Dustings #109
/For the first time in over eight years, I will be devoting an upcoming week of posts to my “lifestyle blog” Splooge (inspired by Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop). This will happen during the third week of posting this month, starting Monday the 20th. If you don’t want to hear the non-magic stuff, skip that week.
If you’d like to submit a non-magic related question before that time, feel free. I don’t really have “advice” per se, but I have the way I think about things which my resonate with some of you. But the odds of me having an answer to your question are slim. If I feel I have something worth saying for every 1 in 10 magic questions I get, the non-magic questions are going to be more like 1 in 20. Don’t take it the wrong way if I don’t have a response.
In this month’s newsletter I was reviewing a trick and I mentioned that I normally force the card needed (rather than just handing it to the spectator as the trick instructions suggest). The force is a force of one card in six. I said if people were interested in exactly what I was doing they could write me. I got a lot more requests than I anticipated, so I’m including it here. It could be used for other forces of one card in a few where the cards you’re using don’t have a border. (It can be done with cards with a border, but the action is much more visible.)
Normally, I like a force with some procedure to it. I think it slows things down and (depending on the procedure) can feel more fair than a more straightforward force which is often over before it starts.
But for the sake of the trick I was writing about, a procedural force didn’t make sense.
Instead, I want it to be as direct as possible.
Here’s what it looks like, I spread the cards between my hands and ask them if they want the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, or sixth card. Whatever they say (with one rare exception) I extend the cards to them to have them remove that card. That’s it.
To do this, the force card is in the third position.
As I’m taking the cards from my left to right hand to spread them, I cull the third card
With normal cards with a border, you can tell one card has sort of “disappeared” but with borderless cards, you can’t unless someone told you what to look for.
I do this spreading of the cards near my body. Then I’m going to extend my hands toward them for them to pick out the card.
If they say they want the 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 6th card, I will extend the spread towards them while simultaneously inserting the card into the spread where it needs to go and respreading when the cards get to them.
So if they said they wanted the 5th card, here’s what it would look like (with a red card for clarity, otherwise there’s not much to see).
If they say they want the 2nd card, my left thumb pins down the actual second card, while my right hand takes away the top card and the culled card, and I go forward with that for them to take the “second” card. (Again, with the red card so you can see it.)
If they say they want the first card (they never really do), I pull the top and culled card to the right (similar to the last paragraph). And then coalesce the spread, so the force card is second from the top. Then I do a double turnover. This isn’t ideal, but I actually haven’t had anyone ask for the first card, so I don’t sweat it too much.
This sort of thing works well with blank backs too. Usually I would find this to be too direct, but in the case of the trick I was talking about in the newsletter, this is just a preliminary point early on in the trick. Not the focal point of the effect.
It’s cool when magic tricks evoke things in the real world. Like this trick, for instance, that I can only assume is inspired by that classic reddit thread.
(Guys, if you don’t know what I’m talking about, don’t go clicking on that link. For your sake. And certainly don’t try to track down the pictures.)