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ohn Bannon
DESTINATION ZERO
ZE

OJohn Bannon
Chicago o Squash Publishing
DestinationZero
By |ohn Bannon

Photographs by Gabe Fajuri and David Linsell

lacket, title page, and case design by Allison Lindholm
Layout and design by Gabe Fajuri
Copy Editing by Mike Vance

Copyright o 2015 |ohn Bannon. A11 rights reserved. No portion ofthe book
or any of its contents may be reproduced by any means now known or to be
invented without written permission from the publisher.

Squash Publishing
Chicago, IL 60640

w w w. s qu a shp ub li shin g. co m

ISBN- 1 3 : 97 8-0 -97 4468t -9 - 8

654321
Magic makes you think about yourself every moment you're in the theater because
you're asking yourself "Where does reality leave off and make-believe begin? This
guy is screwing with me, this guy is messing with my brain." It is a fantastically
interesting art form.
{e11er

The good self-working tricks, and the only ones worth bothering with, are those
which apparendy are not self-working.
and Braue
-Hugard
CONTENTS

START . IX
BluffOracleAcesI-3
BluffOracle Aces II 10
Ulterior
-
- 14
Petal To theMetal 22
Four-Sided Gemini
-
Ban-nihilatton 42
- 34
Perennial 52
-
-
Prophet Motive 61
-
The Thirty-Second Sense 74
Mousetrap 85
-
-
Second Reckoninq 92
Leverage 97
-
-
Tiny Contrary Killer 104
Perfect. 772
-
-
Cross Purposes 118
Sort Of Psychic
- 128
-
Origami Poker Revisited 734
Box Of Doom-743
-
Free Willy 153
Matchismo
- 767
-
The Koko Test 170
Nationwide
-
776
AK-47
-
782
-
Depth Charge 793
Banco
-
-799
FINISH .207

John Bannon
START

lniroduciion: Why "Self-Working" ond Why Should We Core?

This is a collection of "self-working" card tricks. Yes, I know that no trick "works
itself"; there must be a "performer" who "performs" the trick. That observation,
however, is not helpful. Literalism here does not bring clariry it just mires the
discourse. Besides, as a term of afi,we can make "self-working" mean whatever we
want it to mean. And indeed, we all know pretty much what we are talking about
when we use the term "se1f-working." It's a useful expression.

Whot

Nevertheless, let's have a working definition.

At a minimum, the trick should have no "moves." What constitutes a "move"?

Again, we all have a pretty good idea, but may differ at the extreme edges of the
term. For me, a "move" is a secret manipulation of the cards. In other words, what
the participants see being done is not what is really happening. A shuffie is not a
"moye."A false shuffie that retains the top cards on top is a "move"because the per-
former is doing something that the audience is not aware of in order to make it so.
A shufle looks like a shuffie; a false shuffle looks like a shufle but it is something
more. Similarly, an in-the-hands cut is not a move, but a double undercut (which
secretly cuts at a particular place) would be.

Which is not to say that there is nothing secret in a "self-working" trick. Rather
than relying on a secret manipulation, the trick relies on a subtlery mathematical
principle, or a pre-designed system.

For example, early on you'll be exposed to a process of cutting a deck of cards

in a way that appears to be a real cut, but is actually a false cut. You aren't hiding
anlthing;the subtlety is that the darn thing loaks like a real cut. Some tricks use a
particular procedure that causes a selected card to end up in a particular place be-
cause of the mathematical principle involved. The math is secret, but the procedure

John Bannon
(a set of steps to be followed) is not. You may need to explain or justif,i or disguise
the procedure, but you are not hiding it. Or, the trick may work because you have
previously stacked the deck. The stack is secret, but not the actions that put the
stack into play.

Second, even though there are no "moves," the actions that are done must not be
difficult. Sometimes the deck must be cut; a straight cut to the table is within the
scope, a "swing cut" or a one-handed Charlier cut are not. I considered an overhand
shuflle that shufles the top card to the bottom (by pulling off the top card singly)
to be in scope, but not a shuffie that brings the bottom card to the top.

As a final requirement, while otherwise allowable as "self-working," this collection

does not include tricks in which the cards are gaffed or secretly altered. Only reg-
ular cards without crimps, pencil dots, "punches," or any other marks qualifr-at
least for now. (Some of the tricks may use external cards that are openly altered-
for example a card with writing on its back-but these are more in the way of
"props" in support of presentation, not secret devices supporting the method.)

While this book is not aimed at the rank beginner, and I have not written it to that
level, the tricks do not require much technique from the performer. In fact, the only
technical requirements are:

1.An ability to shuffie in the overhand style and to shufle cards singly one-
at-a-time offthe top of the deck in order to secretly count them or to bring
them to the bottom of the deck. (If you are not willing to attain this level of
proficiency, you should not be doing card tricks.)

2. An ability to give the deck a straight cut in your hands, including the
ability to place some cards in your right hand under the cards in your left.

3. Really basic card-handling abiliry including spreading the cards in your

hands or on the table, dealing the cards, and the ability to cut the deck on
the table or from your hands onto the table.

That's all that's required. Which is not to say that if you can do more, you shouldnt.
For example, a double undercut is probably more deceptive than placing the right
hand cards under the left. But ifyou place the right-hand cards under the left, turn
the deck face down and give it a self-working false cut to the table, it probably
makes no difference to the trick.

Destination Zero
whv?
Why do we care that a trick is self-working? Good self-working card magic empha-
sizes elegant construction and layered application of principles. Good self-working
card magic generally has a more open, "hands-off" look and fee1. Good self-work-
ing magic is easy to do without sacrificing the quality of effect. Remember Leo
Horowitz's statement about efficiency, removing moves, and ending up with a mir-
acle:

If a trick requires five moves to complete it, it is too involved and sleighty
to be practical. If you cut it down to four moves it is still a little too top
heavy. Eliminate a move by some thought and only have three moves and it
Add misdirection and make it two moves
enters the realm of the practical.
and youve got a nice trick. Use subtlety and eliminate another moYe, now
necessitating one move, and your trick has great value. Now, if you can elim-
inate the last move and complete your effect with no moves, then you have
a miraclel
(Qroted by Bill Simon in Controlled Miracles,1,949.)

Good self-working magic can do that, without resulting in a "mathematical atroc-

ity."

Of course, alot of self-working card magic isn't very good. As Holly Black wrote
in an entirely different context: "Magic gives you a lot of choices," Granddad says.
"Most of them are bad." (Holly Black, Red Glote,2077)

Anyone can cobble together a couple of principles and call it a "trick." I look for
synergies and try to leverage the method as much as possible. One plus one should
equal three-or more. Otherwise, why bother?

Why limit the scope to self-working card tricks? Well, first, in order to limit the
scope. By only slightly relaxing the requirements from self-working to "semi-auto-
matic," steve Beam has put together nine Targe volumes-and is still firrng away.If
I added only a "break" and a "double undercut"to the allowed list, the universe ex-
pands significantly. In addition, this restricted class oftrick and its associated sub-
tleties, mathematical principles and systems, are worthy of serious study. Besides, I
like the challenge of adhering to strict conditions and still constructing something
fun, and good, and amazrng.

Twenty-five self-working tricks populate this collection. Most, but not all, are im-
promptu or nearly so. Some require a prop-usually organic-or some advance
preparation. One ("Banco") is not even a card trick-consider this a bonus item.

John Bannon
Orgonizoiion
A word about sry1e. Each trick is set forth in several sections. Every trick has the
following three sections:

Pr6cis:'A concise summary of essential points, statements, or facts" (Merri-

am-Webster). In other words, a brief summary of what the participants see
and experience.

Nos Encanta: Literally, "It enchants us"; in idiomatic Spanish it means,

"We're loving it." A discussion of why we enjoy this trick so much and why
we chose it for this collection.

Mise En Scine: "The arrangement of actors and scenery on a stage for a

theatrical production" (Merriam-Webster). A behind-the-scenes look at
what was brought about to cause the experience described in "Pr6cis." How
it works.

When necessary or desired, a trick may include one or more of the following sec-
tlons:

Post Mortem: Literally, "done, occurring, or collected after death" (Merri-

am-Webster); idiomatically, a term used by contract bridge players to refer
to a discussion of the play of the hand that just occurred. Key supplemental
points and comments about the trick.

Badinage: "Playful banter" (Merriam-Webster). For me, a more accurate

term than "patter."A more detailed discussion of presentation.

Poding Shot
Finally, each trick provides the opportunity to analyze and talk about what's im-
portant and what's not, why one way may be better than another, what tradeoffs we
can make and whether they are worth it, refinements and subtleties in procedure,
presentations and presumptions, theory and practice and human nature. You krrorl
the fun stuff.

Welcome to the adventure. If you've come this far, you must have some interest in
the journey. Destination ...Zero.
Bannon
-John
Chicago, Illinois

Destination Zero
DESTINATION ZERO
BLUFF ORACLE ACES I

PRECIS

A participant freely cuts off a packet of cards. The performer shuffes the packet
and divides it into four smaller packets. The packets are turned face up and the four
Aces are revealed.

NOS ENCANTA

It's a non-mathematical mathematical-type card trick.

Karl Fulves"'Oracle" used to produce

a series of reverse faro shulfles after a free cut
the predicted sixteenth card. Lynn Searles"'Moracle" took the reverse faro location
a little further: He used a free cut and a series of reverse faro shuffi.es to produce
a predicted card, but the top cards ofthe four discarded piles turned out to be the
four Aces. Searles"'Moracle" appeared in Karl Fulves, T/te Pallbearers ReoiezurYol.
6, No. 9 (July 7977). "Moracle" and its variations were wildly popular in the late
'80s. I incorporated the procedure as the climax to my Henry Christ Aces han-
dling,"Beyond Fabulous" (Dear Mr. Fantasy,pageTT). Of course, for the "Moracle"
to occur, a setup was involved. The first, second, fourth, eighth, and, often, sixteenth
cards had to be arranged.

Here we duplicate the Moracle effect without relying on the mathematical aspects
of the reverse faro-at least not directly. Happily, the setup is quite minimal. As
the fanciful name suggests, it's based on Simon Aronson's "Bluff Oracle" concept
that I introduced in a trick called "Chro ntc" (High Caliber, page 229). (Simon has
since elaborated on the notion in his book,,/rt Decko.) I have extended the concept
to deal with four cards instead of only one. Most of the tricks in this volume have
a "mental" flavor, so I thought it would be fun to start with a straightforward card
trick-producing the Aces. As you'll see it's fast, efficient and surprising.

John Bannon
MISE EN SCENE

Start with the Aces on top. Now place one indifferent card between the third and
fourth Aces. So, from the top: Ace, Ace, Ace, x, Ace. That's it.

To do the Bluff Oracle, or more appropriately in this trick, the "Bluff Moracle,"
you will need to moye this small stack to the bottom of a freely-created packet of
cards-reversing the order of the five cards in the process. There arc a few different
ways to go here.

Shuftle

Place the deck onto the table. Ask a participant to cut off some cards and to hand
them to you. As you stress that she made a free, unrestrained cut, casually give the
packet an overhand shuffie, running the first five cards singly and shuffiing off.
Actually, as long as she cuts off at least five cards, it really doesn t matter how many
cards she cuts. Usually, you'll get around a quarter to half the deck.

No Shuffie

Okay, you have to do an overhand shufle and run single cards. Didnt I promise
no moves? Does that count as a move? If you think so, try this. Start with the four
Aces on top with no "x" card. Take the cut-off packet and spread off the top three
cards and drop them onto the table. Take the next two cards and drop them onto
the first three. Continue spreading groups of cards and dropping them onto the
tabled pile until the packet is exhausted. Obviously, make this look as casual and
unstudied as you can. There. No shuifle. In fact, this way makes the mixing even
more chaotic than an overhand shufle would.

While simple in execution, the "spread and drop" mixing strategy is actually quite
modern and sophisticated. Drawing from the chaotic and ultra-casual styling of
Lennart Green, Dani DaOrtiz,and,recently, Ryan Schlutz, this versatile technique
can ease your technical burden as well as enhance the random look ofyour card
magic. In other words, it helps lower the pain-to-glory ratio. You'll see this again
as we develop the Spread/Drop (for lack of a better name) throughout this project.

Honds-Off, No Shuffle

Here is a different "hands-off'approach. Once again, have the following cards on

Destination Zero
 1

top: Ace, Ace, Ace, x, Ace. Instead of having her cut off a packet, have your spec-
tator take the deck and deal cards into a pile on the table. After she has dealt the
first five cards, stop her. Now tell her that she doesnt have to deal one at a time, she
can deal two or three, or more, and she can cut or shuffi.e anytime she wants before
continuing. Finally, tell her that she is to stop dealing whenever she "feels like she's
dealt enough cards."

The final instruction is intentionally vague. You don't want her to think she's deal-
ing to a specific card. Rather, this instruction is meant to allude that the quantity of
cards is the goal, without saying anything more.

As you will see, after the first five cards, none of the other cards matter-neither
the identities nor the quantity. The "spread and drop" mixing, done casually and
indifferently,looks convincingly uncontrollable. Even better, it's self-working.

fhe Bluff Morocle

Whichever way you go, you end up with a packet of cards with the Aces at the
bottom in Ace, Ace, Ace, x, Ace order (from the face). Say that you will get rid of
some of the cards. Give the packet a reverse faro by outjogging every other card.
(Photo 1.) As you do this, note where the bottom card ends up. Now strip out the
outjogged cards. You have two packets. Set aside the packet that does not have the
bottom card.

I generallydo not attempt to explain, much less justiflz, the reverse faro procedure.
Why say, "We need to eliminate some cards. I am going to eliminate cards by tak-
ing every other card and ..." Really? A11 this does is beg the question, "Why are

John Bannon
 2

you doing it this way?"Your participants can see you outjogging every other card,
so why say it out loud? I find that, as a general rule, the /ess said with respect to pro-
cedure, the better. You'll see this particular theme play out as this book progresses.
Repeat the reverse faro with the remaining cards. Once again, note where the bot-
tom card goes and set aside the other packet next to the first tabled packet.

Repeat the reverse faro one last time and place both packets onto the table. There
will be an Ace on the face of each packet.

Compliment your participant on her skill and then turn the packets face up to
reveal the Aces. (Photo 2.)

POST MORTEM

Verlicql Shuftle
You can improve this trick by giving the deck a quick but convincing mix before
you start. Of course, you must do this without disturbing your five-card setup on
top of the deck (also known as the "top stock"). The Spread/Drop we saw before
also makes an effectiye self-working top stock control.

In this case, for example, simply spread offfive cards and drop them onto the table.
Continue spreading and dropping small groups of cards until the deck is exhausted.
Tossing small packets like this is essentially the same as an overhand shuffie-with
gravity. A vertical shuffie.

Now; in order to bring the top stock back to the top, you need to repeat the shufle.

Destination Zero
 3

Again, spread and drop small groups of cards onto an accumulating tabled pile. As
you near the end ofthe deck, ensure that your last toss consists ofexactly five cards.
It's not difficult at all. Simply spread the last ten or so cards, sight count the last five
and break the spread at that point. (Photo 3.)

Once again, this should be carefree and ultra-casual and, well, messlt. There's no
room for the {pical "cardician" fussy precision-just the opposite.

Folse Shuftle?

Okay, I
am going to start pushing the limits early. Consider the excellent face-up
"Hindu" shuffie. In the basic shufle, the deck starts face up in left-hand deal-

John Bannon
 5

ing position.Noq you grasp the deck along the sides with your right hand from
above-your thumb on the left side and your right fingers on the right side. You
should grasp the deck near the inner end. (Photo 4, previous page.)

Now, with your left fingers squeeze the upper deck and pull off a few of the upper
cards of the deck. Allow the cards to fall into your left hand in dealing position.
(Photo 5.) Repeat this,letting the next batch of cards fall onto the first. (Photo 6.)
Continue pulling small packets offthe deck until all the right-hand cards are gone.
This is an easy, but real, shufl1e. Unless. ..

Tiy this: As before, grasp the inner end of the deck with your right hand from
above,but don't grasp the whole deck-leave some cards in your left hand. (Photo
7.) Now, continue the Hindu shuffie by pulling packets of cards onto the cards you

Destination Zero
 7

left behind. Notice that the lowermost cards of the deck-that is, the top several
cards of the deck-were face down and stay where they were. You can repeat this
as many times as you like and, when you turn the deck face down, the top cards (in
this case your five-card stack) will still be there.

In addition, your participants can see the cards being shuflled. This is a simple but
devious way to "preserve the top stock," as they say. Just shuffie the cards face up.
Shuffiing face up was a favorite strategy of the great close-up magician, Michael
Skinner.

But does it have a place in a book of "self-working" tricks? The Hindu shuffie itself
is not a "move." Like the overhand or the riffie shuffie, you need to be conversant
with this very basic card technique. Is the not-quite-fu11-deck Hindu shuffe a
"move?" I won't argue the point. The trick does not depend on a false shuffie, and
this discussion is in the notes, not the trick proper.

Even if you are the most "move-a-phobic," I urge you to give this a try. As Robert
Browning said,'Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp... Or what's a heav-
en for?"

John Bannon
BLUFF ORACLE ACES II
PRECIS

After quickly spreading through a face-up deck of cards, the performer gives the
deck a cut. He claims that he used to have the ability to spot an Ace in the spread,
to turn the deck face down and then to cut the Ace to the top. Completing the cut,
he turns over the top card of the deck-an Acel

He then invites the participant to try his luck. The participant freely cuts off a
packet of cards, but has not cut to an Ace. Unperturbed, the performer shuffies the
packet and divides it into three smaller packets. The packets are turned face up and
the other three Aces are revealedl

NOS ENCANTA

Sometimes a small change can have a big effect on a trick. Essentially it's the same
as "Bluff Oracle Aces." But, we add a very easy and very deceptive false cut and a
big fat lie about our ability to spot cards and cut to them. We get a different but
complimentary effect and we add a little extra context to the overall trick-all good
things.

The Jay Ose False Cut, for all of its self-workingness, is a fabulous, profession-
al-grade artifice. You'll use this utility again and again.

Finally, this is one of the very few self-working tricks that purports to demonstrate
a degree of skill-as opposed to some mental power.

MISE EN SCENE

The setup is even easier than the first version.Just have the Aces on top of the deck.
Before we do the trick, let's look at the following false cut.

Destination Zero
A Fqbulous Folse Cut
Refer to the following diagram:

Cut off third of the deck and place it onto the table. That packet is packet '4." Cut
a
off a second third and place it next to the first, that is, at position "B."The remain-
der of the cards go to position "C."

Pause only a beat or two, and then assemble the packets by placing A on top of B
and the combined packet on top of C. This action places the deck back in its orig-
inal full-deck order.

You have done the fabulous "Jay Ose False Cut." (Jon Racherbaumer has pointed
out that if you reassembled the deck C onto B onto A, which is a real cut, it looks
like a "funny" cut.I think he's right. Go figure.)

Spot And Cut

It's show time.

Spread through the cards face up and remark that they look shuffied. Turn the deck
face down and do the Ose False Cut. However, assemble the packets so they are
askew and need to be squared. (Photo 1.)

After the cut (but before you square the deck), ask your participant if while the

John Bannon
cards were face up, she spotted any Aces. Whatever the response, square the deck
and snap offthe top card, revealing an Ace. Apparently, you spotted it and then cut
to it.Wow.

Now proceed, as in "Bluff Oracle Aces I," with the either the "shufle," "no shuffle"
or "hands-off" approach. Here, however, only three cards need to be moved to the
bottom and their order does not need to be reversed.

For the BluffMoracle, everything is the same, but you form three piles instead of
four. In other words, do two rerrerse faros, each time tabling the packet that does
not contain the bottom card.Turn each packet over to reyeal the other three Aces.
Again, it appears to be due to the participant's actions and you can give her some
of the glory if you want.

POST MORTEM

Aces nol Aces

Some may think that Aces are too pat or obvious. These people will insist on using
any other four of a kind. Okay, I guess. But Aces are, well, sexy. And, after you pro-
duce all four Twos or Eights, do you really think your audience thinks that this was
a spontaneous and unintended result? Really? I prefer seqr. Why not?

BADINAGE

The presentation is what my friend Eugene Burger calls "the adventures of the
props." In other words, an essentially narrative exposition of what is going on. For
tricks that appear to be all about skill, that's all you really need.

I have added a little complexity to the narrative. I claim to be skilled (which may
be plausible) and then claim to have been merely lucky (which is not plausible).
To add a little context,I bring up the subject of luck and a historical factoid (that
happens to be true).

"Do these look shuffied to you?

"Good. Did you happen to see any Aces? When I was younget and could
see better, I would spot an Ace and cut it to the top. Like that. Cool, eh.
Thought so.

Destination Zero
"Really, I am just lucky.

"You knowl Napoleon preferred his generals to be lucky.

"It's mainly subconscious. Here, cut some cards, like this, and see if you can
cut to an Ace.

"No? You may be luckier than you think. Well, let's get rid of some of these
cards. And some more.

"Napoleon said,'I can teach my generals how to fight ... but not how to be
... lucky."'

John Bannon
ULTERIOR
PRECIS

A participant shulfles his selected card back into the deck. The performer takes the
shuffied deck and looks through it. He removes sjx cards and arranges them into
two face-down rows.

"I think one of these cards is yours, but I'm not sure. Muyb. you can help. Point to
a row."

One row is discarded. Three cards remain. At the participant's direction, two are
discarded.

The remaining card is the selected card!

NOS ENCANTA

A nice interactive effect that relies on a minimal equivoque (ilWa magiciant

choice-something that every self-respecting, card-carrying magician should be
familiar with).

Even better, this trick also sets you up for the next trick. Once this one concludes,
for example, you can be ready to continue with "Bluff Oracle Aces." From a shuf-
fled deck. With no one the wiser.

The equivoque here is somewhat traditional and standard, but deceptive and pow-
erful in the context of what is essentially a built-in self-working cull.

MISE EN SCENE

No setup required. I always like to emphasize that the deck is ordinary and has
been shufled by a participant or two-especially if it's my own deck.

Destination Zero
"Okay, I want you all to remember two things. First, I used an ordinary, regular
deck of cards. Go ahead check it out. Make
sure all the cards are there and there's
no funny business .... Ordinary. Regular. No funny business."

Emphasizing ordinariness has been considered bad form-usually by those who

use a lot of gaffs or extensive stacks. My
experience is that the cards are always
suspect. Always.I like to get them in the audience's hands early on.

"Second, remember the cards were shufled. Go ahead, shuffie the cards. Great.
Ordinary. Shuffied."

Note that you can always begin with a stacked, setup deck-I often open with my
tiumph routine, which needs to be prepared in advance. ("The Bannon tiumph,"
High Catiber [Squash,2013].) After thattrick l make the "ordinary, shuffied"pitch.
So, an ordinary, shuffied deck. You need to know the top card because, in a minute,
you are going to force it on your participant. Here's one expedient way:

Take back the shuffied deck. Tirrn it face up, and spread it briefly as if to evaluate
the random nature of the order. "Shuffied?"A11 you need to do is note and remem-
ber the bottom card at the face ofthe spread. Square the deck and,leaving it face
up, overhand shuffie by running one card singly and then shufling the rest of the
cards in the ordinary manner (this is known as "shuffiing ofl" a cool term, if you are
not familiar with it). Do this off-handedly and casually.

Place the deck face down onto the table.

Big Bold Bolducci

You will now force the top card on your participant by deploying the Balducci
Force (a/k/a the "Cut Deeper" force). In the self-working arena, good forces are
hard to find. I usually end up with the Balducci or the venerable "Crossing the
Cut" or "Cross Cut" force. Both have stood the test of time and, more importantly,
experience.

So, with the deck on the table (and you secretly knowing the top card), ask your
participant to cut off " less than half the deck." Pantomime just lifting up a packet
of cards. Then, instruct her to turn over the packet (that is, face up) and to place it
back onto the deck.

Next, ask her to "cut off more than half the deck, turn it over and place it back onto
the deck."That's it. At this point, there is a face-up packet on top of the deck-usu-

John Bannon
 1

ally about one-quarter to one-third of the deck.The rest of the cards are face down;
however, the top card of the face-down portion is the original top card of the deck.

At this point,I prefer a little time misdirection, so talk a bit. Now is the right time
to point out the overall fairness so far, "You shuffied, right? And cut a couple of
times?"

Pick up the deck and spread through the face-up cards until you reach the face-
down cards. If you want, you can say, "You might have cut to any one of these
cards..." Separate the spread at this point, taking the face-up cards in your right
hand, and leaving the face-down cards in your left. (Photo 1.) Continue, "... but,
I want you to look at this card."Tap the top card with the right-hand cards. Push

Destination Zero
over the top card and raise your left hand to show it to your participant. (Photo 2.)
Of course, you already know what it is.

Lower your left hand and flip the right-hand cards face down onto the deck. Give
the deck a quick shuffie, and then offer to let your participant shuffie. They will
jump at the chance.

I usually act surprised, and say, "No one ever said'yes'before." Right'

Some fine points: I dont refer to the top card "the card you cut to." I don't want
as
my palticipants to focus or dwell on the procedure. tr'or the most paft, audiences
will go along with you on procedure without much suspicion. But, you must act
like it's the most usual thing in the world.I think most procedure should be under-
sold or not sold at alljust do it. In trying to justify procedure, you run the risk of
mischaracte rtzingwhat has occurred and tbat wtll be noticed. Even merely charac-
terrz\ng the procedure might draw too much attention to it. Timing is everlthing.
As we've seen, the only comment I make on the Balducci procedure is when I am
spreading through the face-up cards.

The way the Balducci goes, you could have your participant take the deck, look at
the first face-down card, right the face-up cards, and shuffie the deck. You dont
have to touch the deck. That said, I do think you should take back the deck. Good
reasons exist for picking up the deck. The main reason is a corollary to the "too
perfect" theory. You need to give yourself the opportunity to "do something." If
you don't, your participants may lead themselves to conclude that you "must have
known the card all along," or that the trick works itself (!)-not that much of a
stretch. By handling the deck, you give them a place to go-the wrong place, but
a place nevertheless. Because you dorit do anything, this deflection costs nothing.

Okay, where were we? A card has been selected and shuffied into the deck.

An Open Cull

Take back the deck. Stare intently at your participant and ask her to concentrate on
her card. Now, turn the deck face up and begin spreading the cards with the faces
toward you.

Go through and toss six cards face down onto the table: the forced card, each of
the Aces, and any indifferent card. Be only a little tentative; you need to act as if
you are unsure which the selected card is-but please do not oYeract; no acting is
better than overacting.

John Bannon
Don't worry about the Aces. Your audience knows why you are going through the
deck to look for the selected card. No one thinks you are taking out the Aces.
Set the deck aside and pick up the six candidate cards. Pretend to study them a
little and arrange them as follows (from the top): Ace, Ace, indifferenr card, Ace,
forced card, Ace.

Ek-ee-vok

"Equivoque" refers to a sequence of apparent free choices by a participant that

are actually guided by the meaning given to them by the performer to lead to a
preordained result. It's really kind of cool and is one of our best secrets and most
powerful weapons.

Remark that you think you have the selection, but you are not sure which one it is
and might need some help.

Dont say anlthing more than this-especially don't say that you need the par-
ticipant's help "eliminating" cards. Equivoque is premised on a particular type of
ambiguity. You must act like you are going through a 6xed process that is the same
every time.The ambiguity is that the participant only knows about the process af-
ter she makes her move and sees how it goes; before she makes her move, the real
process can go different ways.

Deal the cards into two face-down rows of three. The upper row first, followed by
the lower row. Because of the arrangement, the cards are in the order shown in
Photo 3. In the upper row: Ace, Ace, X. In the lower row: Ace, Forced Card, Ace.

Here's the first equivoque: Ask your participant to "point to a row." If she points to
the upper row, scoop up the row (from right to left) and place the three-card packet
(A, A, X) on top of the deck. She apparently chose the row to be discarded. You do
not need to explain this to her.

If she points to the lower row, do the same thing: Scoop up the upper row (from
right to left) and discard it.In this scenario, she apparently chose which row to keep.
Either option is perfectly obvious and does nor need to be explained or justified.

Here's the second equivoque: You can't use the instruction "point" because you've
already established what it means, so you must change gears.

This sequence has up to three different contingencies. This time, have your partici-
pant extend her forefinger and place it onto a card.

Destination Zero
 3

1. If she places it onto the middle card, you are done. Simply discard the two
end cards.

2. If it on an end card, ask her to place her other forefinger on a

she places
card. If she places it on the other end card, you are done. Simply discard the
two cards she "chose."

