Carlos Vinuesa - Numbers, Cards and Time!

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Numbers, Cards... and Time!

Carlos Vinuesa
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Dedicated to Pablo and Alberto for
their magic and their friendship.
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c Carlos Vinuesa del Rı́o
Written in Cambridge, Sanxenxo and Madrid, 2011-2012
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Numbers, Cards... and Time!
by
Carlos Vinuesa
Photographs
Cristina Medrano
Covers and figures

Ángel Suazo Nácar
English revision
Chris Wardle
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Preface
This book gathers together a part of my history with magic, in parti-

cular with card magic. In these pages you will find a selection of what I
consider some of the best and most personal material I have developed. I
have published it because I think there are some nice ideas that could be
useful for other magicians, as well as my desire to inspire the reader. In fact,
this book is essentially a translation of part of my (recently produced) book
in Spanish Cómo se hizo.... Some magicians in the UK from The Pentacle
Club in Cambridge and The Magic Circle in London encouraged me to
translate these ideas into English. I also hope that sharing this material will
be motivating to make me work in new directions.
I have learned a lot from books and I very much like the fact that one
can know authors through their books, see how they think and understand
why they do what they do and why they do it in a particular way. I have
tried to show my way of constructing, thinking and understanding magic. I
have also described how several of the ideas were born and I have tried to
give credit to all their many inspirations. This work owes a great deal to a
lot of people, most of which appear listed in the alphabetical index at the
end. But, since it is very difficult to name everyone, I apologize to all those
people that do not appear but who should. I have remarked on all of these
things because in many cases I consider the process even more interesting
than the results (although I consider the results to be very important too).
This work contains a versatile and powerful idea which, for example,
allows you to obtain a duplicate of a freely chosen card in a shuffled deck
(Appendix A, The Trick that Can Be Explained ), my approach to the Card
at Any Number effect (Chapter 1, Card at Any Number ) and a sequence
–a more beautiful word than the hideous ‘routine’– I entitled Back to the
Future (Chapter 2, Back to the Future) which is essentially a version of the
well known effect Collectors, a Camel Race and a further version of the Card
at Any Number effect.
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Preface
I am very happy with this sequence and I believe that the methods
are elegant, versatile and deceptive. In fact, in 2010 I was thrilled to be
awarded The Ascanio Prize, Close-up Magician of the Year in Spain for
this. Although there are isolated ideas and tricks in this work, I find both
beautiful and interesting the link of some things with others, because of the
story or the construction; that is why I like the idea of talking about this
sequence. It is also the excuse to talk about some subtle uses of stripper
decks and about how to implement many of the ideas included in the rest
of the book.
Everything is explained as I perform it, including what I say (the sen-
tences written in bold in this book form the script) even, in some
occasions, what I wear or what I think while I am performing. I like to use
costumes to place myself in character (in the style of Mortadelo, one of the
legendary comic characters of Francisco Ibáñez) and letting the character
do the magic and telling the story. Besides finding it very funny, I believe
that in some occasions the character helps to make the fiction (in the case
of the sequence in this book ‘I come from the future’) more ‘believable’
or memorable. Nevertheless, they are not real characters but ‘caricatures of
characters’ which allow me to become myself again when I want to improvise
or for the benefit of the magic...
Virtually everything that you will read in these pages has gone wrong in
public at some point. Thanks to these failures, I have sometimes thought
about ‘outs’.
Emergency exits. You will find this symbol when I explain po-
ssible ‘outs’ for fails.
Before this prologue comes to an end I would like to thank Cristina

Medrano and Ángel Suazo for their patience and for the works of art that
are their photographs and designs. I would also like to thank Pablo Poza,
Gilbert, Pipo Villanueva and again Ángel for their careful revision of former
versions of this work. Finally, I would like to thank Woody Aragón for his
help with the publication of this book, Irene for her help with the translation
and very especially Chris Wardle for his careful revision and correction of
the English draft without losing my ‘voice’ on the page.
I hope these pages are useful and inspiring for you or that they simply
let you know me better. Welcome to Numbers, Cards... and Time!
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Table of Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i
Table of Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
1 Card at Any Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

1.1 That Is Not Possible! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 My Grail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.3 What a Coincidence! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.4 With a Freely Chosen Card: The One with the Blindfold! . . 16
1.5 Twins Hit Twice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
1.6 Twins Without Jokers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
2 Back to the Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

2.1 Back to the Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
2.2 Material and Preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
2.3 Summing up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
2.4 I Have Destroyed the Time Machine! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
2.5 The Flux Capacitor (The Queens) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
2.6 Past, Present and Future (Collectors) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
2.7 The Sports Almanac (The Race) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
2.8 It is the Time (Card and Number) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
A The Trick That Can Be Explained . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

A.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
A.2 The Article . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
A.2.1 Origin and Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
A.2.2 The Switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
A.2.3 Faster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
A.2.4 The Trick That Can Be Explained . . . . . . . . . . . 85
A.2.5 Interesting Variants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
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Table of Contents
A.3 Some Time After... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
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Chapter 1
Card at Any Number
Name a number between 1 and

52.
1.1 That Is Not Possible!

Vitoria. Magialdia 2009. Pablo Poza, Jacobo Lauda and myself wander
around the magic fair.
Jorge Blass comments at Perete’s1 close-upmagicshop.com stand:
– So you have The Grail ! What a great trick!
My curiosity is suddenly aroused:
– Hi Jorge. What trick are you talking about? What is it?
– It is a very good trick. One of the best purchases I have made recently. I
am very happy with it. I do it all the time!
– And can we see it? Can you do it right now?
– Yes, I can.
Jorge takes one red backed card and puts it on the table face down. He
also takes a blue deck in its case and says to me:
– Name a number between 1 and 52.
– 36.
– 36. Are you sure? Do you want to change it?
– 36. I am sure.
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Remember my present for the advertising!
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Chapter 1. Card at Any Number
– Take the card case, open it and take the cards out. Now deal the cards
one at a time face up on the table until you arrive to the 36th.
I do this.
– 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10...
There are no duplicate cards, I look very carefully and there are no
duplicate cards. I took the cards out of the case myself and I am the one
dealing the cards face up. I am starting to get suspicious.
– ... 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35 and 36.
– The Queen of Clubs. What a coincidence! Because the card I had left on
the table is...
Jorge takes my card, uses it to scoop up the card on the table and there
it is...
– ... the Queen of Clubs!
There they are, the two queens, it is not possible. That is not possible!
Ten minutes later we are in the closest bar unwrapping our new purchase:
The Grail by Mike Rose. We find a ‘gaffed’ card and a DVD. A DVD! There
is nothing else...! We will have to wait until we get back to Madrid late on
Sunday night.
After all the weekend pondering over it and after some funny anecdotes
during the trip, at 3:30 a.m. on Monday the 21st of September, 2009, I
insert the DVD into my laptop.
I am not going to describe the method in full detail here, I will only say
that it is such a brilliant idea that at the beginning it is difficult to believe
that it works. It seems impossible that you can cover every number!
Although everything you will read from now on will be self-contained

and you will understand it without being familiar with The Grail, I strongly
recommend to study that method if you have the opportunity. In doing so,
you will have a much better understanding of where this adventure starts...
After I assimilated the ideas in The Grail, I started to think about vari-
ations. It was clear that the method, apart from being very powerful, was
very flexible.
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I am pretty sure that one of the motivations to work on it was the great
impact that it had on me. Also, the new ideas and versions started from
things I had worked on previously. So, on one hand I had the enthusiasm
and on the other a direction to follow.
As always, the new ideas brought new problems with them that also had
to be fixed. If you want to know how these troubles arose and were solved,
you will have to read the next few pages.
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1.2 My Grail
After studying The Grail, I thought it would be great to do the same
thing but using only one duplicate. My initial motivation was that I had a
method to obtain a duplicate of a freely chosen card (see Appendix A: The
Trick That Can Be Explained ).
Well, if we place a card in the 22nd position and another in the 44th,
from the top, in a deck of 54 cards, then counting from the bottom the cards
will be in the 33rd and 11th position respectively.
This means that if we have a complete deck with a duplicate card and
a Joker (making a total of 54 cards) and we place the duplicate cards in
positions 22nd from the top and 11th from the bottom, then, either counting
from the top or from the bottom, we can find our card in positions 11, 22,
33 and 44.
Great! But what do we do with all the rest of the numbers? Relax,
insert the deck in its case. Imagine that number 23 is named instead of 22.
In order to move the card in position 22 to position 23, it is enough to move
one card from the bottom of the deck to its top. We can use the next ruse.
When we take the cards out of the box, we do it with their faces toward
us, parallel to our body. Our left index finger (with the help of our right
thumb if necessary) retains the card on the face, that stays inside the box,
and the rest are taken out of the box with the right hand. While we look at
the cards we have just taken out, our left hand goes down to an horizontal
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position. Then we look at the card case and ‘we realise in that moment’ that
one card ‘accidentally’ remains inside. Pictorially, we will first do this...
... and then we realise that this has happened.
And now that we have seen it ‘we are obliged’ to take the card. We do
not have to overact nor to say Good grief ! One card has remained
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in the card case! I am going to take it out... If this accident had

happened for real, we would never say that. There will be occasions to win
the Oscar for best actor, but this is not one of them... We will add the card
without further explanation. And since with the turn of the card case our
card has fallen and it looks like it was there originally, we will add it to the
back of the deck.
Our card is already in position 23! Great, but with this we only cover
one more number... Well, if we think about it, since we can do the same
thing on the face and on the back of the deck, we can already cover 8 more
numbers, the two closest numbers to 11, 22, 33 and 44, which are: 10, 12,
21, 23, 32, 34, 43 and 45.
That is very good, but we want to cover every number. Well, if we are
scatterbrained enough to leave one card in the card case, we could leave up
to 5, couldn’t we? Even if it sounds surprising, by moving a maximum of 5
cards from top to bottom or from bottom to top, we can cover every number.
The reason is that between 11 and 22 there are 10 numbers: the numbers
from 12 to 16 are at most 5 positions away from 11 and the numbers from
17 to 21 are at most 5 positions away from 22. The same thing happens
between 22 and 33 and between 33 and 44. Then, we can cover all the
numbers between 6 and 49. Better still, turn the book and take a look:
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As you can see, every number between 6 and 49 is covered moving at most 5 cards from our four fauvorite positions: 11,
22, 33 and 44. What if the named number is less than 6 or greater than 49? In that case, we would have at least two options.
The first one would be to move more than 5 cards. For example, to arrive at numbers 5 or 4 we could move 6 and 7 cards
respectively from bottom to top. The second option would be, on the chance that a number less than 6 or greater than 49 is
named, to say something like: That number could be OK but then everything would be very easy, name a more
difficult one, which is not so near the extremes... In my opinion, if the named number is very near the extremes,
then the effect is not the card and number effect. If 1 or 52 are named –even imagining a method that puts the card there
without apparent manipulation–, then the effect will be better or worse, depending on how good the employed method is
(and I believe that our method is not good enough for those extreme cases), but it will not be the card and number effect.
We will be losing the emotion of the dealing process... And this does not only apply to 1 and 52 but also to very small or
very large numbers (with large numbers the problem is not that we lose the emotion of the dealing process but that it is easy
for a spectator to request counting from the other end of the deck, which is always confusing because the number of cards in
the deck is not clear and perhaps we would have to give explanations about the Jokers; finally, either following the suggestion
or not, the effect will be lacklustre). That is why my favourite option is asking for a number not near the extremes, not only
because of the limitations of the method (although it is also a reason) but because of these considerations about the effect.
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On the other hand, the question of how to count quickly and indetectably
5 cards from the top or from the bottom of the deck arises. It is, indeed, a
detail of vital importance and I have thought many times about it, trying
to find new ideas, creating several methods and studying handlings. I will
explain my two favourite solutions: an impromptu one in this section and
one making use of the ‘bicephalous card case’ in the next.
Pablo Poza gave me the key idea, which is using the flap of the card
case to separate the first 4 cards from the rest of the deck2 . When we open
the card case, if we have to move 4 cards, our left index finger can retain
them very easily with the added advantage that it it not necessary to look.
If instead of 4 we need to retain five cards, we will do the same thing and
when the card case is open the tip of our left index finger will press on the
next card, retaining it in this way. For 1, 2 or 3, we will open the card
case forgetting about the cards retained by the flap and then we will turn
the card case with our left hand (keeping it in a vertical plane, while we
rotate it like ‘tuning in a radio station’) so the cards start to fall in our right
hand. Then, with the help of our right thumb, the index finger will count
and retain the necessary cards.
But we can only do this in one of the extremes of the deck, from its back.
In the other extreme, I suggest remembering which is the fourth card from
the face. When we open and turn the card case in order for the cards to fall
slightly spread, we will immediately have a visual reference that will allow
us to count and retain in a moment, with our left index finger, 3, 4 or 5
cards. If we have to move only 1 or 2, then we will not have a big problem.
That is the basic idea and you can do it with any card case. So if you
have a 52 card deck in its card case, a Joker and a duplicate, you can already
do the next trick:
My Grail
Effect: The magician leaves a prediction (it can be a card with a different
coloured back or a paper on which something is written) on the table and
shows in his hand a deck inside its card case. He asks for a number between
1 and 52, takes the cards out of the card case and gives them to a spectator
2
Like in the classic trick of the stabbed card inside a paper bag, in which a card is left
between the flap and the wall of the card case, making its extraction from the card case
really easy.
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so that he deals them one by one face up on the table until he arrives at the
one in the position of the number named. Let’s say that the card in that
position is the Seven of Hearts. The spectator reveals the prediction and
confirms that it is... the Seven of Hearts!
Secrets: If you have followed everything up to here then you do not need
many explanations. In the card case there are 54 cards. The ones in positions
22 from the top and 11 from the bottom are two Sevens of Hearts (which,
of course, is also the predicted card). The rest of the cards are the other 51
and a Joker in any order. In adition to that, we know the identity of the
fourth card from the face and we have left the four top cards separated from
the rest by the flap of the card case. When the number is named, moving
at most 5 cards, we can position one of the two Seven of Hearts to that
number, either counting from the face or from the back.
If the named number is greater than or equal to 28, the duplicate will
be seen during the counting process. But it will appear 22 cards before, so
we can be really relaxed about that, as it will not be noticed.
Another important note. If we are not in the situation in which we need

to move 4 or 5 cards from the back of the deck, it is possible that the four
cards separated by the flap might bother us when opening the card case.
After thinking about it, the best way I have found to avoid this is, to take
the deck with the left hand, keep it parallel to your body, and with the
flap to the side nearest to the audience, introduce your right index finger
between the four separated cards and the flap, press its tip over it and pull
to the right to open the card case.
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1.3 What a Coincidence!

