Diplopia
by
Paul Vigil
by
Paul Vigil
The Advertisement
Diplopia is one of the strongest impromptu mentalism effects that you can do with a borrowed deck of cards.
Paul Vigil is a rising star in magic and mentalism and Diplopia will show you why.
Here's what happens: The magi asks to borrow a deck of cards. The spectator is invited to think of any card. They are asked to verify that the card is in the deck - and it is. The magi also thinks of a card; verifying that it too is in the deck.
The magi challenges the spectator to find the card he was merely thinking of and offers to transfer his powers to the spectator to assist them with the process. With one touch, the spectator gets an image of the card and removes it from the deck - hidden from the magi's sight.
The magi then attempts to find the spectator's thought of card. In the end, he correctly names the spectator's card. But the kicker here is that the spectator also has also found the magi's thought of card!
There is no forcing and no equivoque involved. Additionally, this manuscript details, with permission, the heavily sought after Infinity Principle created by Martin Nash, who used to sell this for $50 alone!
"Stunning! When Paul Vigil showed this to me my mouth dropped open." - Eugene Burger
"I spend my life traveling around and believe me I have seen my share of card locations. I have never and I mean never, been so fooled by any other card location...EVER. When Paul finally got tired of me begging to know the method I was even more impressed at how clever it really was." - Chris Kenner
"Impeccable." - Paul Harris
"The effect and procedure are clear and well structured; imbued with mystery and impact. Your nuanced mix of methods is more than just clever combination or variation. Diplopia matters." - Michael Weber
"One of the most baffling card effects I have ever experienced! Now it can be in your tool kit." - Jeff McBride
"Devilishly Deceiving." - Gazzo
"Paul Vigil has fooled me many, many times. Never however has he fooled me as badly as with this effect. It's as clean as you could hope for and even more devious than you could imagine in your wildest dreams. It's a perfect example of construction that elevates a card routine into strong, impactful mentalism. I can not recommend this highly enough as I simply do not think the English language contains words of high enough praise." - Luke Jermay
Review
When it comes to cards, I do a lot of memorized deck work. But I like having a few routines I can rely on that are just as strong as my memorized deck effects that I can perform with a shuffled deck. Diplopia is one of those effects. It's clean, it's direct, and it's powerful.
The effect goes like this: the volunteer shuffles the deck. He/she then thinks of a card and removes it, handing the deck to the performer. The card is returned fairly to the middle of the pack. The performer then thinks of a card as well, removes it, and hands the volunteer the deck so the card can be returned. The deck is shuffled by the volunteer again. The performer tells the volunteer to read his mind and look through all the cards and remove the one he/she believes the performer is thinking of and pocket the card. Now the performer takes the deck and removes the card he believes the volunteer is thinking of. When the volunteer names his/her card, the performer's selection is dead on. The real kicker, though, is when performer names the card he thought of, and that the spectator freely chose, and the volunteer pulls that card from their pocket. Killer.
This is pretty much a sleight-of-hand free effect, but that doesn't mean it's easy. In fact, it will require quite a bit of practice to be able to get the main principle behind the effect down smoothly and to be able to do it with confidence in a real performing environment. Is it worth it? Oh, yes.
This is diabolical. There are no forces. The cards are freely thought of and chosen. The deck is shuffled twice by the spectator--once before the performance, and once during. Any deck, any time, anywhere. Surrounded. This is not an effect your audience will be able to explain away with sleight of hand or anything else. That said, for this effect to play the way it should you do need to present it properly. So on with the tips...
Tips
First, when I perform, I always have a short card in my deck. Applying a short card to Diplopia allows you to substitute it for the "Infinity C*****d" card. If Diplopia is an effect you know you want to perform regularly, you're not going to want all those "Infinity C*****d" cards in your deck. By having a short card in your deck, you can perform Diplopia the same way as described in the book, and you can repeat the effect again during your next set without the work from the first performance affecting your next set. Those that have already read the book will understand this.
Second, while Diplopia is at its best when performed with a borrowed deck, I almost always perform it using my deck. So, when the spectator is removing cards in this routine, I always turn my back and tell them to "keep the front and back of the card covered so that way I can't see the face, and so later you can't accuse me of using any marked cards." This helps set the test conditions and kills off one way of explaining how the effect may be accomplished (which is not the method, so you want to make sure that angle is covered when performing with your own deck).
Third, when the volunteer is about to look for the card I'm thinking of, I tell them, "Now I want you to go through the deck, but take your time. Look at each card and one will just stand out to you as feeling right. Keep looking through all the cards though, because you might change your mind. So take your time, look through all the cards, and then go with your gut with the card that felt right." What this does is it keeps the spectator from just whipping out the first card they see or not appearing to put any thought into the process. This helps in forcing them to mirror the process you're going to do next when you look for their card. In effect, adding this patter will make both your selections of cards look the same.
And fourth, (again this will only make sense if you own the effect and understand its workings) whenever I'm working with a dupe in my deck, I always use red ones. Whenever I have a card signed to give away (for ACR for example) I always spread the deck face up and tell them "try to pick a red one because I'm going to have you sign it in a moment and I want to make sure you'll be able to follow your signature." Likewise, if I'm going to destroy a card (T&R Transpo) I also force red cards. What this does is it ensures all my black cards are still in the deck. So even when I'm working with dupes or missing cards I can still perform Diplopia. When it comes to the "force that is not a force" part of the effect I always just go with black. In other words, the card I "choose" is always a black card. Hope that helps fellow workers using this effect fit it into other routines they're doing that may call for the need of a dupe or destroying a card.
Conclusion
This is one of those effects I will perform for the rest of my life. When it comes to mentalism with cards--especially a shuffled deck--Diplopia is sitting among the top contenders. The effect is $15, but it's worth a lot more than that. At least for me it has been. This is what card magic should like--unexplainable and engaging. It really does not get any better than this. If you ever wanted to borrow a deck of cards and perform an effect that felt like real magic, this is it.
Purchase
You can purchase the effect from Jamie Grant through Paypal by clicking here.
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