3. If she places her other forefinger on the center card, discard the remain-
ing end card. Ask her to now lift one of her forefingers (or to push one of
the cards toward you). Whichever finger she lifts, discard the end card and
interpret her action accordingly. "Okay, we'll discard this card, leaving this
one." Or, "We'11 keep this card and get rid of this one."

That's all there is to it. In each case, you are left with the forced card that apparently
has been decided upon by the spectator. Once again, the less said the better.It's still
a little too soon to call attention to the process.

The Business

Now; to reveal the card, recommend the following "bit of business."It's an old
I
one-a classic-but I believe it's important to establish a"playful" attitude so your
audience is on notice that everything you do or say is suspect. (More on this key
point to comel it's a main theme of my magic and this book.)

Peek at the card, but don't show it. Let's say it's the Three of Clubs. You now miscall
the attributes of the card and announce the wrong card, "It's a red card ... a high

John Bannon
card ... a diamond ... the Qreen of Diamonds!"

When the participant informs you of your erro! you can say something like, "It's
my fault. I never should have let you choose which card was yours." (Now is a good
time to highlight the process-a little.)

You've created a tension because tricks are supposed to work and it looks like this
one didn't. But there is also an expectation because your audience is waiting for the
magic "punch line."

Ask for the name of the card. Yes, she has to tell you out loud; participants pretty
much always ask, "Do you want me to tell you?"Yes you do. Now everyone, includ-
ing you, knows the identity of her card.

once she tells you, with a small fillip, flip the tabled card face up. Do not do it tri-
umphantly (because then you're a jerk). Do not pretend to change the card into the
right one (then you're a clown). Just do it matter-of-factly, as if your audience had
to know the trick was going to work-how else? Make your participants co-con-
spirators. Show them the punch line they knew was coming and, in a way, the one
they were expecting.

Ulterior

So, if you
check out the top four cards of the deck, theyte the Aces-unknown,
unexpected and ready for action. "BluffOracle Aces II" anyone?

POST MORTEM

Flexible

The procedure is flexible. To seamlessly set up for "81uff oracle Aces I," for exam-
ple, arrange the cards like this:

Upper: Ace, X, Ace

Lower: Ace, Forced Card, Ace

Now, the top cards are automatically set to A, A, A, X, A. Perfect.

Need a Royal Flush? No problem.

Destination Zero
Credits And Bqckground
The "Cut Deeper" or "Balducci" card force is generally attributed to Ed Balducci,
who first published the force. ("The All Fair Coincidence," Hugard\ Magic Manth-
ly,Yol.14, No. 6 fNovember 7956] page 502.)

Similarly,The Cross Cut Force has been generally attributed to Max Holden. ("The
New Knife and Selected Cards," Bagshawe, 1be Magical Montbly,Yol.2, No. 10
lJuly 79 25), pages 1 99 -200).

John Bannon
PETAL TO THE METAL
PRECIS

The performer places one card into his pocket-or, ifyou like, into the participant's
pocket.

A participant creates three small piles of random cards.The piles are to be used to
create a playrng card-color, suit, and value.

For the coloq the performer demonstrates an elimination procedure, discarding

cards as he alternately calls out "Red" and "Black." He notes that the procedure is
like pulling off the petals of a flower while alternately saying, "She loves me. She
loves me not." Let's say the final result is "red."

Because "red" is comprised of two suits, Hearts and Diamonds, the participant
chooses one of the two remaining piles as the "suit"pile.This time, the participant
performs the alternating elimination procedure, alternately reciting "Hearts" and
"Diamonds." Let's say the suit is determined to be Hearts.

For the value, the remaining pile is turned face up. Let's say it's a Qreen. The
performer shows the faces of the first two piles, which display different cards, and
points out that, if a different pile was used, a different value would have been ob-
tained.

Recapping the events, the performer remarks that the spectator has randomly de-
termined the color red, the suit Hearts and the value Qreen-the Qreen of Hearts.
The performer removes the card from his pocket. It's the Qreen of Hearts.

NOS ENGANTA

Impressive, impossible feat. Regular deck. Self-working. Minimal setup that can be
easily achieved from a shuffied deck. What's not to like?

Destination Zero
 1

Here we layer a number of effective subtleties and procedures. Essentially, we sand-

wich a peculiar force, which has been dubbed the "Matsuyama Petal Force," be-
tween a subtle dealing procedure and abrazen bluffto force the card we put into
our pocket. On top of that, we throw in a couple of other convincing procedures.
How cool is that? (In the notes, there is a way to allow the spectator to shuffie and
cut the deck immediately before dealing out the three piles. lds still self-working.)
This trick is so highly engineered it will fool magicians (those that aren't already
aware of its underpinnings). Civilians dorit stand a chance.

MISE EN SCENE

A regular deck is used. Begin with any four of a kind on top-let's say the trights.
(In the post mortem, there is a strategy to get into this position in real time from a
borrowed shufled deck.)

Mqke One

Begin an overhand shuffie by chopping a block of about half the deck (that is, on
the first move of the shuffie take about a third to half of the cards). (Photo 1.)
Continue shufling the remaining cards onto the block. This appears to be a shulfle
(it is, of sorts) but also moves the Eights to the center of the deck. (Alternatively,
you could just cut the deck.)

John Bannon
 2

With the faces toward you, spread through the deck and locate the four of a kind-
here, the trights. Break the spread so the Eights are at the end of the right-hand
portion. (Photo 2.)

Place the endmost Eight face down onto the table. Let's say it's the Eight of Clubs.
Now place the right-hand cards behind the left-hand ones so the other three
Eights go back to the top of the deck. (Photo 3.) Set the deck onto the table. Pick
up the tabled face-down Eight and place it into your pocket (or you could place it
into a participant's pocket). Be careful not to expose it yet.

Destination Zero
Deol Three

Ask your participant to pick up the deck and to slowly deal three hands of cards
onto the table.

After she has dealt the first three cards, clari$, that she doesn't need to deal the
cards ofrthe top; she can deal offthe bottom, or from anparhere in the deck. Fur-
ther clari$, that each hand does not need to have the same number of cards; she is
free to deal different amounts. Even better, she can shuffie or cut the deck at arry
tlme.

Caution her that, in the interest of time, she should not deal toa many cards-not
more than "a third to a half of the deck."This not a technical restriction-the trick
will work with any number of cards-but a practical consideration.

The only necessary cards are the first three; everything else is window dressing so it
does not matter what they are, where they come from, or how many there are-but
it seems like it should matter. The dealing subtleties make the trick look random
and uncontrollable.

When she stops, sell the procedure by offering her to deal more, or to take back
some. The banter here can be quite entertaining, as well as deepen the mystery.

Petql Pushing

The participant has formed three "random" piles (though each has an Eight on its
face).

Explain that she is to use the three "hands" to determine a particular playing card.
One hand will determine the color of the card. Another will be used to determine
the suit. The last will be used to determine the value. The participant can choose
which pile for which function.

One pile is nominated as the color pile. The performer explains that, to determine
the color, they will use a familiar divination from childhood in which the petals of
a flower are plucked one at a time while the person alternately recites "she loves me"

and "she loves me not."You know which one I am talking about.

The performer demonstrates: "There are two possibilities: Red and Black. So I will
deal the cards like this: 'Red."' The performer moves one card to the bottom of the
packet.

John Bannon
"Black."

The performer deals one card onto the table.

He continues the process, alternating between "Red" (card is ducked under the
packet) and "Black" (card is dealt onto the table) until he has one card left in his
hand.It will end on "Red."The last card is dropped on top of the pile.

This is the Matsuyama Petal Force. Basically, it is a playing-card-based method

for forcing one of two ttords. By following this procedure, the word that is recited
when the cards are placed to the bottom will always end up being recited on the
last card. This takes some thought to figure out why it works and, once you do, may
seem obvious. Until you do, however, it's quite deceptive.

So depending on the card in your pocket, the initial phrasing or dealing must be
thought through. Let's say you have a black card in your pocket. You can say:

"There are two possibilities: Red and Black."

In this case, you would table the first card, saying, "Red," and duck the second card,
saying, "Black."

Alternately, you could say:

"There are two possibilities: Black and Red."

In this case, you would duck the first card, saying, "Black," and table the second
card, saying, "Red."

Be flexible; it probably makes no difference.

(Honestly, if you have a reasonably attentive spectator, you can just talk her through
this first Petal Force. That way, you neyer touch the cards.)

Suit Herself

Having demonstrated how the "petal" procedure works, have your participant pick
up a "suit pile" and guide her through the procedure. Once again, the suit that is
spoken as a card is placed on the bottom, and will end up on the last card; that is,
will be forced.

Destination Zero
 4

So, if the card in your pocket is the Eight of Clubs, you might instruct her as fol-
lows:

"OK. Since the color is Black, the suits are Spades and Clubs. So, deal a card onto
the table and say,'Spades.'Great, now put the next card under the others and say,
'Clubs.'Nor.v, just keep doing that until you reach the last card. Fabulous."

The last card will end on "Clubs."

(I have a slight preference to duck the second card, but I also respect the natural
order of "Two suits, Hearts and Diamonds." Or, "Spades and Clubs." Does it mat-
ter? I suspect not at all.)

So, your participant forces the suit on herself. Well done.

Volue Proposition
So we have a color and a suit. We also have one remaining pile. Point out that the
In this example, it will be an Eight.
last pile is the "value" pile. Ti"rrn the pile face up.
Here comes the central discrepancy that makes the trick work (and makes it so
much fun to do). With both hands, pick up the "suit" and the "value" piles, show the
face cards of each pile (Photo 4),and say something along the lines of:

'And, you see if you had chosen the piles in a different order, the value might have
been a 'Qreen or a 'Three,'but you ended up with an Eight."

Of course, the other two packets were altered by the duck-and-deal process, but

John Bannon
this is not readily apparent or remembered; this little sell goes right by and empha-
sizes the "fairness" ofthe procedure.

Congratulations, you have just forced the Eight of Clubs, which is in your pocket.
Awesome.

POST MORTEM

Credits And Bockground

I first ran into the subtlety of greatly expanding your participant's deal options after
the critical cards had been dealt in Max Maven's "Predixion," Prisru (Hermetic
Press,2005). Max credits Ray Goulet with this fabulous subtlety.

The Matsuyama Petal Force was introduced to the West by Karl Fulves \n Riga-
marole #4 (7993).It was popularized by Steve Beam in his Semi-Automatic Card
Tricks, Vol. a (2002), and continues to be played with. See, for example, "Mitsunobo
Matsuyama's Petal Force," Semi-Automatic Card Trickg l/01. S (2010), at page 194.
This quirly but effective forcing procedure is quite deceptive.

Pretend Shuftle

This isa good trick in which to deploy the "Participant Does TheJay Ose False Cut
To Himself."This is the same cut described in "BluffOracle Aces," except that here
you guide the participant through the cut. This very potent weapon should only be
used sparingly and not in every other trick (as some performers are wont to do).
For inexplicable reasons,I think it is particularly apt here-as it was in the original
application, Chad Long's rather excellent'A Shuffiing Lesson." (P. Harris, 'Ihe Art
Of Astonishment, Vo/. 3 (7996), at page 299 .)

So, what is it?

Just before the participant deals the three piles onto the table, talk her through the
following:

Have your participant pick up the deck. As before, refer to the following diagram:

ABC
Ask her to cut off a third and to place it onto the table. That packet is packet 'A."

Destination Zero
Have her cut off a second third and place it next to the first, that is, at position "B."
The remainder of the cards goes to position "C."

Pause only a beat or two, and then have her assemble the packets by placing A on
B
top of and the combined packet on top of C. This places the deck back in its
original full-deck order. It would look fabulous if you did it yourself.It is especially
fabulous when the participant does all the work.

Since we are only concerned about the top three cards and not the full deck, you
may want to try an interesting variation byJohn Carey. See "Pseudo Yernon," John
Carey Collection 1 (Yideo, Vanishing Inc.,2013).

Again, the participant picks up the deck and cuts a third to A. Now instruct her to
shuffie the remainder and to cut a second third to B.Then, she shuff.es the rest and
places them at C. Finally, she re-assembles the deck by placing A on top of B and
the combined packet on top of C. Maybe you get an added illusion of shuffiing-or
not.

Coincidentimentql
If you like, after the Spectator Ose False Cut, have the spectator hand you the top
face-down card (or, put it unseen into her pocket). Now have her do the Balducci
to determine the starting point and begin the dealing procedure. This way, the trick
is less like a "prediction" and more like a "divinatiori'of an unknown card, or even
a remarkable "coincidence."

Simon Aronson and I have discussed the relative advantages of "prediction" over
"coincidence." He is generally a fan of "coincidence"because both sides of the trick
generally appear out of the performer's control. I was a staunch "prediction" fan
because no one believes it was a coincidence an)'\ iay. Eventually, I softened my
position. Why? Because no one believes it was a coincidence anyway.Whether it's
framed as a "predictiori'or a "coincidence," the performer will get all the credit. Do
you really think anyone believes it was a true coincidence? Of course not.

ReqlTime
Here is a wayto get into this trick from a shu{fled deck. Spread through the deck
until you see two cards of the same value together and casually cut them to the top.
This should be done relatively quickly as a nonchalant spread of the cards. Now act
a little more intense and spread through the cards as if you were studying them.

John Bannon
 5

Upjog the other two cards of the same value. Pretend to choose among them. Re-
move one and then appear to change your mind. Place it at the back of the spread
(on the top) and take the second card instead. This will be your prediction card.

This is Allan Ackerman's self-working "Probabiliry Cull," from his "Self-Working

Qrick Coincidence," Las Wgas Kardma (1994) at page 727 . Nlan says, "It's a well-
known fact of probability theory that in a shuffied deck there will be at least one
matching pair."

Petql Io fhe Meltle

Now;let's pull out all the stops. A small setup is required.If you do this in advance,
no sleight of hand is required-in real time, maybe a little.

Select any two values. Let's say Sevens and Qreens. Remove them from the deck.
They can be in any order. Take one of each with the same suit-let's say, the Seven
and Qreen of Hearts-and place them together in your pocket.

There are six cards of these values remaining. Cut the deck in half and place three
of the six on top of each half. Place aJoker or an indifferent card face up on either
half and bury it with the other half. So, three cards are on top, and three are in the
middle under a face-up card. (Photo 5.) Finally, yol arc ready to proceed.In the
right circumstances this extra work is worth it. Besides, if you are very familiar with
basic card magic, it's not that tough.

To perform, spread the deck and "happen to notice" the reversed card. Break the
spread under the reversed card and set the lower half of the deck onto the table.

Destination Zero
 6

Norar,flip the reversed card face down and either bury it or leave it on the bottom
of the remaining half. Once this is done, place the half onto the table next to the
other one.

Now you have your spectator riffie shuffie the two halves together.

Or,you can have her do the Lennart Green Rosetta Shuffie. Place your right thumb
and fingers onto of one of the packets. (Photo 6.) Push down and, with a twisting
motion, spin the packet several times, forming a "rosette." (Photo 7.) Repeat this
with the second packet. Now, have your spectator push the two "rosettes" together.
It all looks so chaotic. (See Photo 8, overleaf.) After the cards are fully together,
have her square the deck.

John Bannon
 8

Either way, thanks to Norman Gilbreath's Second Principle, you are guaranteed
that each of the top three cards is either a Seven or a Qreen.

Carry on by having her do an Ose False Cut (with or without the shuffie subtlety)
and you have a convincingly mixed deck.

Noru begrn "Petal To The Metal" and, in our example, Petal Force the color Red
and the suit Hearts. (Similarly, if you placed the Seven and Qreen of Clubs in
your pocket at the start, then force the color Black and the suit Clubs.) The face of
the value packet will be either a Seven or a Qreen. A11 that's left is to remove the
appropriate card from your pocket.

This will fool almost anyone. Badly.

BADINAGE

This is a straightforward trick with no twists and turns. Nevertheless, you proba-
b1y should wrap it up in something. The effect is essentially the divination of an
unknown card. Often, once you establish the framework, you can segue into "ad-
ventures of the props," (you know, "do this, now do this, then do that"), and then,
end by recalling and re-establishing the initial framework. So,let's go with ritual.

"You know, according to the mystics, the whole point of a ritual is certainty
and repeatability. If you do the ritual in exactly the right way something cer-
tain will occur. Seems a lot like science, doesn't it? Let's try an ancient ritual.
You probably learned a version of it in grade school ..."

Destination Zero
[Adventures of the props ...]

"If this werescience,we could do this dozens of times without success. But
the good thing about ritual [reveal card], it works every time.Isnt that amaz-
ing?"

John Bannon
FOUR.SIDED GEMINI
PREC!S

The performer removes one card from a shufled deck and places it into the card
box. The trick begins.

He says, "Let's use this deck of cards to create something very unusual: a four-sided
triangle."

He places a face-up Joker in front of each of two participants.

Handing the deck to the first participant, he asks her to think of a number between
one and twenty. Then, she is to deal a face-down pile of cards equal to her secret
number, to place the face-up Joker on top of the pile and to drop the remainder of
the deck on top, burying the Joker.

will be thefrst side of the triangle. Thlnk of any number between one
'Jessica, you
and twenty. Got it? Take the deck and deal a face-down pile of cards equal to your
secret number. Then, place the face-up Joker on top of the pile and drop the rest of
the deck on top. Are you with me?"

When she has finished, he hands the deck to the second participant, and asks her
to do the same thing: Think of a number between one and twenty, deal a pile of
cards equal to her secret number, place the face-upJoker on top ofthe pile and drop
the remainder of the deck on top, burying the Joker.

'Anjali, you will be the second side of the triangle. You, too, think of any number
between one and twenty. Do you have one? Now, you take the deck and deal a face-
down pile of cards equal to your secret number, mark that spot with the Joker and
drop the rest of the deck on top."

Remarking that the face-up Jokers are located in places determined by two chosen
numbers that no one could have known in advance, the performer spreads the deck
and removes each Joker and the card directly next to it.

Destination Zero
"The Jokers are in the deck at places determined by your secret numbers. Let's put
the cards at your secret numbers aside ..."

The performer now states that two cards have been located by his participants're-
spective numbers and he will arrive at a third card by using both numbers. He asks
for the secret numbers and adds them together. He turns the deck face up and deals
a pile equal to the combined total.

The last card dealt is an Ace.

"For the third side of the triangle, we will add the two numbers you secretly chose
to deal down to, a total none of us could have known in advance. Both of you will
have contributed to this card. To be absolutely fair, I'11 deal the cards face-up so you
can see each card come offthe top. ...That card isthe third side of the triangle ...
the Ace of Spades."

He turns oyer the participants'cards and they are Aces, too!

'Jessica, the card at your secret number-the first side of the triangle-is ... the
Ace of Hearts!

'And Anjali, the card at your secret number-the second side of the triangle-is
the Ace of Diamonds!

"But, remember, I promised you afour-sided triangle. To get another side we have
to add another dimension: time. You see, the fourth side of the triangle is me! If we
go back in time to before any secret numbers were chosen, I placed a single card in
the card box .. . the Ace of Clubs! The last Ace.

'And that rs afour-sided triangle."

He removes the fourth Ace from the card box.

NOS ENCANTA

A novel and interesting use of the "Gemini Twins" forcing procedure. Applying a
chosen number of dealt cards to the Gemini procedure yields an interesting syner-
gy: The card at the sum of the two numbers can be predetermined-quite easily, in
fact; the most minimal setup is required.

Tiue, it's a dealing trick. But, I never found that, by itself, to be an issue. If nothing

John Bannon
else, cards are dealt. This one moves with logic and dispatch. No extraneous pro-
cedure.

Raj Madhok suggested adapting a classic presentation from my friend, the inim-
itable Max Maven: his "Four-Sided Tiiangle." Max used this in an eponymous
routine \nhis Red Book of Mentalism (7977) almost fortyyears ago. See also prism
(Hermetic Press,2005) at page 69.The routine itself was way ahead of its time, and
the presentation remains interesting and adaptable to other situations-although I
have not seen this done. Nevertheless, it works quite well with this routine.
Regular deck. Self-working. What's not to like?

MISE EN SCENE

You will need to begin with four Aces on top of a regular deck.Ifyou have the Aces
in alternating color order, then the third Ace and the Ace in the box will match in
color; so will the fwo participants'cards.

You will
also need two marker cards. To be more organic, I'll describe the trick
with Jokers, but business cards are probably a better choice to minimize the visual
clutter.

Stori
As we did in "Petal To The Metal,"let's begin with a free shuffie. Begin an oyerhand
shuffie by chopping a block of about half the deck (that is, on the first move of the
shuffie take about a third to half of the cards). Continue shuffiing the remaining
cards onto the block.This appears to be a shufle (it is, of sorts) but also moves the
Aces to the center of the deck.

Then, without too much comment or explanation, with the faces toward yourself
spread through the deck to remo.r,e a particular card. fhe less said here the better.
Break the spread in the center of the Aces (two on each side). Place the top right-
hand Ace face down onto the table. Place the right-hand cards under the left-hand
cards, square and place the deck face down onto the table. At this point one Ace is
on top and two are on the bottom.

Place the tabled Ace into the card box. Again, minimize the fanfare.

Raj suggests starting with an Ace in the box and the deck in this configuration.
That requires a little more planning and you cant do the opening shuffie. But, you

Destination Zero
may get a little more surprise when you reveal the fourth side of the triangle. I
prefer the spur-of-the-moment approach. Your mileage may vary.

Place a face-up Joker in front of each of two participants. Ask each to think of a
number from one to twenty. Any numbers may be chosen, as long as the sum of the
two numbers is not greater than fifty-one. A range from one to twenty will ensure
that the sum will not be too large, and may curtail the dealing tedium.

Deql

Hand the deck to your first participant. Ask her to deal a pile of cards equal to her
secret numbe5 place the face-up Joker on top of the pile and drop the remainder of
the deck on top. You can look away while she does this.

Now have your second participant do the same with her number.

Leave the squared deck on the table for a short pause. At this point, thanks to the
Gemini Twins procedure, an Ace is aborLe each of the Jokers-or, more appropri-
ately, "next to" the Jokers.

The next part may not be immediately obvious ...

Spread the deck on the table. Two face-up Jokers will show. Outjog each of the
Jokers and the card directly abo,ue tt about half way. (Photo 1.) Nice picture.

This is the central discrepancy of the Gemini Twins: The card above eachJoker is
not related to, or determined by, the number of dealt cards; it just seems to be-at

John Bannon
 2

least enough so your audience will accept your mischatactertzattot of it. The re-
peated dealing procedure, a little time misdirection and simply misrepresenting
things combine for a very deceptive illusion.

You can also do this in your hands if you don't have the space. (Photo 2.)

Remove each outjogged pair and place it in front of each respective participant.

Now, just square the deck. The third Ace is automatically at the sum of the tv\ro se-
cret numbers from the face of the deck. No displacements. No moves. No kidding.
This configuration is not obvious at all and will not occur to your observers. After
all, you did not even know what the numbers were. Using and focusing on the total,
moreove! tends to divert attention from its constituent parts-it's a ne,(t) number.
Changing the sequence by dealing this new number from a face-up deck also helps
disguise the method.

Countdown
State that each ofyour participants, the first and second sides ofthe "triangle," has a

selected card and that a third side of the "triangle" is needed as well. Turn the deck
face up and say that to be perfectly fair, you will take the card located at the sum of
the participants'secret numbers. Ask for each of the numbers, add them together
and announce the total.

You should very clearly say that you will deal cards from the face-up deck and the
card at this new number will be your card. There is no need for ambiguity (tn this

Destination Zero
trick), so why not be precise about it? You can also say that to ensure that you deal
the cards fairly, you will deal from a face-up deck. Or, you can just do it and leave
the point implied.

Deal the new number of cards from the face-up deck into a face-up pile on the
table. The last card dealt, the card actually at the number, will be an Ace.

Home Run
Now all you have to do is show the other three Aces. There are a couple ways to go
with the revelation, but sticking with the "four-sided triangle" scheme ...
Describe the unpredictable nature of the third card, then each of your participants'
cards and show each of their cards to be an Ace.

Hopefully, enough time has passed so the card you placed into the card box is off
your participants' radar.

"lhefourth side of the triangle is me! Before we started and before any secret num-
bers were chosen, I placed a single card into the card box . . . the Ace of Clubsl The
last Ace."

EX POST FACTO

Credits And Bockground

Credits are a little complicated. The repeated dealing procedure goes back to
Annemann, who used it to secretly place two key cards next to two selected cards
in "Locatrik," TheJinx,#39 (December 7937).

Karl Fulves"'Gemini Twins" certainly popularized the notion of using Annemann's

procedure to place two markers-like face-up Jokers-to essentially force two
adjacent cards. See More SefWorking Card Tricks (1,984) (originally published as
"Stopped Twice," in Impromptu Opener, 7979). He has been generally credited with
this application.

How Does lt Work?

The first participant's count moved the top card to the bottom of the deck and
placed the bottom tvyo cards onto the first Joker. The second participant's count
places the bottom Ace on top of the second Joker.

John Bannon
Now when you spread the cards, there are two Aces above the uppermost Joker
and one Ace above the lowermost Joker. The cards below the uppermost Joker (not
counting the otherJoker) equal the sum of the two secret numbers.

You might think that the count would be offby one, so to speak. However, one of
the participants'Aces is one of the "counted" cards, so when you remove it, there is
exactly one less than the total number under the last Ace. The sum leads you right
to the Ace. Cool.

Aces Are Sexy

I prefer to do this trickwith Aces.If you are going to set up the trick in advance,
or by using a prior trick like "lJlterior," or by using a sleight-of-hand cull, there's
no good reason not to deploy the "bullets." The simple appearance of an Ace as
the third card will neither seem unusual nor will the appearance tip the ultimate
climax.

If you are going to set up the trick in real time, through subtlety instead of sleight,
that's a different story. It's all about trade-offs. If you prepare in advance, use Aces,
because they're sexy. With a real-time strategy, use what's expedient.

ReolTime
As we just saw in "Petal To The Metal," you can get into this trick from a shuffied
deck using Allan Ackerman's "Probability Cu11."

Simply cut a matching pair of cards to the face. Spread through the cards as if
you were studying them. Upjog the other two cards of the same value. Pretend to
choose among them. Remove one and then appear to change your mind. Place it
at the back of the spread (on the top) and take the second card instead. This will be
your "prediction" card. Tiy not to overact.

BADINAGE

Nothing to add, really. Max's "Four-Sided Tiiangle" presentation fits this trick like
a glove.

There are other ways to go with the revelation sequence. I originally did not want
to save the "set-aside" card for last, but this delightful presentation convinced me

Destination Zero
otherwise. Besides, there's a good chance your participants will forget about the
boxed card just in time for you to turn their attention to rt.

John Bannon
BAN.NIHILATION
PRECIS

The performer displays two face-up cards, calling them "special." He spreads a deck
ofcards and places one face up near the bottom and the other face up near the top.
The deck is squared and the participant is invited to cut to a card any'uvhere betu.teen
the two face-up cards, which she does.

Spreading the deck, the performer explains that the two cards are special because
they constitute a prediction ofsorts.

He slides out one card and notes that it is a Jack and then the other and notes that
it is a Club. So, he proclaims, the participant must have cut to the Jack of Clubs.
She informs him that he is wrong.

Ahal Not to be deterred, he reverses the order of the two cards and points out that
one is an tright and the other is a Heart. The participant's card must be the tright
of Hearts. Again, he is wrong.

Nonplussed, the performer asks for the identiry of the selected card. She informs
him that she cut to the Nine of Diamonds.

The performer picks up the two "special"cards and turns them over. One has "Nine"
written on its back and the other has "Diamonds."Ta da.

NOS ENCANTA

It doesn't get more self-working than this.

Cameron Francis introduced this basic efrect with his wildly successful'Annihila-
tion Deck" (Big Blind Media, DVD). That trick, also self-working, combined a spe-
cial deck and a free choice to bring about the same initial faux-confusion and the
same gag conclusion. While Cameron came up with an undeniably clever method,
in the end, the trick is all about the gag.

Destination Zero
Enter "Ban-nihilation." I wanted to preserve the presentational elements (that is,
the gag), but use a regular deck. So it really all comes down to forcing a card and
giving some context to the two "special" cards. After experimenting with several
forces,I finally arrived at Max Holdens classic Cross Cut (or "Crossing the Cut")
Force.