The trick just described, My Grail, is quite3 practical in the sense that
it only requires you to bring a complete deck in its case, with a Joker and a
duplicate. It is also, I think, a powerful or very powerful trick.
Nevertheless, one can always look for the ‘drawbacks’. The next two
look like possible ‘weak points’ of the trick:
• If we have to count cards from the face when taking them out of the
card case, it is always necessary to look at the cards as we do it.
• It could be possible that a situation of strong challenge is created:

asking for a number between 1 and 52, with a prediction card already
on the table and with the deck still in its card case, could, on occasions,
create tension before the suitable moment.
The first problem can be solved with the ‘bicephalous card case’, while
for the second we could use the ‘extra card case’.
And, since I have mentioned it so much, what is the ‘bicephalous card

case’ ? Well, you have already seen it three times in the photographs of
this chapter. It is an idea that my friend Gilbert had and told me, but I
would not be surprised if it had been invented a number of times before,
since the idea is ingenious and very funny: it is a card case which can be
opened at both ends (from one of them one gains access to the top cards
and from the other to the bottom cards). In order to construct it one has
to cut out the base of a card case and paste the front (with the flap) of
another card case to that bottomless card case. You can see a photograph
of the ‘bicephalous card case’ with its two flaps opened next to the second
spread of cards in the photograph of page 42. Three little details have to
be added about this card case. Firstly, I recommend to you to cut out the
two little flaps that there are usually in the extreme of the card case where
it is opened, so the cards cannot get caught when the card case is turned to
take it to a horizontal position. Secondly, when you paste the front of a card
case to another the half moon shape on the opening side of the card case is
covered and so the cards trapped between the flaps and the walls of the card
3
If you want to replace ‘quite’ by ‘very’, go to page 24 and read Twins Hit Twice.
Then, if you want to replace ‘very’ by ‘completely’, go to page 36 and read Twins Without
Jokers.
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case are completely covered on both sides. Thirdly, I use Bicycle Seconds
card cases, since they have letters on both sides and not drawings, so the
‘bicephalous card case’ with two equal sides does not look strange (maybe
this is not such an important detail or it is only important for a specialized
audience which is used to seeing card cases, like magicians or poker players,
but since it has no disadvantages I use this).
The ‘bicephalous card case’ brought a psychological advantage with it,

which for me is important. Before, when I did not use this card case, if the
spectator named 11, 22, 33 or 44 (yes, this does happen; you will confirm
it if you perform this trick), I let him open the card case himself, I stressed
the impressive conditions and I felt great because everything had gone ‘per-
fectly’. But also, when I had to move cards and so open the card case myself,
even if the effect was also very good, I did not feel so great because ‘I had to
touch the deck’. The introduction of the ‘bicephalous card case’ forced me
to always open the card case myself, even if I did not have to move cards.
This made me change my attitude, and I started to feel relaxed when I had
to touch, because I always had to touch the deck! The interior monologue
when I open the card case and take out the cards is: I take the cards out...
Catch! Some of them are still inside. Well, I will put them with the rest,
what am I going to do? Where were they? Oh, on the back. Perfect, and
now I have to give the cards to the spectator so he can count them himself.
And how can this strong challenge be reduced? First of all, I would
like to say that I am not sure that the fact that there is a challenge is
a very big problem. In fact, in the next three sections there will be three
versions of the card and number effect in which this challenge will be present.
But I feel that in the moment of taking the cards out of the card case the
attention should not be directed to this action –if I have to move cards; if
not I draw all the attention to it–, so I usually ‘relax’ the situation with
a comment (sometimes I do it automatically as Pipo pointed out to me in
one occasion). In any case, it is true that with the detail of the ‘extra card
case’ that Miguel Dı́az suggested to me the challenge is relaxed. This idea
uses two card cases, one blue and one red. One of them is the ‘bicephalous
card case’ with everything prepared ‘as usual’ (duplicate, Joker, four cards
trapped with the flap in each side...), and the other is a card case with only
one card inside, which is of course the prediction. However, we handle this
card case as if it had another deck of cards inside (not throwing it on the
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table or something incriminating like that is enough, a course in mime is not

necessary). When the number is named and we open the first card case to
give the cards to the spectator, there is apparently another deck of cards on
the table, so the prediction is not so strongly present. Also, the use of this
idea creates a very beautiful moment when the spectator, after counting up
to the named number, takes the other card case expecting a deck of cards
and realises that it does not weigh very much.
What a Coincidence!
Effect: The magician presents two decks of cards in their card cases: one
of them is red and the other is blue. The spectator names a number between
1 and 52 and the magician gives him the blue deck so he can count cards
one by one face up on the table until he arrives at the named number. He
arrives, say, at the Seven of Hearts. The magician asks the spectator to take
the other deck of cards. When the spectator takes the red card case, he is
surprised to find out that it does not weigh very much. When he opens it,
he confirms that there is only one card inside: the Seven of Hearts!
Secrets: First of all, of course, there is no red deck! Inside the red card
case there is only one card, the Seven of Hearts. The blue card case is a
‘bicephalous card case’ with a 54 card deck of cards (a complete deck, a
Joker and an extra Seven of Hearts). The two Sevens of Hearts are placed
in the positions 22nd from the back and 11th from the face and between
each of the two flaps and its corresponding wall of the card case there are
four cards trapped. We leave the red card case on the table and keep the
blue one in our hands. When the spectator names a number, we open the
card case, we move ‘as usual’ the necessary number of cards to put one of the
Sevens in that position and we give him the deck so he can deal cards one
by one and face up on the table until he arrives at the card corresponding
to the named number. Now we exclaim: What a coincidence! Finally,
we add: Take the other card case... What happens? Now, we only
have to enjoy the end with our spectators.
Here it is a very interesting idea to get rid of the duplicate card and
continue with the blue deck if we want to do so. After the trick, we look for
the Joker and leave it outjogged in an open manner, so everyone can see it.
Following with our search, we lift the cards in such a way that only we can
see the faces of the cards and leave a Seven of Hearts outjogged (supposedly
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the other Joker). We take the two outjogged cards (if we want, we can even
put them into the ‘bicephalous card case’) and we put them in our pocket.
We have now a complete deck on the table and we have cleaned up the scene
of the crime.
Finally, a funny idea to present the trick in a different way that Pablo
Poza gave to me. When the spectator counts and arrives at the Seven of
Hearts, we crush the other card case on the table with a strong slap. When
it is opened, only the Seven of Hearts is found inside. In this case the effect
is slightly different, since apparently the slap makes all the cards except for
the Seven of Hearts ‘disappear’. Another possibility would be that we give
the slap on the card case because we are angry of finding time after time
that spectators always arrive at the Seven of Hearts, the only card that this
other card case contains. I have tried it a couple of times and I am not very
sure that the slap fits with me, but maybe you like it, my dear reader, and
that is why I include this little comment.
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1.4 With a Freely Chosen Card: The One with

the Blindfold!
This is maybe the version of the card and number effect of which I am
more fond. It is also the version that originated all the other ones in this
book, since the premise of using only one duplicate comes from the idea in
Appendix A for obtaining a duplicate of a freely chosen card. By the way,
this could be a good moment for you to read Appendix A.
The first problem that appears when trying to make a version of the
card and number effect along these lines with a chosen card is that we have
to put the cards into the card case to take them out of there moments later.
In the previous versions we did not have this problem because the deck was
already inside its case. I remember a conversation about this point with
Jacobo Lauda which motivated me to think about different solutions.
The second problem is much more serious. If the spectator names a
number greater than or equal to 28 then the duplicate card will be seen in
the process of dealing the cards, and we cannot let that happen, because the
spectator already knows his card! A first solution, which did not convince
me at all, was to make the spectator deal the cards face down (even when
the cards were dealt from the face of the deck!). With this proposal rejected,
there were not many options, unless the spectator was blindfolded... That
was it! I would blindfold the spectator! Then he would not see the duplicate
of his card when it was dealt for sure... To be honest, the first thing I thought
was that it would be very obvious that I was blindfolding the spectator
because the method of the trick did not allow him to see the cards. But
when I started to perform it, I was surprised to see that the trick was
much better by blindfolding the spectator! For the audience, the moment
in which the spectator is blindfolded with a card in his hand and names
it is sensational, it has a tremendous dramatic weight. What about the
blindfolded spectator? Over some time I was worried about what he felt or
thought, and so I always asked him (a different person each time, of course!)
at the end of the show what the experience had been like for him. Also
to my surprise, I invariably obtained the answer that he had lived it more
intensely than the rest of the spectators. A quirk of luck...
When I started performing the trick you are going to read, I did it exactly
as you are going to read now, at the beginning of the sequence Back to the
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Future. It was not bad, but after some brilliant suggestions Woody Aragón
made to me, I convinced myself that the beginning of the sequence Back to
the Future would be better as it is now. As you will read in Chapter 2, in
this new approach two decks are employed (actually there are three decks
but apparently there are only two) and the structure is that first everything
is set for the card and number effect in one deck –which is then isolated–,
then the other deck is used to perform some magic and finally the card and
number effect is done with the spectator blindfolded. This structure is very
neat because it can be adapted to any magic performance (preparation and
isolation at the beginning, magic with the other deck in the middle and card
and number effect at the end). It is also very good because ‘the deck switch’
goes unnoticed... But, as I was saying, we will see all that in Chapter 2.
Now we will focus on the ‘original’ presentation, where there is only
the card and number effect and only one deck (actually there are two, but
apparently there is only one). Even if, as we were pointing out, the version
on Chapter 2 has some little structural advantages, this is a very nice version
of the card and number effect with a freely chosen card for an occasion when
you have to do it without anything in the middle.
Freely Chosen Card at Any Number
Effect: The magician says he has a recurring dream, but he cannot re-
member the end of it. After that, he shows a complete ordered deck and
gives it to the spectator, so he shuffles it and pulls out any card with com-
plete freedom. The spectator looks at the card, remembers it, puts the card
back in the deck and shuffles the deck again. The magician tries to find the
card, but he cannot. He puts the cards back in the card case, leaves it on
the table and starts leaving the room downcast4 . Suddenly, the magician
changes his attitude completely and everything acquires significance to him,
it is the situation of his dream! He asks the spectator to name any number
between 1 and 52, gives him the cards, blindfolds him and asks him to deal
cards face up one by one on the table until he arrives at the card which
position coincides with the named number, that he must keep in his hand
and show to the audience. The spectator does so. The magician asks him
to name the card he saw. He names it and the audience claps.
4
The idea of making it look like everything has gone wrong to put the deck back into
the card case was given to me by David Pacho.
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Secrets: We need two decks of cards with the same back design and colour,
a ‘bicephalous card case’5 and a blindfold or sleep mask.
The first deck of cards is a stripper deck with 52 cards and one Joker.
Five of these 53 cards –just to fix some: the Nine of Diamonds, the Four of
Clubs, the Two of Hearts, the Seven of Diamonds and the Five of Spades– are
inside the ‘bicephalous card case’ in the following manner: the ‘bicephalous
card case’ is in horizontal position on the table and the five cards are inside,
face down, four of them between the flap and the bottom wall of the card
case and the fifth over the others and over the flap. In this way, we already
have four cards trapped so it is easy to count cards on the face and the fifth
card serves as a guide to put the rest of the deck into the card case without
tripping over the flap. We hide the remaining 48 cards of the stripper deck
in a convenient place to introduce them later, switching them for the other
deck. In Appendix A there is a switch described which is done with the
magician’s back to the spectators (see page 83), but, since this time only
the spectator can see the card he chooses, it is not so justified that the
magician turns around so he cannot see the card. Then, instead of that
switch, we will do the deck switch facing the audience, while we take out
the blindfold. In order to do this, we will have the stripper deck held together
with the blindfold in the inner left side of out jacket. The holder I use is a
soft spectacles case with an elastic band around its mouth so it can secure
the deck of cards and the blindfold. Besides, in the inner left part of the
jacket there is a large inside pocket into which the other deck of cards can
be dropped.
The second deck of cards is an ordinary one, but without the same 5
cards that are inside the ‘bicephalous card case’ (Nine of Diamonds, Four of
Clubs, Two of Hearts, Seven of Diamonds and Five of Spades). The deck is
in order and, do not worry, nobody will notice the five missing cards. Why
am I showing the deck in order and not mixed up? Because it is one way
of making clear that it is a complete deck (even if it is not!) and it has no
duplicates6 . Also, this is done in an indirect way, without mentioning it, a
thing that I love.
5
If you do not remember what a ‘bicephalous card case’ is, look up page 12.
6
I always think it is very funny when a magician shows a spectator a shuffled deck
saying: Make sure that every card is different. This would take the spectator some
time to check!
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As you are suspecting if you have read Appendix A, our plan is that the
spectator will choose a card from this second deck (and we have removed
from it the five cards that are inside the ‘bicephalous card case’ because we
do not want him to choose any of them), we will switch the deck with the
stripper deck of 48 cards when we take the blindfold out, he will return his
card and then shuffle. After that, the spectator will give us the deck back
and we will say: Shuffled, and cut! Simultaneously, we will cut the deck
taking it by its long sides7 , bringing the chosen card to the bottom of the
deck (since the card of the ordinary deck sticks out from the stripper deck
by the long sides). After that, we will only need to take the chosen card
and its duplicate to the 22nd position from the top and the 11th from the
bottom, put everything into the card case (separating the top four cards
with the flap) and finish ‘as usual’.
There is one more problem. In the ordered deck that we show, in princi-
ple, there are no Jokers. But, since in the stripper deck there is one Joker,
if it were seen at the end during the counting process it would be ‘strange’
and it could be obvious that the deck was switched. Nevertheless, if we
decide to put the Jokers in our ordered deck at the beginning then there
is the risk that the spectator chooses a Joker (the selection of the card is
completely free). In that case, we would also have trouble since the Joker is
not a good choice for the card and number effect (the Joker is a card that
is usually repeated in a deck of cards and we do not want people to think
we are using duplicates; in fact, if a Joker was seen before arriving to the
named number it would attract attention). How can we avoid both things
at the same time? I know it can look like a minor detail, but for me it was
very important, so I thought about it a lot. How do you show the Jokers
at the beginning but avoid them being chosen? The very astute solution to
this problem came from Pablo Poza8 : using advertising cards! We have to
make a couple of ‘funny’ cards: the first one shows on its face the faces of
two Jokers in horizontal spread and on its back the back of an advertising
card, and the second one shows on its face the faces of two advertising cards
in horizontal spread and on its back the back of an advertising card. You
7
The left hand holds the deck in elevated dealing position and the right hand cuts it
with its thumb on one of the long sides and the middle and ring fingers on the other in
horizontal Biddle grip (the right hand grip is the same as in a hindu shuffle).
8
When he gave me the idea, some days before the Ascanio Competition 2010, I told
him, excited with the idea, ‘If I win I will say the thing of the Jokers’ and I said it, I said
it...
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can see the faces of these cards in the photograph on page 42, on the left
of the spreads of cards (over the white coat). These cards are wonderful: if
they are in the left extreme of a spread of cards made from left to right, they
will be seen as two advertising cards and two Jokers to the left of the rest
of the deck. However, when we turn the spread face down and take away
the advertising cards, we are also taking away the Jokers! In this way, the
Jokers are seen in the ordered deck at the beginning but it is not possible
for the spectator to choose them after his shuffle, because they are not there
anymore! It is the perfect solution to our problem. Remember also that,
after finishing the card and number trick we had a beautiful idea of how to
get rid of the duplicate while apparently taking away the two Jokers (page
14). Using that idea at the end of this version is even better, since at the
beginning two Jokers are seen (also, after doing it, we will have a complete
stripper deck!).
And that is it! Let’s revise everything with the script I use. I have
a dream. There is someone blindfolded, he has something in his
hand and he does not know what it is. And then... I wake up!
When I wake up startled I take a deck of cards. They relax me.
They relax me because of their smell. They relax me because of
their sound. And they relax me because of their virginal order:
Ace, 2, 3, 4, Jack, Queen, King, ..., Jack, Queen, King, ..., Jack,
Queen, King, ..., Jack, Queen, King!, the two Jokers and the two
advertising cards; an ordered deck as it should be. Meanwhile we
have smelled, dribbled and spread the cards face up on the table. The cards
were on top of the ‘bicephalous card case’ lying across, since –remember–
there are five cards inside it. We turn the spread face down and take away the
two ‘advertising cards’ (without showing their faces because then the Jokers
would be exposed) and give the rest of the cards to the spectator so he
shuffles them: But we can allow a little disorder, so less advertising
and shuffle as much as you like!
When the spectator is happy with his shuffle, we spread the cards face
down on the table and we ask him to push a card with complete freedom,
but without looking at it yet because he can still change it for any other.
If he wants to change it he can do so, if not, he does not need to. We
square the cards and hold them in dealing position in the right hand (yes,
the symmetric grip of the dealing position in the left hand). Now, we tell
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the spectator: It is very important that you are the only person in
this room who knows the identity of your card. So please, bring
it close to the edge of the table, cover it, do whatever you want...
But note it carefully and do not forget it; it makes for a more
amusing finish!9 .
While the spectator is looking at the card, we exclaim: Oh, and a very
important thing, the blindfold! I brought it, I brought it... Here it
is! So pretty! At the same time we have opened our jacket to look inside,
first in the right side, then in the left. Then we have dropped the deck in
the large inside pocket and taken in the same grip the other one together
with the blindfold that we had hanging in the left part of our jacket. It is
convenient to use a flashy blindfold, so it will be fun when we take it out
and then the atmosphere will be relaxed near the moment of the switch...
After that, I like to look at the spectator, stop and add the question: Do
we know each other?
You can skip this paragraph in which I am maybe going to write some
silly remarks. Right now the blindfold is not important. Apparently I
am going to do the divination of a card in impossible conditions and the
blindfold is not needed at all for that. However, this is the moment to
take the blindfold out (because of the necessities of the method) and since
people still do not know what is going to happen, they cannot notice this
‘incoherence’ until much later. In any case, the story I am trying to ‘sell’ is
that I have a dream with something I do not exactly recognize and it finally
turns out to be the situation that happens when the trick fails: the spectator
names a number and deals cards blindfolded until he arrives at it. All this
makes sense to me only after ‘the fail’, so maybe I should take the blindfold
out later. But, since I want to take the blindfold out now, I change subject
immediately afterwards to something that supports the fiction: I have seen
this person in my dream and that is why I should recognize him. It looks
like my unconscious made me take out the blindfold and ask the question
in that moment (even I am not sure of recognizing the spectator because
I remember him with a blindfold). Because it is very probable that this
paragraph is rubbish, let’s say that I take out a blindfold because I want to
9
In page 218 of the second volume of Card College, which is where I read it, this
humorous and ingenious sentence is attributed to the Dutch magician Dick Koornwinder,
the originator of the charming little car we all know.
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and I do not give any explanations. Then each person will think whatever
he wishes.
We stress to the spectator that he remembers his card while we spread

