Craig did show him all the backs at the beginning, but the trick requires displaying them in a tight fan, making it easy to overlook. And while Craig flashes multiple gray backs throughout the trick, why would anyone consciously register that?The fact is, even if you spread the cards widely at the beginning, most people wouldn’t retain that information.
Magicians act like they’re performing for fucking Sherlock Holmes or something—someone processing and remembering every tiny detail that enters their field of vision. “Flash the inside of the card box to subtly show it’s empty.” No one registers your subtle “flashes.” That’s not how human memory works.
A lot of magicians forget this because they only perform for other magicians. When you’re a magician who primarily lectures to other magicians, you can say things like, “Casually show your hand empty before removing the card from your pocket.” In that world, it works—because your audience is made up of magicians who actually notice those details. In the real world, laypeople don’t run the calculus on every subtle gesture. They just say, “Oh wow! My card was in his pocket! Hmm… I bet it was in his hand when he reached in there.”
You can’t go back and convince someone of the conditions of what you did. You must beat it into them at the beginning.
My billet peek became five times stronger when I started telling people, “Make sure my eyes never go near what you wrote. I don’t even want the chance to see it.”
Without that sort of caveat, people just think something like, “He must have looked at it when he was putting it in his wallet or something. I don’t remember him looking, but I wasn’t paying attention.”
Try this $500 Bet Test to strengthen your magic.
Start by asking: “What is the effect?”
Next, ask: 'What’s the most basic condition that must be clearly established for the effect to register?'
Finally, ask: “Would I bet $500 that my spectator is absolutely certain of that condition?”
If you wouldn’t take that bet, you need to reinforce the conditions.
Example: Coin In Bottle.
What is the effect? A coin magically penetrates a bottle.
What’s the key condition? The spectator must know—without a doubt—that the coin starts outside the bottle. That’s the foundation of the effect
Would I bet $500 that my spectator knows this? Yes. If I borrow the coin, or they hold the coin, or just see the coin clearly, I’d bet $500 they would remember that it was not in the bottle at the start.
That’s an easy one.
What about the trick in the video above?
What is the effect? Gray cards turn rainbow color.
What condition needs to be established for the effect to register? They have to remember seeing multiple cards being all gray at the start.
Would I bet $500 that they’re sure of that condition? No. At least, not the way it’s performed in the video.
In some cases, due to the method, you simply can’t establish the conditions needed for the trick to ever really fully fool people. I call those Broken Tricks. The definition from that post is:
A broken trick is a trick where the method that is used prevents you from establishing the conditions that are needed for the trick to be seen as truly impossible.
Is the trick in the video above a 'Broken Trick'? I don’t think so. I just think the back color needs to be more clearly established—and that the audience needs to register seeing multiple backs.
How do we do this without spoiling the ending?
I would just tweak what Craig did in this way. I’d do what he does and point around the room asking about colors. Then I’d spread the cards:
“What color are the cards?”
“Gray.”
“Oh no. Poor thing. Yes, that one’s gray. But that one is blue, that one’s green, that one’s yellow…” And I would point along each card in the spread. “No. I’m just messing with you. I wanted to shake your confidence before the real color test.”
Then I’d go through the color test and at the end do the line where I say, “Actually, I wasn’t testing your color vision—I was testing your memory. What was the color of the back of the cards?”
“Gray.”
“Oh no. Poor thing. Don’t you remember? One was gray. But this one is blue, this one’s green, this one’s yellow, this one’s orange.”
This not only strengthens their conviction about the back color—since they’re mentally correcting you as you mislabel them—but also enhances the structure by looping back to the beginning. You get to foreshadow the ending, but not in a way that spoils the surprise.
