You ask that the entire group choose a person to use for the task/experiment. Whomever is chosen will be asked to call anyone, anywhere in the world. A cell phone or even a home phone may be used as long as you have speaker phone. (pretty much all cell phones do these days)
Lets say they choose a hot chick named Mary. Mary uses her cell phone and calls her friend Lisa. (alternately you don’t have to use a cell phone but Mary herself may perform the test. MUCH better with the cell phone.)
You ask Mary if she would be so kind as to put Lisa on speaker so you could talk with her as well…and so that the audience might hear.
You talk on the phone with Mary’s friend Lisa and ask her a question or two for laughs. You then tell her what the game is. Lisa is going to try and pick up on some thoughts and subtle verbal cues that you will try and send her.
You ask her if she is excited to play. Then ask her if she has won a lot of money playing cards. She says she hasn’t had much luck playing cards, “join the club” you say.
“We aren’t going to do anything difficult. You won’t have to do any thinking really. Its not like we are going to bust out a game of black Jack….i’d like you to just relax and clear your mind. As I count backwards from ten just relax and let your mind go black…..”
Good.
Mary is approached and asked to hold the cards.
“Lisa as you sit there relaxed hundreds of miles away Mary here is going to start dealing through the deck. Mary go ahead and start dealing now…… Lisa whenever you get a feeling please just say stop…..and Mary will then stop dealing.”
If there is too long of a pause I’ll say “…sometime today Lisa…”, which will get a chuckle but speed her up as well.
Mary stops dealing and you isolate the stopped at card putting all the other cards to the side and making a big deal about how she could have stopped anywhere.
You then ask Lisa if she picked up on any of the signs you threw her over the phone. You tell her that you cued her to the fact that it was black.
Do you remember me making certain statements like
“Make your mind completely BLACK”, “Join the CLUB” or “Black JACK”.
In so many ways I more or less told you what the card was. But whats REALLY impressive is there is no way, other than pure intuition, that you could have known WHERE the card was….
Reveal she stopped at the Jack and then…
Reveal your giant prediction.
Method
Most of the effect is the presentation which should be obvious. Simply follow the script as written using the subtle verbal cues like “Black Jack” and “join the club” etc.
Just roll with it. If she says she hasn’t had luck at cards say “join the club”. If she says she HAS had great luck I say “you’ve got great luck…..then would you like to win a million dollars?”, and then of course she will say “yes” to which you reply “um….yeah…who wouldn’t….join the club!”. This is said sort of playfully and not too harsh. It should get a chuckle but more importantly you’ve given your verbal cue.
The force is easy and will fly by as long as you present it well. Its the genius of Father Cyprian. Simply place the jack of clubs along with two indifferent cards reversed on the bottom of the deck. From the top down it will be 49 face down cards, face up indifferent card, another face up indifferent card, and finally the face up jack of clubs on the very bottom.
The only thing you have to worry about is when you hand her the deck make sure you don’t flash the bottom. Also help her orient the cards right if need be. It may help to ask if someone is a card player, or better yet use a volunteer you now can handle cards from a previous effect.
So now the deck has been in her hand face down and she is dealing. Little does Mary know there are three cards reversed on the bottom of the deck. The bottom card being the force card (jack of clubs) and the other two are indifferent cards that are simply there for extra cover when you deal off the force card
I wouldn’t really call this a move but here it is…
When the spectator stops dealing you immediately take the deck from their PALM UP DEALING HAND with your PALM DOWN DEALING HAND. In this action you reverse the deck.
It is an easy matter to do this while you are talking on the phone with your right hand. Or vise versa if your left handed. (alternately you can just set the phone on the table or have someone else hold it etc.)
In the natural action of taking the deck with your left hand palm down and turning your hand over into dealing position the deck will be reversed and you can cleanly and slowly deal off the force card. From the top down you know have face down jack of clubs, two face down indifferent cards, and the rest of the deck all face up.
I usually deal the card off to the side, or into their free hand, but tell them to KEEP IT FACE DOWN AND DO NOT TAKE THEIR EYES OFF OF IT!!!
To cover this subtle reverse of the deck I will usually say “Lisa I have no idea if you got it right but Mary looks very excited!!!” This will usually get a big laugh if Mary is sort of just politely standing/sitting there. If she DOES look very excited then all the better.
Immediately after I have dealt the card I turn all the dealt cards on the table face up just to point out they are all different.
The rest is all build up for the final revelation. You can really get three moments of impact with this effect.
The subtle revelation of the verbal cues. They will start to freak out when they realize you really did say those things.
Then the actual revelation of the selected card…
And finally the jumbo card prediction! (You can just draw a jumbo card on a piece of paper or board. Or if you want to reveal it, in a turkey, game hen, duck, loaf of bread, pumpkin pie etc. this makes it strong and memorable)
Clean Up
To clean up I haphazardly toss the deck onto the face up mess of cards. The two extra reversed cards will just coalesce with the others and all the evidence is gone without a trace.
History
There are dozens of effects that use a reversed card on the bottom as a force or FACED DECK as its now popular to call it. I believe credit should go to Al Baker and his great cutting force. This is an extension from very old force often done with a handkerchief over the deck. The real subtle use that Father Cyprian created takes it a step further. Interested students will do well to look up the original Baker Force and later Eugene Burger’s handling. I would also highly recommend you seek out Father Cyprian’s routine and anything else he put out.
Check out Father Cyprian’s Solid Gold Prediction from Elegant Magic of Father Cyprian by Frank Garcia