the rest face down on the table so he can insert it wherever he wants, square
and shuffle. Meanwhile, we summarize: Remember the conditions, it
is possible that the trick will not work, but what impressive con-
ditions! He shuffled, he chose a card with complete freedom, he
has freely returned it to the deck and he is shuffling again... When
he returns the deck to us, we say: Shuffled and cut! We cut, as we have
explained before, from the hands to the table, taking the chosen card to the
bottom of the deck and glimpsing its face as we do so. We take the deck
from the table in position for an overhand shuffle and we run five cards from
the top to the bottom. Since there are five cards inside the card case and we
have just shuffled off five more, the chosen card ‘is’ already 11th from the
bottom; we only have to find its duplicate and take it to the 22nd position
from the top. We rise the cards and spread them between our hands looking
at their faces as we say: And in these conditions I will try to find
the card; very difficult! Jack, Queen, King, Jack, Queen, King...
Jack, Queen, King! We look for the duplicate of the chosen card (it will
almost never be among the five cards we have shuffled to the face10 ) and
when we arrive at it we leave it outjogged and carry on counting cards in an
outjogged position until we complete a total of 22 (including the duplicate
of the selection). We grasp this packet of 22 cards and take it out, leaving
these cards at the back of the deck11 . We do not have to worry about ‘hid-
ing’ any of these actions, seemingly we are using a strange method to find
the chosen card and then so we have licence to outjog cards, move them or
do whatever we want.
As soon as we leave the outjogged cards on top we have to change our

attitude, it has to look like something has gone wrong. You have to act
depending on what works with you. For example, I cannot talk or look at
the audience because they laugh, so I keep quiet and look down.
In a last glance to the cards, we injog the fourth card from the back.
10
If it is, convenient modifications are done...
11
Again, if the cards are finished before we arrive to 22, we do the obvious modification
of going to the right of the outjogged cards, counting the appropriate number of cards
until we complete 22 and taking this little packet to the back.
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This card is used as a guide to leave the top four cards trapped between the
flap and the wall of the ‘bicephalous card case’ when we close it, as can be
seen in the following pictures.
All that remains is ‘right button’12 . First we start leaving looking down-
cast, then everything makes sense to us and we change our attitude. We
ask the spectator to name a number between 1 and 52, we take the cards
out of the card case (moving the necessary number of them from top to
bottom or from bottom to top in our ‘usual’ way), we give them to him, we
blindfold him and we ask him to deal cards face up on the table until he
arrives at the one corresponding to his named number, which he must keep
in his hand and show to the audience. This is a very beautiful moment: I
have a dream, there is someone blindfolded, he has something in
his hand and he does not know what it is. You have a card in your
hand that we all know except for you. Can you name, for the first
time, the card that you have in your mind? If people do not go crazy
when he names it... Do not worry, they will go crazy for sure!
12
I had to write this expression often used by my friend Gilbert.
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1.5 Twins Hit Twice

The trick in this section gives a twist to the ideas with which we have
been working. We will not need duplicates at all, just a complete deck
with two Jokers. Besides being practical, it combines different non intuitive
principles, making it very difficult for someone to detect the method. In this
sense, it is a trick that you can use to baffle your magician friends with their
borrowed and shuffled decks (this is also true for the trick in the next section,
Twins Without Jokers, which I also recommend to you). Nevertheless, I am
very pleased because audiences enjoy it a lot and I enjoy it even more when
I perform it.
In August 2010, in the middle of ‘fiestas de la Paloma’, I was in la Latina

with a notebook and a pencil in my hands, explaining to my good friend
Pipo Villanueva all that you have read so far in this book about cards and
numbers. He listened very carefully.
On 14th September 2010 I received an e-mail from Pipo: Hey, I have

been reading a trick by Simon Aronson and it reminded me of you and your
card and number. It could be interesting for you... Maybe you can do a
‘double’ card and number with no duplicates?
By December 2010 I was already performing the trick you are about to
read. Thank you, Simon Aronson! Thank you, Pipo!
Let’s talk about the details. The fact is that the brilliant Simon Aron-
son discovered a principle that he called UnDo Influence 13 , that allows the
following to be done: Two spectators freely choose two cards, put them
back in the deck and square everything without the magician touching any-
thing. While the magician spreads the cards between his hands, the chosen
cards are controlled to two positions in the deck previously selected by the
magician (before everything started).
Since I can see you do not believe me, go and take a complete deck with
two Jokers. Put the Jokers in positions 10 and 32 counting from the back
and leave the deck on the table face down. Cut a packet of more than 10 and
less than 32 cards, that is, cut between the two Jokers, and look at the card
on the face of this packet. Remember it and put this packet aside. Now, as
13
If you have not done so, you must read Try the Impossible and see all of the wonderful
applications that Simon has developed with his principle.
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if you were a second spectator, cut under the Joker that there is still in the
deck, that is, leaving less than 22 cards on the table. Remember the card
on the face of this packet and also put it aside. As you can see, the ranges
of possibilities for the cuts are very wide. Put the first packet you cut back
on top of the deck and then the second one over it, completing the deck.
OK, two cards have been chosen and returned to the deck. Now, spread
the cards between your hands until you arrive at a Joker. Break the spread
at this point, just before the Joker –the Joker will be the face card of the
packet in your left hand, if you spread the cards right-handed– and square
all the cards you have spread in your right hand. Next, go on spreading the
cards that you have in your left hand, but this time do it over the cards that
you already have in your right hand. When you find the next Joker, break
the spread again just before it –again, the Joker will be the card on the face
of the packet in the left hand– and square the cards in your right hand, so
the cards you just spread finish squared over the packet you already had in
your right hand. Finally, leave the cards of your left hand under the cards
in your right hand –that is, on the back of the deck, since everything is face
up– and square everything. Believe it or not, your first choice is now in the
22nd position from the top and your second choice is in the 11th position
from the bottom. Do these positions sound familiar to you? Come on, check
it, I’ll wait for you...
One moment, but we would like to control ‘the same card’ to these
two positions, not two different cards. Well, that is the stroke of genius of
Pipo. His brilliant idea is to control two different cards to these positions
and, depending on the named number, find either one or the other in that
position. After that, we will see what to do with the other card. The idea of
using and ordinary deck and the one of using Aronson’s principle, make the
method much more practical (because we do not require any duplicates) and
much faster, since now we do not have to count 22 cards, the positioning of
the cards is almost automatic. Before deciding what to do with the second
card, let’s revise in full detail the UnDo Influence principle in this particular
case.
First of all, go to the next page, turn the book and take a look... Do you
remember?
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The diagram (thank you again, Ángel!) is self-explanatory. We have a deck of 54 cards (52 cards and two Jokers). The
Jokers (in white in the diagram) start in positions 10 and 32. The first spectator cuts between the two Jokers14 and looks
at the card on the face of his packet (in black and marked 1). The second spectator cuts under the second Joker and also
looks at the card on the face of his packet (in black and marked 2). The first spectator puts back his packet and the second
spectator does the same. All this is explained at the left of the diagram, where the double arrow indicates the change in the
positions of the packets by the spectators.

The result can be seen in the middle of the diagram (the shading will help you to follow everything clearly). Now the
magician (that is, you!) does the change of packets that we described before: cards are spread face up until the first Joker
appears and the spread is broken without including it, the next block of cards until the second Joker is spread and put on
the face of the previous block and the remaining cards are put on the back. All this, only changes the position of the two
packets shown in the middle of the diagram.
In this way, we get to the situation shown on the right (again, look at the shading to follow everything clearly). More
or less, at the top we have the cards that at the beginning were between the two Jokers followed by the first choice and at
the bottom we have the cards that at the beginning were on top of the first Joker preceded by the second choice. This is not
completely accurate since the Jokers are also there, but it explains very clearly the idea and why it works.
Because I do not like to leave a Joker on the face of the pack, what I usually do when I break the spread in the first Joker
is to interchange it with the card on its left before I start spreading these other cards over the ones in the right hand. Since
this detail is not necessary, it is not reflected in the diagram to avoid confusion.
14
Concerning the extreme cases, the first spectator could cut and see the Joker in position 10 and everything would work. However, the second
spectator cannot cut and see the Joker in position 32, because then the subsequent control would not work. This, together with the fact that, as
we have already pointed out, the Jokers are not ‘good’ cards for the card and number effect, makes the best option that the first spectator cuts
27
‘between’ the Jokers without including them and the second cuts strictly under the second Joker.
Once this is clear, the first card has no mystery for us. The problem is,
what will we do with the second card? In principle, it should be something
as least as good as what we have done with the first card. After different
trials and ideas with effects that either were not as good or had a different
nature and did not fit well with the first one, the one that I believe is the
best came from Pablo Poza, who suggested to me to make the second card
appear at the same number as the first. When the next presentation crossed
my mind, I completely fell in love with the idea.
Twins Hit Twice15
Effect: The magician borrows a deck with two Jokers and asks if there
are two brothers in the room to assist him with the trick. If not, he asks for
a couple and if not any two relatives or even two friends could do, but let’s
suppose there are two brothers. The magician says that something similar
happens to brothers and to the Jokers in the deck, they are physically similar
but it is impossible to make them agree on anything. Many spectators shuffle
the deck and each one of the brothers chooses a card by cutting a packet.
Then, the two brothers return their packets and square everything and the
magician asks the audience if in these conditions it would be difficult to find
the chosen cards. When the spectators reply affirmatively, the magician
agrees and says that because it is difficult he is not going to do this. He puts
the cards back into the card case and says that, rather than the difficult, he
is going to do the impossible, to make the two brothers agree on something,
asking them to agree on a number between 1 and 52. Once the number is
decided, the magician gives the deck to the first brother, asks him for the
identity of his card and invites him to deal cards from the back of the deck
one by one, face up on the table until he arrives at the agreed number, where
he finds his card. The cards are given to the second brother, who names his
card and deals cards from the face of the deck one by one face up onto the
table until he arrives at the agreed number, where... he also finds his card!
15
Just a quick note to explain the title. It is sometimes funny to compare the titles
of films in different languages. When I thought about the presentation of the trick with
two brothers that do not agree, the film Twins (with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny
DeVito) came to my mind. The Spanish title of the film is Los gemelos golpean dos veces
–literally translated, Twins Hit Twice– and I think it also reflects the idea of two powerful
effects that complement each other.
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Secrets: First, we have to get to the initial position for the UnDo Influence
principle, from a shuffled deck, without making it look like we are counting
or placing cards in certain positions. If the spectators can shuffle and it
looks like they are doing everything, even better. Remember that we want
to get to this situation, counting from the back: 9 cards, Joker, 21 cards,
Joker, 22 cards. We can do it in the following way.
We explain that it is impossible for two brothers16 to agree on anything

and, even if most people do not know this, the same happens with the Jokers
in a deck of cards. Next, we spread the cards facing us, and our left thumb
pushes groups of three cards into the right hand. We are going to count
21 cards in three groups of three, another three groups of three and finally
a single group of three. Three, three, three. Three, three, three. Three.
Meanwhile, if we find a Joker, we simply ignore it in our count and put it
on the table. When we arrive to the 21st card counting from the face, we
remember its identity –let’s say it is the Five of Spades– and go on spreading
the cards looking for more Jokers. If the two Jokers appear before counting
21 cards, do not worry, we can go on spreading to check if there are more
Jokers (in fact, if the deck is borrowed it is convenient to do so and if it is
our deck then we can always say we are forgetful). We square the deck and
leave it on the table, take the Jokers and talk about them: Do you see?
Jokers are like brothers... they look similar physically17 but if you
ask them something they will always have contrary opinions. Have
you ever tried asking the Jokers anything? Well, if they answer,
each one will say a different thing.
Now we say that the deck must be shuffled. We spread the cards facing
us and give the first brother all the cards from the face until the Five of
16
If there were no brothers in the audience, as we have pointed out before, a couple
or any two relatives or friends could do. The important thing is to remark –it does not
matter if it is true or false– that these two people never agree. A funny presentation, that
started with a suggestion of Kayto, is choosing a person whose surname starts with one of
the first letters of the alphabet and one whose surname starts with one of the last. Now,
we will suggest that one of them was a bookworm because his seat in class was always
near the front and the other was lazy and vagrant because his seat was at the back, one of
them never waited in queues and the other always did and every absurd thing that comes
to your mind. This justifies why their personalities and opinions differ widely. If you use
this presentation, even if you live in a place or a time where it does not fit, it will be fun
for you to know that the surnames of two consecutive presidents in Spain from different
parties were Aznar and Zapatero, as Fernando Figueras pointed out to me one day.
17
If the deck is a Tally-Ho then you will have to justify why an ‘ugly tamer’ is similar
to ‘some letters’...
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Spades, including this card. We have just given him 21 cards but nobody
can suspect we have counted them (we did that before). Now we look at the
second brother and tell him that since we have given a lot of cards to his
brother we are going to give him a little packet, because of their opposing
tastes. Meanwhile we have pushed three groups of three cards and given
him these nine cards. After that, we separate the remaining cards into two
packets and give them to two other people from the audience. Suddenly,
we look at some other spectator and tell him: Oh! So you also wanted
to shuffle... Here you are, shuffle the Jokers! Apart from being very
funny and making the shuffles more memorable, this allows us to justify the
fact that the Jokers are put again into the deck, even if at the beginning we
had taken them away.
Let’s continue with the collection of the packets. First we take the two
packets shuffled by two spectators (the last two we gave out for shuffling).
When they give them to us, we nonchalantly overhand shuffle them together.
After that we collect the Jokers from the spectator that shuffled them and
put them on top, on the back of the cards we already have in our hands.
People will laugh again, which is nice because they will not pay close atten-
tion to the place where we put the Jokers. Next, we do a bluff pass, that is,
we dribble from the right hand to the left all the cards except for the top
one and offer the left hand packet to the first brother so he puts his (21)
cards on top of it. We put the Joker in the right hand over the rest of the
cards with an audible clash, so it looks like it was a packet of cards. Finally
we leave everything on the table and ask the second brother to leave his (9)
cards on top. Apparently the spectators have shuffled random packets and
these have been shuffled among them in a casual manner; however, we are
ready to use the UnDo Influence principle.
We ask the first brother to cut a third of the cards, look at the card on
the face of the packet and put it against his chest. After that, we ask the
second brother to cut a large pile18 and do the same thing. We ask the first
spectator if he will remember his card and we ask him to put his packet on
top of the cards on the table and to square everything well so we cannot see
where his card is. We ask the second spectator to remember his card and
18
It looks as if asking them to cut ‘a third’ or ‘a large pile’ could require an explanation.
I learnt from Dani DaOrtiz that such an explanation is not needed and that, sometimes,
the intricate explanations we invent trying to justify some procedures are worse than
saying nothing.
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tell him to do the same.
Now, we ask the audience: In these conditions, with the deck shu-
ffled by four spectators... –oh no, by five, you shuffled the Jokers!–
and with two chosen cards that have not been touched by me at
all, and which you have only touched the edges of, do you agree
with me it would be difficult to find the cards? Meanwhile we have
spread the cards until the first Joker (and optionally changed the positions
of the Joker and the card on its left), we have put the next cards until the
second Joker on top of the first packet and we have left the rest of the cards
on the back of the deck (we can do this without breaking the spread, in the
style of Hofzinser’s under the spread control), leaving the fourth card from
the back injogged at the end of the spread (also optionally, we can spread
the cards on the face and remember the fourth one, so later it is easier to
count cards on the face)19 .
Exactly, it is difficult and that is why I am not going to do

