May 2016

Please Don’t Read this Column!

(I want to be the only one who knows this.)
Harry Lorayne has been very kind to me over the years. From the
days in the Belmore Cafeteria patiently explaining the “Ultra-Move,”
to the contributions he’s made to this column, he’s always been
helpful. He loves what he does and shares it without reservation.

Last year, I asked him for permission to use this location in my

column, but I really didn’t want to include it. I think it’s too good to
give away, and I wanted more time to fool my magician friends with it.
However, Harry just turned ninety, and I wanted to be among those
who honor his contributions to the craft, so I’ll let you guys have a
chance to use this in Harry’s honor.

What follows is a location from Reputation Makers (1971) p. 32. Like

all of his books, this one is packed with goodies. It’s now available (as
are several other of Harry’s books) as a PDF. If you’re a reader of this
column, you know I had some doubts about electronic media. They
are no more. I found that using the Adobe Reader app on my Android
tablet was a great way to read magic books. It enables you to create
named bookmarks to easily navigate to where you want to go. You
can also add annotations without “messing up” the page. Best of all,
you can read in bed without turning on the lights!

You can find Harry’s books at:

http://www.harryloraynemagic.com/magic-e-books.html. If you’ve
missed any, I can think of no easier way to complete your collection.

I’m sure you know many card locations. I have 681 of them in my
database. Even the simplest of them can be very effective when
properly presented to laymen. I’ve been doing “Design for Laughter”
from The Royal Road to Card Magic for over fifty years and it always
gets a good reaction.

So what’s different about the trick below? It fools the hell out of
magicians. None of them will have a clue as to how you found their
card. But, that isn’t what makes this so much fun; it’s the reaction
 you’ll get from your peers when you explain the trick to them. The
method is so diabolically simple, that you’ll get an array of
wonderfully funny reactions. The last time I explained this to a
magician, he just glared at me for a while, and then said, “You son of
a bitch!” He was impressed indeed.

In his description of this trick, Harry also mentions the fun he has
when he does it for magicians. I hope you enjoy it, for whomever you
perform it.

Super Location, by Harry Lorayne

If I had to give a “bare bones” description of the trick it would read,”
Force a card. Have the spectator shuffle it into the deck. Find the
card.”

This might stop you from reading further. I hope it does, as I’d rather
fool you with this trick the next time we meet.

What makes this trick so diabolical is a force that will fool anyone, and
a replacement and mixing process that takes people’s minds in all the
wrong directions. I’ll say at the outset: I won’t go into as much detail
about all of this as Harry did, so you might want to just get Reputation
Makers, skip reading this, and come back here next month.

Setup
You must have a known card fourth (or third, or fifth) from the top of
the deck. You must do this in a manner that leaves the spectators
completely oblivious to the fact that you know anything about the
state of the deck. If you can’t get past this “hurdle,” you have no
effect. See Note 1 below
see Note 2 below - the plan is to skip this entire section of the trick where the
Method magician drops three piles of 7 cards to the table !
Your first objective is to take your spectators as far as possible from
where you intend to go. You’ll do this by starting a conversation
about how important it is to be able to make accurate estimations of
how many cards are in a packet, and have the ability to cut packets of
specific sizes. You’ll now demonstrate your ability to drop three
packets of seven cards from the bottom of the deck onto the table.
Note 1 ... A good card to memorize is the fourth card from the top of the deck. It is easy to do this.
Begin the trick by having the deck legitimately shuffled and cut as many times as the magi and the
spectator woud like. This shuffling and cutting is to show the spec that the cards are competely
and fairly mixed up. And they are completely and fairly mixed and shuffled.

After the spectator is satisfied with the shuffles and cuts, the magi should spread the face down
deck from left to right, mentioning that all the backs are normal. The magi then gathers the spread,
flips the deck face up and spreads the face up deck from left to right, emphasizing the normality of
the cards and that they are well shuffled. While the deck is face up, it's easy to find and memorize
the 4th card from the top of the deck. This 4th card from the deck will ultimately be the spectator's
chosen card since it will be forced on the spectator.
Note 2 ... This entire section of the magi dropping 7 cards off the bottom of the deck three times
and then showing his prowess by counting the piles and FALSE COUNTING !!! to convince the
spectator of his ability to do this is totally unnecesary, proves nothing, and has the magician
engaging in absolutely needless false counts of the cards where he could easily get caught
and ruin the entire trick for no reason at all. So in the section called "Method" skip everything
written until the top of page 5 where I've written RESUME HERE.
Hold the deck as in Photo 1 and riffle off three packets of at least
seven cards onto the table, as in Photo 2. Don’t thumb count these!
You’re demonstrating your “ability” to quickly create packets of a
specific size. Set the deck aside after you’ve done this.

1 2

(Practice releasing small packets from the bottom like this for a while
and you’ll find out that you’ll soon be able to reliably cut off these
packets in a relatively consistent manner. The exact number doesn’t
matter! You can adjust your presentation to the number you can cut
off. You just must be able to cut off a packet at least as big as the
number you claim to be able to cut to the table. I just paused my
typing and cut three packets to the table. I got eight, eight and ten.
This works great for my patter line of, “Dropping seven cards.” If you
find you regularly create packets of nine to twelve, just say you’ll
attempt to drop three packets of eight cards.)

