Congratulation! You found the secret of this homepage and your nosiness will be rewarded. In the following I will teach you a simple but astounding card trick. It is easy to learn and can almost be shown everywhere. And now enjoy yourself.

Effect

A card is chosen and lost in the middle of the deck. When the magician drops the deck on the table, the chosen card jumps out of the deck.

Needed:

a deck of cards
no sleight of hand

Preparation

none

Performance

Put the cards in the left hand - even if you are right handed. The thumb is along the left side, the first finger is on the front/top and the other fingers are along the long right side of the deck (see fig. 1).

This grip is called Mechanic's grip. Now, the left thumb fingers guently through the deck at the corner (see fig. 2) and the spectator is asked to say Stop. If they do so, grab all the riffled cards away with the right hand. For this grip, the right thumb is on the back and the other fingers are on the front (see fig. 3).

Now the spectator takes his card to look at it. While he/she is busy in doing that, you will do the secret move. You put all the grabbed cards you are holding in your right hand back on top of the deck and immediately pick up one card with the same grip as done before and go back to the position you had before.

No one will/should realise that you did that and that you now have only one card in your right hand. The spectator is asked to lay his card back in the „middle“ of the deck. After that, smack your right hand with the single card on the deck and say „We will put it back in the middle.“ The smacksound and the comment give the illusion, that the chosen card is lost in the middle although it's second from the top.

Tip: While holding the single card, be careful of the angle of view so that no one can see the single card from the side. That means, the view of the spectator should always be towards the back of the single card.

Now you bring in the magic and convince the spectator. Pick up the top card with your right hand and show it with the comment „That is not your card, right?“. Put that card in the middle of the deck. Now grab the whole deck with your right hand, turn it face up and ask „Your card is not on the bottom either, isn't it?“. Lay the deck back into the left hand. With this actions you are selling the fact, that they put their card in the middle of the deck and you have any idea where it is.

Pick up the deck with your right hand in the same way you did it for the secret move. But before the right hand takes the deck away, you push the top card over half way with your left thumb (see fig. 4). This action can't be seen, because it's concealed by the right hand. Now let the deck drop onto the ground. Don't throw it. By doing this, the card should flip ove. For getting the card to do so, you have to play with the distance between the deck and the table or the floor. The best ist still, that gravity and air resistance are gonna do all the work for you.

Tip: Sometimes the card flips over, sometimes it just bounces off. If the card does not flip over, just say „Look, one card jumped out of the deck.“ and then let the spectator turn it over.

Tip: What, if nothing happens during the drop? Don't panic. Nothing bad happened. No one knows what should happen. Just pick up the cards and do it again (but don't forget to push the top card over again). :-)