it. Because I am not here to do difficult things, I am here to do
impossible things! And what is impossible? It is impossible that
these two brothers agree on anything, that is impossible! I am
going to ask you to agree on a number between 1 and 52, by your
favourite method. You can argue, you can hit each other... The
brothers do so (hopefully they will not hit each other, but maybe they will
argue and it will be fun). Once the number is decided, we take the cards
out of the deck, moving the necessary number of them from top to bottom
or from bottom to top by the usual method and we give the deck to the
first brother. The card in the position corresponding to the named number
can be his card or the one for his brother. In the first case we tell him that
he will find his card and in the second that he will find his brother’s card
in that position. Now he has to count cards either from the face or from
the back. In the first case, we have to think about how to put the other
card in the same number from the back and in the second we have to think
about how to put the other card in the same number from the face. We ask
the appropriate brother to name his card and the face up dealing is started.
Naming the card in advance is much better because of two reasons: the first
19
Sometimes, to avoid loosing rhythm, I do not look at the fourth card from the face
and I do not leave outjogged the fourth from the back, I simply put everything inside the
card case and at the end I have to count without any references. It depends on the day...
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one is that the dealing process is much more exciting (many cards are seen
and they are not the chosen one) and the second one is that it is much better
not to stop the count to ask for the name of the card near the end, especially
in the case that the cards are dealt from the face.
We have different situations now:
• The named number is greater than or equal to 28. This means that the
other chosen card will be seen during the dealing for the first brother.
Moreover, we will know its position and so its identity when it is dealt.
When the dealing is finished we only have to cut it to the top or to
the bottom of the dealt cards and put this packet on top or bottom
position. The spectator has counted for us! One example: The number
34 is named. We have to move one card from top to bottom. Then,
the other chosen card will be in the 12th position counting from the
bottom. When the first brother is dealing, we will look at the 12th
card and remember it and when the dealing is finished we will only
have to cut to leave that card on the face of the packet of dealt cards
and put it on the back of the deck. Now, the other chosen card will
be in the 34th position from the top.
• The named number is greater than or equal to 17 and less than or equal
to 27. Then the cards will be dealt from the back of the deck and we
will have to think about the number of cards we have to add to the face
of the deck to put the other choice in that position. While the spectator
is dealing, we will look at and remember the card in that position.
Finally, we will cut there and we will put the necessary number of
cards on the face of the deck and the rest on the back. One example:
The number 23 is named. We have to move one card from the bottom
to the top. Then, the other card is the 10th from the bottom. While
the first brother counts 1, 2, 3, 4... to find the first card, we count 11,
12, 13, 14... and we remember the card corresponding to the number
23. When we add these cards to the bottom, the other selection will be
in the 23rd position from the face. Again, the spectator has counted
for us!
• The named number is less than or equal to 16. Then the cards will
be dealt from the face and we will have to think about the number of
cards we have to remove from the top to take the other selection to the
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position corresponding to the named number from the back. In this

case, we have to run some cards from top to bottom with an overhand
shuffle during the pause created by the first effect. One example: The
number 13 is named. We have to move two cards from top to bottom
and the other choice is now in the 20th position from the back. When
the dealing is finished, we have to take the deck in overhand shuffle
position and run 7 cards from the top to the bottom. We already have
the other choice in the 13th position from the back!
The first effect should be very good, a thing that we will certainly use
to do whatever we have to do (run cards, relocate piles...). We will always
do it very casually and with the attitude that the trick is finished. In the
cases that it is not needed (small numbers), I prefer not to touch the cards
counted by the first spectator, which remain on the table. Now, we have
a very beautiful moment. Our attitude shows that everything is over but
someone, very probably one of the brothers, will ask immediately about his
card. Then, we will say: Well, if you do not agree... Wait a moment!
You have agreed on the number! But if he counted from the back,
you, just to contradict him... Take the cards and deal from the
face, what was your card? Not only will the second effect be very good,
but also everything is well suited, a cycle will be closed in a way. Try it.
Notes
Of course, you can always make one of the brothers deal to find the
other’s card, with the excuse of a ‘reconciliation’ between them. This is
lately my favourite option, since it is beautiful and it involves both brothers
in the two deals. Do it as you prefer.
If the deck is yours, the Jokers can have a breather crimp 20 , the deck can
be a stripper deck and Jokers can be rotated in contrast to the other cards...
In this way, you will be able to put both selections in their corresponding
positions with three cuts, without looking at the faces of the cards. Sincerely,
I do not think the trick will be much better because of this, but I give you
the sequence of cuts here: cut at the first Joker including it and leave this
pile on the table, cut at the second Joker including it and leave this packet
20
For more information about breather crimps you can look, for example, at page 96 of
The Vernon Chronicles - The Lost Inner Secrets, written by Stephen Minch.
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on top of the first and then leave the rest of the cards on top of everything;
finally, cut at the Joker in the middle of the deck (the other one is the
bottom card of the deck) including it and complete the cut. The chosen
cards will be in positions 22 from the top and 11 from the bottom.
As a result of the idea of employing a deck without duplicates, I had a
couple of further ideas for the card and number effect with only one selection
and without duplicates. I have to say that these versions are clearly inferior
to the rest of the versions in this book because we have the cards in our
hands when the spectator names the number and we have to do ‘things’
after he names it. First of all, we can use the UnDo Influence principle to
control only one card instead of two. One spectator cuts something like a
third of the cards and looks at its selection and the other lifts a large pile
from the deck so the first one can introduce his pile in the middle of the
packet on the table. With the same actions as before, the selected card will
finish in the 22nd position from the top.
The first idea, with an ordinary deck, is to now do an in-faro shuffle
but finishing it with the total false shuffle in cascade21 that Juan Tamariz
published in his book Sonata. In this way, after the cascade, we will have two
criss-crosed packets, in such a way that if we square them the chosen card
will be in position 44 and if we strip them out it will be in position 22 from
the back. It is very beautiful that 22 and 44, our two fauvorite positions, go
well with the faro shuffle. Now we can ask for a number between 1 and 52
and, depending on the named number, square or strip out the packets and
move the necessary number of cards from top to bottom or from bottom to
top to move the selection to that position.
The second idea is to use a stripper deck and do the same in-faro shuffle,
but rotating one of the halves before interlacing them. Now we put every-
thing on the table –with the long sides of the deck parallel to our body– and
we ask for a number. If they say 44, we have certainly done a very good
version of the card and number effect. If not, and this is quite probable, we
will have to strip out (or not) and move cards (or not) to move the chosen
card to the corresponding position. Since I am going to strip out the cards
on the table, I also like to move the cards with a handling on the table. This
version of the card and number effect, being inferior to the others we have
21
Briefly, because of the way the cascade is done, the two shuffled packets will finish
anglejogged after it, so we could strip out one from the other.
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studied in my opinion, will match very well with a gambling demonstration

sequence in which the magician says he can move a card to any position in
the deck. And I do not have to tell you how useful a stripper deck can be
for gambling demonstrations.
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1.6 Twins Without Jokers

I love the trick Twins Hit Twice from the last section and I have per-
formed it many times, for magicians as well as for laymen. Even if I think
that the trick is very good as it is, sometimes I have not been able to per-
form it because a deck with Jokers was not available. Also, even if I love
the mixing procedure with many spectators and the way to put the Jokers
in their corresponding positions, sometimes it could be more appropriate
to speed them up. The next version of the trick can be performed with a
deck without Jokers (even with a deck missing up to three cards). The deck
is shuffled by one spectator as much as he likes and then by the magician
once more, and after that it is prepared to apply Simon Aronson’s UnDo
Influence principle. Now, you do not have an excuse for not doing the trick.
Twins Without Jokers
Efect:22 : The magician borrows any deck of cards and asks for the colla-
boration of two brothers (or a couple, or whatever...). The magician talks
about the impossibility of making the two brothers agree on something.
One spectator shuffles the deck, the magician shows the disorder to the
audience and shuffles once more. Each one of the brothers chooses a card
by cutting a packet. Then, the two brothers return their packets and square
everything and the magician asks the audience if in these conditions it would
be difficult to find the chosen cards. When the spectators reply affirmatively,
the magician agrees and says that because it is difficult he is not going to do
this. He puts the cards back into the card case and says that, better than
difficult, he is going to do the impossible, to make the two brothers agree
on something, asking them to agree on a number between 1 and 52. Once
the number is decided, the magician gives the deck to the first brother, asks
him for the identity of his card and invites him to deal cards from the back
of the deck one by one face up onto the table until he arrives at the agreed
number, where he finds his card. The cards are given to the second brother
who names his card and deals cards from the face of the deck one by one
face up onto the table until he arrives at the agreed number, where... he
also finds his card!
22
Yes, I have noticed it is very similar to Twins Hit Twice.
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Secrets: Since the presentation I use in this trick is very similar to the
one I use in Twins Hit Twice, we will focus in the ‘technical section’ in
this explanation. Now, instead of a deck of 54 cards, we will use a deck
of 49 cards. In this deck, positions 20 and 40 from the back coincide with
positions 30 and 10 from the bottom, as the next figure shows.
Our objective is to move the two chosen cards to these two positions, so
that moving at most 5 cards we can take one of them to any number between
5 and 45, either counting from the back or from the face (all the comments
from previous sections about what to do if very large or very small numbers
are named apply here, together with the excuse that we are not sure if the
deck is missing some cards in case they name a very large number).
The first thing we need is a deck with 49 cards. If it is our deck, this is
not very difficult; if it is a borrowed deck, depending on what we are told
about it being a complete deck and having Jokers or not, we will palm 3,
5 or the necessary number of cards and the hand with the palmed cards
will take the card case and put everything (palmed cards and card case)
inside one of our pockets while the other hand gives the rest of the cards
(apparently all) to one spectator so that he shuffles them.
After the spectator has shuffled, we need to know the cards in positions
9 and 29 from the top of the deck. Because I do not want to count a lot, I
do it with the help of a faro shuffle, as follows. When the spectator gives me
back the shuffled cards, I start showing them to a spectator on my right (the
cards are facing him, with their backs towards me, in a vertical position)
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and I push across 5 cards. I turn a little to my left and I show 10 more cards
to a new spectator, but leaving them strongly outjogged (around half of a
card higher). Finally I turn slightly more to the left and I show the rest of
the cards quickly, spreading them from the left hand to the right and leaving
them at medium height (higher than the first 5 but lower than the next 10).
Meanwhile, we have asked: Are they well shuffled? Can you spot any
pattern? After showing them, we turn the packet face up on the extended
palm of our left hand and look at and remember the cards in positions 5
and 15, injogged and outjogged respectively thanks to the way in which they
were spread23 . Now, it is enough to make an out-faro shuffle (while we say
something like: And a last shuffle as thorough as possible...) to put
these two cards in positions 9 and 29 respectively (as it happens many times,
the cut for the shuffle does not need to be exactly in the middle and the
interweaving only needs to be perfect in the first 15 pairs of cards, which
makes things easier). If you do not want to faro shuffle for some reason (the
lighting or the deck conditions are not reliable enough, your hands shake
more than mine usually do in magic competitions or simply you do not like
it), a good idea is to give different packets to different spectators to shuffle,
one of them being of 20 cards and another of 9, and to look at the cards on
the face of these packets after the shuffle. These packets will be put back in
the pack in the last place and in that same order.
Now, everything is very similar to what we did in Twins Hit Twice, using
the two cards we are remembering instead of the Jokers for the cuts. The
first brother can cut between 9 and 28 cards (both numbers included) and
the second has to cut at the 30th card or deeper. Not much more to add, the
packets are put back in the deck in the same order they were taken, we make
the actions of the UnDo Influence principle (remember that the cards where
you have to cut are the two you are remembering), we put everything inside
the card case as before (remember that the card case is in your pocket) and
the two brothers agree on a number in which both of their cards will appear
(one from the back and the other from the face). At the end, put the deck
into your pocket ‘by mistake’ and immediately take it out together with the
cards that you had in there, to give everything back to its owner.
23
To avoid forgetting the indentity of these cards, it helps me to repeat in my mind
their positions in a memorized deck, in my case in Juan Tamariz’s mnemonica.
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Chapter 2
Back to the Future
I have destroyed the time

machine!
2.1 Back to the Future

I really like what you are going to read in this chapter. It is one of the
sequences I greatly enjoy when I perform because it is very funny and very
magical. Also, I feel very proud of the methods and the presentations of the
tricks (and also very grateful to the numerous friends that have given me
many ideas). And audiences love it! What else could you ask for? If you
want to know all the details, welcome to Back to the Future!
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Chapter 2. Back to the Future
2.2 Material and Preparation
• A white coat, a wig and a T-shirt with the Flux Capacitor 24 (put on).
Since I do not use the sleeves in all the sequence, I roll up the sleeves
of my coat up to my elbows.
• An alarm clock where the alarm can be activated by remote control25

(I will put the clock facing the audience in the front part of the table
to the right, from my point of view; the remote control is either given
to one of my friends so that he activates it or I put it in the right
pocket of my trousers in such a way that I can activate it through the
fabric).
• A flashy type sleep mask or blindfold (inside the bag).
• A pint glass (I place this in the front part of the table to the left).
• Five bottle-caps (in a pocket of the coat, they can be inside a purse).
• Two cards showing on their backs the back of an advertising card and
on their fronts the faces of two Jokers and the faces of two advertising
24
Many thanks to Miguel Ajo who gave it to me.
25
Many thanks to Xavier Tapias who made one for me.
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cards in horizontal spread respectively (this is an idea of Pablo Poza,

see page 19).
• A blue backed deck with the next five cards missing: Nine of Diamonds,
Four of Clubs, Two of Hearts, Seven of Diamonds and Five of Spades.
• Any red backed card (I use a Joker, but its face will never be seen).
• A red card case (I use one of Bicycle Seconds).
• A blue backed stripper deck (complete and with only one Joker).
• A blue ‘bicephalous card case’ (this is an idea of Gilbert, see page 12).
• A very special red backed deck with different cuts in its cards (mine
were cut by Mari Pura26 and they are perfect... Many thanks, Pura!),
cut27 and marked in the following way:
The thirteen cards, 5 of Spades, 6, 8, 9 and Jack of Hearts, 2, 5, 10 and

King of Clubs and 2, 3, 5 and King of Diamonds, have the cuts and marks
indicated with a 3 in the figure. The rest of the Heart cards (except for the
Queen), Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10 and King, have the cuts and marks indicated
with a 2 in the figure. The other 31 cards of the deck have the cuts and
marks indicated with a 1 in the figure. The four Queens start orientated the
other way.
26
My friends and I call these decks ‘maripuration’ decks.
27
In the figure the cuts are highly exaggerated to make it clearer (the actual cuts are
hardly noticeable by sight and the corners are perfectly rounded). Before the race phase,
we will use this deck as a usual stripper deck, without giving special attention to the short
sides. Every time we say a card is ‘orientated the other way’ before that phase, we will
be refering to the long sides.
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The marks, both the circular ones in the corners and the ones on the faces
of the angels (I like to call them ‘barefaced marks’), are made by scratching
a little from the back of the cards (Miguel Ajo showed this to me) with the
tip of a compass or with the sharp end of any other tool. I mark the cards
near a corner, so that they can be easily seen28 in a spread (or even riffling
one corner of the deck). The mark in the top left corner of all the cards,
allows me to know the orientation of each card (that is, where its wide end
is), so the deck is not only a stripper deck (asymmetric by touch) but their
backs are also asymmetric by sight. With the mark vertically symmetrical
from this I can distinguish the Hearts, after turning the deck 180 degrees,
looking at the bottom left corner as I spread. The angels without faces allow
me to check in a spread that the thirteen cards I want are on top.
• The sports almanac, that looks like this on one side29 :
28
For me, it is very important that the marks are very clear, since then they can be seen
without effort. Precisely, if we make very subtle marks that we cannot easily see, this will
accuse us of using marked cards when we are looking for them.
29
The two continuous lines with scissors indicate cuts and, following the usual system
of notation for origami folds (Yoshizawa–Randlett system), the dashed lines show a valley
fold and the dashed and dotted lines show a mountain fold. If you see other photos of
the almanac in this chapter you will find that it is in Spanish, because the one in English
does not exist. Yes, if you are fast, you can be the first in the world to construct one!
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and like this on the other (yes, if you read the last footnote and you are
going to say it, let me say it first, this side is in English):
In fact, the almanac is a poster that can be folded to obtain a ‘thin

book’. If you observe the picture and the notes in the previous page, you
will understand how to make the cuts and the folds. Briefly, the poster
(orientated as in the picture) has to be folded down the vertical line that
divides it in half and then one more time vertically. In this way we will have
a strip that can be opened in the middle; if you pull the central part of each
of the sides of the opening, you will create something like a book with 4
leaves, each one with a thickness of 4 layers.
As Simon Aronson explains, the idea of building up suspense in the

