Hi all,
As the title suggests, I've been thinking on and off about a trick I saw 25 years ago that I really want to identify. I'll note that I'm not a professional magician , so perhaps the name of the effect or a similar one is common knowledge. If so, great, because I would love to finally wrap up all of this wondering.
I'll describe the trick as I saw it performed multiple times on the same day. Can anyone point me in the correct direction?
THE TRICK:
Magician spreads deck on table face up. The deck appears to be a full 52. At the very least, there are many different cards from each suit.
Magician asks multiple people (at least three) to look at any card and think of it. They are instructed to not tell anyone the card or give any verbal or physical indication of which card they've mentally selected.
Magician then goes one by one through the participants with something along these lines:
Magician: Participant 1, is your card a red ?
Participant 1: No.
Magician: OK, it's the four of clubs. (CORRECT)
Magician: Participant 2, your card is the jack of hearts (CORRECT).
Magician: Participant 3, is your card the seven of hearts?
Participant 3: No.
Magician: OK, then it's the ace of diamonds (CORRECT).
This was completely mind blowing for me and my friends who watched this. And because the magician (no famous performer - a guy hired for a girl's sweet sixteen) was there for hours, we followed him around and asked + got him to do the trick several times.
I'm not saying he nailed it every time like I describe above, but he had a very high hit rate and we couldn't see any pattern as to the cards that ended up being correct. It was truly amazing to everyone.
What's more, one time, a friend who was standing behind the magician the entire time and who was not invited to be part of the trick interjected, "Well what card am I thinking of?" and the magician nailed it.
I can also tell you with a high level of confidence that there were not stooges among the participants as this was a high school birthday party and we knew all the guests and it was the magician just walking around the venue, not posted up doing performances at a specific time. I got to be a part of the trick at least once and he got me.
So does anyone know what trick this would be? I'm glad to answer any questions as best as I can if you have any. I feel pretty confident about my recollection, since I've been asking magicians about it over the years (including a few at the magic castle). I'd love to finally track down this down. Thanks in advance!
As the title suggests, I've been thinking on and off about a trick I saw 25 years ago that I really want to identify. I'll note that I'm not a professional magician , so perhaps the name of the effect or a similar one is common knowledge. If so, great, because I would love to finally wrap up all of this wondering.
I'll describe the trick as I saw it performed multiple times on the same day. Can anyone point me in the correct direction?
THE TRICK:
Magician spreads deck on table face up. The deck appears to be a full 52. At the very least, there are many different cards from each suit.
Magician asks multiple people (at least three) to look at any card and think of it. They are instructed to not tell anyone the card or give any verbal or physical indication of which card they've mentally selected.
Magician then goes one by one through the participants with something along these lines:
Magician: Participant 1, is your card a red ?
Participant 1: No.
Magician: OK, it's the four of clubs. (CORRECT)
Magician: Participant 2, your card is the jack of hearts (CORRECT).
Magician: Participant 3, is your card the seven of hearts?
Participant 3: No.
Magician: OK, then it's the ace of diamonds (CORRECT).
This was completely mind blowing for me and my friends who watched this. And because the magician (no famous performer - a guy hired for a girl's sweet sixteen) was there for hours, we followed him around and asked + got him to do the trick several times.
I'm not saying he nailed it every time like I describe above, but he had a very high hit rate and we couldn't see any pattern as to the cards that ended up being correct. It was truly amazing to everyone.
What's more, one time, a friend who was standing behind the magician the entire time and who was not invited to be part of the trick interjected, "Well what card am I thinking of?" and the magician nailed it.
I can also tell you with a high level of confidence that there were not stooges among the participants as this was a high school birthday party and we knew all the guests and it was the magician just walking around the venue, not posted up doing performances at a specific time. I got to be a part of the trick at least once and he got me.
So does anyone know what trick this would be? I'm glad to answer any questions as best as I can if you have any. I feel pretty confident about my recollection, since I've been asking magicians about it over the years (including a few at the magic castle). I'd love to finally track down this down. Thanks in advance!