Happily, I discovered the use of the two reversed "special cards" added an extremely
synergistic conviction to the procedure. This seemed to me to be an ideal melding
of plot, presentation and method.

Did I mention it was self-working?

MISE EN SGENE

First, decide on your force card-I use the Nine of Diamonds. You will need two
contrasting "special cards," one red and one black, neither a Nine nor a Diamond.
ldeally, these cards are from a different colored deck, but in a pinch you can take
them from the deck you are using. On the back of one, write the value of your
force card-here, the word "Nine'-and on the back of the othe5 write the suit,
"Diamonds." (Photo 1.)

Let's two cards are the Jack of Clubs and the Eight of Hearts. Place these in
say the
a handy place. You can simply tuck them between the card box and the cellophane,
but make sure they are facing outward.

When you are ready to do this trick, contrive to get your force card to the top
of the deck. In real time, you can cull the force card to the top in the following,

John Bannon
 2

self-working way. Spread the deck face-up until you spot your force card-let's say,
the Nine of Diamonds. Separate the spread so the force card is the rearmost card
of the right-hand portion of the spread. (Photo 2.) Drop the right-hand cards onto
the table. Spread offsome more cards and drop them onto the tabled cards. (Photo
3.) Continue to spread and drop cards until all the cards are on the table. Make this
look like a casual face-up mlxing. Square the deck and turn it face down.

Bring out the two "special cards," face up of course. Spread the deck face down on
the table and openly place one of the cards face up about one-fourth of the way
(12-13 cards) from one end of the spread. Place the other card about the same
distance from the other end. (Photo 4.)

Destination Zero
 4

Square the deck and place it in front of your participant. Ask her to cut the deck
anywhere she wants, but somewhere betvrreen the face-up cards. This limitation has
nothing to do with the trick, really, but it helps justifi, putting the cards into various
places in the deck. Also, as you will soon see, placing the cards in these positions
has a really cool effect on the Cross-Cut Force.

Now this force is self-working, but you still must take a little care. For example,
you dont want to give an instruction that could be interpreted as asking her to cut
anlr.vhere and to complete the cut. I always pantomime cutting offpart of the deck
and setting it onto the table next to the remainder.

'Jessica, cut the deck anyrvhere you want, but make sure you cut somewhere /e-
tueen the two special cards. Then, set your cards down onto the table. Are you with
me? Great."

When she has finished, pick up the remaining half of the deck and place it cross-
wise on the deck. I usually do this without comment (not even the usual, "... and
we'll mark your cut, just like that . . . "). I also do not place the packet perfectly per-
pendicular to the lower half but at an angle. (See Photo 5, next page.) The idea is
to be perfectly casual, andjust to do it.

As I quietly "marlC'the cut, I look directly at the participant and begin the recap.
As most of you krro"l the Cross-Cut Force requires some time misdirection here
in order to be effective.

'Jessica, youwould agree that you made a free cut of the cards, right? Other than
asking you to cut between the special cards, I didnt influence your cut in any way,

John Bannon
 5

right? You dont know what card you cut to, do you? It's possible that something
remarkable happened. Remember I told you those cards were special?"

Here comes the fun part (for me at least).With your right hand,lift up the top half
just a few inches. With your left, slide the top card of the lower half off and across
the table to your spectator. (Photo 6.) Ot, if you like,lift the upper section and ask
your participant to slide the top card of the lower section toward herself. Have her
take a peek at it.

Next, with your right hand, place the upper packet on top of the lower, and spread
the deck. The face-up cards will appear to be in the same positions as their original
locations, implying the selection was removed from somewhere in between them.
(Photo 7.)

Destination Zero
 7

The illusion that your participant's card was cut to between these cards is really
enhanced. (Interestingly, the "special" cards have switched their positions in the
spread, yet no one notices. You might not have noticed yourself. If this discrepancy
bothers you at all, you can do as Charlie Randall suggests: Spread the deck from
right-to-1eft, instead ofleft-to-right.This way the reversed cards at least stay on the
same side of the spread.)

Now end the trick.

Slide out one of the "special" cards and note its value, here a"Jack," and then slide
out the other card and note its suit, here "Clubs." Conclude that the "card Jessica
cut to" must be the Jack of Clubs. Of course, you are wrong.

John Bannon
Reverse the positions of the two cards, and pronounce that the card must be the
tright of Hearts-wrong, aga\n.I will leave it to you how hard to play these "mis-
takes." I will caution you that you will end the trick in away that clearly shows that
these were not really mistakes and that you were "having one ori'your audience.

Finally, in feigned desperation, ask for the name of the selected card. Pick up the
"special" cards, turn them over and show that they have, in fact, predicted the "Nine
of Diamonds." (Photo 8, previous page.)

POST MORTEM

Ex Post-il

When preparing the "special cards,"instead of writing on the backs of the cards,
consider using Post-it Notes. That is, write "Nine" on a small Post-it Note and
stick it onto the back of one card, and "Diamonds" on the other. The use of Post-it
Notes can add an interesting dimension to the trick. Because Post-its are by design
removable and moaable, the very use of them suggests that this is part of the meth-
od. This is actually a good thing. If your participants are looking for other Post-its
denominating other values and suits, then they are moving further away from the
concept of"force."

You do have to take care when inserting the cards into the spread. You don't want
the Post-its to get inadvertently sheared off.

No Strongers

This is probably obvious, but the two "special" cards do not need to be strang-
er cards from a different deck. Use two cards from the deck you intend to put
into play. Combine this with the Post-it Notes and you can put the trick together
quickly. Either way, after this trick, you have a complete, ordinary deck.

Force louch
Liam Montier suggests a slightly different handling of the Cross-Cut Force. Have
the deck cut and mark the cut as usual. After the time misdirection, we'll vary it a
little. As before,lift up the top halfjust a few inches, but now slide the top card of
the lower half forward about two-thirds of its length and replace the upper half.
The card is outjogged instead of removed. (Photo 9.) Now, spread the deck to give
a very clear picture of the selected card between the two special cards. (Photo 10.)

Destination Zero
 I

10

This is really top-notch thinking.Th. already-fabulous illusion of the card coming

from between the face-up cards is strengthened even further. Really, really great.
This is the onllt way to do this trick. (Look out for this Liam guy.)

Coboret Life
Of will work. My original handling employed
course, any reasonably good force
Gary Ouellet's "Cabaret" or "Touch" Force. See G. Ouellet, "The Touch Force,"
Ctose-Up Illusions (Camirand, 7990) atpageTTT.While not self-working, this han-
dling is ridiculously easy.

As before, start with your force card on top. Introduce the "special" cards, place one

John Bannon
face up on topofthe deck and cut so the face-up card is about one-third from the
bottom of the deck. Insert the second "special" card face up into the deck about
one-quarter of the way down. The force card is directly beneath the lowermost
face-up card. Perfect.

Spread the deck to show that the special cards are at either end ofthe spread. Close
the spread and, as you do, get a left pinlgr break under the card beneath the lower-
most "special" card (this is your force card). Re-spread the cards and ask your par-
ticipant to touch one of the cards between the two "special" snlcls-1hs "betweeri'
instruction helps to justift the use of the two extra cards.

When she does, outjog the card about halfiaray. Leaving the card outjogged, close
the spread and hold the deck in left-hand dealing position.

With your right hand, straddle the deck and the outjogged card with your fingers
at the front and your thumb at the back. Squeeze the physical selection square with
the deck and, in a continuing action, cut the deck at the break. This original han-
dling is good and usable. Moreover, it is dead easy to do.

Raise the packet to show the "selected" card. Now lower the packet, and with your
left hand, slide the bottom card off the packet and place it face down in front of
your participant. Drop the right-hand cards onto the left and square the deck.
A very fine, useful force.

Finally, spread the deck and remove the two "special" cards and continue as de-
scribed.

BADINAGE

I always approach doing card tricks-even mental-type card tricks-with an air

of playfulness. I believe that participants presume the "fact of deception." In other
words, simply because they know they are watching you do a "trick," participants
know you are going to try to deceive them.

But "deceive" can be a broad term. It's good and important to let your audience
know that deception may be based not only on what they see (or dont see) but also
by what you say and what you do-even when you are purportedly being candid.
It's not just "the hand is quicker than the eye," but it's also a con job.

For example, I think audiences never buy the "magician in trouble" scenario. They
may be slightly confused because of the conflict between the so-called "trouble"

Destination Zero
and another strong presumption that "the trick will work." However, when the
performer resolves the conflict by bringing the trick to a successful conclusion, the
audience now understands that the performer was never really in trouble and that
they have been "had."

So what? So in "magician in trouble" scenarios and other "sucker"-type effects,

the audience discovers that the "fact of deceptiori' extends to areas, activities and
behaviors that the audience had not previously re alizedwerc fair game. If not prop-
edy managed, the experience can be disconcerting. That's why I try to take the
opportunity to educate the audience eady that everything I say or do is fair game.
It's not just they can't believe their eyes, but everything must be doubted.

Once an audience understands and appreciates this, a "sucker" trick can be un-
derstood by them as what it is: an elaborate con job. They can appreciate that the
performer is not only trying to manipulate their perceptions, but also their under-
standing-their reality-on a complex level. Now it's okay that the magician wins
and they lose the poker deal. lt's okay that the magician wasn't really in trouble. It's
okalt that that the wrong card turns out to be the right card after all.

It's the difference between Jerry Seinfeld's abrasive:

"Here's a quarter. Now it's gone. You're a jerk."

And Elena Gorokhova's more elegant:

"The rules are simple: They lie to us, we know they're lying, they know we know
they're lying, but they keep lying to us, and we keep pretending to believe them."

That's entertainment.

All of this is a long way of saylng that tricks like "Ban-nihilation" can be a fun,
gentle trickery even if they openly mislead the participants and take advantage of
(and openly challenge) their rules of engagement.

You'd be surprised how effective this kind of trick can be. In fact, when I had the
opportuniry to perform for the Qreen of England, guess what the one trick I chose
to perform for her was?

No guesses?

Well, she said she was the Qreen of England.

John Bannon
PERENNIAL
PRECIS

The performer places a small envelope onto the table.

From a shulfled deck of cards, the participant deals a pile of cards based upon the
month and day of a loved one's birthday. She then gives the pile a cut.

The performer observes that the cards on the table have been determined by the
chosen person's birthday and, accordingly, have some kind of connection with that
day and that person.

He explains that this relationship may be a strong one because a deck of cards has
a startling relationship with a calendar.

There are four suits and there are four seasons. There are fifty-two cards and fif-
ry-two weeks in a year.

If you add up all the values, counting theJack as eleven, Qreen as twelve and the
King as thirteen, the total is 364-when you add the Joker you get 365, the same
as the number of days in a year. When you add the second Joker, you get 366-1eap
yeaL

Isn't that fascinating?

But what about her birthday connection today? The performer shows the front of
the envelope, inscribed, "Huppy Birthday." He opens the envelope and inside is a
playing card.

The performer recaps the procedure: Shuffied deck, cards determined by a birth-
day-a different daywould have produced a different number of cards-and a free
cut ofthose special cards.

The performer relates that earlier he followed the same procedure and, strangely,
he used the sqme date.

Destination Zero
The card that the participant earlier cut to is seen to be the Nine of Diamonds.The
performer's card is also the Nine of Diamonds.

Yes, the relationship is very strong.

NOS ENGANTA

In the "Diary" trick, sometimes called the "Birthday Book," a playing card is as-
signed to each day of the yeat and written in a diary or pocket calendar. A date is
named and the playing card assigned to that date is looked up; say it's the Nine
of Diamonds. The performer is shown to have predicted the Nine of Diamonds.
It's trick because the impression is not just that you predicted the card, but
a great
somehow you knew the participant's date. While you've predicted a card, it feels
like you have predicted the date. Here, we are trying to capture that effect without
a pocket diary or other q?e of calendar.

The "diary" trick is a classic form of a "mapping trick," in which one set of objects,
say "playing cards," is mapped into a second set of objects or concepts, say the dates
in ayearly calendar. Apparently, the mapped objects are interchangeable. For exam-
ple, in the Diary trick, each day has a card associated with it, so it would seem that
in predicting the card, you are also predicting the date.

With an actual diary, the mapping is explicit and, from a method standpoint, has
its own issues.

The trick, of course, is self-working and is little more than an elaboration of the
venerable Cross-Cut Force we saw in "Ban-nihilation."

Here, the strict tying of the dealing procedure to the chosen birthday is meant
to evoke a somewhat tight correlation between the chosen birthday and the card
eventually arrived at. We substitute a quasi-random procedure for "looking it up in
a pocket calendar." I believe that it is the short litany of coincidences between the
calendar and a deck ofcards that not only generates interest, but provides a some-
what consistent correlation between the date and the card.

John Bannon
 1

MISE EN SCENE

Pre-Show

You'll need Nine of Diamonds, from another

a duplicate of your force card, say the
deck. I use one with a fancy back. Place it in a flap-side-up envelope. I
face down
use a black envelope that's just large enough to hold a poker-size card. On the front
of the envelope, write "Happy Birthday." The small envelope fits into my wallet.
(Photo 1.)

You could just write "Huppy Birthday" on the back, and just carry the card around,
but the envelope makes it a three-stage revelation. First, reveal the "Huppy Birth-
day" side of the envelope. Second, reveal that the envelope contains a face-down
card. Third and finally, show the face of the prediction card.

With this bit of preparation, you are always ready to do this trick.

(Do not dismiss this trick because of the window dressing of the stranger card and
the envelope. Obviously, all you really need is a piece of paper. Write "Nine of Di-
amonds," or whatever, on one side, fold it up, write "Huppy Birthday" on one side
of the folded parcel and introduce the parcel "Huppy Birthday"-side down. Voili.
Works fine. Sometimes, however, a little window dressing can add a disproportion-
ate amount of interest to the trick.)

Destination Zero
Showtime
To perform,you need a deck of cards. Cutyour force card to the top of the deck.
No one knows what's going to happen yet, so you can do this more-or-less openly
as you begin your badinage, or you can do it beforehand.

In real time, you can cull the force card to the top in the following, self-working
way. Spread the deck face up until you spot your force card-let's say, the Nine of
Diamonds. Separate the spread so the force card is the rearmost card of the right-
hand portion of the spread. Drop the right-hand cards onto the table. Spread off
some more cards and drop them onto the tabled cards. Continue to spread and
drop cards until all the cards are on the table. Make this look like a casual face-up
mixing. Square the deck and turn it face down.

Bring out the envelope and place it flap-side up, "Happy Birthday"-side down,
onto the table without much more than, "We'11 get to this in a minute."

Hand the deck to your participant. Ask her to think of someone and their birthday.
When she has done so, have her deal one card for each month of the year, but stop
when she has reached her chosen birth month. So, for example, if the birthday she's
thinking of is in August, she would deal a card forJanuary, February, March, April,
May,June,July, and August (a total of eight cards).

The first card she dealt, the face card ofthe tabled packet, is your force card.
Now, let her shuffie the remainder of the deck and ask what the actual day is. Tell
her to deal that many cards onto the tabled cards. So, if the daywas August 12th,
she would deal twelve more cards.

The range for the total number of cards here can be from two (January 7) to 43
(December 31). You can now ask your participant to spell the person's name by
dealing one card for each letter. Most of the time this is optional. Some of the time
it is unadvisable (if the dealt packet is already significantly large). If the number
of dealt cards is small, however, then this instruction is mandatory-you want to
give your participant the opportunity to make what appears to be a meaningful cut.
In either event, ask the participantto cut the dealt packet anpvhere she wants and
point to a spot on the table where she is to place the cut packet. The instruction "cut
the cards" is ambiguous by itself. It could refer to a complete cut, which is not what
you want. By indicating a spot on the table, you let her know that two portions are
expected.

We are, of course, employing the time-tested Cross-Cut Force.

John Bannon
 2

Place the lower half of the deck crosswise onto the cut-offportion at a near-per-
pendicular angle. (Photo 2.) You can do this with or without comment.

In this plenty of time misdirection, because now you will explain the
case, you have
strange similarities between a deck of cards and a calendar.

After doing this, call attention to the envelope. Show the writing on the front side:
"Hnppy Birthdayl"

This next part is fun. Explain that earlier you thought of a birthday and followed
the exact same process. Funny thing, you explain, the birthday you thought of was
the same as the one the participant thought of; here, August 12.

Yeah, right. Nevertheless., go with it with the utmost seriousness. Open the enve-
lope and show there is a card inside and claim that this was the very card you cut to.
Now; return attention to the tabled packet. Lift up the upper packet and turn it
face up and replace the face-up portion in roughly the same position. Let's say your
participant "cut" to, here, the Nine of Diamonds.

Do not doubt, or be nervous; this force has withstood the test of time. In this ap-
plication, moreover, you have more than the typical time misdirection to pull this
off. Relax.

Destination Zero
Now remove the face-down card from the envelope and show that you purportedly
used the same date and cut to the same card. No one will entirely believe you, of
course. But then, they cant be quite sure.

Nice.

POST MORTEM

Shuftlin'
If you are in the company of someone who can actually riffie shuffie cards, either
on the table or in the hands, you can add another very deceptive layer to this trick.
With your force card on top, hand the deck to your shuffi.er and ask her to give
the deck a riffie shuffie, but caution her not to push the intedaced cards all the way
together. As she does the shuffe, note which half has the original top card.

After the shuffie, take back the telescoped pack and spread it vertically on the table.
(Photo3.) Call attention to the center of the spread and comment on the quality
of the shufle. However, note whether the top card is either still on top or, if not,
how many cards were shuffied on top of it. Photo 3 shows how easy this is. Push
the spread cards together and square up the deck.

In the photo, note that five cards were shulfled on top of the original top card. This
procedure is Arthur Findlay's "Remote Control,"which can be found in Zhe Wrnon
Chronicles: Further Last Inner Secrets at page 1.66.

So now what? Let's say after the shufle the force card is six cards from the top. We

John Bannon
simply slough off the top five cards in a demonstration of what your participant
is supposed to do. Pick up the deck and explain that she is to deal a card for each
month. Use the month ofMay for an example and deal a card forJanuary,February,
March, April and May. Presto, the force card is back on top. Put the dealt cards on
the bottom or in the middle and hand the deck to your participant. The next trick,
"Prophet Motive," expands on this strategy somewhat.

Credits And Bockground

I first saw the notion of employing a broken-up dealing/shuffiing sequence in ad-
vance of a Cross-Cut Force on Joe Barry's Inepitable D\D (2013). I have been
informed, however, that Ben Earl came up with the basic concept and Joe Barry
has since applied that concept.

BADINAGE

Once you know the process and the deck/calendar similarities, the trick pretty
much speaks for itself. There are certain ways you can heighten the experience.

Here, the concepts of framework and the "yes set" are particularly effective.

With respect to framework, if a trick has an1'thing remotely to do with time, I use
the "Master of Time and Space" framework as set forth below. This "hool{'sounds
cool, but is ultimately self-deprecating ("that's as far as I ever got ..."). Further, it
offers a "peek behind the curtain" into the secret lives of magicians, by making a
statement that (i) may or may not be true and (ii) cannot be entirely dismissed as
"presentation."

The "yes set" is simply a rccap of events phrased in a way in which the participant
agrees, or nods her head, to each statement. In other words, in each statement
of your recap, your participant affirmatively agrees with your assessment-ayery,
powerful technique.

So here goes:

"In the magic hierarchy, right below the rank of Grand Wtzard, is the rank
of 'Master of Time and Space.'I'll confess: That's as far as I ever got.

"Why am I telling you this?

Destination Zero
"This trick is about the very strange relationship between a deck ofcards and
the concept of keeping track of time with a calendar.

"Really.

"Let's try this. I want you to think of a person that is close to you. I didnt
say how close, but you have to know this person's date ofbirth-not the year,
just the month and day. Got one?

"Great. Take the deck. Good. Now I want you to deal one card for each
month of the year, but stop when you get to the birth month you are think-
ing of. With me?

"What is the birth month? August? Really? OK, deal one card forJanuary, a
second for February, a third for March. April. May. June. July. And, August.
Fabulous. Now, there's no way anyone could know you'd think of a birthday
in August, is there?

"You can shuffie those cards if you want. Or not.

"What day is the Birthday? August 1,2? Okay, deal twelve more cards onto
the pile, one for each day.

"You can shuffie those cards if you want. Or not.

'And finally, what is the name of the birthday boy or girl? Jessica? Great.
Deal one card for each letter ofJessica's name. J-e-s-s-i-c-a. Terrific.

"So right here, right now, we've created a connection between Jessica, her
birthday and this pile of cards, right? If you thought of a different person,
with a different birthday, things would have been quite different, dorit you
think so?

"So do I.

"One last thing, I want you to cut the cards and to put them here. Terrific.

"Now remember Isaid there was a strong connection between a deck of

playing cards and a calendar? Listen to some of the parallels:

"There are four suits and there are four seasons.

John Bannon
 "There are fifty-t'wo cards and fifty-two weeks in ayear.

"If you add up all the values, counting the Jack as eleven, Qreen as twelve
and the King as thirteen, the total is 364-when you add the Joker you get
365, the same as the number of days rn ayeat.

"When you add the second Joker, you get 366-leap yeaL

"Isn't that fascinating?

"So, there may be a strong connection between your chosen birthday and
this deck ofcards.

"Remember this envelope? See, it says,'Huppy Birthday.'You are not going

to believe this, but earlier today I performed the same birthday ritual you
just did. You see, inside here is a card? What's funny is that the birthday I
thought ofwas August 12! Seriously.

"Remember you shuffied and dealt cards a number of times and finished off
with a straight cut? Let's see, you cut to the Nine of Diamonds. Could have
been any card, but you cut to the Nine of Diamonds.

"I dont know about you, but I am truly amazed.The card I cut to, the card
in this envelope, is ... the Nine of Diamondsl"

"The connection is very strong indeed."

And there you have it.

Destination Zero
PROPHET MOTIVE
PREGIS

Your participant shuffies a deck of cards. The performer takes the deck and, with-
out disturbing the other cards, quickly removes one card, saying, "This may not be
exactly right, but it's as close as I could get..."

Again, the participant shuffies. The participant now deals cards into a face-down
pile. She may stop whenever she wants. Further, the participant does not need to
deal them one at a time-she can deal groups of two, three or more, if she pleases.
In addition, at aty point, she can cut andlor shuffie the cards and continue dealing.
When she stops, the performer points out that the dealt pile consists of an un-
known number of random cards taken from a deck that the participant shuffied
herself.

From the dealt packet, a single card is converged upon and shown. The card the
performer removed at the outset is the same color and value-its exact mate. He
says, "Well, I couldn't get any closer than that."

NOS ENCANTA

A favorite Einstein quote: "Things should be as simple as possible, but no simpler."

I find this trick both simple and sophisticated. It's important to try to recognize
synergies between principles so you can combine them in interesting ways. I call it
"layering." Anyone can combine any two principles-a lot of creators do just that.

Where synergies exist, you can layer them to achieve an effect greater than the
sum of its parts. As I mentioned earlier, one plus one should equal three-or more.
Otherwise, why bother?

This one has a "Tiick That Carit Be Explained" feel to it. Despite the freedom the
participant has with shulfling and dealing, the result is controlled. It combines a
glimpse with Arthur Finley's subtle "Remote Control" (or with a new "Remote
Rosetta" Control) and Simon Aronson's BluffOracle idea. For the uninitiated, the

John Bannon
 1

Bluff Oracle appears to be homing in on a random centrally-located card. You are

really just producing the bottom card, but it sure doesnt look like it.

High bang to buck; low pain to glory. Efficient. Simple as possible. What's not to
like?

MISE EN SCENE

Begin by having your participant shufle or mix the cards.

After the shuflle, take the cards and pretend to concentrate a little. Then, nod your
head as if you have concluded some important thought process. You are going to
spread through the deck and to remove one card, but you want to leave the impres-
sion that you are going for a specific card before you look at the cards.

Turn the cards faces toward you and begin spreading through them. F irst, howev-
er, briefly peek at the top card at the back of the spread. (Photo 1.) Now, quickly
spread through the cards and remove the mate of the glimpsed card. Let's say the
top card is the Nine of Diamonds;you would spread through and remove the Nine
of Hearts. Be careful not to flash its face. Place the card in a conspicuous location.

The Reol Deol

Hand the deck to your participant and ask her to deal cards into a face-down pile
on the table. As soon as she has dealt a few cards, however, stop her.

Destination Zero
Now tell her: She doesnt have to deal one card at a time-she can deal two or three
cards at once-and she can cut or shuffie anytime she wants. (I used to say that
the cards did not need to come offthe top, but could come from the bottom or the
middle. These actions can be difficult or awkward at best for civilians, so I leave it
out. The ability to cut or shuffie-which should be encouraged-serves the same
purpose.) Finally, tell her that she is to stop dealing whenever she "thinks she has
dealt enough cards."

As we saw in "Bluff Oracle Aces," we are being intentionally vague. You want to
highlight that the quantiry of cards is the goal, without saying anything more. You
don't want her to think she's dealing to a specific card.

Of course, this added freedom is illusory and meaningless after the first card is
dealt. But she doesn't know that.

The Big Bluff Orocle

Pick up the tabled packet and remark that it consists of a random selection of ran-
dom cards from a deck that your participant shuffied numerous times. Absolutely
true-except for the first card dealt (now at the bottom of the packet).

Say that you will eliminate or, better yet,"get rid of " some of the cards. (As we have
discussed, you do not need to say much more than that.) Now proceed with the
Bluff Oracle procedure we saw back in "Bluff Oracle Aces."

Give the packet a reyerse faro by outjogging every other card. (Photo 2.) As you do
this, note where the bottom card ends up.

John Bannon
 3

Now strip out the outjogged cards. You have two packets. Drop the packet that
does not have the bottom card onto the table.

Repeat the reverse faro with the remaining cards. Once again, note where the bot-
tom card goes and drop the other packet onto the tabled packet. After this second
strip out and discard, place both hands apart in front of you (Photo 3) and slowly
bring them together (Photo 4) as you say that you and the participant are converg-
ing upon, or "closing in on," one random card.

This gesture (or one like it) reinforces the appearance that this process is converg-
ing on a centrally-located card. It's an illusion.

Repeat this reverse faro sequence until you are down to two cards. Now do avety

Destination Zero
simple equivoque: Take one card in each hand and ask your participant to Point
to one. If she points to the force card, act as if you wanted her to identif,, which of
the two cards to keep, and drop the other card onto the tabled discard pile. On the
other hand, if she points to the other card, act as if she has identified which card to
discard-and get rid of it.

After all that, we've arrived. fhe last card in your hand is the mate of your predic-
tion. Make the most of it.

Generally, I give a brief self-serving recap, show the "selected" card and, finally,
show that my prediction matches the selection.

Dont be put offby its simplicity.The initial shuffie and the dealing subtleties com-
bined with the BluffOracle are deceptive in their own right. But, we can add more
depth to the deception. That said, what if the participant gives the cards another
shuffie afteryou remove your prediction?

Remote Control

When the spectator initially shuffies the cards,watch and see how much she knows
about cards. Does she smartly riffie shufle, overhand shulfle or just jam them to-
gether?

Set the deck face down in front of your participant. You will now allow your par-
ticipant to shuff.e the deck again, adding another very deceptive layer to this trick.
Ifyou are in the company of someone who can actually rifle
shuffie cards, either on
the table or in the hands, then you can deploy Arthur Finley's "Remote Control,"
which was described in the previous trick, "Perennial."

Briefly, with your force card on top, hand the deck to your shuffier and ask her to
give the deck a rifle shuffie, but caution her not to push the interlaced cards all the
way together. As she does the shuffe, note which half has the original top card.

After the shuffi.e, take back the telescoped pack and spread it vertically on the table.
(Photo 5, next page.) Call attention to the center of the spread and comment on
the quality of the shuffie. However, note whether the top card is either still on top
or, if not, how many cards were shuffied on top of it. Push the spread cards together
and square up the deck.

Let's say that five cards were shuffied on top of the original top card. So now what?
We simply slough offthe top five cards in a demonstration ofwhat your participant

John Bannon
 5

is supposed to do. Pick up the deck and say that you want your participant to deal
cards onto the table and to stop dealing whenever she wants. As you give these in-
structions, in this example you would deal five cards onto the table. The force card
is deceptively back on top. Put the dealt cards on the bottom, or in the middle, and
hand the deck to your participant.

