Wilfrid Jonson - Card Tricks for Beginners

With a card that you know upon the bottom of the pack, you put it down upon the table and ask a spectator to cut it into two parts. Invite him to take a card from either portion and to show it to the company, without letting you see what card it is. When the card has been shown to all, ask the chooser to replace it upon either portion and note carefully upon which heap he does replace it, but do not let your interest in this point be apparent to the spectators.

If he replaces the card upon the portion that was previously the uppermost part of the pack, tell him to drop the other portion on top of it. Let him then cut the pack and complete the cut in card playing fashion.

But should he replace the card upon the other packet, the original bottom part of the pack, ask him to cut that portion and complete the cut, thus burying the selected card in that packet, to put the two halves of the pack together and to cut once more.

Perhaps we had better clarify this business of cutting for the benefit of any readers unacquainted with card playing practice. In games of cards the person who shuffles the pack places it upon the table before a second player who cuts by lifting off a portion of the cards and putting them down on the table by the side of the remainder of the pack. The dealer then completes the cut by picking up the original lower portion and placing it upon the other. So, when these actions are combined by one person, to cut and complete the cut one lifts off a portion of the pack and puts it down on the table. One then picks up the remainder of the cards and puts them on top of the other portion. Cutting the pack is often regarded as the great safeguard of the honest player against the crooked gambler, and many card players display a faith in the virtues of cutting which is not borne out by the facts, as will presently be clear to you.

But to return to our trick. Whichever of the two procedures outlined above has been followed, the practical result is the same, the original bottom card of the pack has been placed immediately above the selected card.

You now take the pack and turning it face upwards, spread it from left to right in a long overlapping row, so that the indices of all the cards can easily be seen. With a little practice you will find that, with a good clean pack of cards, you can do this with one swift and skilful sweep of the hand. Now you hold your forefinger an inch or two above the cards and say to the chooser of the card: I will pass my finger slowly along the cards like this. When it passes above your card I want you to think to yourself Thats it. Do not say anything, do not move a muscle, but every time my finger passes over your card simply think to yourself, Thats it.

You pass your finger slowly along the row of cards from one end to the other and you look for the card you know, the original bottom one. The chosen card is the one below it, the one to its right in the row of cards. You do not pause when you reach it but carry on to the end of the row and say: I did not get it that time. Again please. You carry your finger back along the row and a little way past the selected card; then you pause and let your hand, with its pomting finger, swing in pendulum fashion, above the section of the row of cards in which the selected one lies. Then in a hesitant fashion you lower your finger and let it fall upon the chosen card.

In card conjuring one can often do more by intelligent planning and anticipation than by much sleight-of-hand and it would be a great pity if, at the conclusion of the preceding trick, one failed to take advantage of the fact that the cards are all spread out before you. So, before you gather them up you will remember the third and fourth cards from the bottom, that is from the right hand end of the overlapping row. Then you slip one finger beneath the top card, the card at the left hand end, and neatly gather up the overlapping row of the cards with one quick sweep of the hand. Much of the charm of good conjuring lies in the precision and dexterity with which the performer handles the cards and even such a simple action as gathering up the spread out pack can be done with elegance and distinction.