Shuffle-Bored effect with consecutive predictions that are discovered as the
paper is unfolded comes from Ali Bongo. Bob Sheets was the first to show
Simon Aronson the folding that he uses for his trick, which is essentially
half of our poster (either the left or the right half): there is only one cut
and folding it a book with 4 leaves, each one with a thickness of 2 layers,
is obtained. When I had the idea of having a prediction of the result of
the race in the sports almanac, Miguel Dı́az suggested to me to include
the Photo-Finish of the race. Then I had the idea of this ‘double surprise’
folding: when it looks like there is nothing else predicted, it is unfolded to
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show ‘except for the Five of Spades’, and when it looks like nothing else is
coming it is unfolded to show the poster with the Photo-Finish.
• A back-pack.
Inside the back-pack I put the blindfold and the red backed ‘special deck’.
In another pocket, I put the sports almanac.
About the rest of the cards and card cases:
1. The red card case is on the inner right side of the table.
2. The (blue) stripper deck is on top of the red card case, except for the
five cards –Nine of Diamonds, Four of Clubs, Two of Hearts, Seven of
Diamonds and Five of Spades– that are inside the ‘bicephalous card
case’, arranged in the way explained in page 18. And over this stripper
deck I place the red Joker, back out. Then, the colour of the card case
and the back card give the impression that this is a red deck.
3. The (blue) ‘bicephalous card case’ is on the inner left side of the table.
4. On top of this blue card case we have the card with the Jokers on the
face and the advertising card on the back, and over it the card with
advertising cards on the face and the advertising card on the back.
Over the two of them is the (blue) ordinary deck, which is in order
and missing five cards. Actually, before spreading this deck face up I
will have to move the two cards with the advertising card back from
the bottom to the top, but right now I am much more interested in
the blue back of the deck being seen.
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The next picture (in which the card placed further to the left is the only
red one) shows the preparation.
And we are ready!
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2.3 Summing up
In this section I will give you a quick and rough description of the secrets
of this sequence, only for you to get the idea...
• The spectator on my left shuffles and takes one card from the blue
deck on my left, but before he puts it back into the deck I move the
red card on top of the other deck to the top of this one, so the deck
actually shuffled by the spectator looks red now and the card is put
back in the other blue deck, which is a complete stripper deck, so I
have a duplicate of the chosen card and I can find it very easily even
if the spectator shuffles the deck after returning it (see Appendix A).
• When I take the blindfold out of the back-pack I change the blue deck
with a red card on top with the red ‘special deck’ that was there.
• When I say I am going to try to find the chosen card in the blue deck,
I am actually leaving the two copies of the chosen card in positions 22
from the top and 11 from the bottom (see Chapter 1), before isolating
this deck under the glass.
• Even if the spectator on my right shuffles the red deck, since the
Queens were orientated the other way I can find them easily.
• When the spectators choose three cards I manage to make them put
the cards back orientated the other way so, even after a shuffle, I can
control them. I introduce the Queens, also orientated the other way,
alternating them with the chosen cards, so after stripping the cards
orientated the other way, the three chosen cards appear between the
four Queens.
• I force the suit of Hearts (which is the one that will win the Camel Race
that is going to take place) ‘by pig-headedness’: either the spectator
on my left says Hearts, either he touches a Heart card or I do the
under the spread force.
• Using the cuts in the short sides of the red cards, after the spectator
has shuffled I bring to the top the 13 cards I want to be dealt at the
beginning of the race (one Spade, four Hearts, four Clubs and four
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Diamonds). Previously, I have put one of the other Heart cards orien-
tated the other way, so now, combining the cuts on the short and long
sides, I am able to put this card in position 14 without looking.
• The sports almanac is not very mysterious now. I have written and
photographed what happens at the end of a race in which those 13
cards and then any Heart first appear.
• When a number between 1 and 52 is named, it is very easy to put one

of the copies of the chosen card in this position. I only have to be a
little absent-minded when I take the cards out of the card case. Read
Chapter 1 and you will know how to do it...
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2.4 I Have Destroyed the Time Machine!

The glass and the two decks, crossed on top of their respective card cases,
are on the table. Either a friend puts them on the table for me or I enter
one moment before performing and I put them there quickly.
The music from Back to the Future by Alan Silvestri is heard. I appear
with the back-pack hanging on my shoulder and the alarm clock in my hand.
I suddenly make a gesture with my hand, the music stops, I look at the
audience and say: I have destroyed the time machine! It was very
dangerous. It could only lead to space-time paradoxes... I leave
the back-pack on the floor or on a chair on my side and I leave the alarm
clock on the outer right side of the table: And now I have memories...
Memories from the future! I have a dream. There is someone
blindfolded, he has something in his hand and he does not know
what it is. And then... The alarm sounds, either activated by myself
turning to my right and pressing the button of the remote control through
my trousers30 or by a friend of mine ‘hidden among the audience’ (from now
on we will suppose that we have a friend in the audience with the remote
control, so making the alarm sound and stop is ‘free’).
When I wake up startled I take my cards. They help me to re-
lax. They relax me because of their smell. They relax me because
of their sound. And they relax me because of their virginal order:
Ace, 2, 3, 4, Jack, Queen, King, ..., Jack, Queen, King, ..., Jack,
Queen, King, ..., Jack, Queen, King! The two Jokers and the two
advertising cards; an ordered deck as it should be. Meanwhile we
have smelled and dribbled the cards of the deck in our left from hand to
hand, and then moved the two bottom cards to the top, turned everything
face up and spread the cards on the table, as you can see on the next page.
I invite one spectator to come and sit down on my left. I say he is going
to represent the future, because he is on the right side of the audience31 . I
turn the deck face down, take out the advertising cards and give it to the
30
Kiko Pastur gave me an idea for the occasions when I have to do everything by myself:
instead of stopping the alarm with the remote control again (a thing that people could be
looking for right now), it is better to stop the alarm by touching the clock (switching it
off and on). This note could be nonsense if your clock, for example, sounds only for a few
seconds and stops by itself.
31
It could make sense to change the disposition of everything if you are in a country
where the usual writing (and reading) direction is right-to-left.
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spectator so he shuffles it: Because the future is used for the first time
it is ordered. But I want you to put some chaos in this order.
When he finishes his shuffle, I spread the cards face down on the table
and ask him to freely push one of them forward without looking at it yet,
since he can still change it for any other. If he wants to do this he can, if not,
he does not need to. I square the cards, hold them in dealing position in my
left hand and say: It is very important that you are the only one in
this room who knows the identity of your card. So please, bring it
near the edge of the table, cover it, do whatever you want... But
note it carefully and do not forget it; it makes for a more amusing
finish!32 . I square the deck and keep it in left hand dealing position.
I am going to do a masterly deck switch that Juan Tamariz devised for

the trick A Card and a Number of his Mnemonica. Symphony in Mnemonic
Major. The coincidence with the title of the trick is funny, isn’t it? The idea
of using the switch here is from Woody Aragón. I look at the audience as
if suddenly I have realised I forgot to invite one spectator to represent the
past. I take the deck on my right in Biddle grip with my right hand and I
point with this hand to someone in the audience asking him for his help. As
32
In page 21 I told you that this ingenious sentence is attributed to Dick Koornwinder.
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he is coming, I take advantage of his arrival and the applause. I put my left
thumb on the back of the top card of the deck in my right hand. I slide this
red card from one deck to the other, separating and rotating both hands.
Then, I put the deck in my right hand on top of the card case in the
left and finally I put the deck in my left hand on top of the card case in the
right, while I ask the spectator what his name is. A beautiful and subtle
justification for holding the deck in the left hand is to shake the spectator’s
hand with the right one.
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I address the first spectator: You have seen one card and you are
remembering it, aren’t you? Put it back in the deck and shuffle
again. While he is doing so, I turn to the second spectator, I take the deck
that is on top of his card case33 and when it looks like I am going to say
something to him, I remember: Oh, and a very important thing, the
blindfold! I brought it, I brought it... Here it is! So pretty! With
the right hand I switch the deck inside the back-pack34 for the special red
backed deck and I take out the blindfold.
Ok, I agree, everything is a little muddling, but it is brilliant; I will look
absentminded but people are not aware of the switches at all. The first one
is very difficult to perceive or even feel and the second one is a switch of
something that apparently has not been used yet, the red deck. Why would
anyone want to switch the red deck for another one if it has not been used
yet? Also, the first thing I am going to do with the red deck is give it to the
spectator on my right so that he shuffles it. That is the genius of making
the switch in this way, we are switching something that nobody cares if it
is switched.
I leave the blindfold on the left and change the subject: Remember
the conditions, it is possible that the trick will not work, but what
impressive conditions! He shuffled, he chose a card with complete
freedom, he has freely returned it to the deck and he is shuffling
again... When the spectator gives me the cards back, I say: Shuffled and
cut! I cut, as I have explained in Chapter 1 (page 19), from the hands
to the table, taking the chosen card to the bottom of the deck, I take the
deck from the table again and run five cards from the top to the bottom.
Since there are five cards inside the card case and I have just shuffled off
five more, the chosen card ‘is’ already 11th from the bottom; I only have to
find its duplicate and take it to the 22nd position from the top. I raise the
cards and spread them in my hands, looking at their faces as I say: And
in these conditions I will try to find the card; very difficult! Jack,
Queen, King, Jack, Queen, King... Jack, Queen, King! I look for the
duplicate of the chosen card (if it is among the five cards just shuffled to the
face or among the top 21 cards of the deck, the appropriate modifications
33
Sometimes, I like to spread the cards showing their faces to the audience as I see a
red back and many blue ones... I feel it gives some normality to the deck.
34
Although it is not exactly the same situation, using a back-pack for the switch is
influenced by the switch in the back-pack that Jose Quesoyyo explains in his lecture.
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are performed; see page 22) and when I arrive at it I leave it outjogged and
carry on counting cards in an outjogged position until I complete a total
of 22 (including the duplicate of the selection). I grasp this packet of 22
cards and take it out, leaving these cards at the back of the deck, whilst
I declare: I know one card that is not yours... I give the impression
that I have no idea which is the chosen card, saying exactly the contrary:
Well... in reality I know it... But, do you know what happens? It
is that... mmm... it is still not the time. It is still not the time!
Because you are the future... I know it, of course I know it... But
for dramatic reasons35 , we will leave it for the end... Meanwhile I
have left the fourth card from the back injogged and I have put the cards
inside the ‘bicephalous card case’, trapping the top four cards between the
flap and the wall of the card case, as explained on page 22. I continue: And
we will leave everything isolated ‘under the future glass’...
35
The excuse of the ‘dramatic reasons’ is used by Helder in one of his tricks.
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2.5 The Flux Capacitor (The Queens)

I address the spectator on my right, show him the cards and give them
to him so that he shuffles them: As you can see, the past is out of
order. Why? Because there have been wars, corruption... But
you can shuffle it a little more.
When the spectator gives me back the deck, I put it face down on the
table (with the wide ends of the Queens on the right). Since the four Queens
are orientated the other way, I can strip them out36 to the right simulating
a table cut and put them on top. Immediately after this, I obtain a break
under the two top Queens and move them to the bottom with a table double
undercut. Finally I execute a slip cut, that is, I retain the top card with the
left index finger while I extract to the right the top half of the deck, I put it
on top and square everything. This is the ideal position for the production
of four cards known as Freeman Display 37 .
36
The secret for a reliable extirpation of the Queens, that I learned from Alejandro
Furnadjiev, is to put the thumbs and middle fingers very near the corners of the deck and
with their tips like ‘little legs’ so the deck does not rest on the table but is very slightly
rised from its surface.
37
As Jack Carpenter explains in his book The Expert’s Portfolio No. 1, the production
is known with this name because Steve Freeman used to do it, but apparently something
similar already appeared in Karl Fulves’ Faro & Riffle Technique.
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In this phase, and also in the following ones, we give the spectator
a deck to shuffle with some cards orientated the other way. A very
useful out, in the case that he drops a card is to take it and give it to another
spectator saying: And you shuffle this one! Then, if at the end we have
one card less orientated the other way than we should in the deck, we will
know that the card held by the other spectator was one of them. Apart
from being very useful, it is of course very funny!
The advantage of having a stripper deck is that I can cut under the
Queen in the middle without mantaining a break under it. Then, I cut with
my right hand under the Queen orientated the other way in the middle and
I put this pile to the right of the other, in preparation for the next riffle
shuffle. I lift half of the cards off the packet on the right, then I leave the
bottom card of the left packet fall, then all the rest of the cards on the right
except for the top one, then half of the cards on the left, then the one left
on the right and finally the rest of the cards on the left. I push the packets
so one is inserted into the other forming a 120 degree angle. I turn the top
pile face up first (with the card I have anglejogged) to the left and then the
other to the right and the four Queens are produced.
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Meanwhile I have been saying: Of course, if you had a time ma-

chine, very probably you would have the idea of using it for lu-
crative purposes. You would go to a poker game, and when you
had to shuffle you would stop time, look at the cards and deal for
yourself the ones you liked. For example, the four Queens! With
these words I justify the possible slowness or fails in the shuffle. Also, the
production has the peculiarity that the two halves of the deck are turned
like solid blocks, and this gives it appearance of ‘having stopped the time’,
which is exactly what I am looking for.
This is not the only reason why this production fits in with the time
machine theme. During the applause, I take the left pile (without touching
the anglejogged card) in dealing position, face up in the left hand and, while
I take the right pile by its long sides with the right hand, I injog with the
left thumb the Queen on the face of the left pile.
I put the pile in the right hand on top of the one in the left and raise
my left hand to a vertical position, showing the faces of the Queens to the
audience. The cards will form a kind of colourful inverted Mercedes-Benz
emblem, more specifically a flux capacitor! This dramatic touch that the
Queens, that will later represent the time machine, appear in the shape of
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the flux capacitor is from Miguel Ajo and when he gave it to me I fell in
love with the idea. I think that the combination of this with the preceding
production is very beautiful.
I uncover a little more my T-shirt, while I say: But, look! The Queens
do not appear in a random way, they are arranged in the shape
of the flux capacitor! Because the Queens represent the time
machine.
Now I have to take out the Queens and rotate one of the halves of the deck
180 degrees, since the preceding operations have inverted the orientation of
one packet in respect of the other. Since there is an injogged Queen exactly
between the two packets, this is very simple. I take away the two anglejogged
Queens and the one on the face and leave them on the table, to the right (I
do not worry about their orientations, since later I will be able to tidy them
up). I cut with the right hand the face up packet on top of the injogged
Queen and leave it face up on the table with a flourish consisting of turning it
forward in the exact same way as a Stuart Gordon turnover and immediately
after rest the left side of the packet on the table and turn it to the left like
a page of a book. Finally, I put the Queen in my left hand with the others
and the face up packet on top of the other.
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2.6 Past, Present and Future (Collectors)

I spread the deck face down on the table and take the four Queens in my
hands (now is the moment to look at the marks on the Queens and, playing
with them, put their wide ends outwards). I address the spectator on my
right: The Queens represent the time machine, but you represent
the past so I would like you to push a card from the spread to rep-
resent the past. I turn to the spectator on my left: And you represent
the future, so I would like you to push a card from the spread to
represent the future. Please do not push any Queen; this is dif-
ficult since I have them in my hands. When they do this, I continue:
And now the two of you have to agree and push the same card
together, with one finger each, to represent the present, because
the present is the meeting point of the past and the future. It
usually happens that one of the spectators38 touches one card and then the
other feels obliged to touch the same. This situation is very funny, as can
be seen below.
When the three cards are out of the spread, I take the two on the sides
by their front extreme, with thumbs on the backs and fingers on the faces.
38
These spectators are called Javier and Sonia.
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I raise them, showing each spectator his card. When I put them back on
the table, their orientation will be inverted. I also learnt this elegant way of
inverting the orientation of a card from Alejandro Furnadjiev.
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I say: I want you to remember the past card and you the future
card. And in order not to overload you with too much informa-
tion, the rest of the audience are going to remember the present
card, remember that the present is alive! Meanwhile, I have taken
the present card, I have shown it to the audience, I have thrown it spinning
and taken it back. Since I can very easily see the mark on the card, if it
falls in the right orientation I simply leave it this way on the table, if not I
throw it forward on the table making it very casually turn 180 degrees.
I believe that all these open and casual handlings, avoid any suspicions of
the use of a stripper deck. I ask the spectators to replace their cards and the
two of them the present card. Next, I ask the spectator on my right to square
and shuffle the cards, while I say: Now I want you to shuffle again. In
this way, you are creating what is known as temporal chaos: an
unforeseeable sequence of memories, images and ideas. When he
gives me the cards back, I look at their edges, observing the approximate
positions of the three selections orientated the other way39 , while I show
the bottom card to the audience and to my two helpers: One thing I am
39
If I only see two cards sticking out in the middle, meaning that one of the chosen
cards is on the top or the bottom, I shuffle or cut casually before asking the spectators
anything.
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going to ask you is that you tell me honestly if any of your cards is
the bottom one. Because if this is the case the trick will not work.
No? And also tell me if any of your cards is the top one. Because
then the trick would not work either. No? I have taken the top card
in Biddle grip and I have shown it with Stuart Gordon’s turnover. In this
way I reverse its orientation40 , leaving the three chosen cards orientated the
other way in the middle and the top card also orientated the other way.
I spread the cards on the table, with the wide end of the cards orientated
the other way in the front, saying: This means that we can scientifically
deduce that your cards are in the middle, lost in the temporal
chaos. I take the Queens face up and introduce them into the spread,
alternating them with the three choices and in the same orientation as them.
Since I have already looked at the approximate position of the chosen cards
and since I can see the marks that indicate where the choices are, I can do
this very easily (it is important that the spread is as wide as possible). In
40
Our plan is to introduce the Queens in the same orientation as the three choices,
alternated with them. If we only did that, when we strip out the cards orientated the
other way the face of a Queen would be seen, a thing that I did not like at all. It took me
a lot of time to realise that I could reverse the orientation of the top card while showing
it to avoid that.
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the picture, for clarity, the three chosen cards are outjogged (in reality, only
the Queens would be outjogged).
I square everything on the table and make a couple of casual table cuts,
while I say: In these conditions, the past could be after the present
or the future between the two of them... In fact, I strip out first the
eight cards orientated the other way, moving them to the top and then I
cut half of the cards from the bottom to the top (the three chosen cards are
already trapped between the Queens and in the middle of the deck).
I leave everything on the table and continue, addressing first the specta-
tor on my right, then the audience and finally the spectator on my left: But
the time machine was not conceived to do minor things... What
was your card? And yours? And yours? The time machine was
conceived to achieve the dream of every man: to control the past,
the present and the future! I make a magical gesture over the deck (I
like to press with my index finger on the back of the top card of the deck),
I spread the cards on the table and remove to the sides the cards on both
sides of the Queens so the picture of the Queens trapping three cards can
be clearly seen: Three cards between the Queens... which are none
other than...
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I take the seven cards from the table and raise them with the faces of
the Queens looking at me, and I outjog each one of the three trapped cards,
naming them as I do so.
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In this effect and in the preceding one, I imagine that Doc is explain-
ing the workings of the time machine with a sort of ‘mock-up’. Since the
spectator representing the future is already remembering one card from the
beginning, I recently had an idea so he does not have to remember another
card in this part of the sequence: instead of showing the past and future
cards to the two helpers at the table, I show them to the people on the left
and on the right of the audience respectively; I then show the present card
to the people in the middle of the audience.
As it was to be expected, the idea of using a stripper deck for this
effect had already been invented. Ashford Kneital has a version called Bone
Collectors in which the Queens are not completely introduced in the deck
and the three chosen cards appear between them.
Now I have to tidy up everything and prepare for the next phase. I move
the Queens to one side and square the rest of the cards orientated the same
way, except for one of the Heart cards of the second group (that is, Ace, 2,
3, 4, 5, 7, 10 or King; see page 43) that has to be orientated the other way.
If the card I showed on top when I asked the spectators if that was their
card was one of the Heart cards I am interested in, everything is very easy.
I take out the three cards between the Queens, leave them over the cards
in the left with a flourish that puts them in the same orientation as those
cards, I put the pile on the right on top of the one on the left and the Hearts
card I am interested in is already orientated the other way in the centre. If
not, I could be that one of the three chosen cards is one of the Heart cards
I am interested in. In that case, I only reverse the orientation of the other
two cards, leaving that one orientated the other way, I take all the cards in
the right pile except for the bottom one (which is the fourth card that was
orientated the other way) and with a ‘Stuart Gordon type’ flourish I put
this card on top of the rest. Finally, if none of the four cards are suitable, I
tidy up everything in the same orientation just as before and then I spread
the cards face up between my hands, looking for one of the Heart cards I
am interested in, cutting it to the top or bottom and casually inverting its
orientation (with a Stuart Gordon turnover first and then turning it like a
page of a book, as if I am playing with it). This Heart card we are orientating
the other way will be the 14th and last card to appear in the Camel Race,
and will guarantee that all the predictions written in the almanac are proved.
Reading the next section, everything will become clear.
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2.7 The Sports Almanac (The Race)