Remote Rosetto Conlrol

But what if you are not in the company of a participant who can riflle shuffie? An
overhand shuffie obviously won't work here. But a Rosetta Shu1fle just might do
the trick. However, the Rosetta Shuffie we saw in "Petal To The Metal" is just too
messy to allow the top card to be reliably tracked. Kicking the Rosetta Control

Destination Zero
 7

concept and this trick around with my buddy Raj Madhok, Raj went outside the
card box and came up with a simple, elegant way to do a face-down "Remote Ro-
setta Control."

Set the deck in front of your participant and, as if preparing for a riffie shuffie, cut
off about two-thirds of the deck and place it lengthwise next to the remainder.
(Photo 6.) Mime a riffiing action as you askyour participant if he or she can shuffie
cards that way.

Ifyour participant says that he can rifle shuffie, then reassemble the deck, plac-
ing the top portion back on top, and proceed with the Remote Control described
above.

John Bannon
I

11

:\-rl \r.-

Destination Zero
 12

If your participant cannot, or does not want to, do a riffie shuffie, leave the cards
as they are and proceed with a participant-assisted Rosetta Shuffie: You are going
to spin both packets into "rosettes." Place your right thumb and fingers onto the
packet on the right. (Photo 7.) Push down and, with a clockwise twisting motion,
spin the packet seyeral times, forming a "rosette." (Photo 8.) Repeat this with the
left packet; you can use your left hand and spin counterclockwise. Be sure to twist
the packets thoroughly; the shuffie works much better when all the cards have been
unaligned, not just the top dozen or so.I prefer to use both hands and to spin both
packets simultaneously. (Photo 9.)

As you spin the two rosettes, the spirals will get wider in diameter as well as slop-
pier in appearance. (Photo 10.) Furthermore, because the two packets began fairly
close to each otheq the space between them narrows. So, as you make the spins, it's
easy to bias the thinner rosette, so it just begins to merge with the thicker spiral.
(Photo 11.)Just manage the edge of the top card of the left rosette to stick into the
right spiral. Photo 12 shows a close-up view.

Because the original top half has ten to twelve more cards than the other half, once
the upper cards of the smaller packet begin to merge, even a little bit, the top ser.t-
eral cards zoill stalt on topwhen the rosettes are pushed together. (Actually, all the
cards in the thicker packet that are above the slightly merged top card of the lower
packet will stay on top.)

Now, have your participant push the two "rosettes" together-very messy. Never-
theless, while it appears that the participant "shufHed" the cards, you have effective-
ly and deceptively controlled the top several cards.

John Bannon
 13

After the "rosettes" have been pushed together, but not yet squared, emphasize the
thoroughness of the shuffie by smearing around the conglomeration. (Photo 13.)
Square the deck and proceed.

POST MORTEM

PerenniolG

The method here has a lot in common with the method of "Perennial." In that
trick, if you dodt have too many cards, you can use the Bluff Oracle instead of the
Cross-Cut Force. (In "Perennial," your dealt pile can haye as many as forty-three
cards, too many to do consecutive reverse faros effectively.) Similarly, as noted
therein, you can import the Remote Control, or the Remote Rosetta Control, into
"Perennial" as well.

Bockground ond Credils

Again (and not for the last time), we use Ray Goulet's dealing subtlety of greatly
expanding your participant's deal options after the critical cards had been dealt. See
Max Maven, "Predixion," Prism (Hermetic Press, 2005)-simp1e, but really great.
The other credits have been cited already, but I wanted to highlight the Remote
Rosetta Control. Even before I knew it was Arthur Finley's,I really liked the idea
of allowing a shuffie, spotting the displacement of the top card, tf any,and, if nec-
essary, sloughing offto bring it back to the top-truly devious.

Destination Zero
That said, I increasingly find that many civilians simply can't rifle shulfle-so
many, that I no longer assume that someone will be able to do the shuffie. So,when
a riffie shuffie is necessary, I automatically plug in the Rosetta Shufle instead.
For most purposes, including applications of the Gilbreath principles, the Rosetta
Shuffie works perfectly fine.

This is not necessarily true for the "Remote Control."The shulfle is too messy and
you cannot reliably depend on spotting the precise displacement. So, I thought,
without a riffie shuffie, the "Remote Control," as subtle as it is, wont work.

White not strictly trick originally was designed to rely on the "Re-
necessary, this
mote Control" ploy to add the last layer of deception. I didnt, and still don't, think
that devices like the Spectator Ose False Cut could carry the necessary weight.

At first,I thought to simply do the Rosetta Shuffie face up. Doing it face up actu-
ally highlights the chaotic nature of this shulfle and, as that very chaos is straight-
ened, the opportunity to see what needed to be seen easily presented itself. Then,
Raj hit the target with the off-center cut that evolved into the Remote Rosetta
Control. By itself, the off-center Rosetta was somewhat reliable for preserving the
top card-but not sure-fire-and not reliable at all for preserving a small top stock.

In playing around with the concept, we both accidentally discovered that by slight-
ly biasing the rosettes, the darned thing waslolproof.

BADINAGE

What to say? simple-a random unforeseeable card

The plot is straightforward and
has nevertheless been anticipated by the performer. In addition, it's all climax. You
establish a set of impossible conditions, and then ntham. Nevertheless, it's import-
ant to think about how to frame the "wham."

I went with a supposed exposition of coincidence-maybe a little tongue in cheek.

In calling it coincidence, you are not holding yourself out as having super powers'
But in the end, no one will think it was actually a coincidence and you will get all
the credit arryway.

Once we establish the framework, we then segue into "adventures of the props"
(you know, "do this, now do this, then do that"), and then, end by recalling and
re-establishing the initial framework. It is a presentation approach that works and
does not require extensive scripting.

John Bannon
 "Do you believe in coincidences? So do I," followed by a deadpan, "Wait ...
isnt . .. that . .. a ... coincidence?"

(Your fellow magicians may think this is corny, but if you haverit heard it a million
times-like most civilians-i1's an effective opening line. You may see it again later
on ...)

"Most coincidences happen by chance. But sometimes, if you do the right

thing, at the right time, at the right place, for the right person, something
truly remarkable can happen."

Here come the adventures of the props.

"Here, shuffie the cards. I want you to be sure that the cards are not in any
particular order and are really mixed.

"Great, now I am not going to change anlthing except remove one card ...
hmmm, okay ... Now I may not be exactly right on, but this is as close as I
can get.

"Let's mix up the cards even more. Give the deck a cut. Now shufle the two
halves-but don't push them all the way together. Great. Let's see. Look, not
a bad shuffie at all.

"Okay,Jessica, I want you to deal the cards onto the table and to stop when-
ever you want. Oh, you don't have to deal them one at a time, but you can
deal two or three. And, you can cut or shufle the cards any time you want.
With me? Great, now deal until you think we have enough cards.

"Nice work. Now we have a random group of random cards from a deck that
you shufled.

"Iam going to get rid of some cards ... and some more ... You see what is
happening, right? We are closing in on one random card in the center of the
bunch.Two left. Point to one.Terrific."

And here's the call-back.

"Okay, after shuffiing and dealing, we converged upon this card-the Nine
of Diamonds. Remember I said that sometimes, if you do the right thing,
at the right time, in the right place, for the right person, something truly
remarkable can happen?

Destination Zero
 "That's the Nine of Hearts and I really could not get any closer than that."

Wham. Glory.

John Bannon
THE THIRTY.SECOND SENSE
PREGIS

A mentally-selected card does and does not appear at a place determined by some
pocket change.

A participant shuffies the deck. She removes some cards from the center and counts
them to obtain a secret number.

Meanwhile, the performer removes some pocket change-a one dollar bill and
some loose change-and places it onto the table.

The performer shows her some cards and she remembers the card at her secret
number. The performer cuts the cards a few times and hands the deck to the par-
t1c1pant.

The performer remarks that while many circumstances are the result of chance,
sometimes truly remarkable coincidences can occur.

He asks the participant to wave the deck over the pocket change. Moving the
dollar aside, he notes that one coin is a dime and asks the participant to deal ten
cards.The second coin is another dime, so ten more cards are dealt.The third coin
is another nickel, so five more cards are dealt. One more card is dealt for each of
the two remaining pennies.

The performer says that it would be an amazing coincidence if the last dealt card
was the card the participant was thinking of. He turns over the top card of the dealt
pile and asks if it is her mentally-selected card.

It's not.

The performer remarks that had the coincidence occurred it would have been a
miracle. As he speaks, he picks up the dollar and, unexpectedly, from inside the
folds of the bill another coin falls out-a nickel.

Destination Zero
The performer asks the participant to deal five more cards. He asks for the name of
the mentally-selected card and turns over the last dealt card.

It is the mentally-selected card!

NOS ENCANTA

A great principle applied to a cool presentation.

The mathematical principle used in this trick has perplexed me almost more than
any other I've run across. Generally referred to as Ed Marlo's 'Automatic Place-
ment," it is truly unfathomable and accordingly, very deceptive. The trick, so to
speak, is wrapping a presentation around it..There aren't many good ones. This one,
howeveq I like.

(For a sophisticated three-selection application of this principle, see "Timely De-

parture" from Sruoke and Mirrors 11992).fJnfortunately,that triclds modest require-
ments-a double undercut and a pick-up move-exceed the criteria for this proj-
ect.)

The "magician in trouble" aspect here is almost plausible given the impossibility of
what the performer apparently seeks to accomplish. Tiy this out and you will fool
yourself. Again and again.

MISE EN SCENE

For the completely organic approach, you will need a dollar bill and coins adding
to thirty-two cents. I use two dimes, two nickels and two pennies. Fold up the bill
and conceal one of the nickels inside it. Put it all in your pocket. Al1 set.

(This trick dresses up well. More prepared, inorganic approaches are discussed in
the notes.)

You will also need a complete deck of fifty-fia;s g21cl5-a1l fifty-two with no Jokers.

Selection
Hand the deck to a participant to be shufled. Take it back and spread it between
your hands. Instruct your participant to grab some cards from the center of the

John Bannon
spread.The total number needs to be twenty or less. It is unlikelyin a hand-to-
hand spread that more than twenty cards are available to even an enthusiastic par-
ticipant, but I like to give the following instructron:

"Please take some cards from the center. This is a real choice: You can take just a
fewl or you can take more, but don't overdo it."

The instruction emphasized that the spectator has a real choice befween a few and
a bunch-it's ambiguous but suggests a limit of "not too many." I believe the natu-
ral inclination is "any amount less than half the deck."

When she does, ask her to count the cards and to remember the number. She may
do it under the table or she can turn away and count them.

As she is doing this, you can let another participant shulfle the remainder of the
cards.

When she is done, caution her to remember the number. She can place the packet
ofcards aside; they are not returned to the deck. I generally have them placed into
the card box.

Take back the deck and tell your spectator that you will show her some cards and
ask her to remember the card at her secret number.

With your right hand, take the top card and raise it to the participant's eye level.
Call the card, "One." (Photo 1.) Leaving your right hand where it is, bring your
left hand to your right and thumb offthe next card in front of the first card. Count,
"Two." (Photo 2.) The cards are not reversed and your right hand does not move.
(Photo 3.)

You will be showing her twenty cards in fairly rapid succession, and this way of
displaying them minimizes any motion bluq allowingfor a clear look at each card.
Continue until you have shown her twenty cards. VeriS, that she is thinking of a
card. Finally, place the right-hand catds under the left-hand cards. Turn the deck
face down and give it an Ose False Cut.

Some of you may wonder how to justift this selection procedure. The short answer
is that you really dont have to. At the end of the procedure, it's plain that you can-
not possibly know the number, the card or the location of the card (which, for the
most part, is true). So the procedure, while a little unusual, seems very fair. Besides,
participants are not as experienced with card tricks as we are, so they dont have
a developed sense of what is "usual." As the performer, moreove! you naturally

Destination Zero
1

John Bannon
control the events and most participants will simply go along with you.I actually
believe that in this situation, over-justifiring the process may induce more suspicion
than little or no justification. You really can over-think this.

Let's split the difference and say something like, "We need to get a random num-
ber that no one could know or guess in adyance. Please take some cards from the
center. This is a real choice: You can take iust a few; or you can take more, but don't
overdo it," and leave it at that.

Produclion
Okay, your participant is concentrating on her mentally-selected card. You don't
know her number, her card or the location of her card. So now what?

Well, actually you do know the location of her card. When you placed the twen-
ty-card packet under the left-hand cards, the mentally-selected card became the thir-
ty-second card from the top of the deck. Seriously. I hope you are doubting this; I
continue to be amazed by it. But, it's true. That's the 'Automatic Placement."

The rest is mumbo-jumbo. I talk about "remarkable coincidences."You could offer

to wager the dollar that you will be able to find the mentally-selected card.

This is also a good time to do a quick, casual Ose False Cut.

In any event, let your participant deal and use the visible pocket change to count
down to the twenty-seventh card. Do this coin by coin. Do not add them up and
deal the total. You want to break up the counting and deemphasize the total. Of
course, you are deliberately going to miss the selected card-but that's part of the
fun, as well as part of the structure.

Once the cards are dealt, do not ask for the name of the mentally-selected card.
Instead, state what a remarkable coincidence it would be if the last card dealt was
the mentally-selected card. Flip over the top card of the dealt pile, and ask simply,
"Is that the card you are thinking of?"

She will reply, "No."

This is a nice moment. The expectation was that it would be her card, but it's not.
On the other hand, it seems quite impossible that it would be. There is tension.
Better yet, no one other than the participant knows what the card is. Do not linger
too long before moving to the real climax.

Destination Zero
 4

Tirrn the wrong card face down onto the pile.

Act as if you are trying to figure out what went wrong (subtext only, please). Pick
up the dollar and allow the hidden nickel to fall out. Say something like, "Oh, now
I get it ...."(Photo4.)Inform your participant that she needs to deal five more
cards.

After she you ask for the name of the mentally-selected card. This is
does, nou.:
good drama and allows everyone to know the card and to immediately know it
when they see it. Once she announces her card, turn over the last dealt card-the
thirty-second card. It is, of course, the correct card. What an amazing coincidencel

POST MORTEM

Credits ond Bqckgtound

I know the basic principle and application as Marlo's 'Automatic Placement" from
lssue #329 of The Phoenix published in 1955; the procedure set forth here is essen-
tially identical to the 'Automatic Placement" in Marlo's Faro Notes (1958) at page
47 (apparently Marlo also put it in the Neu Tops as well as in Glenn Gravatt's 50
Modern Card Tricks You Can Do 1797 aD. Marlo named it and developed it, but the
basic principle is likely an old one. Still, there appears to be a pseudo-historical
tendency to lump variations together and to take the earliest. This is neither accu-
rate nor particularly helpful. What is needed is the most applicable reference, the
highest evolved form of the particular application. Faro Notes is right on.

John Bannon
Iqke Tolk
The key to this location is that your participant determines a secret number based
upon a group of cards she removes from the deck. So, it's worth some time to think
about that selection procedure. You want to make sure your participant knows that
she has a wide and meaningful choice of the amount of cards and, accordingly, the
range of various "secret numbers." You also want to minimize the possibility of
your participant concluding that you estimated the number of cards and therefore
figured out her secret number.

In the early applications of the Automatic Placement, the participant was told to
cut off a packet of cards: "Cut off some cards, any number, but less than half the
deck."The performer looks away as this is done-a viable approach. The procedure
used in this trick, in which the participant grabs a bunch of cards from a spread, is
a modern approach. I first saw it used by the very clever Ram5n Riob6o during my
first trip to Spain in 2005.

I worked out a third, new approach for "Second Reckoning" (in this volume) be-
cause a smaller initial quantity of only twenty-six cards was employed. The more I
work with it, the more I am liking it. A full-deck handling would go like this:

Hand the deck to your participant and have her shuffie it. I would mime an over-
hand shuffie as I instruct her.

Have her cut offhalf the cards and table them (or hand them to you). Have her
shuffie the remainder again.

Now tell her to cut off some more cards: "You can cut off a lot or just a few, but be
sure you keep some cards for yourself." She places these cards on top of the 6rst
cut-offpacket.

Now, have her count the cards she kept and remember the total. You can turn away
as she does this or she can do this under the table.

This method seems to conceal the participant's packet as well or better than the
others. You should try it out in this trick or in the next one, "Mousetrap."

Destination Zero
How Does This Work?

Okay, let's call the number of cards she removed "x," and the remainder, "r." So, "x"
plus "r" equals 52.

When you have shown her twenty cards without reversing the ordeq her card is
"x" cards from the top of the twenty-card packet. With me? From the top of the
twenty-card packet down, the stack looks like this:

(x- 1 cards)
(selected card, position x)
(20 -xcards)

For example, if the secret number was 13, then the mentally-selected card would
be thirteenth from the top.

The number of cards left, and not shown,is "r" minus 20, right? When you place the
twenty-card packet under these cards, the stack looks like this:

(r - 20 cards)
(x- 1 cards)
(selected card, position x)
(20 -xcards)

So, the number of cards above the selected card is equal to "r" minus 20, p/us "x"
minus one. We know that "x" + "r" equals 52.Let's do the math:

(r - 20) + (x - 1) - (r + x- 2t) = (52 - 21) = 3t

So, no matter how many cards were removed, the selected card will always be the
thirty-second card from the top. Always.

(31 cards)
(selected card, position x)
(20 -x cards)

Very cool.

John Bannon
!norgonic
Let's dress this up alittle. Get a small coin purse. I use a small Ton Onosaka-style
coin purse. Fill it with interesting coins totaling thiffy-two cents; for example, one
mercury dime, three Buffalo nickels and seven Indian-Head pennies. Non-collect-
able coins can be assembled for very little cost.

At the appropriate time, bring out the coin purse and remove the coins, but leave
one of the nickels behind. Close the purse and proceed with a fanciful but short
yarn about your grand-uncle's coin collection. At the end, open the purse as if to
put the coins away and "notice" that there is a missed nickel.

Or, have a wallet with mlred bills totaling thirty-two dollars. Remove the dough,
leaving a fiver behind. Or get one of those old, beat-up-looking decks and a stack
of Confederate money. You get the picture.

Consiruction Zone
A lot of magicians would prefer to just put out thirty-two cents and to nail the
card on the first try. If you do this, you'll no doubt get a good reaction, but you'll
emphasize the inevitability of it all.

On the other hand, if you miss, you deflect inevitability for a host of conflicting
reasons. Then when you hit, the effect is strongeq because the inevitability was, for
a moment, called into question.

As we discussed before, no one will buy "the magician in trouble calls upon his
magical powers (or whatever) to remedy his unfortunate situation." In the end,
your participants will credit you with missing on ?ur?ose and will be focused on the
depth of the con as opposed to the inevitability of the method. This is a very good
thing. A twist in the tale is almost always better than a straight line.

As trmily Dickinson said, "Tell all the truth, but te1l it slant. Success in circuit lies."
Words to live by; words to construct magic tricks by. In magic, as in life, the best
approach is hardly ever a straight line.I think Sun Tzu would agree.

BADINAGE

This is all adventures of the props. Even though I frame it as creating a "coinci-
dence," the twist at the end both disguises and heightens the aura of inevitability.

Destination Zero
"Do you believe in coincidences? So do I. [Or,'Neither do I.'] Isn't that a
coincidence?

"Here, shuffie the cards. Most coincidences happen by chance. But some-
times, if you do the right thing, at the right time, at the right place, some-
thing truly remarkable can happen." [Remove dollar and change.]

"Great. We need to get a random number that no one could know or guess
in advance. Please take some cards from the center. This is a real choice: You
can take just a few, or you can take more, but don't overdo it.

"Put the cards under the table and count them silently to yourself. Have you
done that? Remember the number. That will be your secret number.

"Now you shufled these cards, right? I am going to show you the cards one
at a time and I want you to remember the card at your secret number. Are
you with me?

"That's one ... two ... three [...] nineteen and twenty. Do you have a card
yet? Good. Please remember that card. You're thinking of a card, right? You
havent touched it or taken it out of the deck, right? No one else but you can
know what that card is, right?

"Many things happen just by chance. But even though many circumstances
are the result of chance, sometimes truly remarkable coincidences can occur.
"Here, take the cards. Now, I have some pocket change which I took out of
my pocket before we started.

"Here's a dime, so deal ten cards onto the table. Another dime, deal another
ten cards. A nickel, deal five cards. And two pennies, so deal two more cards.
"Noru, I am not saying that it's so, but wouldn't it be a remarkable coinci-
dence if the last card you dealt was your card? I think so, too.

"The Seven ofSpades.Your card is the Seven ofSpades, right?

"No?

"We11, it would have been a remarkable coincidence. fPick up dollar.]

"Oh! Look. [The nickel falls out.] I think I know what the problem is. Deal
five more cards.

John Bannon
"What card are you thinking of? The Nine of Diamonds? Could it be?

"Look, it's the Nine of Diamondsl Unbelievablel"

Destination Zero
MOUSETRAP
PRECIS

Of all things, a self-working sandwich trick.

The participant mentally selects a card which is convincingly lost in the deck. Two
sandwich cards, say the two red Qreens, are buried face-up in the deck. The per-
former starts pulling pairs of cards from the top and bottom of the deck and drop-
ping the pairs into a spread on the table. During this process, he encounters the
face-up Qreens, which end up with a single face-down card between them.

A few pairs after the Qreens, the performer drops the remaining cards onto the
spread, saying, "I don't know about you, but I'm dying of curiosity-what card are
you thinking of?"

The card sandwiched between the Qreens is the mentally-selected card!

NOS ENCANTA

Ifyou have the performing patience and are baffied by the Automatic Placement-
even though you know how it works (sort of)-you may like this trick, too.

I have been playing around with this procedure for over twenry-five years. The
procedure usually places the mentally-selected card fairly deep in the deck. For me,
the challenge is how to move through that number of cards in an efficient way and
to make a trick out of it. Burying the face-up Qreens, among other things, burns
through twenty of thirty cards in an efficient way. There is a lucly synergy here
between the Automatic Placement and the necessary positioning of the Qreens
for the Klondike sandwich revelation.

The Klondike Shuffie adds an interesting dimension because you can watch the
sandwich being formed. As the shuffie progresses, you get a sense of what inevi-
tably must happen, which is confirmed when a card gets sandwiched. Only when
the sandwich appears does one appreciate that it will be the mentally-selected card.

John Bannon
Combining the "impossible location' of the Automatic Placement with a sand-
wich-type trick creates such a disconnect that the straightforward sandwich reve-
lation is unexpected and surprising.

MISE EN SCENE

You need a full fifty-two-card deck (no Jokers). Remove your two sandwich
cards-here, the red Qreens-and set them face down to one side. You now have
a fifty-card deck.

Plocement
Have the deck shuffied.You will now do the same Automatic Placement procedure
we saw in "The Thirty-Second Sense."

Take the shuffied deck back and spread it between your hands. Instruct your par-
ticipant to grab some cards from the center of the spread. The total number needs
to be twenty or less. It is unlikely in a hand-to-hand spread that more than twenty
cards are available to even an enthusiastic participant.

When she does, ask her to count the cards and to remember the number. She may
do it under the table or she can turn away and count them. As she is doing this, you
can let another participant shuffie the remainder of the cards.

When she is done, caution her to remember the number. She can place the packet
ofcards aside; they are not returned to the deck.

Take back the deck and tell your spectator that you will show her some cards and
ask her to remember the card at her secret number.

As before, with you right hand, take the top card and raise it to the participant's eye
level. Call the card, "One." Leaving your right hand where it is, bring your left hand
to your right and thumb off the next card in front of the first card. Count, "T\Mo."
The cards are not reversed and your right hand does not move. You will be showing
her twenty cards in fairly rapid succession, and this way of displaying them mini-
mizes any motion blur, allowingfor a clear look at each card.

Continue until you have shown her twenty cards. Verify that she is thinking of a
card. Finally, place the right-hand cards under the left-hand cards. Give the deck
an Ose False Cut. (See "BluffOracle Aces II,"page 10.)

Destination Zero
At the end of the procedure, it's plain that you cannot possibly know the number,
the card or the location of the card (which, for the most part, is true). So the pro-
cedure, while a little unusual, seems very fair.

Locqtion
Okay, because you are working with a fifty-card deck, through the wonder of the
Automatic Placement, the mentally-selected card is the thirtieth card from the top.
Pretend to concentrate and then state as seriously as you can, "I know you are not
thinking of a red Qreen, right?"

Then, turn the tabled Qreens face up onto the top of the deck. "Because I took
them out before we started. But we will use them to find your card. First, we'll need
to bury them in the deck."

You will bury the Qreens apparently haphazardly, but actually in a particular
place-tenth and eleventh from the bottom. Set the Qreens face up onto the table.
As casually as you can, spread off three cards and toss them onto the table. Toss
three more, then three more. Nowl place the Qreens face up onto the tabled pile.
Bury the Qreens by tossing three more groups of three, and a group of two, for a
total of eleven more cards.

To recap: Toss nine cards, then the face-up Qreens, then toss eleven cards-any
way you want to. For example, you could place the face-up Qreens on top of the
deck. Then, push over the Qreens and three groups of three cards each and drop
them a1l onto the table. Next, push over eleven cards (three, three, three and two)
and drop them on top. The key is to not look like you are counting.

Drop the rest of the deck on top. At this point, the mentally-selected card is tenth
from the top and the Qreens are tenth and eleventh from the bottom.

Any one for a Klondike ... Shuffie?

Klondike
Ifyou like, give the deck a false cut.

The Klondike Shuffie goes like this: Take the deck from above with your right
hand. With your left thumb and fingers, simultaneously pull off the top and bot-
tom cards of the deck. (See Photo 1, nextpage.) Drop this pair onto the table to

John Bannon
1

Destination Zero
 4

the right, in a spread condition. Pull the next top and bottom pair and drop it onto
and to the right of the tabled pair. Continue pulling pairs in this fashion, gradually
building a left-to-right continuous spread of cards. (Photo 2.)

When you pull the tenth pa:r.,a face-up Qreen will be the lower card of the pair.
(Photo 3.) When you pull the eleventh pair, the second Qreen will appear and,
when the pair is tabled,will sandwich a single face-down card between the Qreens.
(Photo 4.) I pull off two or three more pairs to complete the "spread" look, then
just drop the rest ofthe cards on the end ofthe spread.You knowl cut to the chase.
While it does not seem possible, the card between the Qreens is the mentally-se-
lected card. Really. Gotta love it.

POST MORTEM

Bockground
I have a similar trick that combines an impossible location with a sandwich trick,
"Dawn Patrol," Dear Mr. Fantasy (2005). This combination creates an interesting
dynamic. The "impossible location," almost by definition, creates a set of conditions
specifically designed to reinforce the conclusion that there is no way the performer
will be able to find the selected card; participants are necessarily skeptical as to how
and when you will be able to bring the trick to a successful conclusion (which, of
course, is the whole point of the location). Accordingly, they really dorit expect the
sandwiched card to actually be the selected card and are prepared for additional by-
play before the trick ends. When the sandwiched card turns out to be the selection,
it is unexpected and, accordingly, surprising. All good things.

John Bannon
"Dawn Patrol" employs a perfect faro shuffie. I thought about how to accomplish
the same effect by some other means.Turns out, the math of the Klondike Shuf-
fle makes it unusable under "Dawn Patrol" conditions-where the relevant cards
are a known distance from each other. In considering the Klondike Shuffie, what
matters is that the relevant cards are a known distance from the top and the bot-
tom of the deck. This consideration, in turn, led me to the Automatic Placement
which automatically places the mental selection at a known number from the top.
Hmmm...

As I mentioned eadier, there is a real synergy between the Automatic Placement

and the requirement that the Qreens be buried in the deck that creates a truly
efficient trick. In addition, making ten pairs before the Qreens show up generates
just enough anticipation without overdoing it.

Mouseirqppers
In discussing this trick with the Chicago Session, Dave Solomon and I came up
with the following handling which doesnt use the Klondike.

Use the Automatic Placement to put the mental selection thirtieth from the top
as described. Introduce the sandwich cards and bury them face up by first putting
eleven cards, then the face-up Qreens and then putting nine cards. (This is the op-
posite of "Mousetrap,"where nine cards were placed first, then eleven.) Then, stop,
leaving the deck in two portions.

The face-up Qreens are tenth and eleventh from the top of the tabled half, the
mental selection is tenth from the top of the remainder.

Hand your participant the balance of the deck and pick up the tabled half. Have
her follow your actions as you walk her through an Ose False Cut. Having a partic-
ipant do the Ose False Cut is good (when used judiciously), but both of you doing
it at the same time is even better.

Now, deal a card onto the table and have your participant deal a card on top of
it. Each of you continues alternately dealing cards into a single pile on the table.
Eventually you will deal a face-up Qreen, she'll deal a face-down card on top of it
and you'll deal another Qreen. Got one!

