In The Case of Subtraction While you will frequently get a perfect hit, it doesn't always happen. The second-best option is if the spectator's number is close to but less than one of the target positions. When this happens you will remove 1-3 cards from either the top or bottom of the deck, as you take the cards from the box, leaving the removed cards behind. Here's how it works: Let's imagine that Spectator #2 thinks of the number 15. The closest target number is 17 when counting from the face of the pack. That means you must leave two cards from the face of the deck inside the box in order for a Jack of Spades to appear at the 15th position. If he says 22, the closest number is 24 from the top, so you need to leave 2 cards from the top of the deck inside the case. If he says 27, the closest number is 29 from the face, so you need to leave 2 cards from the face of the deck inside the case. Going back to the first example of the spectator choosing 15, pick up the deck in front of him and hold the box, flap side down ( the deck will come out face down). The rule of thumb is that the side ( top or face of the deck) that you need to subtract cards from should be closest to the floor. Open the box and pull the deck halfway out. Look up at the spectator and ask him to confirm which number he named. When he looks up at you, push the required number of cards back into the box. Figure 10 is exposed for clarity. Once you've
pushed the cards back inside the box, remove the rest of the deck and place the box to the side. Ask the spectator to deal 14 cards from the face of the pack into a pile on the table. Once he has finished counting, ask him to deal the 15th card to the front of the table. Reveal your card is also the Jack of Spades. In The Case of Addition This is the worst outcome, but it's still quite strong. In this case you have to shift cards from one side of the pack to the other. To do this you'll use the same action you learned in the Subtraction section above and build on it. 17
18 Let's imagine Spectator #2 chooses the number 38. Our closest target to that number is 36th from the top of the pack, so two cards must be moved from the face to the top to move the card to the 38th position. Again, the rule of thumb is that the side ( top or face of the deck) that you need to subtract cards from should be closest to the floor. In this case we need to move cards from the face of the deck again, so the box should be held flap side down. As with the subtraction method, pull the deck halfway out of the box and push two cards back into the box with your .fingers. Remove the deck completely from the box and place it face down into the spectator's hand. Then, as you place the box to the side, pretend to notice the cards remaining inside the box. Casually remove them and add them to the top of the deck in the spectator's hands. This doesn't need a line or justification because it's not a move. The force card is now 38 cards from the top of the deck. If he says 13, the closest number is 12 from the top, so you shift 1 card from the face to the top. If he says 20, the closest number is 17 from the face, so you shift 3 cards from the top to the face. You could easily make this displacement into a move, but by doing it off the cuff and as a casual mistake the audience will not remember the moment.
As before, have them deal down to their named number and show it is a perfect match to the Jack of Spades. A Visual Crib Sheet When first performing this routine, I wasn't completely confident in the number intervals. I would often start counting face down when I should have counted face up and the cards wouldn't match at the end. This is no bueno. As a safety measure, you can write the numbers on a blank-faced card, and tape it underneath the back edge of the performance surface. This will allow you easy access to the numbers if you need them, but the audience won't have any idea that it's there. Figure 11. 19
■•• •••••••• c) • his is another piece of magic straight from my close-up show. In fact, it's specifically designed for a formal closeup show, the kind of show I do most often. It takes advantage of the very particular scenario you've got with a table, audience, and spectators sitting at the table to create a devastating piece of magic with almost no moves, and lots of audience participation. When magicians get the opportunity to do formal close-up, many of them do the same material they'd do in any other situation. "Fan Mail" is so strong because it takes advantage of its environment in a way your audience won't suspect. "Fan Mail" was inspired by David Regal's "The Very Last Card". 3 The method to narrow down the selection is similar, 3. Constant Fooling 2 (2002), p.124. - ------- 21
22 but this routine adds an organic way to add the gimmicked cards to the deck. I perform the beginning of this effect following ''.Any Cards At Our Numbers," and have described it that way, though it can certainly be performed independently. Effect A blue deck of cards is openly shuffied and spread face down across the table. A card is randomly pulled out of the spread, isolated in a small envelope just big enough for a single playing card, and handed to someone in the audience for safekeeping. Later in the show, a red deck of cards is washed face down on the table by two volunteers. The cards are squared and five random cards are removed. The cards are shown to be all different and are mixed face down. One at a time the cards are eliminated quite fairly until only one card remains. This final card matches the card isolated in the envelope. Method Overview The "randomly" chosen card from the blue deck is marked, and this is the card that goes into the envelope. The red deck is genuinely shuffied, but as everything is squared up, a group of five cards is added to the bottom of the deck from a holdout underneath the table. This packet consists of one short card and four misindexed cards, each of which has one end which matches the short card. The deck is shuffied to
centralize the packet, and then the short card is cut at to force the five-card packet. No matter which of the five cards the spectator chooses, you can display it in such a way that it matches the card in the envelope. Moves There aren't really any moves in this routine. The sneakiest 1noment is stealing five cards out of the holdout and getting them centered in the deck. This happens under the cover of washing the cards on the table by the spectators, which dispels any suspicion of foul play. Be slow and deliberate with this routine and it will fool even the most knowledgeable in the room. Props Needed • A red-backed deck • A blue-backed deck - You will need to edge mark the card that matches the force card from the five-card packet. Using a pencil, shade in a small portion of the edge of the card on both sides. Figure 1. We'll assume the force card is the Two of Diamonds for this explanation. 23
24 • An extra, red-backed, Two of Diamonds - Shorten this card by trimming a millimeter off one end. • Four misindexed, red-backed cards - The majority of the cards' faces match the force card, the Two of Diamonds, but one corner index of each is that of another random card.4 Figure 2 ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ • An envelope just big enough to hold a single playing card. The size I use is 69mm x 94mm and is made of kraft paper. These are easily found on Amazon. The flap should open along the long side rather than the short side. On the outside of the envelope write the words "Fan Mail" and place a stamp in the upper right-hand corner. Figure 3. 4. These gimmicks are also referred to as a Monte Cristo Deck.