I remember when I found the trick The Horse Race (a version of Derby
from Toni Koynini) in Nick Trost’s Gambling Tricks with Cards. I loved the
idea41 and the method, which is very intelligent and very flexible. Neverthe-
less, I started to perform it and, although it was very funny for the audience
(and for me), I felt it was missing a proper finish. Later, I discovered I was
not the only one. Woody Aragón, for example, has a beautiful version with
a Spanish deck of cards (in volume 1 of his DVDs Cartomagia para empezar )
where the spectators choose the order of arrival of the horses.
I thought that I could predict everything that happened in the race and
also maintain the excitement of the audience until the very end. At the
beginning I added a group of cards in a certain order to the top of the
shuffled deck, but then I realised that, even to guarantee the excitement, I
did not need to do so much: essentially, only the position of the last card of
the group is important. I started to do a version with a stripper deck, then
Pablo Poza suggested to me to use cuts in the short sides so that I could do
the trick after other tricks with a stripper deck and, finally, the combination
of the cuts in the short and long sides lead to a quite interesting method.
I take out of the back-pack the sports almanac (I feel that this makes it
more natural in a way the fact that I took the blindfold out of there too) and
I say: But no, Marty42 had to use it for his own gain. That is why
he bought the sports almanac! This volume compiles the results
of all the sporting events until the year 2050. A little example:
2033, Atleti43 win all of the competitions! It is getting closer...
Meanwhile, I have opened the almanac and pretended to read it. Now, I
leave it next to the spectator on my left, telling him: I am going to leave
the almanac here because you represent the future. Next, I give the
deck to the spectator on my right: And I am going to give you the
cards so you can shuffle them because you represent the past.
41
The idea is that the four Queens are on one side of the table and cards are dealt from
the deck, moving the Queen of the same suit of each dealt card one position to the right.
The first Queen to arrive at the finish –say the fifth position– wins. That is, like the
Camel Races at the fairs!
42
Yes, Marty McFly. If you do not know who Marty McFly is... Don’t you know who
Marty McFly is?
43
I do not follow soccer a lot, but in Madrid the Atleti followers are called ‘the sufferers’.
Replace Atleti with your corresponding local team. You will always get a laugh...
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While the spectator is shuffling I continue: Do you now which sport

Marty bet on? The Camel Races! Yes, it is this sport that is
usually played at the fairs. The Queens will represent the camels
and these caps will represent the positions of the race... I put the
four Queens face up in a column on my right side and the caps in a row near
the edge of the table which is closest to me.
When the spectator gives me back the cards, I have to strip out the cards
by their short sides. I put the deck on the table with its short sides parallel
to me and with the wide ends of the cards nearer to me, except for one of
the cards of type 2, which, remember, is orientated the other way (this card
has the same orientation as the cards in the figure of page 43, and all the
rest have the opposite one). In this way, I strip out the 13 cards of type 3
to the right by their short sides and the card of type 2 orientated the other
way. If I now start a hindu shuffle with this packet of 14 cards, the first card
to get out of the packet to the front will be the card of type 2 orientated the
other way. Finishing the hindu shuffle with the rest of the cards on top of
that I will have on top of the deck the 13 cards of type 3 followed by a card
of type 2, that is: one Spade, four Hearts, four Clubs and four Diamonds in
any order (which guarantees a triple tie just before the end), followed by a
Heart (which guarantees that Hearts will win).
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Then, when the spectator on my right gives me back the deck, I put it
on the table with its short sides parallel to me and the wide part of the type
3 cards to the right (contrary to the figure on page 43) and, imitating the
throwing of balls in the Camel Races at the fairs, I strip out the 14 cards
(13 of type 3 and one of type 2) to the right and put them on top of the
deck, while I say: So... Have you ever been to a fair? It is about
throwing balls and trying to get them into the holes and if you do
so your camel moves forward.
I now take the deck from the table, lift the 14 cards (which is very easily
done by the ends) and start a hindu shuffle of this packet on top of the
rest of the deck –the Heart card orientated the other way is the first one
to get out of the packet– while I say and sing44 : And there is a man
saying: Avanti tutti! Tutti jorobi! The race starts, let’s see who
will win. Come on lady, put the ball into the hole45 ... This usually
makes people laugh and relax, so the stripping out and the shuffle should
be in the background, which is exactly what we want at this moment. In
fact, the shuffles after the spectator’s one are a weak point (I remember
44
Miguel Miguel gave me the idea of using this song.
45
This is more or less a literal translation, do not worry if it does not make sense...
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talking about this with Germán Bernardo), so they should go as unnoticed

as possible.
I now explain that we are going to do the same thing, but with the
cards: if a Spade card is dealt, the Queen of this suit will move forward
one position, if it is a Club then it will be the Queen of Clubs. I ask the
spectator on my left: What is your fauvorite suit? If he says Hearts,
I immediately add: Because the suit you name is the one that has
to win. Bravo! If he names any other suit I say: Mine is Hearts... And
I address the spectator on my right: And which is yours? Whatever he
says, I continue, addressing the spectator on my left: But the future is
fortuitous; I do not know what it means but it is in the script...
So you are going to extend your index finger and touch the back
of a card at random. Because of the position of the cards, in their lower
left corner I can see which of them are the Heart cards I am interested in.
When I start the spread between my hands, I control under the spread46 the
first of them I find, and then I go on with the spread, trying to make it easy
46
I like a lot Alberto de Figueiredo’s handling of Hofzinser’s spread cull, without moving
the right fingers under the spread. You can find the detailed explanation in his book 13.
Also, you will find that this handling covers the angles much better. I take advantage
of this opportunity to reply to the ‘public accusation’ of not employing his handlings in
my sequence Regreso al futuro that my good friend Alberto produced (magiapodcast.com,
program 8).
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for the spectator to touch a Heart card in each push of my left thumb. If he
does so... Bravo! If not, I do Hofzinser’s under the spread force, something
I had already prepared. In any case, Hearts will be chosen. Bravo! Whether
or not the spectator touches a Heart card, I do not give him the card, I only
show it to him and remark that the only important thing is the suit and not
the identity of the card, so nobody expects anything is going to happen to
that card (again a suggestion of Miguel Ajo).
I square the deck and spread it at the front of the table. This allows
me to take a look at the marks in the top left corner of the 14 cards, which
should be 13 ‘barefaced angels’ and a ‘thick dot’, in that order from the top
to the bottom (from right to left).
If one of the first cards does not show the mark that it should, we
have to fix this. We can take this card and stress the rules of the
race (let’s suppose it is a Spade card): Remember that if a... Spade is
dealt, the Queen of Spades will move one position forward. Now a
card from the lower half is taken (let’s suppose it is a Heart): And if it is a
Heart, the Queen of Hearts will move one position. And the first
one to arrive is the winner. So, after your shuffle, start dealing
from the first one!
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The spectator deals cards one by one, and I move forward the corres-
ponding Queens and commentate on the race: Hearts starts! Clubs goes
after it! Clubs again, this is a breakaway! Diamonds comes from
behind!47 ... And finally, Hearts win! The race finishes exactly like this.
Now that we have seen how everything works, I would like to high-
light another advantage of the method. Let’s imagine that the spec-
tator on our right drops the cards. Even in that scenario we can fix every-
thing quickly and easily! We only have to put all the cards in the same
orientation respect to the cuts on their long sides –a thing that can be done
by stripping out the cards (on the table or with a hindu shuffle) and rotating
one packet– and after that rotate one of the type 2 cards, to arrive at the
same situation in which we had given the spectator the deck so that he could
shuffle it. Now, we give him the deck again (if he drops it again, rap him on
the neck) and follow as before. Observe that this is also true, for example,
at the beginning of the sequence, when the spectator on our left shuffles a
stripper deck with an ordinary card.
If you observe carefully, you will see that the Queen of Clubs is slightly
more advanced than the Queen of Diamonds (I point it out when I reveal
47
You can use expressions from your favourite commentator. I do this in Spanish but
cannot translate that...
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the tie prediction in the almanac and it justifies the Photo-Finish). As you
can see, there is always a triple tie just before dealing the last Heart card:
excitement until the end! When the Queen of Hearts reaches the end, I turn
on the alarm of the alarm clock, like indicating the end of the race.
Everything is complete. I say that I am not surprised by the result, since

I had the sports almanac48 . Now I reveal the predictions one by one; the
spectator on my left reads them aloud and the one on my right checks them:
• FIRST RACE OF THE DAY. Winner: ♥. 2nd and 3rd place: tie! ♣
and ♦. Last: ♠.
• STATISTICS OF THE RACE. There were 14 cards.
• RED: 9 were red.
• BLACK: And all the black ones were Clubs.
48
An intelligent question would be: If everything was written in the sports almanac,
how can the spectator choose the suit? An intelligent answer would be: Because if he did
not the race would be rubbish, like a match in which you do not care who wins. Another
answer: Because it is more magical. If you think about it, it makes complete sense: the
almanac also predicts the choice of the spectator. In any case, the suit has to be chosen.
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And when the Five of Spades is seen... I play with the situation: if the
spectator shows it, I try to stop him, and if he does not show it I look at him
as if saying ‘it will not go unnoticed’... I say: But the Five of Spades is
only one card... I knew that the time machine could only lead to
space-time paradoxes! Meanwhile, I have placed all the cards as they are
in the Photo-Finish. I continue: But, wait a moment... because the
future always has a surprise for us! I unfold the almanac and show:
EXCEPT FOR THE 5 ♠.
During the applause, I continue: And if we unfold it again, we
will find Marty with the Photo-Finish of the race! Exactly as it
has happened! That is why I have destroyed the time machine!
Because it was very dangerous!
Sometimes, especially when I am performing for larger audiences, I use

a four floor stand (a little cardboard ‘staircase’ with four steps that I con-
structed) for the Camel Race. This has some advantages. First of all, it
sets the Queens in a vertical plane so they can be easily seen by everyone.
Secondly, it is similar to the actual Camel Races at fairs and it is (therefore)
funnier. Finally, if an assistant brings you the stand, ‘something’ (even a
quite large item) can be hidden in the back part of it; and by this I am not
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suggesting that me and my friend Pipo use it in our joint show A preguntas
tontas... to switch a quite large object, which has been in sight all the time,
for a very similar one...
As you have maybe observed, the face card of the pile in the poster
(and the one on the table) is the Ten of Clubs. It is a little detail that I
included to thank Miguel Ajo in the Ascanio Competition 2010 (he could
not be there because his son was being born) for all the ideas he gave me for
the sequence. Of course, the detail remains in the sequence so every time I
do it I remember him, in the same way that when I do many other details
I remember many other people. For example, the Five of Spades is also
a special card which I associate with Pablo Poza; it is the card we always
force at magic conventions (and out of them) and these kind of things... As
you have seen, it is present, among other places, in this sequence and in the
appendix The Trick That Can Be Explained...
I say goodbye and leave the room with my back-pack. As I am leaving...

the alarm clock sounds!
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2.8 It is the Time (Card and Number)

I come back, look at the glass, take everything off the table (I can put
it in the back-pack) except for the glass with its deck and the blindfold. I
address the spectator on my left (if he has returned to his seat I ask him
to come back): Of course, it is the time. It is the future! That’s
it, I remember now. Choose one person from the audience, the
one you want. Whoever he points to, I say: Yes, I remember it! You,
name a number with complete freedom between 1 and 52. When he
names it and confirms that he is sure, I lift the glass, take the ‘bicephalous
card case’, open it by the appropriate side, move the necessary number of
cards (the details are in Chapter 1) and give the deck to the spectator on my
left. I recap the shuffles and the free conditions at the beginning. I blindfold
him with the sleep mask, ask him to deal cards face up one by one on the
table until he arrives at the one corresponding to the number named, that
he must keep in his hand and show to the audience, and then say: I have
a dream. There is someone blindfolded, he has something in his
hand and he does not know what it is. You have a card in your
hand that everyone knows except for you. Could you name for
the first time the card that only you know?
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Appendix A
The Trick That Can Be

Explained
And that is why, if you are

wrong, apart from the
embarrassment, you will take
with you 73 euros and 20 cents.
A.1 Introduction
At the end of 2008, I had an idea as simple as it was efficient to obtain
a duplicate of a freely chosen card. Essentially: a card is chosen and the
deck is switched before the card is replaced. By the way, later I found out
that, as it was to be expected, someone had the idea before me, namely
one of my favourite geniuses, Charles T. Jordan, who applied it in his trick
Co-incidentally. Also, talking with Juan Tamariz and Dani DaOrtiz, they
told me that they had employed similar ideas in other effects.
Thinking about this powerful idea, I arrived at some things that I pu-
blished in an article that appeared in Madrid’s Magic Circle magazine Ma-
gicNews (issue 8), at the beginning of 2009, with the title El juego que sı́ se
puede explicar (Un homenaje a Ramón Riobóo) 49 . I include here a revised
version of this.
49
The Trick That Can Be Explained (A Tribute to Ramón Riobóo)
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Appendix A. The Trick That Can Be Explained
A.2 The Article

I still remember the first time that I read Ramón Riobóo’s effect Adi-
vinación a tres cortes 50 in his more than recommendable book La magia
pensada, and the impact I felt only reading the description of the effect.
Since then, Ramón has surprised us many times, now in person, with direct,
simple and very deceptive ideas.
Although always based on other tricks, and being very probably that
what I am going to talk about now has been invented many times by other
magicians, in the last few weeks I have connected some ideas and I think
they have the flavour of Ramón’s magic. In the ‘Christmas Gala’ of the 22nd
of December I performed some of these ideas and now I would like to share
with you what was not seen. I hope this could be in gratitude to Ramón
and an excuse to think about new and even better solutions.
A.2.1 Origin and Background

