Magic in the Time of Coronavirus: Part 2

I was talking to a guy I see frequently at one of my local coffee shops. He has seen me showing people tricks there in the past, but I’ve only ever done something specifically for him like once or twice.

We were mentioning the virus and the different ways it was affecting things, big and small.

“it’s funny,” I said, “because I had been working on this trick for like… forever… and just when I sort of had it figured out this thing hits and it has completely prevented me from being able to do the trick.”

I reached into my bag and pulled out a cased deck of cards.

“There’s a trick called the Inverted Card trick. It’s sort of famous in magic. It’s famously difficult, actually. It looks like this… I shuffle the cards. Then I’d spread them and have you select one. Then I’d have you hold it between your palms like this and concentrate on the card.” [During all this, I’m miming all the actions of the trick.] “Then, I’d take the card back and put it in the deck. Have you shuffle it. Then I’d take the pack back. Spread the cards briefly, then close the deck and hold it between my hands. You’d name the card and when I spread the deck you’d see your card was the only one facing the other way.

“There are two things that make it difficult. The first is the way I find your card. Since you held it between your palms it’s going to be warmer than the other cards in the deck. And with practice you can develop the sensitivity to feel that warmth as you spread through the deck. The second thing that makes it difficult is the misdirection and the sleights required to then flip that card over without anyone noticing.

“But anyways, I’ve worked on that trick for a long time and just really got it down about a week ago, and now i can’t even really do it. It requires too much passing of the deck back and forth. And holding the cards tight and all that. I think people would be a little weirded out by it

“So what I’ve been trying to do is come up with a way to do all that but without both people handling the physical deck. I think I’ve hit on something… can I try it with you? Okay… we’ll just imagine I’m holding a deck here.”

We go through the whole process of selecting and shuffling and holding the card… all while just miming it. At the end I ask him what card he chose. He names it. I pause, pull the real deck out of the case, and spread it to show that it’s the only “inverted card.”

It’s just a handling for the Invisible Deck, of course.

I’ve only done this twice now, but the reaction both times has been really, really good. Here’s why I think that is. Usually with the ID there’s a chance the audience will get ahead of you. That may lessen the punch of the climax. With this presentation, your spectator will definitely be ahead of you. You told them what’s going to happen. But you also told them how it normally happens: It happens with physical cards and sleights and misdirection. So when you then do it without those things you are reinforcing how clean the ID trick is. They will see just how straightforward and unsuspicious the handling is in a way they wouldn’t know to appreciate if you hadn’t established how the trick is “usually done.”

And there’s a very sound logic to the presentation. It feels like a trick that’s borne out of the genuine circumstances we’re in. Not just like a normal trick with some jokes about hoarding toilet paper thrown in.

I will continue using some sort of variation on this presentation—i.e., “Here’s how it’s usually done… and here’s this new version I’m working on.”—long after the virus situation has passed. It’s really strong.