Stop the dealing and say, "Did you see what just happened? The Qreens have
trapped a card."Ask for the name of the mental selection. Voila!

Destination Zero
Do The Mqth

I think ten pairs before the Qreens show up are just about right. But everlthing
is under your control. It all depends on how many cards you put below and above
the Qreens.

For example, if nine below and eleven above means the sandwich will be formed
by the tenth and eleventh pairs, placing seven below and thirteen above will form
the sandwich at the eighth and ninth pairs. (Seven below is the least amount I
would consider; fewer would decrease the illusion that the Qreens are "buried.")
Similarly, eight below and twelve above would put the sandwich at the ninth and
tenth pairs.

John Bannon
SECOND RECKONING
PRECIS

A participant shuffies about half the deck.

She hands most of the cards to the performer and counts the cards she has left to
obtain a secret number.

The performer shows her some cards and she remembers the card at her secret
number.

The performer cuts the cards a few times. He says he will deal the cards onto the
table and he wants her to silently spell the name of the card she is thinking of one
letter for each card he deals. When she has spelled the name of the card, she should
not say anl,thing, but think, "Stop!"

"Here's what will happen. We're going to cast a 'magic spell.'In a minute, I'm going
to deal the cards onto the table one at a time. As I deal, I want you to silently spell
out the name of your card, one letter for each card that is dealt. Nowl as you reach
the last letter in the name of your card, silently think the word 'stop!' Dont say
anything;just think it. I'm going to read your mind. Okay?"

The performer begins dealing cards onto the table. At some point, the participant
thinks to herself "Stop!"

And the performer stops dealing.

He asks for the name of the card she is thinking of. He shows the card in his hand,
the card he was about to deal when she thought, "stopl"-1[e participant's cardl

Destination Zero
NOS ENCANTA

"Dead Reckoning" was one of the more popular tricks from Dear Mr. Fantasy
(2005). It combined a "mental speller" plot, with a Ha:ry Riser strategy that al-
lowed a free cut and shuffie, and wrapped them up in a sophisticated "sunken
key" control. While layering a number of concepts, this self-working trick moved
smoothly without any extraneous procedure. This combination of a direct "impos-
sible location" with a mental spell by the participant proved very effective. The trick
bothered people.

You should check it out.

"Second Reckoning" combines a different "impossible location," the Automatic

Placement, with the participant's mental spell. Same plot. Same underlying subtle-
ty. Same synergy. Same stunned reaction. Still self-working.

MISE EN SCENE

Pqcket

The central subtlety at work here is a bank of cards whose names spell with twelve
or thirteen letters. As Larry Becker has pointed out, there are exactly twenty-six
such cards. As you'Il see, this total is fortuitous.

Remove the following cards from the deck:

Clubs:3,7,8, q
Hearts: 3, 4, 5 17, 8, 9rJ, Q, K
Spades: 3, 4, 5 17, 8, 9,J, Qr K
Diamonds: Ar6r1.0,2

Shuffie the cards thoroughly. You will use this half-deck for the trick.

You can set this up ahead of time, or if you're mentally nimble enough (I am not),
do it on the fly.If you segregate the cards ahead of time, place the Qreen of Hearts
on top of the packet and place the packet underneath the remaining cards. To
perform, remove the cards and give them an Ose False Cut. Tirrn the deck face up
and spread through it-it should appear well-mixed. Hand all of the face-up cards
aboye and including the Qreen of Hearts to your participant. You can simply say,
"We'11need about half the cards for this."

John Bannon
I prefer to dress up the trick a little. I remove the cards from an interesting looking
deck-not too hard to find these days-wrap a rubber band around them and carry
them around as a separate packet. (Yes, I know, turning a perfectly good, near-im-
promptu trick, into a packet trick.)

Perform

Hand the twenty-six-card packet to your participant and allow (encourage) her to
examine and shufle it.

After she has shuffied,

say to her that in just a moment you will have her look at a
card and remember it. Then, ask her to give you about half of the cards.

Then, have her shufle the cards she has left again and hand you "some" of them,
keeping some for herself. Actually, she can keep any amount up to twelve. This
process emphasizes the shufling and allows her to retain a number of cards within
that range that was not controlled and could not have been known in advance.
State that she has reached a secret number by shuffiing and cutting the cards twice.
Next, have her silently count her cards and remember her secret number.

Now tell her that you will show her some cards and she is to remember the card
that is at her secret number.

As we saw in "The Thirty-Second Sense," with your right hand, take the top card
and raise it to the participant's eye level. Call the card, "One." Leaving your right
hand where it is, bring your left hand to your right and thumb offthe next card in
front of the first card. Count, "Two."The cards are not reversed and your right hand
does not move.

You will be showing her thirteen cards in fairly rapid succession, and this way of
displaying them minimizes any motion bluS allowingfot a clear look at each card.
Continue until you have shown her thirteen cards. Veri$, that she is thinking of a
card. Finally, place the right-hand cards under the left-hand cards. Remind her that
she might have thought of any of the cards.

You can give the packet a quick Ose False Cut, if you like. (See "BluffOracle Aces
II," page 10.)

Destination Zero
Spell Cqst

Okay, her mentally-selected card is now thirteen cards from the top of the packet
and it spells with either twelve or thirteen letters. Amazirrg.

Explain that you will deal the cards onto the table and you want her to silently spell
the name of the card she is thinking of, one letter for each card you deal. Remind
her to include the "of" and the "s" at the end of the suit. When she has spelled the
name of the card, she should not say anything, but think, "Stop!"

It does not matter whether her card spells with twelve or thirteen letters; you will
do the following eoery time; Slowly deal twelve cards onto the table and, as you
take the thirteenth card, react like you received a powerful mental message.

If your participant's card spells wtth tueloe letters, she will have reached the end
and will think "Stop!" as you take the thirteenth card. It does not matter that you
took an extra card. A11 that matters is that you apparently received her mental im-
perative.

If your participant's
card spells wtth thirteen letters, she will think "Stopl" at or
about the same time you take the thirteenth card.

Let's go through this again as it tends to be a little confusing.The mentally-selected

card is aluays the thirteenth card. If it happens to spell with thirteen letters, you
feel her "stop" impulse as you take the card. If it spells with twelve letters, you have
dealt twelve cards and apparently feel the impulse as you take the next card. Either
way, you felt the impulse at about the right time, and you are holding a card in your
right hand. Don't worry about this. The "impulse" is the effect right now. The actual
card comes next.

This is a powerful moment. Because of the shuffiing and the mental selection, there
is no way you could know the name of her card (all true), so apparently you could
not otherwise know when to stop (we11, not so much). But the best is yet to come.
Ask her for the name of the card she is thinking of.You are holding the thirteenth
card in your right hand. Stare at it for a long moment, and then slowly show her
that you stopped on her card as well.

Another powerful moment. Because of the "impossible location" aspect of the Au-
tomatic Placement, there appears to be no way you could have controlledher card.

John Bannon
POST MORTEM

Gredits ond Bqckground

Way back when, the estimable Larry Becker had a routine based upon a bank of
twenty-six cards that spelled with twelve or thirteen letters. See "The 13th Card,"
World Of Super Mentalism I (7978). This was my first exposure to this strategy.
Of course, the notion of banked spellers goes back to Greater Magic. See "The T.
Nelson Downs Speller" from J.N. Hilliard, Greater Magic (Hilliard, 1938) at page
311 and other references on page 315. But the robust twenty-six-card bank, and
exploitation of the slight difference between twelve and thirteen, were new to me.
Larry used the bank in a very different way: He spelled the name of a spectator's
thought-of card to arrle at a different card that had been predicted. Harry Riser
used the bank in a spelling trick using a faro-shuffie location. My "Dead Reckon-
ing"layered the bank, a floating key and a crimped card to arrive at the mental spell
finale that we also see here.

Destination Zero
LEVERAGE
PRECIS

After briefly examining a shuffied deck, the performer writes a prediction. He

thinks a bit, and then changes the predictron.

After the prediction is made, a participant freely cuts to a card. Let's say she cuts
to the Three of Clubs. The performer shows part of his prediction; it says, "Nine of
Diamonds." He explains:

"You I predicted you would cut to the Nine of Diamonds. But as soon as
see,
I wrote those words down, I had a feeling that you were not going to cut to
the Nine, and that you were going to miss it by a number of cards. That you
would be offby six cards, to be precise."

The rest of the prediction says, "Offby sk."

"So if I am right, if you had cut offsix more cards ... one ... two ... three ...
four ... five and six. You would have cut to ... the Nine of Diamonds."

From where the participant cut, the performer deals down six more cards.The sixth
catd is the predicted card.

Presto.

NOS ENGANTA

This is my favorite type of card trick. The idea is to take an obviously free choice
and to leverage it into a forced result through craft and guile. Implemented correct-
ly, it should appear and feel like a remarkable prediction of a fair selection.

Audiences have very strong presumption that a trick will work. It's so strong that,
a

when a trick does not work (or appears not to have worked), they refuse to believe
it. Instead, they conclude that the mistake or error was just part of the presentation,

John Bannon
part of the performer's play. And they wait to see what the trick really is.

In this trick, we exploit this presumption. The error-coffby six"-is not part of the
presentation, but actually part of the method. The performer does not attempt to
control the card the participant actually cut to-that zuouldbe impossible. Instead,
the procedure secretly controls the aftermath of the participant's free cut.

Using the audience's own presumption against them is like a form of judo. The
audience cannot believe that the performer actually "missed" (even though it would
have been impossible to succeed). Accordingly, they accept that the real trick is that
the performer successfully predicted that the participant would cut exactly six cards
away from the predicted card-which, if you think about it, seems like the same
thing. They conclude that the "miss" is not a real miss, but a bit of presentational
business. You end up with full credit.

MISE EN SCENE

A straightforward application of the Balducci Cut-Deeper Force driyes the whole

trick.

Have the deck shuffied. Take it back and note the identity of the sixth card from
the top. You can do this openly by "studying" the shuffi.ed order, or secretly or by
moving a known card into position. Say it is the Nine of Diamonds.

Place the deck face down in front of your participant. Now, write the following
prediction: "Nine of Diamonds ... Oft-By Six."The prediction should be written
so you can show the "Nine of Diamonds" part, but keep the "Off By Six" covered,
but not necessarily hidden. (Photo 1.) Place the prediction in a conspicuous place.

To gild the lily, you can have your participant run through some exercises. Write
only the first part of the prediction. Now guide your participant through the Ose
False Cut (we saw this in "Petal To The Metal"). Briefly:

Have your participant pick up the deck. As before, refer to the following diagram:

A C

Ask her to cut off a third and to place it onto the table. That packet is packet 'A."
Have her cut offa second third and place it next to the first, that is, at position "B."
The remainder of the cards goes to position "C."

Destination Zero
 1

\.t-z

Between each instruction act as if you are studying her cutting ability.

Pause only a beat or two, and then have her assemble the packets by placing A on
top of B and the combine d packet on top of C. This places the deck back in order.
The sub-text here is that you are evaluating her cutting ability (the false cut is a
bonus). Do not elaborate; actions speak louder than words. When she is done, go
back and change your prediction by adding the "offby six" part.

Now guide your spectator through a tabled Balducci Force: First, instruct her to
cut off a packet of cards "less than half the deck," to turn it face up and to replace
it back onto the deck. Then ask her to cut off "more than half the deck," to turn
over the packet and to place it onto the deck. A face-up card will show. (Photo 2.)
Remark that the uppermost card is a completely free choice of card (it actually is).

John Bannon
 3

Get your participant to commit to the fair and free nature of the selection process.
Now ask her if she thinks it is possible that you could have predicted in advance
which card she would cut to. Again, get her to admit that it would be impossible
to do so reliably.

Now show the part of your prediction that says "Nine of Diamonds," and begin
the spin.

"You see, I predicted

you would cut to the Nine of Diamonds. But as soon
as I wrote I had a feeling that you were not going to cut
those words down,
to the Nine, and that you were going to miss it by a number of cards. After
I watched you cut the cards, I figured that you would be offby six cards, to
be precise."

Now show the rest of the prediction that says "offby six."

Pick up the deck and spread offthe face-up cards and place them squared onto the
table. From the face-down remainder of the deck deal five cards face up onto the
tabled packet. Take the sixth card, pause for drama and then show it-the Nine of
Diamonds!

"So if I am right, if you had cut off six more cards . .. one . .. two ... three ...
four ... five and six. You would have cut to ... the Nine of Diamonds."

If you have the room, you can very fairly spread the deck and then deliberately, with
one finger, separate the halves and count down to the sixth face-down card. You
know; make a big deal about it. (Photo 3.)

Destination Zero
POST MORTEM

BOP (Bolducci Open Prediction) By Six

With a little tinkering,avery fine "Open Prediction" can be wrought. In fact,I find
this offbeat approach to that classic interesting on a number of methodological
and presentational levels. For example, with respect to the Balducci "Off By Six,"
contrive to have a prediction with "Two chances, but offby six"written on one side.
Then, openly write the name of your force card (which is sixth from the top) on the
other side, say the "Kirg of Clubs."

Place the deck in front of your participant and walk her through the Balducci
Force.

"The card we are looking for is the King of Clubs. Cut off a packet of cards,
turn it over and place it back on top. Raquel, that's not the King of Clubs.
Let's try again. This time cut deeper than the first time, turn over the packet
and place it back on top. Raquel, that's not the King of Clubs either.

"We11, it's harder than it I

predicted the King of
looks. Actually, as soon as
Clubs, I had a feeling that even with two chances, you would not cut to the
King. But I felt that you would be close and only miss it by a few cards. See
what I wrote down,'Two chances, but offby six.'Let's see ..."

Pick up the deck and spread offthe face-up cards and place them squared on the
table. From the face-down remainder of the deck deal five cards face up onto the
tabled packet. Take the sixth card, pause for drama and then show it-the King of
Clubsl

"So if I am right, if you had cut off six more cards . .. one . .. two ... three .. . four
... five and six. You would have cut to . .. the King of Clubs."

Leveroge

The basic construction begs the question that, if you could predict "offby six" ac-
curately, you should be able to predict the actual card, so why didnt you? Good
questlon.

The answer, of course, is that you can't predict the actual card. That said, while we
are leveraging the method, maybe we can leverage the presentation, too.

John Bannon
You want to leave the impression that you could have made a "spot on" prediction,
but purposely did not. Instead, you deliberately created a "magician in trouble" sce-
nario, only to blithely show you were in total control all along. In other words, you
want your audience to understand that you were playrng with them and that's why
you apparently missed-to artificially create a moment of apparent failure in order
to turn it into a triumph.

At the end of the trick, like it or not, most "magician in trouble" plots leave exactly
this impression. No one concludes that you were ever "in trouble,"but only that you
created that appearance so you could rectifl/ it for dramatic effect. And most of the
time, the "magician in trouble" ploy is only presentation driven-the ploy is used
solely for dramatic effect.

Tiicks like "Leverage" are different. Here the "magician in trouble" aspect is not just
presentation driven, but method driven. You must miss the actual card in order for
the trick to work.

The fascinating aspect ofthese kinds oftricks is that because your participants as-
sume that the "miss" is presentation driven, they will also assume the "miss" is not a
really a "miss." In other words, they will assume that you really could have predicted
the actual card, but for their amusement and entertainment, you did not. But, you
could have.This is deception atavery deep level.

You dont often see this kind of construction in the card trick wasteland. Too bad.
It's like a "sucker tricli'without the sting and you can smile to yourself every time
your participants give you the credit for the methodological leverage you really
dont deserve.

Did I mention this is my favorite type of trick?

Flop By Six

This is a really good method that will fool almost everyone. However, some sleight
of hand is required. The first version is virtually self-working; to set up in real time,
the second method requires a half pass and the trick itself uses a timing-based
turnover move, the "flop."

Have the deck shuffied.Take it back and spread it faces toward yourself, pretending
to study the arrangement. In realtty, note the third or fourth card from the face-
let's say the King of Clubs-and get a break five cards past it.

Destination Zero
Turn the deck face down and, as youdo so, execute a half pass or a mechanical
reverse of the lower packet. If the deck
were turned over, the King of Clubs would
be slxth from the top, with three or four face-down cover cards beneath it. But let's
not do that yet.

Set down the deck (with the reversed packet at the bottom), and write a prediction
similar to the ones previously described, "King of Clubs . .. Off By SLr."

Pick up the face-down deck and begin dealing the cards into a face-up pile on the
table. Have your participant stop the deal wherever.

Sell the fairness of the selection (presumably the uppermost face-up card).

Call attention to the prediction. Simultaneously, pick up the prediction with your
right hand as you set the deck down with your left, secretly turning over the deck as
you do as all attention is on the prediction-afatrly perfect moment for the "flop."
Do the prediction shenanigans:

"You see,predicted you would stop at the King of Clubs. But as soon as I
I
wrote those words down, I had a feeling that you were not going to stop on
the King, and that you were going to miss it by a number of cards, that you
would be offby six cards, to be precise."

Then, very fairly pick up the deck, deal five cards face up onto the tabled pile, pause
for drama and then slowly show the sixth card to be the King of Clubs.

Ifyou preset the force card and the reversed cards on the bottom, this handling is
much more accessible. Simply remove the cards from the box, give the deck a quick
Ose tr'alse Cut (without revealing the reversed cards) and go from there.

John Bannon
TINY CONTRARY KILLER
PRECE

A participant selects a card. Another participant merely thinks of a card.

The performer has foreseen and predicted both cards.

NOS ENCANTA

Looks as good as it sounds. There is a lot going on in this trick from a design
standpoint, but it's stil1 self-working. We combine a force, an innocent-seeming
direction and a popular Kenton Knepper gambit to create a direct and amazing
mental effect.

MISE EN SCENE

This is self-working, but not impromptu. Some simple preparation is required.

You will need three extra cards and a "two-way out" device. You need a black spot
card, such as the Nine of Spades, and the two red Qreens. (Or, a red spot card such
as the Seven of Hearts, and the two black Qreens.)

On the back of the Nine of write something cryptic like "The tuth" or
Spades,
"The Future." Or, something simple like "Prediction." On the back of each of the
red Qreens write Kenton Knepper's famous "OffBy One." (Photo 1.)

For an organic tvvo-out system, you can use a regular wallet (you could also use a
Himber-style wallet). Place the Qreens into your wallet where each is hidden and
each can be removed face up. Place the remaining spot card into your wallet so
it is not hidden, is face down and can be removed without exposing either of the
Qreens. (Photo 2.)

A11set.

Destination Zero
 1

Choice Cuts
So prepared, allyou need is a deck of cards with the card matching the spot card in
your wallet on top-in this example, the Nine of Spades.

To begin, force the Nine. I use the Balducci Force we saw in "lJlterior." Briefly:
Place the deck in front of your participant. Ask her to: "cut offless than half the
cards, turn the cards face up and place them face up on top ofthe deck."

Then, instruct her to: "cut off more than half, again turn the cards over and place
them on top."

Emphasize that she made two free cuts without any influence from you. Pick up

John Bannon
 3

the deck and spread down to the first face-down card (this is your force card, the
original top card) and have your spectator remoye it. You can also spread the deck
on the table and push the first face-down card toward your participant. (Photo 3.)

Have your participant look at and remember the card. A1so, have her show the card
around to the other participants.

Turn all the cards face down and have the selected card returned to the deck. After
giving the deck a brief shuffie, allow the first spectator to shufle the cards.

Thought Lfd.
Turn to a second participant who has also seen the selected card. Veri4, that she
has seen the card.

Tell her that you are going to ask her to think of a card,but caution her not to do
it yet. 'Jessica, in a minute I am going to ask you to think of a card, but don't do it
yet."This is important. You dont want her prematurely arriving at a catdbefore she
hears your instruction.

Now give her the following instruction: "I want you to think of a card, but not any
card. I want you to think of a card that is completely different from Raquel's card.
If she selected a number card, I want you to think of a picture catd, and rf she took
a red card, I want you to think of a black card."

This instruction, by itself is innocent and does not restrict the overall range of

Destination Zero
choices. Because any card might have been selected, any card might be thought of.
We have cheated a little and forced a black spot card. So the second participant
must think of one of six red picture cards-either the Jack, Qreen, or King of
Hearts or Diamonds.

This is a highly refined instruction. Note how the first part of the instruction refers
to a spot card, which results in an example of a picture card. Of course, a spot card
was chosen, so you are essentially telling the second spectator to think of a picture
card. But, because no one knows this, the instruction is innocent enough. The sec-
ond part of the instruction reverses things; as an example, you use a red card to lead
to a black card, which is the opposite of the actual case. This tends to disarm the
audience and to leave the impression of a substantial uncontrolled choice.

Caution your second participant to remember her thought-of card and turn your
attention back to your first participant.

Divine And Conquel

Take the deck and ask the first participant to concentrate on her selected card. Now
pretend to read her mind. I use the following bits of business.

Run through the deck and place the Nine of Spades face down onto the table. As
you do, miscall the elements of her card.

"OK ... you thinking of a red card ... a Diamond ... a low card ... aTwo ... the
are
Two of Diamonds ... right?"

This is a great bit. She will, of course, say you are wrong. Curiously, ask for the name
ofher card.

When she tells you, flip over the tabled card to demonstrate that you knew it all
along.

I use this every chance I get, but it is especially effective here. The ultimate
bit
psychology is essentially being playful. You want the audience to be unable to dis-
tinguish when you are playing straight and when you are "having one on."

In this trick, the bit not only puts some psychological distance from the Balducci
Force, it also lays the groundwork for the upcoming "offby one" scenario.

John Bannon
By The Wqy

Having divined the selected card, "remember" that you superstitiously carry a play-
ing card in your wallet. Take out your wallet and open it to show the card marked
"The Truth."

Be deliberate. Your audience is likely ahead of you here. Remove the card and show
that, strangely, it, too, is the Nine of Spades. Wow.

Killer

Now turn to the second spectator and ask her point blank what card she's thinking
of. She will name a red picture card. Emphasize that she only thought of that card
and that no one else could know what that card was.

Pick up your wallet again and remark that you have another card in your wallet. Say
that you had a feeling that someone would think of a particular card.

The trick now can go in a couple of different ways.

If she thought of theQreen of Hearts or Diamonds, you have a direct hit. Simply
slide the appropriate face-up Qreen out of its hiding place.You nailed it. Needless
to say, don't show the back.

If she thought of a King orJack, it's time for some fun. Slide out the Qreen of
a
the same suit. Okay, you missed. You now have to take advantage of the inherent
playfulness of the situation. Say something like:

"Close, but I was only offby one. You know, I had one impression that some-
one would think of the Qreen of Hearts, but I also had a second impression
that the first impression was wrong-close, but wrong. It's harder than you
think. But I was pretty sure that I would be only offby one. That's why my
real prediction is not on the f2gs-i1's on the back. See, it says 'offby one."'

Turn over the card and show your "real" prediction.

If you have established the "playful" or "con man" attitude, as the bit with the select-
ed card suggests, your audience will conclude that the Qreen was a deliberate miss,
and your "real" prediction means that you knew the thought-of card all along. In
other words, the "off by one" was part of the presentation, not part of the method.
This is ayery powerful advantage. Very.

Destination Zero
POST MORTEM

Bockground And Credits

I've been playrrg with this trick for quite a while. I got started by Phill Smith's
"Chinese Whispers" in his interesting book, Mitox (2007). Phill had the idea of
forcing a card and then having a participant "think" of a card that was mentally
constructed by reference to the force card. I loved the idea, but concluded that
the only way the scenario would have any logic to it at all was if there were two
selections in play. In other words, a physically selected (forced) card and a second
mental-selection. Asking for the mental selection to be "as different as possible"
from the physical selection makes more sense and actually seems more logical to
me. Recently, Michael Murray has expanded on Phill's notion tn hts Springboard
e-book (2013), but did not reach the idea of linking two selections.

Interestingly, the fundamental concept of constructing a target card by changing

the elements of a selected card goes back to Bro. John Hamman's "The Sealed
Room Mystery," T/te Secrets Of Brother John Hamman (Kaufman & Greenberg,
1989) at page 61,.

As we've seen, the stratagem employed here easily narrows the range of possible
thought-of cards to six. Kenton Knepper's seminal approach to physically limiting
the number of actual cards that needs to be available by two-thirds has been around
awhile. K. Knepper, Kolossal Killer (2000).Applyr"g that concept meant that the
two Qreens could stand in for all six court cards.

The Truth

Okay, the "prediction" of the first "selected" card, the Nine of Spades, while con-
sistent with the overall structure, is not strictly necessary. So, you can just leave it
out. Just proceed with the divination of the selected card (using the "playful" bit of
business of course). The playful divination helps to set you up for potential "offby
one" scenarios.

I prefer to include this prediction even though it is somewhat at odds with the
divination; if you knew which card was going to be selected, then the divination is
somewhat trivial because you already knew the card. Fortunately, participants do
not often think like that.

John Bannon
Post-it Ploy

Once again, instead of actually writing on the back of the prediction cards, consider
using Post-it Notes. As we have discussed, a Post-it Note allows the possibility
(although not necessarily the practicality) of movability. A participant maywonder,
however briefly, whether the Post-it Note can be moved among several targets, or
whether there are several Post-its in play. Given that this is a complete red herring
and that a moment's thought would reveal how impractical this approach would
be, why not?

Self-Contqiner

While you can use your everyday wallet for the two "outs," I prefer a self-contained
separate device, shown in Photo 2 (page 105).

In the photo, you see one of those plastic packet-trickwallets. Each side is a little
wider than a dollar bill. I have folded two one-dollar bills so they will fill the entire
height of the enclosure, and put one inside the other. Then, I pulled out the inner
billso the two bills would also fill the entire width of the enclosure, and taped them
together in this configuration. (Photo 4 is an exposed view, showing how they
are offset, yet taped together.) To stop them from shifting, and to minimize any
potential hang up, tape the back fold completely across the back.

When the bills are inserted into the wallet, there are two accessible hiding places
that will accommodate a playing card: One behind the bills and a second bettpeen
the bills--because the bills are offset, reaching between them to remove the card is
easily done without any fumbling. (Photo 5.) I put the Qreen of Hearts behind the
bills (because it is most often chosen) and the Qreen of Diamonds between them.
Add a business card above the bills to make this tiny wallet appear multi-pur-
pose. On the left side of the card wallet, place the face-down prediction card, "The
Truth," and you are all set. (See Photo 2, page 105.)

To perform, simply remove this wallet before you start without calling any partic-
ular attention to it. When it is time, open the wallet to show "The Tiuth."The bills
and the business card immediately legitimize this use of the plastic wallet. Indeed,
this configuration looks more legit than most magicians'wallets.

When it is time to reveal a Qreen, simply remark that you have one other card in
your wallet. Open it and slide out the required Qreen. It is obvious by the thinness
of the wallet that you dorit have a bunch of hidden cards in there.

Destination Zero
John Bannon
PERFECT.
PRECIS

A deck of cards is displayed by spreading it face up on the table. The performer

points out that the cards have been thoroughly shuffied. There is no discernible
order to the cards nor any kind ofstack.

Your participant freely (!) cuts the face-down deck as many times as she likes.
When she is satisfied, she begins dealing the cards into a face-up pile on the table.
She may stop dealing whenever she likes. The value of whatever card she stops on
determines how many more cards she deals. The last card to be dealt is placed face
down onto the dealt pile.

The performer removes one card from his wallet and shows it. The face-down card
is turned face up and it matches the performer's card. Perfectly.

NOS ENGANTA

You mean other than that it fools everyone-magicians and civilians?

The family tree is genus "The Perfect Stop Tiick'(after Marlo, "Marlo's Miracle
No. 1: The Perfect Stop Trick," flreland's,1945], but I believe the principle goes way
back). A branch of that tree (close cousin, if not sibling) is A1 Koran's "Lazy Man's
Card Tiick," described by Harry Lorayne and featured tn Close-Up Card Magic.
These tricks use a descending sequential stack from King to Ace to provide a wide
stopping zone that will lead to a desired result.

The key genetic mutation was to use only every other card in the stack. I have been
aware of this innovation for some time, but have no idea who to credit.

When quadrupled, you get a full-deck stack that is invisible on inspection (the
cards are spread face up) and in operation (the cards are dealt face up). Yet, a won-
derful result is wrought.

Destination Zero
Did I say "full-deck stacli'? At least no gaffed cards or duplicates are involved, so
you can always use it as a regular deck.