Everything started with this wish: having in the deck a duplicate of a
freely chosen card. The first idea one could have would be having duplicates
of every card somewhere and adding the appropriate one after knowing the
selection. What if we could add the duplicate without having to look for it?
What if we could add it even before knowing the chosen card? How would
that be possible? Introducing duplicates of every card. A spectator chooses
a card, while he looks at it we switch the deck for a complete one and when
the card is put back in the deck (which will now have 53 cards) we will have
a duplicate of the chosen card. Not only that, we will also be able to find
the chosen card, because it will be the only one that appears twice.
This way of using a duplicate is certainly an indirect one and it is very
interesting. It can be used, for example, to locate a card in impossible
conditions in a very unsuspected way. I though of the next effect:
I Will Make Two Piles and You Will Touch One
Effect: The magician asks for a borrowed deck51 and asks the lender to
shuffle it. He asks him to take a card from any part of the deck and turns
50
I am almost sure that it is the same trick as In the Bluff in his book in English
Thinking the Impossible.
51
The tricks in this article are thought to be performed for an audience with some
magicians so we can borrow a deck from them. This allows some subtleties and playings,
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his body so that he cannot see anything while the spectator looks at the
card and shows it to the audience. Next, the spectator puts the card back
in the deck and shuffles. The magician makes two piles with the cards and
throws one into the air. The remaining cards are divided again into two
piles and one of them is thrown. This is repeated three more times until
there are only two cards left on the table. The spectator is asked to touch
one of them with the promise that the one he touches will be his card. The
spectator touches one. It is his chosen card.
Secrets: We need a complete deck (52 cards) with the same back design
and colour as the borrowed one. The spectator shuffles his deck and gives
it back to us. We spread it between our hands in the most open and fair
manner and ask him to take a card with complete freedom, but without yet
looking at its face. We ask him if he wants to change it (if he wants he can
do this) and if he does not want to we tell him we are going to turn our back
on him so we cannot see anything while he looks at the card and shows it
to the audience. It is now when we do the deck switch (see details below).
We spread the cards between our hands so the spectator can put his card
back, cleanly square the deck and give it to him so he shuffles it.
The only thing we have to do now is to find the card that appears twice
in the deck, because that will be the chosen card. However, this is not so
easy to do (try it yourself: introduce an ‘extra’ card in a complete deck
without knowing its identity, shuffle, and you will see that it takes you some
time to find the card that appears twice).
The next presentation will allow us to find the card in an efficient way,
have a very strong moment in which the spectator finds his own card and
emphasize the fact that the deck has been borrowed without saying it.
When we are given the deck back, we say that we are going to make two
piles and, looking at the faces of the cards, we put the red cards face down in
one pile and the black ones in the other, counting as we do this the number
of red cards. If there are 26, then the chosen card will be black and we will
throw the red cards into the air. If there are 27, then the chosen card will
be red and we will throw away the black ones. We could say something like:
as we will soon see. But, of course, they can (and must) be adapted for a lay audience.
The starting deck for every trick could be incomplete, have duplicates... something that
makes the method versatile and suitable for ‘cleaning up’ a deck with ‘things’ we do not
want anymore.
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I will make two piles and your card will be in the one you touch...
Wait! These are too many cards! Let’s use a few less..., repeating
this sentence again and again until the end52 . We do the same thing with
the cards of the two suits we have kept. The selection is not in the pile of
13 cards, so we throw this pile into the air. Now we look at the 14 cards of
the chosen suit and, this time very quickly and easily, we will see which one
is the card that appears twice. We make two piles of 7 cards, one of them
with the two copies of the chosen card, and we throw the other. Now we
make a pile of 4 cards with the two copies of the chosen card and one of 3
that we throw into the air. Next, we make two piles of two cards, one with
the two copies of the chosen card and the other with the two other cards,
which we throw. Finally, we leave on the table face down the two copies
of the chosen card and say to the spectator: Now you will touch one
card and it will be your chosen card. But if you are right people
will think you have been lucky and if you are wrong everyone will
remember you as the one who spoiled the trick. And that is not
fair. So, if you are wrong, apart from the embarrassment, you will
take with you all the coins I have with me... And what is more,
you will also take all my banknotes –meanwhile we leave on the table
coins and banknotes; the more money the better. And not only that, I
understand your shame so well that if you are wrong I will give
my SEI53 card to the directive board so they can decide what to
do with it. The card you touch will be the chosen one54 , think
about it. The spectator touches one and we throw the other into the air.
We ask for the name of the chosen card, we turn the touched card and... it
is the same! We can take and kiss our card and our money.
Some brief comments. I suggest throwing the cards into the air each
time with less energy. The first 26 can be thrown up (and slightly to the
back) so they fall as rain, the next ones with less energy and so on. The last
one can be taken and dropped to the floor parallel to it, so it does not turn
face up in the air.
52
I like to put both piles on the table every time and say to the spectator: Now, touch
one. And when he starts moving his arm, say: No, no, wait! These are too many
cards! And then take one of the piles and throw it.
53
S.E.I. stands for Sociedad Española de Ilusionismo.
54
As you can see I say very clearly that the touched card will be the chosen one, but I
do not compare the situation with others saying something like: Observe that there is
no ambiguity.
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Throwing the cards into the air will be funny, especially the first time.
We will only have to look at the spectator that lent us the deck or say
something like You don’t mind, do you? so everyone remembers the
deck was borrowed. It looks like we are throwing the cards into the air to
bother him. I think it is a good example of a gag that reinforces the magic
(this will be even more clear in The Trick That Can Be Explained, in which
many cards from the deck apparently borrowed from the spectator are torn).
Finally, the end of the trick in which the magician risks his money, apart
from being funny, again serves another function: it stresses the difficulty
and makes the trick much more memorable. The use of the duplicate, which
allows this exciting final moment, makes the effect much better than the
‘simple’ guessing of the card it would be if we found it.
Do not forget to carry a new deck to give as a present to the spectator
at the end in appreciation of his kindness.
A.2.2 The Switch

The switch of the deck is the main secret of the effects in this article.
Nevertheless, the conditions to do this switch are very good because it is
done with our back turned on the audience, in a moment in which attention
is focused in other places and with actions that apparently are done ‘to be
more honest’.
All this does not mean that we should not be careful with the switch. I
explain a switch that can be done with many trousers55 and with any zip
hoodie or jacket that has an inner pocket. The deck we will introduce will
be in a pocket in the right side of the trousers56 which has the same size as
a deck of cards (if you do not have this pocket in your trousers or if it is not
large enough, you could have the deck under your belt or tucked into your
trousers). The deck is covered with the shirt or T-shirt if you do not have it
tucked into your trousers or with the hoodie or jacket. The inner pocket of
the hoodie or jacket must be in the left side and the larger it is the better.
The secret for the switch is to keep the elbows next to the body, so the
audience cannot see any suspicious arm movements. Before we turn around
55
Not wearing many trousers at the same time! I mean that you can do it with many
different types of trousers...
56
I thought it was designed to put coins inside it but, apparently, it is called a watch
pocket and it is designed to... hold a pocket watch!
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the deck is in our right hand, where we have left it after spreading the cards
for the spectator to choose one. After turning, and always trying not to
move the elbows, we drop this deck into the inner left pocket. Immediately
afterwards, we take with the left hand the other deck from the watch pocket
and... the switch is done!
In Appendix VI-5 (Deck Switches) of his Mnemonica. Symphony in Mne-

monic Major, Juan Tamariz describes an evil idea for this switch: Sometimes
it is convenient to rest the hand that holds the (already switched in) cold deck
on a nearby table and leave the deck there before turning to face the group. It
is even better if the table is in front of you. After a pause, turn again toward
the audience and ask the spectator if he has already buried his selection in
the deck. When he indicates that he doesn’t have the deck, point to the pack
on the table –hesitating a bit before finding it there– and instruct him to
insert the card into it himself.
Of course, there are other options for the switch; experiment and take
advantage of favourable situations.
A.2.3 Faster
As we said in the trick I Will Make Two Piles and You Will Touch One,
finding a card that appears twice in a deck of 53 cards is something not
easy to do very quickly. We would like to use the same principle but be
able to know the card instantly, and if possible without looking at the faces
of the cards. The solution is as deceitful as direct: make a ‘little mark’
in every card of the deck that we introduce with the switch. One option
is to mark the cards on their backs, near their outer left and inner right
corners57 . Another option, which could look absurd, but is equally useful,
is to mark the cards on their faces! (marks could be on the indices of the
cards, for example). When we spread the cards, the chosen one will be the
one without a mark.
This allows a location of a card in really impossible conditions: a deck

(which could be his) is shuffled by a spectator, he chooses a card with com-
plete freedom, freely puts it back in the deck and shuffles again. And it
is enough for the magician to spread the cards face down on the table to
instantly find the chosen card.
57
In page 43 I explain how I usually mark cards.
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Someone might say that it would be better if we could avoid the use of
marked cards. I agree. I would like that someone find a satisfactory solution
(that allows finding the card quickly) without using marks. If someone finds
one, please let me know. I have not been able to find one yet58 .
However, I will say something in defence of the method. I remember
that once Miguel Gómez was talking about the methods of the tricks and he
said that if someone used a marked deck to guess a card, that was not ‘very
artistic’. But then he added: ‘Unless he has an ingenious idea to glimpse
the marks of the cards in an intelligent way or he does other things...’. In
this case I think it is something like that. First, the starting deck is not
marked, it can even be borrowed. If later in the trick the cards have marks
but people are not aware of a switch, from the spectator’s point of view this
should not be important. In the same way that there is a technique to bend
all the cards slightly, the deck switch could be considered a technique that
makes a little mark appear on every card. Second, the marks do not have
the name of each card, in fact all the marks are the same. Even more, the
marks are only a shortcut, we know that, doing it more slowly, we could do
the trick without marked cards. Third, if we present the effect as we have
done with I Will Make Two Piles and You Will Touch One, the marks have
nothing to do with the effect, namely that the spectator finds his own card.
A.2.4 The Trick That Can Be Explained

In Dai Vernon’s More Inner Secrets of Card Magic, written by Lewis
Ganson, the Professor explains a trick with a title which immediately at-
tracts attention when you look at the table of contents: The Trick That
Cannot Be Explained. I strongly recommend that you read it, it is a lesson
on how to use all your knowledge, experience and background, and even your
luck, in your favour. The trick cannot be explained because depending on
what happens we do one thing or another, but the possibilites are so many
that it is impossible to detail all of them. Moreover, the way of proceeding
is not unique and we can always have better or worse effects, depending on
our inspiration and our knowledge. Interestingly, Woody Aragón was shar-
ing with me (and with some others) recently some valuable details he uses
in this trick. What a coincidence, he was the one who lent me his deck to
perform this trick in the ‘Christmas Gala’.
58
If you go to page 92, you will see the solution I found some time later.
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Ascanio said in his lecture How to Study Magic that one of the criteria
to choose a trick was the wit of the ideas, that if you sow your brain with
ingenious ideas you will tend to give birth to ingenious ideas. In Albert
Spackman’s trick Voodoo, which can be found in volume 1 of Lewis Ganson’s
The Art of Close-Up Magic, there are some of these ingenious ideas, in my
opinion. In particular, one of the cleanest and most casual forces I have ever
seen. I have always thought about including it in a card trick.
Putting all of this together and adding some classic ideas I arrived at
the trick I like to call:
The Trick That Can Be Explained
The Trick That Can Be Explained can be any of three different effects.
Depending on the chosen card, the effect is one or another. The necessary
material is always the same. We need a deck with 20 Five of Spades marked
on their backs in the four corners and 32 more cards that we can easily
recognize (I use the last 32 cards of Juan Tamariz’s mnemonica) marked in
the outer left and inner right corner of their backs.
We ask a spectator if we could borrow his deck and we ask him to shuffle
it. We spread the cards between our hands so he chooses a card and we turn
around so we cannot see it (that is what we say, but we switch his deck for
ours, we are really sneaky!). The spectator puts his card back in ‘the deck’
and shuffles again. We ask a second spectator to come and help us.
At this point we can find the chosen card very quickly, we only have to
find the card without marks; we can use a spread on the table or between
our hands. If there are some magicians in the audience, at the beginning I
have asked for a new deck or one in very good condition because I will have
to do some faro shuffles (later we will tear some cards and it will be funnier
if the deck is a new one) and at this moment I do a faro shuffle and leave
one of the packets outjogged; with the excuse of checking that the shuffle is
well done, I look at the marks on the cards. We control the chosen card (the
one without a mark) to the bottom and catch a glimpse of it. Depending
on what we see, we will have one of the next three effects.
Effect if the chosen card is the Five of Spades: The magician

spreads the cards on the table and the second spectator freely takes as
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many cards as he wants from anywhere in the spread, shuffles them and
cuts. He turns the top card of this pile and it is the one chosen by the first
spectator59 .
Secrets: It is very hard for the second spectator not to take a lot of Five
of Spades among his cards (we invite him to take something like 20 cards).
In any case, if luck is not on our side and the spectator does not take many
Five of Spades in his pile, kindly and carelessly we will help him to complete
his pile with cards marked on their four corners. We are so kind...
In a pile of cards with approximately half of them being copies of the

same card it is very easy to make one of them come to the top. We ask the
spectator to shuffle and put the pile on the table. If the top card is a Five
of Spades we ask him to take it, if not, we ask him to cut after shuffling. If
the top card is a Five of Spades we ask him to take it, if not, we ask him
to cut again. If the top card is a Five of Spades we ask him to take it, if
not, the other spectator must also cut. If the top card is a Five of Spades
we ask him to take it, if not, the other spectator must also cut again. If
the top card is a Five of Spades we ask him to take it, if not, the spectator
that cut first must cut again just in case he does not trust the one who cut
second. If the top card is a Five of Spades we ask him to take it, if not,
the magician also has to cut, but it is important that he cuts again after it
(the last one to cut should not be the magician). If the top card is a Five of
Spades we ask him to take it, if not, how are we going to cut –magician and
spectator– without the other spectator cutting? If the top card is a Five of
Spades we ask him to take it, if not, someone in the audience must cut...
I think you already understand the idea (a brilliant one, by the way) that
one can justify the number of cuts he wants. That is the idea of the force in
Albert Spackman’s trick Voodoo we talked about before. In any case, you
will rarely need more than two cuts.
59
This footnote will make more sense to you when you read the other two cases. When
I first conceived the trick, I had every case ‘solved’ except for this one. It was not very
serious because it is a very unlikely case, but it is curious that having such good conditions
(21 copies of the chosen card!) I did not know what to do (everything was thought for
two spectators but now the second spectator could not choose a card, the solutions like
having predicted the card or finding it myself did not satisfy me completely... I did not
find a solution I liked!). I showed the trick to my ‘magical brother’, Pablo Poza, and he
suggested to me ‘in that case, the second spectator finds the card of the first!’. It is curious
that the two spectators do exactly the same actions in the 3 cases until the force of the
Five of Spades included, but depending on the case the second spectator is choosing or
finding a card.
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Now it is clear how to finish. We recall what has happened: the first
spectator shuffles a deck, freely choses a card and shuffles again, the second
spectator freely takes the cards he wants, shuffles them and cuts and he gets
to a card. What was the card you chose? The Five of Spades? It
is not possible... but it is!
Effect if we do not have a duplicate of the chosen card (the

selection is among the first 20 cards of our mnemonica and it
is not the Five of Spades): The magician spreads the cards on the
table and the second spectator freely takes as many cards as he wants from
anywhere in the spread, shuffles them and cuts. He turns over the top card
of this pile, looks at it and remembers it and puts everything back in the
deck, shuflling again. The magician makes two piles with the cards and says
that each one of the selections is in one of the piles. He starts with the pile
of the first spectator and tears cards from it until there is only one left, the
one chosen by the first spectator. Now he deals the cards of the pile of the
second spectator into 5 packets and asks him to touch one of them. Now
the magician deals the cards of the touched pile on the table and asks the
spectator to touch one card60 . The spectator touches one and it is his card.
Secrets: Everything is exactly like the first case until the moment in which
the second spectator looks at his card –the top one of his pile after a shuffle
and ‘some’ cuts– and shows it to the audience (yes, it will be the Five of
Spades). Now, I like to say to the second spectator: Put your card on
top of your pile. And now cut. And complete. After a brief pause,
I continue: And shuffle a little more. Well, and shuffle your packet
with the rest of the deck, so everything is well shuffled. This is one
of the evil details that Ramón would introduce to make people think about
an explanation and erase it moments after.
Now we split the cards into two face down piles on the table, looking
at their faces. Next to the second spectator we put all the Five of Spades
and on top of them 6 more cards (different from the one chosen by the
first spectator). Next to the first spectator, we put the remaining cards
(including the one chosen by the first spectator).
60
This is, obviously, the classic ‘trick of the dice’ in which 6 piles are made and one
of them is chosen with a dice, popularized lately by Joaquı́n Matas with his exceptional
version of the trick of the ‘little frog’.
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We are going to find the first spectator’s card. We say: It is in this

