Extreme Telephone Game

Thank You:
Thank you for purchasing this download. I hope you enjoy this effect and have as much
performing it as I do.

Effect:
The magician starts off by introducing a sealed envelope and giving it to a person in the
audience to hold. He explains that he has reversed one card in the deck and written a
prediction on the back of it.

The magician announces that they will play Extreme Telephone Game. He further
explains that Extreme Telephone Game is like the old kids’ game The Telephone Game
that kids play at camp but with one important difference. Everyone changes the
information when they whisper it into the next person’s ear.

A spectator freely selects a card from a deck of cards to serve as the starting point. This
spectator starts the game off by changing one aspect of his card’s identity (suit or value)
and whispering his new card into the ear of the person beside him. This person then
changes some aspect of the card and whispers the new card into the next person’s ear.
This is repeated until 10 – 15 people have played.

The magician stops the game and asks the last player to stand up at his seat and
announce the name of the card that was whispered into his ear, for example, the Five of
Clubs.

The magician now asks the original spectator to announce the name of the card he
selected – the original staring point of the game. For example, the King of Diamonds.
The magician plays up the difference and jokes about what it means about the players,
etc.

The magician retrieves the envelope and reminds the audience that it has been
safeguarded by an audience member since before the Extreme Telephone Game
began. He opens the envelope and removes a deck of cards and reminds the audience
that one card is turned upside down in this deck.

He removes the cards from the box and spreads through revealing the one upside down
(face down) card. On its back is printed the initials of the first spectator’s starting card,
KD - the King of Diamonds.

He quickly reminds everyone the name of the card which ended the game, the Five of
Clubs. The magician turns the prediction card around revealing it is the Five of Clubs!

The magician thanks everyone for playing Extreme Telephone Game.

Anthony Lindan – anthonylindan0@gmail.com

 Extreme Telephone Game

Props:

Forcing Deck
• A Half & Half Forcing Deck where the top 26 cards are duplicates of the force
card, and the bottom 26 cards are a random mix.
• In this example the force card is the King of Diamonds.

The Extreme Telephone Deck (Modified Invisible Deck)

• This modified Invisible Deck has the initials of the force card, for example KD
(King of Diamonds), hand printed on the back of each card with a permanent
magic marker.
• The cards are affixed in pairs with glue from a ‘repositionable’ glue stick.

Detailed notes about making each of these decks follow the performance script.

Set Up:
• Seal the Extreme Telephone Deck in an envelope.
• Have the Forcing Deck and the envelope with the Extreme Telephone Deck
handy.

Performance Step By Step:

1. Hand the prediction envelope with the Extreme Telephone Deck to someone in
the audience to hold.
2. Approach a spectator near the stage and force the King of Diamonds using the
forcing deck. This person keeps the card in his pocket.
3. Explain the concept of The Extreme Telephone Game.
4. Instruct the spectator with the force card to change some aspect of his card’s
identity – the suit or value - and whisper the name of this new card into the ear of
the person next to him.
5. This person then changes some aspect of the card and whispers the name of the
new card to the next person and so on.
6. Repeat this until a good number of people have played.
7. Stop the game and ask the last player to stand up and announce the name of
their card. For example, Five of Clubs.
8. Ask the spectator who selected the original card (the force card) to please stand
up and announce the name of his original selected card. For example, the King
of Diamonds.
9. The identities of these two cards will most likely be very different. Point out and
joke about how much the identity of the card changed throughout the whispering
process.
10. Retrieve the envelope containing the Extreme Telephone Deck and remove the
deck. Remind the audience that the envelope was being held by someone in the
audience before the game started.
11. Remind the audience that you reversed one card in the deck with your prediction
written on its back.

Anthony Lindan – anthonylindan0@gmail.com

 Extreme Telephone Game

12. Since the last player announced the identity of his card you know which card to
reveal reversed in the Extreme Telephone Game Deck.
13. Remove the Extreme Telephone Game Deck from the case with the appropriate
side facing you and spread through and separate the appropriate card revealing
only one reversed (upside down) card in the deck.
14. Remove the reversed card revealing the printed initials of the first selected card
on its back. For example, KD – for King of Diamonds. Keep the back of the card
towards the audience.
15. Ask the last player to remind the audience the name of their card. Dramatically
turn the card around revealing it to be their card!

Sample Presentation Script

Do you remember playing the Telephone Game as a kid? I played it at summer camp.
All the kids would sit in a circle. A counsellor would whisper a simple phrase into the ear
of one of the kids. Then each kid would whisper what they heard into the ear of the
person next to him. The whispering would go all the way around the circle and then the
last kid would stand up and announce what they heard. The counsellor would then
announce the starting phrase. What was always so fun, and entertaining was how
different the end phrase was from the starting phrase.

Well, tonight I’d like to play Extreme Telephone Game with you. Extreme Telephone
Game is like the regular Telephone Game except for one very important difference.
Everyone changes the information they whisper into the next person’s ear.

Before we start, sir what is your name? George. George please hold onto this envelope.
(Hand the envelope with the Extreme Telephone Deck to the audience helper.) Inside is
my prediction. It’s a deck of cards but I have taken one card out, turned it over, and
printed the initials of a playing card on its back. I then placed that card back into the
deck reversed.

Now we need a starting point. Sir, what is your name? Bob. Bob, please select card,
look at and place it in your pocket. (Card forced with forcing deck.)