• A table holdout -This is often referred to as a "bug." More on this in a moment. • A strip of gaff tape. The Bug This is a very old gadget used to hold a card ( or cards) secretly clipped under a table. Originally a card cheater's tool, it consists of a straight piece of spring steel inserted into the handle of a shoemaker's awl, or a similar button shape, with a sharp needle at one end. The one I use is a little sturdier and easier to build. It's made out of the same type of envelope you place the prediction in at the outset of the routine. 25
26 Begin by cutting off the flap of the envelope. Cut a slit in the front layer of the envelope about two inches wide. Then, apply a thin piece of gaffers tape in this slit, allowing extra to hang off of each side. Also apply a piece on each side of the envelope. Figure 4. I attach it underneath the table, a little left of the center of my performing surface. Figure 5.
Set Up Place the short Two of Diamonds on top of the face-down pile of misindexed Twos of Diamonds. Place this stack in the bug face down with the misindexed corners closest to you. This positioning will become important later on. Place the envelope in a location where it will be easy to retrieve. I tend to place it on a side table or in the left side pocket of my jacket. The red deck of cards is face down in a pile on the table. The blue deck of cards is face down on the table. Somewhere in the middle of this deck is a Two of Diamonds with its edges marked. This marking is the same as the one on the Jack of Spades in the red deck. The Exposition If you're following the previous routine, ''Any Cards at Our Numbers", there will be two face-up Jacks of Spades in front of the face-down decks. Place the red-backed Jack of Spades on top of the red deck. Pick up the blue-backed Jack of Spades and place it into the blue deck, and then give it a couple of simple overhand shuffles. "Some people like to call that chance, or luck. Do you know what I like to call it?" This question serves two purposes: it sets up the context for the trick that is about to happen, as well as providing an offbeat ------- 27
28 during which you get a rough idea of the location of the marked Two of Diamonds in the blue deck. By beveling the cards slightly, you can estimate where the Two is in the deck. This will speed up your upcoming search. Spread the blue deck face down on the table. ': .. A freaking miracle. " "But for those of you who think that maybe chance or luck had something to do with it, I'm going to test fate again, but this time I want to do it under more stringent circumstances." Pick up the Fan Mail envelope, being careful not the flash the writing on the front of the envelope. I treat this as a punch line in a moment, but it will lose all impact if the audience is already aware of what it says. Run your fingers over the spread as if you are trying to make your selection a random one. This is where having a rough idea of the location of the Two pays off. Scan the cards casually while you locate the marked Two of Diamonds. The wider the cards are spread on the table, the harder it will be to track down the marking. Make certain you don't look like you are looking for something in particular. Once you have seemingly made up your mind, pull the Two of Diamonds out of the spread without showing it, and slide it into the envelope. Figure 6. "We'll take a card out of the deck at random and isolate it in this envelope. Sir, I'm going to have you hold on to it and make sure that nobody messes with it. "
Hand the envelope to someone in the front row, wait until he reaches out for it, and then flip the envelope around so that the writing can be seen. 'T've gone ahead and taken the liberty ofilling it out to you!" Pick up the blue deck, place it in the box and put it away. Pick up the red cards and continue on with the show. When you're ready to wrap up this routine, continue on. A Random Sampling 'T want everyone in the audience to be absolutely certain that these cards are being mixed Take the cards and mix them around so everybody can see. " 29
30 The two spectators sitting with you are invited to wash the deck of cards face down on the surface of the table. I prefer this approach to shuffiing because the stage picture it creates is a striking one. Also, the spectators are doing all the mixing, making it crystal clear the performer has zero control over the location of any card in the pack. Once they feel comfortable with the state of the pack, ask them to push the cards into the center of the table, forming a rough pile. Once the cards are pushed together, slide the pile toward the near edge of the table, beginning the process of squaring them into a smaller packet. Figure 7. The pile shouldn't be squared but simply compressed. The cards should now sit directly above the bug hidden underneath the table. In a moment you are going to add the cards in the bug to the bottom of the deck. There will be nothing to see when you do this, but I still like to add a touch of misdirection.