MISE EN SCENE

You were warned: A fuIl-deck stack is required. This is not my usual type of trick,
but I occasionally carry it around because it is such a good one.

You also need a four-way out. In other words, there are four different cards that
may be selected, so you'll need to be prepared to produce any one of them as your
"lucky card" (or whatever). Dont worry, this can be as easy as having a card in four
different parts of your wallet or indexed in your pocket.

Happily, no gaffed or duplicate cards are used so, any time, you still have a regular
^t
deck.

THE STACK

First, the stack: Remove the Aces, Twos, Fours, Slxes, trights, Tens and Qreens.

Arrange four sets in descending order from Qreen (which represents the number
twelve) to Ace. Suits do not matter. In fact, make sure the suits are well-mixed and
more-or-less random.

Shufle the remaining cards and place one between each of the cards in each of
your Qreen-to-Ace packets. These cards should be well-mixed and more-or-less
random. You should have four packets in the following order (from the top down):

Q, x, 10, x, 8, x, 6, x, 4rxr2, [indicator], Ace

Notice the "[indicator]"? The last step is to swap this indifferent card-the one
right before the Ace-for an indifferent card of the same suit as the Ace. Use the
same valued card for each Ace. These will be your Indicator cards. So for example,
if you chose to use Sevens, the packets would look like:

Qrx, 10rx,8rxr 6rx, 4rxr2, Seven of ClubsrAce of Clubs

Q, x, 10, x, &rx, 6,,x, 4rxr2rSeven ofHearts, Ace ofHearts
Q, x, 10, x, 8, x, 6, x, 4rxr2, Seven of Spades, Ace of Spades
Q, x, 10, x, 8, x, 6rxr 4rxr 2, Seven of Diamonds, Ace of Diamonds

John Bannon
You need to remember the common value-in this case, Sevens.

Finally, stack the four packets, one on top of the other.

The Contingencies

Next, the four contingencies.

Prepared in this way, the deck essentially will force one of the four Aces and will
tell you which Ace it will be. Really. So you need to be prepared to produce any
of the Aces. For now; put them in four different parts of your wallet in an or-
der you can remember. I use Clubs, Hearts, Spades and Diamonds (the perennial
"CHaSeD" order).

How Il Works

Take out the deck and give it a cut or two-the deck can be straight cut as many
times as you like. A false three-part cut, like the Ose False Cut, can also be em-
ployed. How about an Ose False Cut followed by a straight cut?

Place the deck face down in front of your participant. Have her give the deck a
complete cut. And another. And another. Tbll her she can cut deep, or "thin," or at
the middle-whatever. Allow her to cut the deck as many times as she likes.

In order to build a little intrigue, as Raj suggests, you can say something like, "stud-
ies have shown that if you ask someone to cut the deck they will often predictably
cut close to the middle. But I want you to be unpredictable. Cut and complete the
cut three times, but each time cut somewhere ather than the middle."

When she is happy, have her take the deck and begin dealing cards into a face-up
pile on the table. After she has dealt several cards, tell her she can stop dealing
whenever she wants.

When she stops, give her every opportunity to continue dealing again,to add a few
cards or to take back a few cards. Be sure to emphasize the choice. When she is
positively done, look at the last face-up card dealt. There are three scenarios.

1.If it is an even-valued card (remember the Qreen counts as "twelve"), then

act like she stopped on the face-up card. Ask her to deal as many more cards
as the yalue of that card, but to deal the last one face down.

Destination Zero
 'Jessica, you stopped on a Four, so deal four more cards, but deal the last one
face down."

I do not try to justiflz this. Just do it as if it were the most usual thing in the
world-as rf of course that's the process.

The last card will be an Ace. The second-to-last card will be your indicator
and tell you the Ace's suit. Cool, eh?

2. If it
is odd-valued, and not the common indicator value, act like she
stopped on the top card of the deck. Ask her to deal it face up onto the pile,
and then haye her deal as many more cards as the value of that card, but to
deal the last one face down.

'Jessica, you stopped on that card right there. What card is it? A Four, so
deal four more cards, but deal the last one face down."

As before, the last card will be an Ace, and the penultimate card gives you
the suit.

3.If the last card dealt is one of your common indicator cards-here a Sev-
en-act like she stopped on the top card of the deck. Congratulations, it's an
Ace of the same suit as your indicator.

Out Out

The order of battle as you end this trick is important. First, bring out your wallet,
remove the appropriate Ace and place it face down onto the table. Put the wallet

^way.

You want the wallet in and out before any of the really interesting stuffhappens.
Once the wallet is gone, focus on the prediction card and explain why you just
happen to have a card in your wallet.

'A few years back, I was walking down the Boulevard St. Germain in Paris and I
saw a playing card in the drainage gulley on the side of the road. Being supersti-
tious, I picked it up and have kept it in my wallet eyer since ..."

Whatever. (But, it is a true story. I have the card somewhere.) In any event, the or-
der ofrevelation is a personal preference. I prefer to show the prediction card first,
then the stopped-at card. A perfect match. Perfect.

John Bannon
POST MORTEM

Shufflin'

Obviously, a couple of full-deck false shuffies would enhance the trick somewhat,
but false shuffiing is way beyond our scope and not strictly necessary because the
stack can bear intense scrutiny. By way of badinage, you can emphasize the random
order-it remains very difficult for the uninitiated to comprehend the underlying
order.

"Mathematicians have proven that it takes exactly seven shuffies to ran-

domize a deck of cards. In other words, any given card is equally likely to be
in any one of the fifty-two positions. Seven shuffies. Oddly enough, eight
shuffes cannot make the deck'more random.'

"Take a look at this deck. Earlier, I gave it seven riffie shufles and resisted
the urge to shuffie one more time. I dont know. Looks random to me. What
do you think? Look good?

"Probability says that, even though the cards are in random locations, every
now and then there could be a remarkable event, an event that may appear
planned and purposeful, but is reallyjust a coincidence.

"Let's try an experiment ..."

Self-Contoiner

While you can use your everyday wallet for the four "outs," like we discussed in
"Tiny Contrary Killer," I prefer to use a self-contained separate device. Here, we
start with the same plastic, packet-trick wallet we used in "Tiny Contrary Killer"
and simply trick out the left as well as the right side of the wallet.

On the right side, we used two offset, folded, dollar bills to form two compart-
ments. Here we do the same thing on the left side, but use cash-register receipts
instead of dollar bills.If you like, put something in front of the receipts to compli-
ment the business card on the right side-some stamps, a lottery ticket, or even a
photograph. Now the wallet has four places to stash your four face-down Aces. I
put the two red Aces in the right side, Ace of Hearts behind and Ace of Diamonds
between. On the left, the Ace of Spades behind and the Ace of Clubs between
the receipts. You should, of course, do this in the manner that is easiest for you to
remember. I also use Aces with an unusual back design and color.

Destination Zero
To perform, contrive to have the wallet out in plain sight. Do "Perfect," unttl a face-
down selection has been finally arrived at. It will be an Ace and you'll know which
one. Pick up the wallet, remove the appropriate Ace and toss the wallet aside. Once
again, the configuration suggests normalcy, and the thinness suggests that you can't
have a whole deck in there.

Once the card is out and the wallet is out of frame, the order of revelation is a
personal preference. I prefer to show the prediction card first, then the stopped-at
card.

Perfecto-mundo.

John Bannon
CROSS PURPOSES
PRECIS

Two participants each select a secret number. From a well-shufled deck, the first
participant mentally selects and remembers the card at her secret number.

The deck is cut a couple of times and handed to the second participant. The second
participant takes the deck and deals off cards until she reaches her secret number.
The last card dealt-the card at her secret number-is carefully slid offthe pile and
into the center of the table.

The first participant names her mentally-selected card. The performer turns or,er
and displays the stopped-at card.It is the first participant's card!

Nailed itl

NOS ENCANTA

"Cross Purposes" is based upon Andrew Brown's and Atlas Brooking's card trick,
"Crusade," which procedurally was a pretty cool trick (e-book, 2073). Basically,
the authors have applied the "Smith Myth" or "tansposed Cards" principle to a
"mentally-selected card at a mentally-selected number" plot. What a great tdea.
The procedure guarantees that two participants with different "secret numbers"will
arrive at the same card. Here, the authors haye one participant use the number to
select the card and the second participant use their number to find the card. You, the
performer, do not know either the secret number or the common card.

The authors primarily cite "tio" by Sidney Lawrence in Corinda's 13 Steps To

Mentalism at page 314 (Robbins edition). The first trick is called "Two Minds-
Single Thought." That trick is a similar secret card at a secret number. Following
almost the same procedure, the first participant notes the card at their secret num-
ber. (Sidney Lawrence may be responsible for evolving the rudimentary procedure
found as far back as Hoffman's Modern Magic into the modern form.) The second
participant counts to the card at his secret number:

Destination Zero
 "However, when he sees the card (at his secret number) he is to remove it
and place it face-down on the table without saying what it is."

Okay, this looks pretty much like a mentally-selected card at a mentally-selected

number, but without the 'Any-Card-At-Any-Number" drama and without dealing
the cards and counting to the number out loud. Of course, the "Crusade" authors
are to be credited with recogniz\ng and updating the essential effect. Given the
current popularity of the 'Any-Card-At-Any-Number" plot, the authors took a
step from Lawrence and ovedaid the popular form.

In addition, they added a script with a novel presentational premise. Essential-

ly, the performer purports to read the minds of his participants, one of whom is
thinking of a card, the other of a number.Then, as proof of his accomplishment, he
purports to physically move the right card to the right number. It's easy to tell that
the authors spent a good deal of time crafting the presentation elements. The full
elaboration is subtitled a "mentalist's ACAAN," but its underpinnings nevertheless
make for a pretty good card trick.

Procedurally, "Crusade" employs the usual "Smith Myth" process (apparently also
known as the "Transposed Cards" principle-although I had not heard that name
before). As a result, the trick is actually performed with less than half the deck-I
would imagine around twenry or so cards. It seems to me the trick may be strength-
ened, and the method more disguised, if the entire deck were somehow used.

Accordingly, this handling essentially wraps the Smith Myth procedures around
the whole deck. In doing so, it streamlines the procedures and eliminates all reverse
counting. Lean and mean.

MISE EN SCENE

There is no preparation. Use a borrowed, shuffied deck if you want. It doesrit even
have to be complete.

In any event, have the cards shufled by a participant. Take back the deck and note
the bottom card. This will be your key card.

Alternately, turn the cards face up and spread them, ostensibly showing "how
well-shuffied they are." Tilt the cards so the faces are toward you and cut an
easy-to-remember card to the bottom of the deck. Now turn the deck face down
and give the cards a false cut, which will keep your key card on the bottom.

John Bannon
Pockeleering
Table the deck. Look away and ask each of two participants to cut off a packet of
cards.I say something like, "You can cut offjust a fewl or you could cut more-but
dont overdo it."The idea is to confirm that they haye a real choice here, but to keep
the sizes of the packets within a reasonable range. The actual size of the respective
packets does not matter.

Whatever you do, don't say something like, "Cut off a small packet of cards, around
a quarter of the deck."This direction can lead to an impression that everyone cuts
off pretty much the same number of cards-around twelve to fourteen. There is a
real choice here: Your participant could take one or twenry or any,vhere in between.
The cut should be managed only to avoid prolonged dealing, but not by sacrificing
this degree of freedom. As long as neither spectator cuts more than twenty cards,
which is highly unlikely with the briefest of instructions, you'll be fine.

Alternatively, spread the cards and let each participant grab some cards from the
spread. As we saw in "The Thirty-Second Sense," from an in-the-hands spread, it's
unlikely that more than twenty cards could be taken.

Instruct each participant to count the cards in their packet and to remember the
total as their "secret number."

After the "secret numbers" have been established, have the cut-off packets com-
bined and the combined packet shuffied. Tirrn back and casually drop the remain-
der ofthe deck on top ofthe combined packet.This places your key card on top of
the combined packet.

Pick up the deck and give it a false cut that does not disturb the bottom half of the
deck.

The Myth Of Smith

Tirrn the deck face up. Tell your first participant that you will show her the cards
one at a time and ask her to remember the card that falls at her "secret number."
Take cards one by one offthe face of the deck, counting them aloud as you do.Take
each card under the others so you do not reverse the order ofthe cards. (Photo 1.)

After seventeen or eighteen cards, stop and ask her if she has a card in mind. (If
you hit your key card, stop there.) Place the counted cards back onto the face of
the deck.

Destination Zero
 1

Confirm that the participant is "just thinking" of a card. As you do, casually spread
the face-up deck and spot the card directly to the right ofyour key card. Break the
spread so this card is on the face of the left-hand portion (the key card directly
behind it). (Photo 2.) In the photo, the key card would be the Nine of Diamonds.

Drop the right-hand cards onto the table in a loose face-up pile. Now spread off
about half of the remaining left-hand cards and drop them on top of the tabled
cards. Finally, drop the rest ofthe left-hand cards on top ofa11. Square the deck and
turn it face down. Tiy to make this look like a casual mix.

Here is the amazing part (as unbelievable as it may seem): 'Ihefrst participant's
mentally-selected card is noro at the second participant\ "secret number"from the top af
theface-dorun deck. How cool is that?

John Bannon
ACCAN-ish

Hand the face-down deck to your second participant. Or, give the deck a false cut,
creating a "moment," and then hand it to her.

Ask her to deal the cards face down onto the table, counting them as she does
(either silently or aloud), and to stop when she has dealt the card corresponding to
her "secret number."

When she does, the top card of the tabled packet willbe the card the first spectator
is thinking of. Slide it over to her. Ask her to name her card. Reveal it dramatically.

POST MORTEM

Glimpse
You have to look at and remember the bottom card of the deck, right? I general-
ly go for the cut-a-memorable-card-to-the-face approach as described. There are
other ways. In the parlance, a secret peek at a card is called a "glimpse."

Sometimes you can actually spot the bottom card while your participant is shuf-
fling. If you are paying attention, you'll find that you can do this a lot of the time.

Another "glimpse" is to give the deck a riffie shuffie yourself but dorit push the
cards all the way together. Then, in order to square the cards, lever the extended
deck upward along its long edge. (Photo 3.) It's child's play to glimpse the bottom
card while you square the deck-it's staring you in the face.

Finally, you could do an easy and professional-grade bottom-card glimpse, the

"all-around square up," as follows: Let's say you are holding the deck in left-hand
dealing position. Take the deck from above with your right hand. (Photo 4.) Now,
keeping your left hand palm up, turn the deck 180 degrees counter-clockwise. Re-
take the deck with your left thumb on the right side of the deck and your left
fingers on the left side. (Photo 5.) Release the deck from your right hand, and turn
your left hand clockwise back to its original dealing position. (Photo 6.)

As you do this, you will find it's nearly impossible to keep the face of the deck
parallel to floor. In the natural action ofthe square-up, the face ofthe deck is tilted
somewhat to the left and slightly toward you. This makes it simple to peek the
bottom card. The glimpse is deceptive, which is why every card man uses it. Yet, it
hardly qualifies as a "move."

Destination Zero
3

6..F

John Bannon
 6

tl

Slip Shuftle

After you glimpsed your key card, you gave the deck a false cut. Instead, you could
give the deck a "slip shuffie," an easy-to-do procedure that will keep the bottom
card on the bottom while otherwise shuffiing the deck, as follows: As you begin
your overhand shuflXe, with your left thumb take a few top cards, but at the same
time, with your left fingers, retain the bottom card, which slides off the bottom of
the deck behind the shuffied cards. (Photo 7.) Shuffie offthe rest of the cards and
the key card will remain on the bottom. You can repeat this if you like.

Destination Zero
BADINAGE

What is this trick really about? Coincidence? Mind reading followed by secret
maneuvering by the performer? Or, as in "Crusade," deliberate mind-reading fol-
lowed by the deliberate movement of the correct card to the correct spot? A11 of the
above? None of the above?

I like a qualified "coincidence" presentation: Not quite tongue in cheek, but more
along the lines of the performer acting like it's a coincidence in the face of such
odds that it can't be. We've seen this approach before in "The Thirty-Second Sense."
Presumably, the performer will get credit for "secretly bringing about"what aPPears
to be an amazing coincidence.

"Do you believe in coincidences? So do I. [Or,'Neither do I.'] Isnt that a

coincidence?

"Here, shuffie the cards. I am going to try to engineer a remarkable coinci-

dence.

"Great. I
need each of you to get a random number that no one could know
or guess in advance. So, each of you cut offsome cards.You can take a few;
or you can take more, but don't overdo it.

"Put the cards under the table and count them silently to yourself. Have you
done that? Remember the number. That will be your secret number.

"Put the cards together. You can shuffi.e them if you want.

"No*, shufled these cards, right? I am going to show you the

Jessica, you
cards one at a time and I want you to remember the card at your secret num-
ber. Are you with me?

"That's one ... tvvo ... three [...] nineteen and twenty. Do you have a card
yet? Good. Please remember that card. You're thinking of a card, right? You
haverit touched it or taken it out of the deck, right? No one else but you can
know what that card is, right?

"Many things happen just by chance. But even though many circumstances
are the result of chance, sometimes truly remarkable coincidences can occur.
Really.

John Bannon
 "For example , Anjali, you are just thinking of a numbeq right? No one other
than you knows what that number is, right?

"Take the cards and deal the cards onto the table and stop when you reach
your secret number. I'11 count along ...

"One ... tvvo ... three [...] sixteen.Your secret numberwas sixteen? NowI
am not saylng this will work. You just thought of a card, a card that no one
could know. You had a secret number that, until this minute, only you knew.

'Jessica, I know it sounds impossible, but if your card happened to be the

card at Anjali's secret number that would be an amazing coincidence, right?
Raquel? You know what that means? This trick probably wont work.

"Who knows? Jessica, what card are you thinking of? Let's take a look ...

"Amaz\ng!"

Secreis
Raj Madhok has his own style of presentation. Here is his take on "Cross Pur-
poses." Decidedly more "mental," Raj's approach has a nice hook and justifies the
procedure by adding a deliberate significance to the selected number.

"Life is full of secrets-from things like your PIN number or your password,
to your age, or your favorite position ... in football.

"Some of us are better at keeping secrets than others ... like magicians.

"Some are better at revealing or figuring out secrets ... like magicians.

"Let me demonstrate. shufle the deck. While you do this

Jessica, please
can you remember how old you were when you had your first real secret?
Something important to you that you didnt want anyone else to know. Keep
it to yourself. While my back is turned, secretly remove cards from the top,
middle or bottom of the deck that represent the age you were back then. For
example, if you were ten years old, then secretly hide ten cards between your
palms. Keep them hidden in your hands

'Anjali, take the rest of the deck and mix it. I want you to think of how old
you were when you revealed a secret, either big or small. It doesnt matter if

Destination Zero
you did it intentionally or not ... we're not here to judge. Take that number
ofcards from the deck and hide them in your hands.

"While I'm still turned away, combine your two groups of cards and give
them a mix. Put your combined cards into a neat pile on the table and I'11
take the rest of the deck that you didn't use. [Now turn forward and pick
up the remainder of the deck. Use this moment to glimpse the bottom card
as your key card. Place the remainder on the combined pile and take the
reassembled deck.l

'Jessica, so we don't get too personal, we're going to let a card represent your
secret. I'11 show you cards one at a time, and as I count them ofl when we
reach your 'secret number'please remember that card. It's important to re-
member it because we'll need that secret card later.

'Anjali, it's your turn. You're thinking of a number that represents the age
you were when you revealed a secret. Got it? Neither Jessica nor I could
know that age, correct? And neither you nor I could know the name ofJes-
sica's secret card, correct?

"But our lives are full of secrets, some trivial and some not so much.We learn
when to share them and when to keep them. Anjali, deal down from the top
of the deck to the age you were when you revealed a secret.

'Jessica, what is the name of your secret card?

'Anjali, turn it over and reveal it .. .. See how hard it is to keep a secret?"

John Bannon
SORT OF PSYCHIC
PREGIS

As a test of her intuition, a participant is given a packet of cards and told to look
through the cards and to think of any one of them, and then to shuffie the packet
so even she does not know where her card is.

Then, she is asked to go through some "warm-up exercises." She is told to deal her
packet into two piles and then to use her intuition to "guess" which pile contains
her thought-of card. She then looks through the packet to see whether she was
right or not.

The exercise is repeated. The performer assembles the two packets and divides the
packet into two and, once more, the participant guesses which packet contains her
selected card. Again, she looks through the selected packet to see how accurate she
was.

At this point, the performer comments upon her track record and suggests that
one additional trial be done. Again, the cards are cut and divided into two portions.
Again, the participant uses her "intuition" to guess the correct packet.

Concluding the "warm-up exercises," the packet is mlxed back into the deck. For
the real "test," the participant is asked to cut the deck at a random spot.

After a brief recap, the participant is asked for the name of her thought-of card.It
turns out that she cut right to it.

NOS ENCANTA

A truly thought-of card (albeit from a range of sixteen), not merely a "mental-
ly-selected" card. The problem with most tricks based upon procedure is that they
look llke they are based upon procedure. Participants may conclude that if they
themselves followed the same procedure, they would get the same result-often
they would be 100% correct. So the first priority with these tricks is to disguise the

Destination Zero
procedure in some way, through technique, subdery presentation or by any means
necessary.

Muyb. you are familiar with the old mathematical trick with eight cards and three
feverse faros? You know, the one where, after each reverse faro, you tell the per-
former whether your card was one of the outjogged cards or not. As long as the
packet with your card in it was placed on top each time, after three reverse faros,
your card is on top.

I started with that mathematical sorting principle, doubled the number to sixteen
cards, and added a tnvo-way out. In this way, the participant could think of any
card within a range of sixteen. The range was reduced to two through the sorting
procedure and the actual card could be revealed as one of two outs. As you'll see I
also disguised the procedure with a presentation that revolves around a guessing
game-a "test" of intuition.

Participants get invested in the guessing game and there is plenty of room for by-
play and comment depending upon how she is doing. Hitting every time, missing
every time or needing a tie-breaker-all offer opportunities for interaction. The
conclusion, where she has cut to her thought-of card, is unexpected and surprising
because you never once ask about it until the denouement.

MISE EN SGENE

While this may read a little complex, in operation it's not at all.

Dry Run

Use a regular, shuffied deck. Spread off exactly sixteen cards. Ideally, you will want
to make this look casual, random and imprecise. The best way to do that is to do it
quickly. The best way to do it quickly is to push the cards over in sets of three-easy
to do with a little practice.

Hand the packet of cards to your participant. Ask her to shufle it, and then to look
through the cards and to think of one of them. Then, ask her to shuffie the packet
again so even she does not know where her card is. Finally, have her deal into two
piles. There is nothing special about this first division as long as there are eight
cards in each packet. Having the participant deal here, while a bit tedious, helps to
justify the speedier-and necessary-reyerse faro procedure coming up.

Ask your participant to guess which pile contains her thought-of card. I have her

John Bannon
 1

hold one hand oyer each packet, as if trying to feel the "vibrations."When she has
made her choice, pick up the designated packet and fan it faces toward her and ask
her if she guessed correctly or not. Either way, she will identiS, which packet con-
tains her card-if she was incorrect, the card must be in the other packet.

Assemble the two packets by placing the packet that contains the card onto the
packet that does not contain the card.

Repeot

Offer to repeat the exercise. You can propose grounds for doing so. If she missed the
first time, she gets another chance. If she hit, she can try to duplicate that success.

Destination Zero
Give the packet a quick Ose False Cut. (See "Bluff Oracle Aces II," page 10')
Instead of the participant dealing, this time you will divide the packet into two
smaller piles with a reverse faro; that is, outjog every other card throughout the
packet, and then strip out the outjogged cards. (Photos land.2.\ The subtext here
is that you are mixing and dividing the larger packet in a faster way than dealing.
You do not need to say this out loud.

Place the two packets in front of your participant and have her again guess which
packet contains her card. From this point, proceed exactly like you did the first
time. Show her the chosen pile and ask if she was correct. Place the correct pile
onto the incorrect one.

And Repeot
Offer to play the guessing game a final time. Again, there are compelling reasons
for this. If she missed twice ("te1e-pathetic"), give her another chance. If she hit
twice, she needs to verifi, her skill. One hit and one miss means a tie-breaker is
necessary.

Again, do an Ose False Cut and divide the packet with a reverse faro. She guesses
and confirms.The correct pile is placed onto the incorrect one.

(As a change of pace, you can place the incorrect pile on top of the correct one.
Now you apparently shuffie the packet, but actually move the top eight cards to the
bottom as follows: In an overhand shufle, run the top eight cards one at a time into
your left hand. (Photo 3.) Then, throw the remainder on top.It's better ifyou break
the eight-card run into two runs of four. Just run four, pause and run four more.

John Bannon
Or run four and toss the remainder, and then do a second shuffi.e, running four and
tossing. Any of these will put you in the same position as placing the relevant pile
on top.)

Here's the cool part: Right now, the thought-of card is either the top card or the
second card in the packet. Really.

The Moin Evenl

Drop the packet onto the deck. You need to move the top card to the bottom of
the deck. A double-undercut is the most expedient, but beyond the scope of this
exposition. One way is to take the top card and to use it to scoop up the tabled
deck. An overhand shufle (sort of), running one card and tossing the rest of the
deck is another way-do it quickly and casually as if it wete a quick cut of the deck.
Follow any of these with an Ose False Cut. As you assemble and pick up the cards,
note the bottom card of the deck. (The "all-around square up" glimpse we saw in
"Cross Purposes"works well here.)

In any event, one possible selection is on the top of the deck, one is on the bottom,
and you know the identity of the bottom one.

You will now use the familiar Cross-Cut Force as a two-out device. Place the deck
on the table and ask the participant to give it a cut. Once she has, take the bottom
portion and place it crosswise on the upper portion in the traditional manner. Now,
give a little narrative recap (that is, time misdirection).

Once the force has been accomplished, inform your participant that it is time for
the "real test." I explain that intuition often works best when one is not particularly
thinking or trying. Ask for the name of her thought-of card. If it was the card you
glimpsed, lift off the upper crosswise half of the deck and show the face card. If
another card is named, lift off the upper crosswise half and turn over the top card
of the lower half. Either way, tt appears that she has unwittingly cut directly to her
thought-of card.

POST MORTEM

Bockground ond Credils

The mathematical sorting principle at work here is an old one. The only credit for
this procedure I have ever seen was to Phil Goldstein (a/Wa the estimable Max

Destination Zero
Maven) in a trick called "Out Of Sorts" rn Thequal (1984).The principle is likely
older than tha! even Vernon had a version of this sorting principle before I was
born, "On the Up and lJp," Scarne on Card Tricks (7950), #Bt. Max's application-
as far as I understand-is the seminal one you see around today (Max credits Alex
Elmsley and Bob Neale for similar concepts).There have been a number ofversions
of the basic divination trick, but none (that I am aware of) that expanded the set
from eight to sixteen (or more) cards. My additions are primarily two. The first was
to combine the principle with a system of outs in order to increase the range of
possible thought-of cards. The contingencies also help to disguise the procedural
aspects of the trick. As set forth below; the range can be expanded even further.

Second, I
also disguised the procedure with a presentation that revolves around a
guessing game. There are a number of advantages to this guessing process over the
classic mathematical one. The main one is that the participant is not always iden-
tiSzing the pile with her card in it. Well, she zi telling you, directly or indirectly, but
the focus is not on the identification and it doesn't seem nearly as obvious.

Allernotive
An expedient alternative would be to place the incorrect pile on the correct one, but
sidejogged a little. In squaring the combined packet, get a break above the correct
packet. Now, simply bring the correct packet to the top with a double undercut.

Or, you could do a triple cut to the table: Cut off some, but not all, of the cards
above the break and drop them onto the table. Then cut off the remaining cards
above the break and drop them onto the tabled cards. Finally, drop the rest of the
cards onto the tabled pile. Pick up the packet and proceed with the reverse faro.

This process works particularly well with the twenty-four-card version described
below. This may aid the participant to subconsciously feel her card is being bur-
ied. Also, multiple random-seeming cuts help further disguise the procedure. Of
course, you have to hold a break.

More ls More: "Sorl Of Psychic (Double Dozen)"

You can easily increase the range to twenty-four cards-the sorting principle still
holds, except that after three guesses the target card will be one of the top three
cards. The upside is a lot more cards. The downside is that the dealing and reverse
faros take a little longer. You will also need to deploy a three-way out system in-
stead of a two-way.