pile, but it is not this one..., showing one card that is not the chosen
one and tearing it in half. Now, we keep on tearing cards, quicker each
time, until there are only two left, the chosen one and an indifferent one
(remember that we have a duplicate of the chosen card). Again, the tearing
of the cards and the faces of the spectator because of this, will reaffirm that
this is a borrowed deck without having to say it explicitly61 . To make this
first guessing a little more dramatic, we take the chosen card facing the
audience with both hands and just in the moment we are going to tear it
we leave it on the table and tear the other, saying: You chose this one!!!
The spectator will confirm this.
Now we are going to find the second spectator’s card (in fact, he is going
to do it). We make five piles with the cards from his pile dealing them one
by one. It will be noticed that the number of cards is not a multiple of
five and we will stress this with the next (false) sentence: Look, there is
one card left... you took cards from here and there and finally
they are not the exact number to make up the piles. We tear the
remaining card, which continues the joke and, more importantly, allows us
to show an indifferent card. Comment that the spectator took some cards,
shuffled them, chose one, put it back and shuffled his pile with the rest of
the cards. Then we have been half a minute dividing the cards into two piles
(duplicates in one pile and the rest in the other). After that we have guessed
the card of the first spectator and now we want to make the second spectator
(and also the rest of the audience) believe that this pile he has next to him
contains the cards he freely chose. I believe that this is achieved, so it will
look like the spectator finds his own card by touching the piles he wants
formed with the cards he chose. This has also, without doubt, the flavour
of Ramón’s magic; see for example his trick One in the Side Pocket, where
there is a very similar play with the card in the pocket of the spectator,
which the magician openly gives to him but most people will think that the
spectator chose it himself.
We have five piles with four Five of Spades and an indifferent card on
each face. The second spectator touches one of them and ‘his card has to
be there’. The touched pile is left on the table and the other four piles are
61
Also, all the cards are torn showing their faces to the audience, so they see many
indifferent cards. This subtly moves their minds away from the use of duplicates.
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picked up (take into account that you can let the audience see the faces of
the piles when you do this).
Finally, the four Five of Spades are dealt face down on the table. We
take the fifth card, look at its face, look at the spectator we borrowed the
deck from and tear it facing the audience. Again the same gag, that allows
us to get rid of the card we do not want the spectator to touch and also
show a new indifferent card. Now we say again that if he is right nobody
will remember it and if he is wrong it will be a shame, we take out our
money and our SEI card62 and we ask him to touch one. We take away the
other three. We ask him for the name of the card he chose: The Five of
Spades? It is not possible... but it is!
Effect if we have a duplicate of the chosen card (the selection

is one of the last 32 cards of our mnemonica): Everything is exactly
as in the previous case except for the first guessing/location in which the
spectator has the last choice between two cards. In this case, then, each
spectator ‘finds’ his own card63 .
Secrets: We do not have much to explain. ‘With the usual method’ we

force the Five of Spades, make the two piles and tear cards from the first
pile until only the chosen card and an indifferent one are left. In this case it
is maybe better to tear the cards without showing their faces, since in the
last choice we will not be able to show the face of the card we tear. After
the location of the first spectator’s card, the second one does the same as in
case 2 and we finish in the same way with ‘the money thing’.
Again, do not forget to bring a new and sealed deck and give it to your
kind collaborator as a present.
62
Or the one from your magic club...
63
I believe that is the best option but in the original article I proposed a different ending.
I describe it here so you can read it. I started with a card and number effect with the pile
from the second spectator (this packet had all the Five of Spades and 7 or 8 cards more on
the face). I spread the first cards of the face of the packet between my hands (so everyone
could see them), saying: You are going to find your own card... name a number
between one and... –looking at the packet like trying to estimate the number of cards
it had– ... between 1 and 20. The second spectator named the number and when he
counted his card was in that position. Then, I tore cards from the other pile until there
were only two left on the table and then I did ‘the money thing’ with that choice between
two cards.
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A.2.5 Interesting Variants

It is easy to think about new variants of the principle of the deck switch,
apart from using the duplicate for other kind of effects (for example for the
classical transposition of two cards using a duplicate):
• I had the idea of using the principle to force different cards in a very
easy way. One way to use it is to start with a forcing deck –with, say,
52 Five of Hearts–, and switch the deck for one missing exactly the
forced card. Another idea in the same line, for these tricks in which we
have to force, for example, 4 cards, is to have a ‘four way forcing deck’
(13 Three of Clubs, 13 Six of Spades, 13 King of Diamonds and 13
Seven of Hearts) and then switching the deck for one missing exactly
these 4 cards. Maybe this is like trying to use a sledgehammer to crack
a nut.
• Juan Tamariz pointed out to me that the principle is used in the

trick Cagliostro’s Spectacles (Bruce Elliot, Magic as a Hobby). Five
people select cards at random and the deck is switched for one with
blank faces. After the cards are returned and the deck is shuffled, the
magician shows the cards in a fan to a spectator (who has been given
a pair of glasses) that has not seen any of the selections but guesses
correctly and takes out of the deck all of them. It is a fantastic effect.
• I am sure you can find many more interesting variants. If you do,
please tell me about them.
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A.3 Some Time After...

After publishing the article, some people made suggestions to me about
it. I remember that Toni de la Iglesia told me something that motivated me
to keep on thinking in ways to find the repeated card quickly.
A little later, my interest in the stripper deck –what a brilliant thing!–

started to grow and one day came the idea: what if an ordinary card is
returned to a stripper deck? Then, in the narrow end of the deck, the
ordinary card will stick out and we will be able to cut at that point, catch
a glimpse of it and bring it to the bottom of the deck. What beautiful con-
ditions! We start with a deck, which can even be borrowed, the spectator
shuffles, he chooses a card with complete freedom (now we switch the deck)
and he puts it back in the deck also with complete freedom, he shuffles the
deck again and we say: Shuffled and cut! And in that action we already
know the card, we have controlled it to the bottom and we have a duplicate
of it in the deck.
So we have the conditions... and what can we do with them now? I have
been obsessed with this question for a long time. In the article you have just
read I talked about Arturo de Ascanio’s lecture How to Study Magic. There
is another of his lectures, Thoughts on Creativity, which is really wonderful,
in which master Ascanio sounds close, clear and moving. I think he hits the
nail on the head with everything he says there about obsession, about the
love for magic... and it is a text that has influenced me a lot.
Well, even if it sounds surprising, not many of the tricks that need a
duplicate improve much because of the fact that the choice is really free.
For example, I think that a transposition of cards (an example that was
pointed out in the article) does not really improve much because of the fact
that the two cards (instead of one) are chosen in perfectly free conditions.
Another example in which at first sight it looks great to apply the idea of the
deck switch is the masterly Between Your Palms of Alex Elmsley, which can
be found in the second volume of his collected works. However, if one thinks
about it, the trick does not improve very much because of the fact that the
three cards are chosen with a lot of freedom (instead of two of them). And
if one goes over many tricks, of course there are very good tricks using a
duplicate, but many of them do not improve because of the fact that our
card is chosen with a lot of freedom.
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The preceding reflections come, in part, from the idea I had of doing a
version of master Hofzinser’s mythical effect Everywhere and Nowhere, with
one duplicate. When I showed the idea to master Ricardo Rodrı́guez64 I
remember that he told me two things: that the idea for obtaining a dupli-
cate was brilliant and that using it for Everywhere and Nowhere would not
improve the effect a lot because the trick ‘is not about’ choosing a card with
freedom, it ‘is about’ the card appearing everywhere and then nowhere (yes,
the title of the trick is well chosen). And he was right, or this is at least
what I think now. Then, I went on with the obsession of finding a suitable
trick to apply the idea of the deck switch to obtain a duplicate. Although
I still think about finding new applications from time to time, I was very
happy when I managed to apply the idea to the beautiful version of the card
and number effect with a freely chosen card that you can read in Chapter 1.
64
By the way, you have to see his version En todas partes... y en alguna (in English,
Everywhere... and Somewhere), which is marvellous. You can find the description in his
book Magia de altura.
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Final Words
I enjoyed the play very much,

especially during the interval.
Groucho Marx
It seems obligatory to write some words here, so the text isn’t ‘inte-
rrupted’. I hope you have enjoyed the book. If that is not the case, good
news... it is already over! If you are anything like me, you will be reading
this before starting to read the book; I also love to get a sneak peak at
prologues and epilogues first of all. In that case, I recommend that you read
the whole book! Especially now that you know it has a happy ending...
It is exciting to finish writing a book. After such a long time devoted
to this, it takes a load off my mind. I am very happy with the result,
but, of course, I am not objective. I remember that in the prologue of
Joaquı́n Navajas’ Monedas Personales, Arturo de Ascanio said that, not long
before, Joaquı́n complained about not having more than isolated techniques
and ideas. And then he has all these wonders in the book... I have had
many times the same sensation, but seeing the result it looks like some of
these ‘little ideas’ have grown up nicely. It is very beautiful and moving for
me to observe this evolution and excuse me if at some points, due to this
excitement, I have been very tedious with the ‘history’ of the tricks.
But, as Simon Aronson said somewhere, this is only the beginning. Now
you have to read it and contribute new ideas or use the ones you find here
in other contexts. I am excited about receiving news from you telling me
what you have liked the most, what you have found more useful, where you
have used the ideas you found here or if they have inspired you.
Finally, I want to add that rereading these pages I realise that there are
many people that have influenced me. I have been very lucky to share with
them magic and unforgettable moments. I hope to continue to do so with
them and with you...
95
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Bibliography
[1] Woody Aragón and Iñaki Zabaletta, Cartomagia para empezar.

DVDs (2010).
[2] Simon Aronson, Random Sample Shuffle-Bored. MAGIC Magazine,

August (2003).
[3] Simon Aronson, Try the Impossible. Simon Aronson (2001).
[4] Arturo de Ascanio, Jesús Etcheverry, The Magic of Ascanio:

The Structural Conception of Magic. Páginas (2005).
[5] Jack Carpenter, The Expert’s Portfolio No. 1. Jack Carpenter (1997).
[6] Bruce Elliot, Magic as a Hobby. Harper & Brothers Inc., Gramercy
Publishing Co. (1958).
[7] Alberto de Figueiredo, Fernando Rizo, 13. Alberto de Figueiredo

(2009).
[8] Lewis Ganson, The Art of Close-Up Magic. L & L Publishing (1996).
[9] Lewis Ganson, Dai Vernon’s More Inner Secrets of Card Magic. Harry
Stanley’s Unique Magic Studio (1961).
[10] Miguel Ángel Gea, Miguel Ajo and Jose Quesoyyo, Homenaje
a grandes cartomagos españoles. Miguel Ángel Gea, Miguel Ajo and Jose
Quesoyyo (2007).
[11] Roberto Giobbi, Card College. Roberto Giobbi and Stephen Minch
(1992, 1996).
[12] Charles T. Jordan, Ten New Impromptu Card Tricks. Charles T.

Jordan (1920).
[13] Stephen Minch, The Vernon Chronicles - Volume 1. The Lost Inner
Secrets. L & L Publishing, Larry Jennings and Louis Falanga (1987).
97
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Bibliography
[14] Stephen Minch, The Collected Works of Alex Elmsley - Volume 2. L

& L Publishing (1994).
[15] Joaquı́n Navajas, Monedas personales. Joaquı́n Navajas (1985).
[16] Ramón Riobóo, Thinking the Impossible. Hermetic Press, Inc. (2012).
[17] Ricardo Rodrı́guez, Magia de altura. Ricardo Rodrı́guez (2009).
[18] Mike Rose, The Grail. DVD, Alakazam Magic (2007).
[19] Alan Silvestri, Back to the Future. The Score. CD, Alan Silvestri
(1985).
[20] Juan Tamariz, Mnemonica. Symphony in Mnemonic Major. Hermetic

Press, Inc. (2004).
[21] Juan Tamariz, Sonata. Editorial Frakson (1989).
[22] Carlos Vinuesa, El juego que sı́ se puede explicar (Un homenaje a
Ramón Riobóo). MagicNews, Cı́rculo Mágico de Madrid, 8, pages 4-14
(2009).
98
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Index
Ángel Suazo, 27 Johann N. Hofzinser, 31, 69, 70,

93
Alan Silvestri, 50
Jorge Blass, 3, 4
Albert Spackman, 86, 88
Jose Quesoyyo, 53
Alberto de Figueiredo, 69
Juan Tamariz, 34, 37, 51, 79, 84,
Alberto Fernández, see Gilbert
86, 91
Alejandro Furnadjiev, 55, 60
Alex Elmsley, 92 Karl Fulves, 55
Ali Bongo, 45 Kayto, 29
Arturo de Ascanio, 86, 92, 95 Kiko Pastur, 50
Ashford Kneital, 65
Lewis Ganson, 85, 86
Bob Sheets, 45
Bruce Elliot, 91 Mari Pura, 43
Miguel Ajo, 42, 44, 58, 70, 73
Charles T. Jordan, 79 Miguel Dı́az, 13, 45
Miguel Gómez, 85
Dai Vernon, 85
Dani DaOrtiz, 30, 79 Miguel Miguel, 68
David Pacho, 17 Mike Rose, 4
Dick Koornwinder, 21, 51
Nick Trost, 66
Fernando Figueras, 29
Pablo Poza, 3, 10, 15, 19, 28, 43,
Germán Bernardo, 69 66, 74, 87
Germán Villanueva, see Pipo Perete, 3
Gilbert, 12, 23, 43 Pipo, 13, 24, 25
Helder Guimarães, 54 Ramón Riobóo, 79, 80, 88, 89

Ricardo Rodrı́guez, 93
Jack Carpenter, 55
Jacobo Lauda, 3, 16 Simon Aronson, 24, 25, 35, 45, 95
Joaquı́n Matas, 88 Steve Freeman, 55
Joaquı́n Navajas, 95 Stuart Gordon, 58, 62, 65
99
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Index
Toni de la Iglesia, 92
Toni Koynini, 66
Woody Aragón, 17, 51, 66, 85
Xavier Tapias, 42
100
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. I finished writing this book on the 31st December
2012 in Madrid.
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Carlos Vinuesa - Numbers, Cards and Time!

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Numbers, Cards... and Time!

Covers and figures

This book gathers together a part of my history with magic, in parti-

Before this prologue comes to an end I would like to thank Cristina

Table of Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii

1 Card at Any Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

2 Back to the Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

A The Trick That Can Be Explained . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

A.3 Some Time After... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Card at Any Number

Name a number between 1 and

1.1 That Is Not Possible!

Jorge Blass comments at Perete’s1 close-upmagicshop.com stand:

– So you have The Grail ! What a great trick!

My curiosity is suddenly aroused:

– Hi Jorge. What trick are you talking about? What is it?

– And can we see it? Can you do it right now?

– Name a number between 1 and 52.

– 36. Are you sure? Do you want to change it?

– ... 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35 and 36.

– ... the Queen of Clubs!

Although everything you will read from now on will be self-contained

... and then we realise that this has happened.

in the card case! I am going to take it out... If this accident had

Chapter 1. Card at Any Number

Another important note. If we are not in the situation in which we need

1.3 What a Coincidence!

• It could be possible that a situation of strong challenge is created:

And, since I have mentioned it so much, what is the ‘bicephalous card

The ‘bicephalous card case’ brought a psychological advantage with it,

table or something incriminating like that is enough, a course in mime is not

1.4 With a Freely Chosen Card: The One with

Freely Chosen Card at Any Number

We stress to the spectator that he remembers his card while we spread

As soon as we leave the outjogged cards on top we have to change our

1.5 Twins Hit Twice

In August 2010, in the middle of ‘fiestas de la Paloma’, I was in la Latina

On 14th September 2010 I received an e-mail from Pipo: Hey, I have

Chapter 1. Card at Any Number

Twins Hit Twice15

We explain that it is impossible for two brothers16 to agree on anything

tell him to do the same.

Exactly, it is difficult and that is why I am not going to do

position corresponding to the named number from the back. In this

studied in my opinion, will match very well with a gambling demonstration

1.6 Twins Without Jokers

Twins Without Jokers

Back to the Future

I have destroyed the time

2.1 Back to the Future

2.2 Material and Preparation

• An alarm clock where the alarm can be activated by remote control25

• A flashy type sleep mask or blindfold (inside the bag).

cards in horizontal spread respectively (this is an idea of Pablo Poza,

• A red card case (I use one of Bicycle Seconds).

The thirteen cards, 5 of Spades, 6, 8, 9 and Jack of Hearts, 2, 5, 10 and

• The sports almanac, that looks like this on one side29 :

In fact, the almanac is a poster that can be folded to obtain a ‘thin

As Simon Aronson explains, the idea of building up suspense in the

About the rest of the cards and card cases:

And we are ready!

• When a number between 1 and 52 is named, it is very easy to put one

2.4 I Have Destroyed the Time Machine!