Magic

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I have been shuffling around cards at work this week to stop me from chewing on my fingers. I successfully stopped biting my nails. Now I just gnaw at my hands like they were cuts of uncooked veal.

I like having fresh packs of cards around. Love it. Love the texture, smell and feeling. And it keeps my hands away from my face.

I performed my first trick tonight. With cards, I mean. I started to flip the deck and told Melissa to say, "stop." I showed her the card she said "stop" on. It was tough because the ladies don't usually like to tell me to stop.

I put the deck back together and banged the deck against my hand. I asked her to name a number from 1 to 10. She said 8. I counted 8 cards and BAM there was the card she picked!

I was shocked it worked. I guess I have a natural talent for magic??? Nobody ask me how I did the trick. I'll never tell!

[Flack]

So here is my favorite card trick. It's insanely simply to do and it gets a laugh every time.

It starts with "pick a card". Ask the person to look at their card. While they are doing that, casually look at the bottom of the deck and remember that card. Ask the person for their card back. Cut the deck pretty close to the bottom of the deck. You can really cut it anywhere but the closer you get those two cards to the top the quicker the trick goes.

You sell this trick by saying you usually mess it up and that it rarely works. Also, tell the person that if you accidentally go past their card for them NOT TO TELL YOU. Start flipping the cards over off the top of the deck and laying them out in a line. After a few cards you will see the card you memorized. Logically, the next card you see will be the card they picked. DON'T STOP DEALING CARDS. Just keep going and doing something like counting or explaining how this trick never works.

After five or six more cards stop, look the person in the eye, and say, "Now, the next card I will flip over will be your card." They will look at you pretty smugly because they know you already missed their card. Next, reach down, find their card which should already be in front of you, and flip it upside down. They will laugh and you will be MAGIC.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

That's great. I will update this thread after doing that trick. NICE. I think a person can also look at the bottom card ahead of time as long as the card that's pulled is placed underneath.

So, because I have the willpower of a four year old in a cabinet of pies, I've started ordering decks of cards. Not just your standard blue and also red Bicycle packs. No sirree. We're going to go WEIRD with it.

I am also shuffling the cards at work every day, which will shortly cause my demise as my co-workers kill me.

Starting tonight we shall be doing some DECK CHAT.

This is the Deckmaster!

[Flack]

My other favorite trick uses something called Magician's Choice. There are a lot of different ways to do this trick. This is the one I use.

You'll need to deal out four piles of four cards. One of the four piles needs to be all the aces. You can put all four aces as the 5th-8th cards, the 9th-12th cards, whatever. It doesn't matter. Just know where they are so when you deal out four piles of cards face down, all the aces are together in one of the four piles.

Next, explain to your friend that the point of this game is to NOT end up with the aces.

Let's say that you have four piles (1 2 3A 4) and the aces are in pile 3. Again it doesn't really matter which pile has the aces, only that you know which one it is.

Now, ask the person to choose two of the stacks. Now, here is where the MAGIC takes place. If they do not choose the stack with the aces, say "okay, we'll eliminate those" and pick those two stacks up and put them back in the deck. If they pick the stack with the aces, say "okay, those are keepers" or something and pick up the other two. If they pick the one with the aces I'll say "okay, leave your fingers on those two" and pick up the others. So really it doesn't matter which pile they pick -- if they pick the aces you pretend like they were picking the two to keep, and if they don't pick the aces you pretend like they were picking the two piles to get rid of.

Now there are two left. Say, "point to one pile" or something. If they point to the pile that's not the aces, just pick it up and put it in the deck. If they point to the aces, again tell them to put their finger back on the pile and pick up the other pile.

So really no matter what they pick through the entire trick you just keep picking up the other ones and pretend like that's what they wanted. You can sell it with your words. At the end you will flip the aces over and they will shit their pants.

Also never do this trick twice because the next time they will definitely say "HEY LAST TIME YOU PICKED UP THE ONES I POINTED AT" and you will no longer be MISTER MAGIC.