John Bannon
ORIGAMI POKER REVISITED
NOS ENGANTA

I pulled this one from High Caliber because I wanted to have an "origami" trick
(Bob Hummer's Cut-And{irrn{wo-Over Parity Principle combined with a fold-
ing matrix) in this volume. None of the "origami" tricks I have come up with are
particularly difficult, but this one is completely self-working.

When I began my "origami" explorations, I referred to each of the tricks as a"toy."

Because the principles are neither visible nor easily understandable, you will fool
yourself every time you do the trick. How fun is that? Your audience doesn't stand
a chance.

fhe Story ...

Bannon had referred to the trick as "all things considered, probably the best
self-working trick on the planet." Not bad, especially considering that Bannon was
not one to sing the praises of his own tricks-he preferred to let the merit (or the
lack thereof) speak for itself.

The evening that we ran into Bannon's former studio audience member, Lizrhe
said he wanted to try something special. He put the deck back into its box, closed
the box and set it aside. He reached into his pocket, brought out a small packet of
cards that were wrapped around the middle with a two dollar bill and tossed the
packet onto the table.

I could only the top card and it looked like the casino cards you can buy at any
see
Las Vegas hotel shop and was an odd pinkish color.

Icould tell that Lizwas fascinated by the little packet. She was not a stranger to
card tricks, but it was immediately obvious that this trick was different, off the
beaten path.

"Liz,I have no psychic abilitywhatsoever. But I am a student of influence, a stu-

Destination Zero
dent of the various forces that influence our actions and our behavior. Let's try an
experiment in influence, shall we?"

Bannon picked up the packet, slid off the two dollar wrapper, turned the packet
face up and quickly showed the faces.It looked to me like a random collection of
ten or so high cards.

"I have some high cards from a casino deck. They look mixed to me, but let's make
sure they are as random as possible. We can shufle like this." Bannon turned the
packet face down and gave it a quick overhand shufle.

"Shufling alters the cards'locations.We can also turn some of them face up and
shuffie those together." Bannon spread off about half the cards, turned them face
up and shuffied the face-up and face-down cards together. He spread the packet to
show the mix of cards.

"Shufling like this alters the cards'face-up and face-down orientations. Liz, can
you shuffie like this?"Bannon gave the face-up, face-down mix an overhand shuffie.
Liz nodded, Bannon handed her the cards and she shulfled them. Bannon said,
"That's good. Give the cards another shuflle."And so she did.

"There's alsoa way to mix the cards to randomize both their location and their ori-
entation." Bannon dealt the cards into three rows, each with four cards. (Photo 1.)

Of course, some of the cards were face-up and some were face-down. I wondered
where Bannon was going with this. After all, both Liz and he repeatedly shuffied
the cards-face up into face down. As far as I could see, it was all on the up and up.

John Bannon
"Liz,rmagrne that these cards are a piece of paper.We are going to fold the cards
back into a packet by folding over either a row or a column of cards at a time. And
you get to decide which row or column of cards get'folded'over."

As he explained the process, Bannon mimed turning each of the cards in the left
column of cards over and onto the cards in the center column.

"Okay, are you with me? Which row or column do you want to fold over first?"

Liz chose the lower row. Bannon turned each of the four cards in that row over and
onto its respective neighbor in the middle row. If the card was face down, it would
get turned face up in the process. If it was face up, it would get turned face down.
It all seemed haphazard and uncontrolled.

Next, Liz chose the right column to be folded over, then the new rightmost col-
umn. As the cards were folded, each remaining spot might have one, two or more
cards occupying it and, when that spot was folded, all of the cards were turned over
as a unit. After a few more folds-at Liz's direction-the cards had been reassem-
bled into a single packet.

Bannon gave it one more "fold" by turning over the entire packet.

"So, how random is that? We each shuffied the cards, face up and face down, right?
Then, we did the crazy foldirg thing and you got to call all of the shots, right? So,
there was no way to influence the outcome of the mixing, was there?"

No longer tentative, Liz agreedwith each statement. As a matter of fact, so did I.

"No way to influence the outcome . .. unless we broke the law," Bannon said some-
what cryptically.

"IJnless we broke a law of nature ..." Bannon slowly spread the packet. Five cards
were face up. A Royal Flush in Spades! (Photo 2.)

!l

"Nice trick," I admitted after the impromptu "show" was over and Liz and her
husband left the caf6."Do you really think it's 'the best self-working trick on the
planet?"'

"It's right up there. No moves whatsoever. No real procedure either. Works every
time. Will fool anyone who does not already know how it works-even the person

Destination Zero
 2

performing the trick. The Royal Flush ending is dramatic and can be seen as a 'de-
layed and self-referential'prediction structure. When the Royal tr'lush shows up at
the end, everyone knows that this was the intended result. So it's like a prediction
without a prediction. Finally, only twelve cards are used, making this the leanest,
meanest and most streamlined origami card trick yet. What's not to like?"

I recalled that Bannon had done a lot ofwork combining the Hummer Parity Prin-
ciple with the folding procedure he called "origami." Much of it was in his 2005
book, Dear Mr. Fantasy.

I picked up the cards and gave them the once over. "Hey, these are just regular
cards," I noted.

Bannon looked up from his e-mail on his smart phone, saying, "So?"

"So you can do this using cards from your regular deck in play."

Joi

"What do you mean,'So?'Isn't that better?"

"Not necessarily worse, but I like to dress this trick up a bit and make it a packet
trick."

"Let me get this straight," I said incredulously. "You took a perfectly good im-
promptu card trick and made a packet trick out of it?"

Bannon just shook his head.

John Bannon
Bannon nodded. "All in, packet tricks-especially fractal ones-are good things. It
really is okay to take the packet out of a small wallet in order to do the trick. You
saw that L\zwas immediately intrigued when I brought out the packet."

"If you say so. But let's talk about this trick before I forget what happened."

ill
Bannon began arranging the cards. "You need twelve cards: Ace, King, Qreen,Jack
and Ten of Spades, five red court cards and two Club court cards. While not strictly
necessary, you can substitute one of these last seven Court cards with a Ten. There
is no individual ordeq but the cards are grouped like this."

He pointed at the fan of cards. "First, at the back of the face-up spread, you have
the Spade Royal Flush cards. They can be in any order."

"Next ate the other seven court cards. They, too, can be in any order, but I d distrib-
ute the two black cards among the red ones. Simple, really."

I agreed,
"So simple. Impromptu, eyen. You could easily take them out of a regular
deck and set them up in front of your audience." I was not buying Bannon's pack-
et-trick concept-at least, not with this trick.

"Yeah, yeahi'Bannon shrugged off my poke at him, "I use casino cards and wrap a
two dollar bill around the packet to increase the visual interest and the curiosity-
really has nothing to do with the trick.I dont talk about the cards or the bill. So
to perform, you remove the bill from the casino card packet, turn the packet face
up and spread it, but not all the way. Keep the last three or four cards bunched up.
(Photo 3.)

"The spectator gets a quick look and sees paint-all Aces and court cards, and
maybe a Ten."

Irecalled that the quick look seemed fair enough to me. I did not get the sense
Bannon was hiding anything. He closed the spread, turned the packet face down
and took it in position for an overhand shufle.

"First, we shufle the packet. But all I do is, with my left thumb, pull off the first
five cards one at a time. These are the Royal Flush cards. Then, without pausing, I
shuffie offthe remaining seven cards.I try to make these last seven look messy and
like a real shuffe." (Photo 4.)

Destination Zero
 3

As he spoke, he did the shuffie. It looked good to me, but all that really happened
was that the Royal Flush cards got moved from the top to the bottom of the packet.
"The face-up and face-down shuffie is the key to the whole trick-well, one of the
keys. Now, you spread off the top seven cards, turn them face up and shuffie them
into the remaining five face-down cards-these are the Royal Flush cards."

Bannon spread the packet. It looked like a random face-up and face-down mix. But
now I knew that the face-down cards were actually the Royal tr'lush cards.I had to
smile at the way these shuffies were concealing the Royal Flush cards in what ap-
peared to be a random mlxing. But I still did not understand how the trick worked.

'At this point, you can overhand shuffie the cards as much as you like, as long as
none of the individual cards gets turned over. Here's the cool part: Your spectator
can shuffie, too. She can overhand shuffie as much as she likes."

John Bannon
That was a selling point. The spectator shuffies. But the really ptzzling part, as far
as I was concerned, was the "folding."

Bannon continued, "When she's done shuffiing, take back the cards and deal the
cards into a four-by-three grid. There are two important details here. First, you
must deal the rows in a back-and-forth 'snake'pattern. From left to right, then
from right to left, and finally again from left to right. Second, you must turn over
every other card as you deal. Sometimes you will be turning a face-up card face
down. Sometimes you will be turning a face-down card face up."

I grabbed a napkin and drew a quick diagram so I wouldn't forget. I numbered the
cards in the order they were to be dealt and I put a little asterisk next to each of
the even-numbered cards to remind me which cards should be turned over. As I
understood it, reversing every other card is what made the whole trick work.

l2*34*
g*76*5
9 10* 11 12*
*(turn these over as you dea[)

"This is the best part," Bannon exclaimed. "Once the cards are dealt, the grid is
'folded'back into a single packet, seemingly further mlxing up the cards. Even bet-
tet the spectator gets to direct the process. Let's see how this goes. Have your spec-
tator choose an outside row or outside column on the grid. Let's use the top tow."

On my diagram, the top row would be Card 1, Card 2,Card 3 and Card 4. To "fold"
the row, Card 1 is turned over and onto Card 8; Card 2 is turned over and onto
CardT; Card 3 over and onto Card 6;andCard4 over and onto Card 5. (Photo5.)

As the folding progresses, there may be several cards at one place in the row or col-
umn which would be turned over as a unit onto the neighboring cards. Eventually
the "folded" cards will reconstitute themselves into a single packet.

"Have your spectator direct each step of the 'folding'of the grid. There is a feeling
of complete freedom here which is gratifring to me, at least, because it just doesrit
matter," Bannon said. I had to admit that the folding process did seem free, but it
also seemed relevant because the cards were changing positions and orientations in
a seemingly unpredictable way.

'As you complete the fold," Bannon continued, "try to spot a card that will end up
face up in the final packet. Ifit is not one ofthe Spade flush cards, give the packet
a final 'fold'by turning it over. Now all the Spade cards will be face up. Of course,

Destination Zero
 5

if the Spade cards are aheady face up, you don't need to make the final turnover."

Bannon spread the packet on the table. Only the Spade flush cards were face up.To
this day, this result still surprises me.

"One last detail: Slide the Spade cards out of the spread in order. Who knows,
maybe your audience will misremember that the cards were in order when the
packet was spread." (Photo 6.)

John Bannon
IV

"Man, how did you ever come up with thisl lt's so complicated."

"It's actually eyen more complicated than it looks. And, I left many of the collateral
possibilities out of this version. It's all Bob Hummer's 'Cut and Tirrn Two Over'
Principle-worked and re-worked. The trick-so to speak-is getting the cards
in the correct mathematical alignment-without the cumbersome, under-the-ta-
ble 'CATTO'procedure-and, then, performing the necessary sorting process in a
non-transparent way. I have a number of applications rn Dear Mr. Fantasy,but this
one's completely self-working. "

"I have no idea what you are talking about."

"Don't worry about it. In a nutshell, the controlled face-up, face-down shufle, fol-
lowed by turning over every other card, sets the packet in the correct Hummer
condition.This was in the original'Origami Poker'routine rn Dear Mr. Fantasy.lhe
folding process, which actually goes back to paper folding experiments by Henry
Dudeney, is the functional equivalent of dealing the packet into two piles and turn-
ing over one of the piles, which is the final Hummer mechanic. That realizationwas
the cornerstone for the whole Degrees Of Freedom chapter. As Edison would say,
the rest is just perspiration."

Destination Zero
BOX OF DOOM
PRECIS

From of cards, and starting from a random location, the participant

a shuffied deck
deals cards into a small pile until she decides to stop.

The performer calls attention to a small gift box. Shaking it, something sounding
mysteriously like playing cards are heard swishing around inside. The performer
makes a pronouncement concerning the cards in the box and the spectator's dealt
pile.

"Inside the box, I have some playing cards. If you have stopped dealing at exactly
the right place, then these three things are true:

"Ihave at least as many cards as you do, three more, and enough cards left over to
make your cards add up to twenty-two."

The box is opened and some playing cards are removed from it. The performer and
the participant count their cards together until the participant runs out of cards.
Say each counts fourteen cards. The performer has cards left over-the 6rst pre-
diction is true.

'As many as you ..."

The performer sets aside three more cards from his packet. He still has a few more
cards.

"... three more ... and enough left over to make your cards add up to twenry two."
Beginning with the participant's total of fourteen cards, the performer counts down
his remaining cards. He deals his last card on the count of "twenty-twe"-sx2g1ly
as predicted.

But wait. The performer indicates that there is more to it. He asks the participant
to turn over the top card of her packet. Let's say it's the Qreen of Hearts.

John Bannon
The performer turns over the three cards that were set aside (the "three more").
These are the other three Qreens.

The performer turns over the top card of his packet. It's a random card with "Qreen
Of Hearts" boldly marked on its face.

The performer explains that it couldn't be the actual Qreen of Hearts. Slowly, he
opens the box to reveal the Qreen of Hearts stapled inside the lid.

NOS ENCANTA

The so-called "TiickThat Fooled Einstein'continues to fascinate me. You know; "I
have as many as you, three more, and enough left over to equal ..."

For me, it has proven to be a very deceptive ploy. By overlaying that central tautol-
ogy with basic counting subtleties, a synergy emerges.

The central tautology guarantees that the number of cards in play will always be the
same-even though the precise number of cards taken by the participant may vary
widely. The multipart prediction, moreover, effectively disguises the fact that you
never actually predict the precise number of the participant's cards.

This trick remixes some of the concepts from "The Einstein Overkill," from Six.
Impossible. Things. (2009) and High Caliber (Squash, 2013). By framing the trick as
a "stop" trick, in which the participant stops dealing cards whenever she wishes, we
can introduce reverse dealing and other counting subtleties to create the impres-
sion that the participant stopped dealing at a specific, predicted card.

Synergistically, (i) the central tautology distracts from the counting mechanics, (ii)
the counting mechanics set up an unexpected and dramatic climax, and (iii) the
climax, in turn, takes the heat off of the central tautology. Perfect.

By way of design, "Box Of Doom" centers on a stand-alone, self-contained box. The

"Box" resets instantly. The trick is completely self-working with no mental calcula-
tions required. If you can count to twenty-three, you're good.

MISE EN SCENE

Project time. This one's easy, though. You'll need a box, a packet of twenty-seven
cards and a prediction, and at show time, a regular deck of cards.

Destination Zero
Cqrds Of Doom
You will need twenty-seven cards: a Joker, a four of a kind (for example, Qreens),
and twenty-two indifferent cards.

The exact number of indifferent cards is not important. The last part of prediction
will always state that you will have enough cards left over to add up to the total
number of cards minus three. Here the Joker is used only for show (affixed to the
lid of the box), and the Qreen of Hearts is not part of the packet, so you begin
with twenty-five cards. Accordingly, your prediction will total twenty-two cards
l2s-3=22).

This configuration allows you to make two "Boxes Of Doom" from one deck.

Depending upon what kind of story you want to tell, the trick dresses up nicely,
so consider using "interesting" cards. For the prototype, I used Big Blind Media's
"Double Dose" deck (which, while creepy, is not as over the top as BBM's "Dead
Eyes" deck).

Boxy

I jewelrygiftbox that's 5 1,/4"x3 3/4"x7/8".The box is in two

use a standard-size
pieces: the bottom and a removable lid that fits over it. Shiny white is easy to find,
but brown and shiny black are out there. fhis size allows the cards to fit in either
direction.

To prepare the box, first affix the Joker face down on top of the box lid. Again
depending on the story you plan to tell, and the look you are going foq this can be
done in a number of ways.I stapled the card to the top of the box lid, but I also have
used black electrical tape. (Photo 1, next page.)

Similarly, on the underside of the lid, affix the Qreen of Hearts, facing outward.
(Photo 2, next page.) Some combination of staples and black electrical tape should
work.

The Fulure

After playing with the central tautology, I have concluded that it cannot be im-
proved and should not be altered in form:

John Bannon
 1

"Inside the box,I have some playing cards.If you have stopped dealing at exactly
the right place, then these three things are true:

"I have at least as many cards as you do, three more, and enough cards left over to
make your cards add up to fwenfy-two."

(Originally, I tried breaking the statement into three distinct parts. I also tried
a written tri-partite prediction. In the end, I think the complexity of the single,
but three-part, statement is a large part of what makes this concept so effective
and deceptive. You could add a written prediction of the entire statement without
harming the effect, but probably not enhance it much.)

Destination Zero
AllTogether Now
Let's put this all together. In the bottom section of the box, place the three remain-
ing Qreens face down.

Take one of the indifferent cards and stick a Post-it Note on its face. Write on the
Post-it Note the name of the card affixed to underside of the lid of the box-here,
the Qreen of Hearts. (Alternatively, you can write directly on the face of the card.)
Place this card into the box, face down on top of the Qreens.

Place the remaining twenty-one indifferent cards face down on top of the others. I
like to give these cards a riffie or weaye shuffe, to turn the interlaced halves so they
form a "plus-sign" shape and to place the cards in this configuration in the box. This
way, as the cards slosh around in the box, it will look messier than if the cards were
all aligned in the same direction.

Put the lid on the box and you are finished with this one-time preparation.

ln Concert
Contrive to have the Qreen of Hearts on top of a regular deck in play.

Introduce the box with as much or as little comment as you desire. (Some of us
will tell an elaborate story. Others will let the unusual and perhaps a little outr6
appearance of the box speak for itself.)

Instruct your spectator to take the deck and to deal cards into a face-down pile
onto the table. After she has dealt a few cards, tell her she can stop wherever she
wants. A little management is required, but not much. Your participant can deal as
many as twenty-one cards before stopping-a considerable leeway.

If you like, before the

dealing begins, you can guide your participant through the
Ose False Cut or the "shu{fled" handling from "Petal To The Metal." This add-
ed procedure is not strictly necessary, but adds time and distance from when you
maneuvered the Qreen to the top. Accordingly, it tends to put up a roadblock for
spectators who think you may have known the top card. It also adds a level of pro-
cess complexity which may be a good thing. You'll have to decide. (The "Remote
Control," or "Remote Rosetta Control," from "Prophet Motive"would work, too.)

Once she stops, be sure to sell the moment by asking her if she wants to deal more,
or take some cards back. You know what to do.

John Bannon
Once she finally decides on a stopping place, the fun begins. At this point, the pro-
cess actually has been very fatr. No, really. Your participant has freely dealt a number
ofcards that could not have been anticipated.

The "central tautology" of the prediction-that, even though it seems certain and
precise, it's true for any number of dealt cards up to twenty-one-takes it from
here.

Fun With Numbers

Cal1 attention to the box. Make your statement about a predicted set of events:
"Inside the box,I have some playing cards.If you have stopped dealing at exactly
the right place, then these three things are true:

"I have at least as many cards as you do, three more, and enough cards left over to
make your cards add up to twenty-two."

Open the box and set the lid aside-be careful not to expose the underside of the
lid. Now call attention to the cards in the box by shaking the box and moving them
around. Remove the cards from the box (keeping the bottom four cards intact).
Now you will veri$, that your proposition is true.

Square your packet and have your participant pick up her dealt packet. Now you
each deal a card from your packet onto the table. Count aloud, "One." Continue
dealing in tandem, with a second card and a third, until she runs out of cards. Say
she has fifteen cards. Point out that the first part is true-you have at least as many
as she does.

"... fourteen, fifteen. As many as you."

Importantly, during this procedure, your participant has reversed the order of her
packet, bringing the original top card-the Qreen of Hearts-back to the top.
Even better, there's plenry more to come, so this re-configuration should not even
be noticed.

"tree more."

Take the remainder of your packet, spread it out in a fan and hold the fan in your
right hand. As you repeat the prediction, click off three cards from the bottom of
the packet (at the left side of the fan) into a small spread on the table.

Destination Zero
"I have three more cards."

Continue,'And enough cards left over to add up to twenty-two."

Because of the tautological principle at work, this last part is also true.

Count your remaining cards onto your tabled packet, resuming the count where
you and your participant left off.

"Now let's see, you had fifteen cards ... skteen, seventeen ... twenty-two. The last
part is true, too!"

Amazing. Done with coins, this trick allegedly fooled Einstein. It wouldn't surprise
me if it were true. I have never had a spectator figure out the tautology as it unfold-
ed. As far as I k o*, no one has reconstructed the solution either. Once you have a
reasonably intelligent person focus on what's going on-yoursel{, for example-the
whole thing seems transparent. Not so otherwise.

Re-positioned And Pre-positioned Fun

We have used the "Einstein" trick to force the Qreen of Hearts-sort of. The
reverse counting that occurred in veri$ring the prediction has ensured that the
Qreen of Hearts is back on top of her tabled packet. Notice that you, too, have
reverse-counted the cards in your packet. So noq you have the Post-it "Qreen of
Hearts" on top.

I do the climactic revelations in the following order.

Have the participant turn over the top card of her dealt packet. It will be the Qreen
of Hearts. I would not characterizeit as "the card she stopped at."I would let its
position on top ofthe packet speak for itself.

Now turn over each of the three set-aside cards. Point out that these are the Qreens
of the other three suits-the matching Qlleen of Hearts is missing.

Now, turn over the top card ofyour packet. It is not the matching Qleen of Hearts,
but it has "Qreen of Hearts" written on it. (Photo 3, next page.) The coincidence
is just as remarkable, but a lot weirder. Even better, this strange stand-in for the
Qreen of Hearts raises the questions: "Why use a Post-it Note?" and, "Where is
the actual Qreen of Hearts?"

John Bannon
 3

The Post-it Note question is an interesting one, but ultimately a red herring.The
Post-it itself suggests that it could be moved from one card to another. In turn, the
Post-it implicitly suggests that this mobility may be part of the method of the trick:
"Maybe he secretly moves it to the right card." By begging the question about the
actual Qreen of Hearts, we also provide context for the final climax.

As a redundant but nevertheless effective finale, lift the lid of the box and display
the actual Qreen of Hearts stapled (or otherwise affixed) to its underside. (Photo
4.) Well, there she is-in case anyone was wondering.

Hold the pose and bring the trick to a successful conclusion ....

Destination Zero
POST MORTEM

Resel

Very simple. Just put everlthing back into the box-the three Qreens, the Post-it
"Qreen of Hearts" and the rest of the cards. Put on the lid and you're all set.

Window Dressing
You can dress this trick up in a number of ways depending upon how you intend
to present it. The cards, the box, the nature of the prediction-all contribute to the
presentation. I have elected to "grunge"the box and to do a straightforward "adven-
tures of the props" narrative presentation, letting the box itself suggest something
strange ls gomg on.

Credits
Let's start with an old verbaltrick-the "tautology." And I mean old-the version
in Greater Magic,"AMatter of Debit and Credit" (1938), is in a chapter called "Old
Wine In New Bottles."While the trick was originally done with cards, Al Koran
later applied the verbal dodge to a bowl of coins. With his trick, 'Jackpot Coins,"
Koran allegedly fooled Albert Einstein and the trick has been known since as "The
Tiick That Fooled Einstein."

In "The Einstein Overkill," I returned to the playrng cards and streamlined the
handling somewhat-doing it as a "stop" trick, rather than a prediction. This "stop"
handling eliminated the awkward counting or presetting usually required. On top
of this streamlined handling, I added a control of three cards and imposed a sub-
tlety I fi,rst saw in the Marlo-Ackerman-Harris trick, "Overkill." The result is an
apparent control over your spectator's actions, reinforced by an unexpected appear-
ance of the Qreens.

"Einstein Overkill"was done from a single minimally preset deck. For all of its syn-
ergies, it ended up being fairly complex-self-working, but complex. Still intrigued
with the trick, I wanted to reduce the complexity while keeping the "Overkill"
synergies.

Jon Racherbaumer has aversion of the trickusing a small change purse and some
coins.Jon would ask the spectator to remove all of his pocket change, but to keep it
hidden from view. He then "divined" that, in his coin purse he had as much money

John Bannon
asthe spectator, thirty-five cents more, and enough left over to make the spectator's
change total add up to [whatever]. See "Correct Change," At The Thble (Robbins
7984) at page 60.I always liked the self-contained nature ofJons coin purse and its
applicability to every situation.

The final step was to take the "Einsteiri'and "Overkill" synthesis and make a stand-
alone, self-contained "box" of cards that would work in any situation-the Box Of
Doom.

Destination Zero
FREE WILLY
PRECls

A participant shufles the cards and cuts the deck. Really.

The performer shows a folded prediction. He says that, earlier, he got a call from a
friend of his, Esmeralda, who is a gypsy fortuneteller. She told him that she had a
vision and asked him to write down a few things. "She sees everything," he says, "so
this should be interesting."

The participant makes three further decisions:

First, from the place she cut, the participant decides whether to give the first card
to the performer or to keep it. Let's say she gives it to the performer.

Second, she decides whether to take the second card for herself or to swap the
second card for the first. Let's say she swaps and keeps the first card.

The performer states that the next card is for Esmeralda. The participant decides
whether it should be dealt face up or face down. Say the fhree of Clubs is dealt
face up.

The performer observes that she shufled and cut the deck and then freely made
these decisions. He hands the prediction to her to read aloud.

The participant reads the prediction aloud:

"I have a Qreen." She turns over the card she chose for herself. It is a Qreen.

"You have a Nine."The performer's card is a Nine.

"Esmeralda's card is face up." It is.

'And she has the Three of Clubs." It isl

John Bannon
NOS ENCANTA

The routine centers on a "Free Will" style of prediction. Depending on the out-
come, it can be read aloud by either the performer or the participant. This very
interesting principle is generally credited to Deddy Corbuzier.

Ordinarily, the principle is deployed in a three-object test in which three coins or

other objects are distributed by the participant and the prediction correctly identi-
fies which object is in which location. Because six different arrangements are pos-
sible, and the prediction only handles two, usually the possibilities are controlled by
some equivoque or ambiguity in the instructions you give the participant. For me,
these ambiguities invariably caused the potential for some awkward moments-
the worst case scenarios are generally not very convincing.

We can solve the problem of ambiguous instruction by dealing with the objects se-
quentially instead of having our participant freely choose the order. Using the typ-
ical objects-for example, three different coins-can be too transparent. But not if
the objects are fungible-that is, not if the participant has no reason to prefer one
object over the other-which brings us to three face-down plan"g cards chosen
apparently at random. Perfect. Any sense that the performer may be guiding the
activity is cloaked by the apparent fact that each card could be any card. Further-
more, playing cards in a deck are intrinsically sequential; you must remove one in
order to get to the next one.

In dealing with three playrng cards sequentially, you end up with four possible
arrangements. "Free Will" covers the two scenarios of who gets the first two cards,
but what about the other two, whether the third card is face up or face down? As
you'll see, even though at times you may have predicted that the face-down third
card would be face up, this construction has you covered.

MISE EN SCENE

The Prediction

First, prepare the following prediction:

I have a Qreen.
You have a Nine.
Esmeralda's card is face up.
And she has the Three of Clubs.

Destination Zero
 1

Photo 1 shows the prediction. I generally write it on a page from a small pocket
notebook, fold it in quarters and put it under the cellophane on the card box.

To perform, you will need to have the following cards on top of the deck (from the
top down: any Qreen, any Nine, and the Three of Clubs). Not too bad.

Porticipont Shuftle
Ye s,your participant real$ shuffies the cards. Sort of. Not riffie shufl1e, not over-
hand or Hindu shuffie, but our new self-working best friend-the Remote Rosetta.
As we recently saw in "Prophet Motive," the Remote Rosetta can virtually guaran-
tee that, after the participant pushes the two rosettes together, the original top card
will remain on top. But even better, it can guarantee that a small top stock will also
remain on top, all the while retaining its uncontrolled chaotic appearance.

The procedure remains the same as before. Set the deck in front of your participant
and, as if preparing for a rifle shuffe, cut offabout two-thirds of the deck and place
it lengthwise next to the remainder.

You are going to spin both packets into "rosettes." Place your right thumb and
fingers onto the packet on the right. Push down and with a clockwise twisting
motion, spin the packet several times, forming a "rosette." Repeat this with the left
packet; you can use your left hand and spin counterclockwise. Be sure to twist the
packets thoroughly; the shufle works much better wher all the cards have been
unaligned, not just the top dozen.I prefer to use both hands and to spin both
packets simultaneously.