OK, so let’s play Extreme Telephone Game. Bob, I’d like you change some aspect of
your card. You can change the color or the value. You can change things a little or a lot.
It’s totally up to you. Have you done that? Do you have a new card in mind? Please
whisper the name of this new card into the ear of the person next to you.

(To the person next to Bob) Please repeat this this by changing some aspect of your
card’s identity and whispering the name of your new card to the person next to you.
Ok, let’s keep going and get about 10 more people to play.

While this is going on I want to let everyone else who’s not playing know what makes
the Extreme Telephone Game so interesting.

Anthony Lindan – anthonylindan0@gmail.com

 Extreme Telephone Game

First is the fact that each player makes their own decision whether to change the
identity of their card a little or a lot. It’s totally their decision.

Seconds is that each of these decisions is completely out of my control. I think you’ll
agree that there is no possible way I or anyone else could know what decisions the
individual players are making.

OK, please stop playing now. Who was the last person to be whispered to? Please
stand. What is your name? Carol. Carol, please announce to the audience the name of
the card that was whispered to you. (Carol announces, for example, the Five of Clubs.)
Thank you, Carol. Please sit down for now.

Bob, way back at the beginning you selected a card as our starting point. What was the
name of that card? The King of Diamonds.

So, we started with the King of Diamonds, and we ended up with the Five of Clubs.
That’s VERY interesting.

George, you’ve been holding an envelope from way back before we started playing
Extreme Telephone Game. May I please have it? Thank you.

Inside this envelope is a deck of cards. Remember I reversed a card in this deck and
wrote the initials of a card on its back as my prediction.

I think you may find this interesting. There’s one card and only one card reversed in the
deck. On the back of that card are the initials of Bob’s card – KC – the King of
Diamonds. (Performer shows the initials to the audience.)

Carol you were the last player. We started our game with the King of Diamonds. After
passing through the ears and lips of all these players, please remind the audience what
card we ended up with. (Carol says the Five of Clubs.) The Five of Clubs.

Thank you for your help, Carol. I think that you’ll also find this interesting. The Five of
Clubs!! (Performer turns the card around revealing it is the Five of Clubs.)

Thank you Carol, Bob and George. Please a big hand for all our players.

Question or Comment
Have a question or comment, please drop me a line at anthonylindan0@gmail.com

Anthony Lindan – anthonylindan0@gmail.com

 Making the 50-50 Forcing Deck

Overview
The 50-50- Forcing Deck has the 26 duplicate force cards on top of 26 random cards.
The two stacks are separated by a corner shorted, and corner marked Joker.

Supplies
• 26 duplicates of the force card - for example, the King of Diamonds
• 25 random cards
• 1 Joker

Note – the easiest and cheapest way to get the 26 duplicate force cards is to purchase
a One Way forcing deck from a magic shop.

Handling Tip
• Face up – you can spread the cards face up showing the regular cards until you
see the Joker.
• Face down - you can easily find the division between the two stacks by riffling on
the corners and hitting the corner short and/or visually by sighting the corner
marks.

Step 1
Corner short and mark all the corners of the Joker. I place bold dots with a Sharpie
marker in the corners.

Step 2
Assemble the deck with the 26 duplicate force cards on top, followed by the Joker and
then the remaining 25 random cards.

Anthony Lindan – anthonylindan0@gmail.com

 Making the Extreme Telephone Game Deck
(Modified Invisible Deck)
Supplies:
• 1 new red backed deck
• A king-sized Sharpie magic marker
• A repositionable glue stick

Step 1
With the cards face up corner short the diagonal corners – top left and bottom right – of
each card including the two Jokers.

Step 2
Separate the cards into even and odds. Red kings – odd and black kings – even.

Step 3
With the king-sized sharpie marker print the initials of the force card on the back of each
card and let the marker ink thoroughly dry. For example – KD – King of Diamonds

Anthony Lindan – anthonylindan0@gmail.com

 Making the Extreme Telephone Game Deck
(Modified Invisible Deck)
Step 3 - Continued
Very important - notice how the spacing of the letters leaves a space in the middle of
the card. This space is where the ‘repositionable’ glue is applied.

Step 4
Apply a dollop of ‘repositionable glue’ to the back center area of each ‘even’ card. The
glue is applied to the area indicated by the black circle. Let the glue thoroughly dry.

Step 5
Pair the cards in traditional back-to-back Invisible Deck manner as follows:

• Spades – Hearts
• Clubs – Diamonds
• Red Kings (odd) - Back Kings (even)
• Ace – Queen
• 2 – Jack
• 3 – 10
• 4–9
• 5–8
• 6–7
• Joker (even) – Guarantee Joker (odd)

Anthony Lindan – anthonylindan0@gmail.com

 Making the Extreme Telephone Game Deck
(Modified Invisible Deck)

Step 6
Assemble the deck with all the ‘even’ cards facing one way and the ‘odd’ card facing the
other way. Mix the cards so they appear to be in random order.

Note about the Jokers - the regular Joker is ‘even’ and the Guarantee Joker is ‘odd’.

Even cards all facing the same direction.

Odd cards all facing the same direction.

Step 7
Square deck and place into case with the odd side face the moon cut out in the case.

Anthony Lindan – anthonylindan0@gmail.com