Now you’ll “prove” that you just did what you said by picking up one
of the piles and counting it as seven cards. You’ll do this by doing a
false count with the smallest packet you deem to be at least seven
cards. Harry and I approach this somewhat differently. Harry deals
these cards onto the table, and uses a buckle on the count of six. I,
wishing to give myself a little extra room for error, begin dealing the
packet on top of one of the other packets, counting them out loud as I
do so. On the count of “six,” I do a block push of all the cards above
the bottom card. On “seven” I do a flourish with the last card to prove
its singularity and draw attention away from the last cards dealt, in
case my estimate of that packet was further off than I thought.
As I deal the sixth card(s) onto the packet, I curl my left index finger
under the single remaining card in my left hand. (Photo 3.)

I then push down with the left fingers and outwards with the index
finger snapping the card face up at my fingertips. Photo 4.

Finally, my left thumb goes under the rear of the card and rotates it
forward until it’s face down again. (Photos 5 – 6.)

5 6

I hold the card face up over the packet for less than a second before
flipping it over and saying, “Seven.”

This will often get comments of approval from your audience. That’s a
great sign that you’ve “set the hook!”

Gather all three packets, and place the rest of the deck on top of
them. A false shuffle or cut might now be appropriate. (When
performing for magicians, I leave this out—if they catch the false
shuffle, they might deduce that the order of the deck is of
importance.)
Resume here!
RESUME HERE
Give the deck to the spectator and ask him to try to duplicate what
you did—dropping off three small packets of approximately the same
size from the bottom of the deck.

Now is the time for some subtle acting. Offer some faint praise for
your spectator’s effort, but give the impression they didn’t do quite
what you needed. Look at the piles a bit and ask the spectator to
move a card from one to the other. You’re still not satisfied. Ask the
spectator to deal a card from the deck he’s holding on top of one of
the other piles. You’re still not happy. Ask for two cards to be dealt
on top of the third pile. Now you can act like maybe you’re OK.
(Really, you’re delighted—the force card is now on top of the deck!)
See discussion on last page
Turn around and ask the spectator to take the top card of those he’s
holding (the force card), memorize it and put it on top of any of the
three packets. Ask him to square the packet to obscure which packet
it’s on. When told you may turn back, you might give the impression
here that you’re trying to discern which packet has the selection on it
by slouching a bit, as if you’re trying to gauge the height of the
packets, but there’s a danger of overacting—I just continue with the
rest of the presentation without trying to add another red herring.
(Of course, you know what the card is, and don’t care where he puts
it. You’ll soon make the spectators wonder how you can find the card
regardless of its initial position.)

Point to one of the piles and ask the spectator to put it on one of the
others. Have him put this combined pile on top of the larger one.
You’re still acting as if you’re estimating the position of the selection.
Ask for one complete cut of the deck. Then for one riffle shuffle.
Magicians might realize estimation or a key card are starting to get a
bit dicey here, but still within the realm of possibility.

Now ask for one more cut and one more riffle. Magicians are starting
to feel decidedly uncomfortable.

Now you’ll really blow their minds. Ask for the deck to be cut in half,
and ask them to turn either face up. Then have them riffle the halves
together, then have them do it again. You’ll notice little beads of
sweat start forming on magicians’ brows.

Spread the deck in a long ribbon spread, looking to see if the force
card is visible. Tell the spectator their card is definitely visible/not
 visible. If it’s not visible turn the deck over and ribbon spread it again
so it is visible.

Admit that telling him his card is visible is not the greatest of feats,
but then say, “Wouldn’t it be incredible if I could tell you that this is
your card?” As you utter the word “this,” push his card half way out
of the spread. (Photo 7.)
This is a trick that really lends itself to the
magician turning his back on the spectator
without having to worry that the spectator will
mess everything up. It’s worth doing this because
the magician turning his back toward the
spectator adds so much power to any trick.
Continued below …
7

At this point, you’ll get the normal amazed reaction from laymen—
magicians will be weeping copiously. Either way, you’ve had a lot of
fun.

Inside Ed’s Head, May 2016

Copyright 2016 by Edward Hass
Feel free to link to this article at:
www.edhassmagic.com/eds-head

Assume that you, the magician, have memorized the fourth

card from the top and that this will be the force card. Once
you’ve seen the spectator lift up this force card and memorize
it you can turn your back on the spectator.

That’s because they’ve memorized the force card and it

doesn’t matter what they do, you’ll have no problem locating it.
They can even shuffle the cards doing a table wash once you
know they’ve memorized the force card.

The magician can turn his back on the spectator after the
magician is sure that the spectator has looked at the force card
and memorized it. The magi can remain turned until the
portion of the trick where you have the spectator cut the deck
in half and shuffle a face down half into a face up half.
Probably a good idea for the magi to oversee that part.