'Turn to the spectator sitting on your left and say: "For this, I would like you to choose someone completely at random. Point to anybody in the audience whor.n you don't know." By asking your spectator to select someone, the audience's attention shifts away from the cards on the table and toward whomever the spectator will choose. While their attention is diverted, move your left hand under the table. Using the second finger of your palm-up left hand, make contact with the cards held out in the bug. As your right hand slides the pile of cards into your left hand, pull the cards out of the holdout and add them onto the bottom of the deck. Figure 8 is exposed for clarity. Don't rush this move, as nobody is aware of what you're doing. As long as you aren't looking at your hands, no one else will either. 31
32 Once all the cards are in your left hand, turn them on their edges so the faces are toward you and the backs are toward the audience. Begin squaring up the cards in the traditional way, sliding them to the left with your right hand as your left thumb rolls the top of the cards to the left. Use this moment to confirm you have the gimmicked cards on the bottom of the deck. Figure 9. Once the deck is squared up, pick up the deck and overhand shuffle the top half into the left hand. Once half of the deck has been run, toss the remainder on top. This centralizes the five force cards near the center of the deck, with the uppermost force card being the short card. 'Tn a second, I'm going to ask you to make a few choices. It's very important that you go with your gut and try not to overthink it.
My two spectators did an excellent job of making sure the cards were thoroughly mixed, but we're going to narrow it down to just a few. " Riffie up the back of the pack with your right thumb until you hit the short card. Figure 10. Lift the top half with your right hand and with your left hand, thumb off the top five cards one at a time into a pile, which reverses their order. Figure 11, next page. Place the top half back on the bottom and put the deck out of sight. I use the inner left breast pocket of my jacket. The Elimination Process If everything has gone according to plan, the misindexed ends of the cards should be closest to you, with the shortened Two of Diamonds on the face of the packet. I mark the backs of the 33
34 cards to give me a visual check before I turn over the cards, but glancing at them as you spread works as a failsafe as well. Spread the packet, displaying the misindexed corners. The audience will see five different cards. Figure 12. Mix the cards, then re-spread them, facing yourself, as you say the following: ''I'm going to mix the cards up, and then I'll have you start eliminating cards until we're down to just one. I don't want to try any sneaky double talk, so this card will always be number one, this one number two, and so on. " Have an audience member eliminate four out of the five cards in your hand, one at a time. These eliminated cards join the
deck in the pocket. It doesn't matter which card you are left with, but ideally you will end with the regularly pipped card. The Reveal ':A.flow me to recap for a minute. U'e mixed the cards around on the table and pulled five cards out at random. U'e then narrowed it down until there was just one left. Nobody in this room could have imagined what card we might end up with. Unless ... earlier on I said I wanted to try something. And I handed you an envelope. Will you pull the card out of the envelope so that you are looking at the face and the people around you can see the face too, but the back is facing toward me? On the count of three, I'll show you mine if you s h ow me yours. " 35
36 Use this moment to build up the tension and the impossibility of what has happened. The audience is looking at the card that has been in the envelope, but is also looking at the back of the one you are holding. Figure 13. If the card that you are holding is the short card with a normal face, then there is nothing to hide. You have a real miracle on your hands. If you know how to navigate human nature, you can get this to happen around 20% of the time. The other 80% of the time, you are left with a misindexed card. When you turn it over, cover up the wrong index with your fingers. When both cards are turned around, the eyes of the spectators will jump from the card in the audience, to the card in your hand. Figure 14. A perfect match.
The Bigger Picture "Fan Mail" is designed to be part of a show, not just an isolated routine. When I perform it in a formal show, after placing the card in the "Fan Mail" envelope, I continue on with several effects using the red deck of cards, before coming back and completing the routine as written. This reinforces that the cards are normal, a~d adds time misdirection between when you set up the trick and the payoff, as well as providing structure to the performance. 37