John Bannon
As you spin the two rosettes, the spirals will get wider in diameter as well as slop-
pier in appearance. Furthermore, because the two packets began fairly close to each
other, the space between them narrows. So, as you make the spins, it's easy to bias
the thinner rosette, so it just begins to merge with the thicker spiral. Just manage
the edge ofthe top card ofthe left rosette to stick into the right spiral.

Because the original top half has ten to twelve more cards than the other half, once
the upper cards of the smaller packet begin to merge into the larger packet, even a
little bit, the top seoeral catds zuill stay on top when the rosettes are pushed together.
(Actually, all the cards in the thicker packet that are above the slightly merged top
card of the lower packet will stay on top.)

Now; have your participant push together the two "rosettes." It all looks so chaotic.
Nevertheless, while it appears that the participant "shuffled" the cards, you have
effectively and deceptively controlled the top several cards.

After the "rosettes" have been pushed together, but not yet squared, emphasize the
thoroughness of the shuffie by smearing the conglomeration around. (The entire
sequence described here is illustrated in the photographs on pages 67-70, as part
of "Prophet Motive".)

Square the deck and proceed.

(This does not need to be said, but here rs a reall1t big tip. You can add this partici-
pant-shuffied, self-working, top stock control to almost er-tery trrckin this book, as
well as to many other tricks.Imagine beginning almost any Ace production with a
participant-"shuflXed" deck. Wow. Let's not tell anybody ...)

The Cui

Square the deck and place it in front of your participant. Ask her to give the deck
a cut. As we discussed in "Ban-nihi1ation," I always pantomime cutting offpart of
the deck and setting it onto the table next to the remainder.

When she has finished, pick up the remaining half of the deck and place it cross-
wise onto the deck. Here, I like Raj Madhoks subtle variation: Place the packet
roughly perpendicular to the lower half, not directly on the deck, but leaning on it.
Let's call this Raj's "Lean On Me"variation. The upper packet is actually resting on
the table and leaning on the deck, only slightly covering the top of the lower half.
(Photo 2.) The advantage of this position is that the top card of the lower half (that
is, the force card) can be removed without having to handle the upper half.

Destination Zero
 2

The Cross-Cut Force requires some time misdirection in order to be effective. For-
tunately, you still need to introduce the prediction and have all the time misdirec-
tion you need.

lntroduction Io The Future

At the conclusion of the trick, half the time you will read the prediction, the other
half you will ask your participant to read it. I have framed the prediction to in-
troduce a third person-Esmeralda, the gypsy fortuneteller (or, whomever)-that
is not present.This helps the action in a couple of ways. First, the third card can
be "for" this third person, which adds context to why there is a third decision and
action. Secondly, it gives this card a name: Esmeralda's card. Now all three cards
belong to someone. Lastly, it allows you to add another pronoun to the prediction:
" y'Jer catd," or if you prefer, " shehas."

"Earlier today, I got a call from my friend Esmeralda. She's a gypsy fortunetell-
er-believe me, she sees everything. She told me to write down a few things and to
take the paper with me. She said I would know when I was with the right person.
Jessica, I think that person is you."

Place the folded prediction in a conspicuous location. Now explain that she needs
to make three very important decisions. Further, in each case she has an absolutely
free choice and she should be sure she does not feel forced in any way.

Now return attention back to the cut deck. How's that for time misdirection?

John Bannon
 3

Decisions, Decisions

Now, present your participant with her three important decisions.

Carefully remor,e the top card of the lower portion of the deck. (Photo 3.) (What
a gteat looking picturel) Ask your participant whether she wants to give the card to
you or to keep it for herself. This is a free choice. Of course, this a simple force of
the Qreen. Whether she keeps it or gives it to you does not matter. A11 you need
to remember is: Whoever ends up with this first card, the Qreen, must be the one
who reads the prediction.

For the second decision, take the next card from the lower portion. Depending on
her first decision, your participant can keep this card or give it to you, swapping it
for the first card as appropriate. Okay, now you are all set. After these two com-
pletely free choices, you now know everything you need to know-who has the
Qreen and, accordingly, who will read the prediction.

The last decision is a little bit of a red herring because, as you'Il see, her choice does
not matter. Remove the third card from the lower section and ask her if she wants
this card to be face up or face down. Whichever she decides, place the card-the
Three of Clubs-onto the table in that configuration.

That's it, you are essentially done. Now either read the prediction, or have your
participant do it, as appropriate, and watch the mystery unfold ...

Destination Zero
Not So Free Will

Watch how the prediction plays out.

"I have a Qreen."

Whoever is reading this has the Qreen, but only you know this. Obviously, when
a card is face down, no one knows its identity, so we add a bonus layer of suspense.
When the card is turned face up, it is, of course, a Qreen.

"You have a Nine."

Bingo. The card proves to be a Nine. Again, there is a pause because the card is face
down and must be revealed. Drama!

"Esmeralda's card is face up."

Okay, here's the tricly part. If the card is face up (as it most often is), congratu-
lations! You nailed it. What if the card is face down? Well, you missed it, but in a
really good way. For the first two, it doesn't matter because you zoill get them right.
For the third, you can say something like, "I guess Esmeralda doesn't see eaery'
thing!'It's a little weak, but look at the position you are in. Sure, you missed, but
the card on the table rsface dozon-to one knows what it is-and you are going to
nail the exact card with gusto.

'And she has the Three of Clubs."

If you just missed the third prediction, you are in a nice spot. The first two predic-
tions predict only the value of the card-('a Qreen" and "a Nine." Now; you just
announced an entire, single card. Let the tension build, and then show that the card
is, indeed, the Three of Clubs.

Of if you got the third prediction right, the Three of Clubs is staring the
course,
reader in the face. Ifyou are the reader, show the prediction and point to the last
line as you read it aloud. Ifyour participant is the readeq the rest ofthe audience
should be suitably surprised, and your participant should be suitably impressed that
your four-part prediction was 100% correct.

John Bannon
POST MORTEM

Credils qnd Bqckground

Okay, there's the Free Will Prediction Principle. We've talked about that. Every-
thing else is in this book. The Remote Rosetta may change your life. Raj Madhoks
fabulous "Lean On Me" handling for the Cross-Cut Force should make you revisit
the utility of this invaluable self-working tool.

Less ls More

You may have noticed that you can give the entire name of each of the three cards
in play. It is, after all, a force. Naming all three exactly, however, overshadows the
effect of predicting the locations as well as the identities of the cards. So, going
for just the values of the first two cards makes the outcome seem more variable,
helping to focus the emphasis away from the identities of the cards and onto the
participant's decisions. On the third card, you nail it, ending the trick with a bang.
Why not? After all, it's a card trick.

Miss You

Reasonable people may disagree, but I am happy with the finesse of the third pre-
diction. First of all, experience has shown that most of the time, you will be right.
When you get it wrong, it's Esmeralda's fault and you can kid her about it, in
absentia. Howeveq because you get the last part exactly right, it makes the miss
followed by a facetious remark seem like more of a planned miss or a presenta-
tion-driven bit of business.

Destination Zero
MATCHISMO
PRECIS

The performer shuffes, cuts and removes three face-down cards. The participant
shufies and cuts the deck, and then removes three cards as well.

An amazingcoincidence! Each of the performer's cards matches each of the partic-

ipant's cards in value! For example, the performer may have a Nine and so does the
participant. He may have a Five which matches the participant's Five. Finally, the
participant's final card may be a Two and the performer's final card is also a Two.

But is it a coincidence, or is it fate? The performer notes that the values of the three
cards form a three-digit number-here, the number 952.He turns over the card
box, and inscribed upon it is the exact number, "952."

The deck is regular, examinable and can be used for other tricks.

NOS ENCANTA

Regular deck. Minimal setup. Virtually any number of any practical length can be
predicted and discovered. Your participant shuffies and cuts the deck before remov-
ing her cards. Can be completely self-working. What's not to like?

The plot was inspired by, and essentially is the same as, Sam Fittoris trick, "Ark."
The method, however, is very different. I liked the effect and thought that a judi-
cious application of Gilbreath's Second Principle would be very effective.

Then all I needed to do was to finesse the fact that the participant's cards, while
guaranteed to be the three target values, could be in any order. No problem, it turns
out. As you'll see, you can simply talk your way through it.

I ended up with an efHcient,layered construction that should fool the pants offjust
about everybody.

John Bannon
MISE EN SCENE

Let's go through the vanilla, self-working version and get the basic idea. This trick,
however, can be enhanced with the addition of some easy sleight-of-hand. So, af-
terward, let's get into the strawberry and pistachio additions.

Preporing
Okay, first decide on your target number. You will have to represent the number
with playing cards, so zeroes and ones should be avoided. For these purposes, let's
use"952." You'Il need to prepare the prediction.This can be as easy as writing it
on the card box. I like to write the number on a Post-it Note and stick the Post-it
on the box under the cellophane. (Why? The Post-it suggests something moveable.
In other words, it suggests that there may be more than one prediction. When it's
under the cellophane, however, not so much. So, why use the Post-it in the first
place?)

To prepare, place three sets of cards of the target number on top. For this version,
the sets should be in the desired order, but the order of the second set should be
in reoersed order-in this case, from the top down: (9,5,2),(2,5,9), (9, 5,2). Suits
do not matter, except that each set should be of mixed suits. That's all the setup
necessary.

Performing

To perform, remove the cards and place the card box aside, prediction-side down.
Don't be obvious, but be careful not to flash the prediction prematurely.

Now, force the top three cards on yourself.There are a number of ways to do this.
For now, let's stick to an easy, self-working way: Let's drag out, once again, the yen-
erable Balducci Force. I think this trick hangs better when the performer and the
participant essentially use the same motions to select their "random" cards. Because
the participant must be forced, the performer's prior actions help sell the later force.

So start by talking yourself through the Balducci "Cut Deeper" F'orce. Be care-
ful, however, not to tip the purpose of the cuts-to arrive at supposedly "random"
cards-until after the cut mechanics have been completed. So, let's not say, "I need
three random cards ..." and proceed with the cut. Instead, frame the two cuts, say-
ing something noncommittal and unrelated to them:

Destination Zero
 1

"In my experience, some occurrences are random, but some are definitely not. I'11
give the deck two cuts: one less than half, one more than half."

In you have forgotten: With the deck on the table, you cut off a portion that
case
is than half the deck, turn it face up and replace it onto the deck. Continuing,
/ass
cut deeper into the deck-that \s, more than half the cards-turn over the cut-off
packet and place it back onto the deck.

Ifyou like, you can have your participant make these cuts for you, underscoring the
freedom ofthe cuts.

Then, shift the focus to the point of the cuts. Pick up the deck and spread through
the upper group offace-up cards. (Photo 1.) Take the face-up cards in your right
hand and thumb offthe top three face-down cards from your left hand.

"You can see that we might have arrived at any one of these cards, but we ended up
here. So, these three cards will be for me."

Place the right-hand face-up cards face down undet the face-down cards in your
left.The remaining two sets of target cards are still on top.

Shuffiing

Now it's your participant's turn. You must cut the deck into two halves, but she
can shuffi.e the halves together-either with a riffie shuffie or our new favorite, the
Rosetta Shufle.There's more: Right now, there are two sets of target cards on top

John Bannon
 2

of the deck. We need one set on top of each half and one set has to be in reverse
order. In this case,we need a9,5,2 ontop of one half and a2,5,9 on top of the
other. As usual, there are different ways of obtaining this position. Here's another
self-working approach:

Immediately after assembling the deck, continue to "mix" the cards using the fol-
lowing "spread and drop" procedure. Spread off slr cards (this is the remainder of
your stack) and drop them onto the table. Spread off some more cards and drop
them on top of the tabled cards. Continue spreading and dropping cards until the
deck is depleted-use groups so you only need to do six or so "drops."This actually
mixes the cards-a vertical overhand shuffie-and moves the top six cards intact
to the bottom.

Now begin a second Spread/Drop shuffie, but this one's a little different. This time,
create tvvo piles. Spread offsome cards and drop them onto the table. Now spread
offsome more cards and drop them next to the first group. Spread offa third group
and drop them onto the first pile. The next group is dropped onto the second pile.
Continue alternating card drops until you near the last ten or so cards. Spread the
cards in your hands and sight count the bottom six cards (your stack), and drop all
the cards above these six onto the appropriate tabled pile. (Photo 2.) Finally, drop
three cards onto one pile and the last three onto the other.

This should appear to be a casual, unstudied mixing. Even better, because the sec-
ond target set in the stack was in reverse order, we are in perfect position for Gil-
breath's Second Principle.

(You have to do two Spread/Drop shuffies here because we started with allof the

Destination Zero
setup cards on top. If you start with the first six cards of the setup to the bottom,
you only need to do the second two-packet shuffie. (For example,9,5,2,x,x,lrest
of deck], x,9,5,2,2,5,9.) Just remember, after you do the Balducci Force on your-
self to place the face-up cards face down back on top ofthe left-hand cards, not on
the bottom.)

While you are doing the Spread/Drop, comment on the need to ensure that the
cards are truly mixed. As you conclude, ask your participant if they know how to
shuffie cards. As you ask, pantomime a riffie shufle.

If your participant can do a riffie shuffie, square the two piles and ask her to shuffie
them together.

Ifshe cannot, or would rather not, spin the two piles into "rosettes" and have her
push the two "rosettes" into each other.

(We've run across the Rosetta Shuffie/Gilbreath application before in the notes to
"Petal To The Metal.")

Either way, after the shuffe, the top three cards will be the three target cards-re-
a1ly.

Cutting
Now you will talk your participant through the Balducci Force procedure. Of
course, she will know why she's purportedly making the cuts to arrive at random
cards-but, as you will see, because it comes after a legitimate shuffie with no in-
tervening actions by the performer, no suspicion is aroused.

Again, with the shuffied deck on the table, have her cut off a portion that is less
than half the deck, turn it face up and replace it onto the deck. Continuing, have
her cut deeper into the deck-that is, more than half the cards-turn orrer the cut-
off packet and place it back onto the deck. This parallels the same procedure you
followed when you selected your "random" cards.

Have your participant pick up the deck and spread through the upper group of
face-up cards and place them aside. Then ask her to deal three face-down cards
onto the table. After she does this, take the cards, assemble them and set the deck
aside.

(You could also spread the deck on the table and, using one finger only, gingerly

John Bannon
 3

separate the spread by sliding the face-up cards to one side, and then pushing the
first three face-down cards toward your participant. Photo 3.)

Nour, you each have shuffied, cut and removed three "random" cards.

Finessing

Now; pick up the set of cards you selected at the beginning and spread them faces
toward you. Ask your participant to do the same with her cards.

So you both have three cards that match in value, but are not necessarily in the
same order. The following verbal approach is designed to convey the impression
that the cards were in the same order. In any event, you'll show that all three of
yours match all three of hers.

Remove the Nine and place it face up onto the table. Say,'Jessica, one of my cards
is a Nine. Do you happen to have a Nine?" She will. Have her place it face up onto
the table.

Continue,'And I have a Five. Do you have a Five?" She will. Have her place her
Five on top of her Nine.

For the last one, mix it up a bit. 'Jessica, what's your last card? A Two? Let's see
it. You arent going to believe this, but I have a Two ..." Place your card on top of
your others.

Destination Zero
 4

For situations in which the digits ofyour force number are in descending orde5 the
irrepressible Raj Madhok suggests an alternate game-like approach:

"Let's go for high card. What's the highest card in your hand? A Nine? Me, too.
My highest card is a Nine. What's your next highest card? Really? My next highest
is a Five. And your last card? You're not going to believe this. My last card is a Tko,
tool What an amazing coincidence."

Coincidence? Fote? Right.

You now have a two sets of a Nine, Five and Two on the table. (Photo 4.) A re-
markable coincidence. Of course, no one-no one-believes this is a real coinci-
dence; you'll get all the credit for bringing it about. But wait, there's more ...

Say something like, given all the cutting and shulfling, it's probably just a remark-
able coincidence. After a dramatic pause, state that it could be . . . fate. You and your
participant may have been influenced by cosmic forces. Point out that each of your
selected cards form the number "952." (This is why you wanted to leave the impres-
sion of order as well as identity.) Make a final remark about destiny and influence,
and then show that exact number,952,written on the card box. Scaryl

POST MORTEM

Orgonic/lnorgonic
Instead of a plain prediction on the card box, you could just write a prediction
before you begin.

John Bannon
Or, you can dress this up a little. For example, buy a three- or four-digit daily lot-
tery ticket. If you win, great! If not, keep it in your wallet and force the number as
described. If you can plan ahead, do the trick and show a live lottery ticket with a
matching number. If you are particularly generous, give the ticket to your partici-
pant. Or, not.

If you d rather be particularly annoying , get a small combination padlock and set
the combination to your force number. Then, lock the lock on your participant's
buttonhole. Or borrow a ring, and affx the lock to it. See what I mean by annoy-
ing? Now; offer to give your participant the combination, if theywin a simple game
. . .. The game's a tie, of course, but now reveal the combination.

Double Trouble

With very little thought, you can frame this trick as a "coincidence" between two
participants, instead of between you and one participant.Just sayin'.

Credits And Bockground

As I stated earlier, this trick was inspired by an effect by Sam Fitton called 'Ark,"
which was produced by the very clever Dave Forrest of Full 52 Productions. I was
intrigued by the effect, but wanted a method, not just a variation, that suited me
better. Without going into detail, as it turned out, the underlying methods could
not be more different.

Norman Gilbreath's "Second Principle" creates a fabulous deception. The Second

Principle provides that shuffiing a set of "n" cards into another set of the same 'n'
cards that are in reversed order, will result in the top "n" cards containing all the
cards of the set-not in the same order, but all the set members will be there.The
Second Principle was published in the }une 7966 Linking Ring magazine and has
been employed in myriad tricks since then. The mind boggles when, after a real,
fair rrfre shuffi.e, a particular set of values is guaranteed to be on top. It is not that
well-known, oq if known, not easily recognized. The Rosetta Shufle application is
unusual enough that the principle is further disguised.

Again, we invoke the workhorse that is the Balducci "Cut Deeper" Force. It works
perfectly here. I like that the performer and the participant essentially use the same
motions to select their cards. The performer's prior actions help sell the later force.
In addition, there is no real good alternative to have your participant force the cards

Destination Zero
on herself. You might think to use the Spectator Ose Cut as aforce. But that would
yield to expedience rather than any real thought. Employing the Spectator Ose
False Cut as a force is not a good idea. The cut is easy and deceptive, but delicate
and fragile. All an observer needs to do is to pay attention to the top card ofthe
deck and to watch. The cut is "naked" (that is, without any real cover or even ratio-
nale) and, even worse, you are telling the spectatot how to cut a deck of cards-why
would you do that? The Ose False Cut can be a workhorse, mainly because it never
takes center stage . The Spectator Ose Cut is always right in the middle of it.

Apply When Needed

We've seen Gilbreath's Second early on in the notes to "Petal To The Metal," and
I've used it in "Origami Predictiori'(Hlgh Caliber,2013).In each of those cases,
I described a self-working, "set-up and marked off" approach. The Spread/Drop
approach would work equally well in either of those tricks.

John Bannon
THE KOKO TEST
PRECIS

The idea is to take Chris Philpott's Double Koko trick (from his fascinating book,
Intiruate Mysteries [2013]) and to cast it in the form of the short "personality" tests
that are popular in some magazines.

Briefly, the idea is that, in apparently taking a short "personality" test, your partic-
ipant unknowingly selects a suit and a value of a playing card. While it was not
immediately obvious, later when the test is explained, the results unambiguously
identifiz a particular playing card.

trqually unambiguously, the performer shows that fate itself has predicted the very
card the participant has unconsciously revealed.

NOS ENGANTA

I loved the Koko notion of having a spectator unwittingly choose a card through
a series of visualizations where the playing card aspects are "hiding in plain sight."
Even better, when the playing-card aspects are explained, they are clear and un-
ambiguous.

Not being a "mentalist," I could not see myself guiding a participant through a se-
ries of visualizations (as Chris does in his book).It occurred to me that the concept
might work in the form of a short pop psychological "personality" test. In print, the
unambiguousness of the playing-card elements would be strengthened.These tests,
moreover, are insanely popular and hard to resist. First, I thought to make it look
like a page from a magazine, but then decided it may be easier-and maybe a bit
more believable-if it looked like a printed-out webpage.

Even better, because what you mostly do is read out the test and the answers, the
trick essentially presents itself-a bonus for us non-storytellers.

Happily, the solution presented here is self-working.

Destination Zero
THE TEST

Here is the text of the "test." It makes a nice fake webpage print out.

Qrick Archetypal Symbol Generation Test

In Jungian psychology, our personalities are reflections of collective
archetypes we all share through the human experience. The degree
to which some archetypes are adopted and others are rejected in-
forms our public and private personas. This is a quick test to identify
your primary archetypal in{luences and to suggest an appropriate
symbol that you may adopt as a personal icon.

Answer the following three questions intuitively:

Qrestion One:
If I had a totem on a totem pole, the totem that would best describe
me is:

A. An industrious gardener busily digging a new flow-

er bed.

B. A hopeless romantic whose feelings are easily dis-

cerned by even a casual observer.

C. A prehistoric warrior fiercely brandishing a weap-

on.

D. A flawless gem obvious in a pile of rubble.

Qrestion Two:
I have many positive qualities, but the trait that most deeply defines
me is:

Qrestion Three:
You are at a carnival. The clowns frighten you a little. Against your
better judgment, you visit the gypsy fortuneteller. She studies you
for a bit and asks you: "Child, do you believe the events of the sub-

John Bannon
conscious mind can inJluence the physical actions of the body?" You
reply:

A. Yes.

B. No.

CLICK HERE to obtain the interpretive results.

Qrick Archetypal Symbol Generation Test

Interpretive Results
The QuickArchetypal Symbol Recognition Test has you identify cer-
tain personality aspects that are highly correlated with certain every-
day symbols. Your answers help determine which symbols correlate
best with your archetypal personality.

Qrestion One:
a. " An industrious gardener busily digging a new
flower bed." You are no doubt hard-working, but the
gardener's digging tool, a spade, correlates with and is
symbolized by the playing-card suit of Spades.

b. "A hopeless romantic whose feelings are easily dis-

cerned by even a casual observer." You are emotional
and vulnerable and wear your hearf on your sleeve.
The symbol is the playing-card suit of Hearts.

c. " A prehistoric warrior fiercely brandishing a weap-

on." You are dedicated and relentless, but frank. Your
weapon is your symbol-a blunt instrument, a club.
This symbol is the playing-card suit of Clubs.

d. A flawless gem obvious in a pile of rubble. You are

friendly and carefree; you make others smile. You are
symbolized by the shining diamonil. This symbol is the
playing-card suit of Diamonds.

Destination Zero
QrestionTwo:
The attributes listed are not in a random or arbitrary order. Each trait
strongly correlates with the number associated with it. For example,
"loner" is symbolizedby the numeral "l-." A"{aithful" mate relates
to the pair bond and is symbolized by the numeral "2," ar.d so on.

Each number-symbol is, in turn, related to a ztalue of a playing card.

The numeral "l3" corresponds to "authoritative" as well as to the
playing card value "Kir.g." The numeral "L2" works well with the
playing card value "Queen." Artd"l\" is symbolic of the "eccentric"
card value "Jack."

Whichever trait you chose in answering this question, you should

embrace the corresponding number-symbol.

Combine the symbols of Question One andTwo.

Whatplaying card do you get?

This playing card is your personal modern archetypal icon.

QrestionThree:
This question examines the various perspectives the human mind
may take in evaluating one's own destiny. Nevertheless, often all
roads tend to lead to the same place.

If you answered, "Yes," your subconscious mind may help find the
way. You may be surprised where it leads you.

If you answered, "No," you must rely on the laws of probability and
chance. Sometimes there are surprising consequences.

O 2013 The Modern lconography Research Center. All rights reserved.

A PDF of the fatr-x webpage print out, 'Archetypal Symbol Generation Test," is
available to download for a limited time at wzuru.squashpublishing.com and zuzau.t.
johnbon nonmagic.com.

John Bannon
MISE EN SCENE

Before you start, be sure a complete deck of cards is handy. The cards can be in any
order. There is no prior preparation required.

Tesly

Introduce the test as a strange thing you found on the internet, a short psycholog-
ical quiz.

Administer the test.I would show it to the participant, holding it so she can follow
along, read it aloud and mark the responses myself.

As you will notice, the answers to Qrestions One and Two select a playing card,
although the participant does not know it yet (the "Koko Card"). The answers to
Qrestion One, when explained, unambiguously identif,, each of the four suits (i.e.,
digging with a "spade"; wearing one's "heart" on one's sleeve; swinging a "club"; and
a "diamond" in the rough).

The number of the answer to Qrestion Two identifies the value (1 to 13).

The third question is designed to foreshadow a procedural interlude in which you

will secretly catch up with the selected card and have the synchronic forces allow
your spectator to find her card before she knows she's chosen one.

Cross Beoring

Muse a little on the third question, and then offer an experiment. Remove the
deck from its box. While you are speaking, spread the deck face up and cut the
Koko Card to the back of the deck. Don't be furtive; you are so far ahead here.Your
participant doesnt even know that she's watching a card trick, much less that she's
aheady chosen her card.

T[rn the deck face down and give it a quick Ose False Cut.

"Let's try something physical. I have a deck of cards here and, as you can see, it is
well-mixed."

Destination Zero
Instruct your participant to pick up the deck and to do the following:

O Deal cards face down onto the table and stop whenever she wants.

o Shuffie the remainder if she wants.

o Deal some more cards onto the tabled pile, or simply push off a bunch and
drop them.

O Shufle the remainder if she wants.

O Keep adding cards to the tabled pile, and shuffiing, and adding, until she runs
out ofcards.

O Square the deck.

Cut the deck anl,where she wants, and place the cut-off cards onto the table.

After she has made her cut and deposited the cards, reach over and place the bot-
tom portion of the deck on top of her cut portion, but at a near perpendicular
angle. Look familiar? This is the Cross Cut Force with a little bit of smoke (we
saw something similar in the trick "Perennial"). You could also use Raj Madhoks
"lean on me" handling we saw in "Free Willy." After the first (top) card was dealt
onto the table, none of the rest of this mattere d. This procedure is modeled after an
approach byJoe Barry on his recent DVD, Inscrutable (2073),which I have been
informed was, in turn, modeled after a Ben Ead procedure.

Wrop lt Up
Now decode the test and reveal the Koko Card. As you come to the answer to
Qrestion Three, re-focus on your "physical experiment" or your "randomly reversed
card," as the case may be.

It won't be long until your participant grasps the relevance of the cards and the
prior actions. So, it's best to move with dispatch.

For the Cross-Cut Force, lift off the upper portion of the "crossed" deck, and furn
itface up to reveal the Koko Card.

In either case, enough time has passed to take virtually all of the heat off of your
prior actions-a good thing.

John Bannon
NATIONWIDE
PRECIS

The performer brings out an older deck, cuts it a few times and counts off sixteen
face-down cards. He sets the deck aside and mixes the packet of cards. Finally, he
deals the cards into four rows of four cards each.

A participant selects four ofthe cards by dropping a coin on the back ofeach.The
other cards are placed back onto the deck.

The performer explains that this deck of cards is one his family uses to decide
where they are going to go on vacation. He shows that somewhere on the face of
each card is written the name of one of the fifty US states together with the Dis-
trict of Columbia and Puerto Rico. A11 fifty-two cards are used.

He asks the participant to pick up the coins. He turns over one of the selected
cards-it has "Hawaii"written on it. "Nice choice," he says. He then points out that
the coins are US "state" quarters which also represent one of the fifty-two states. "Is
one of them a Hawaii quarter?" One zi a Hawaii quarter. "We could go to Hawaii."

The performer turns over another card: West Virginia. "Is one of them a West Vir-
ginia quarter?" One is. "Almost heaven, West Virginia."

He turns over the third quarter: California. "California?" Yes. "California would
not be bad."

The performer peeks at the last card, but does not turn it over. "What's on the last
coin?" He is informed that the last coin is not a "state" quarter. Bummer.

"Wait," the performer exclaims, "there is only one state that was named after a
president of the United States. Washington. Which president is on the last coin?"
Of course, it's George Washington.

He turns the last card face up. It says, "Washington."

"For a second there, I thought this trick was going nowhere."

Destination Zero
NOS ENGANTA

Since the set of US "state" quarters became complete, I have been thinking about
how to use them in a trick. While I have notes on a few that are half-baked, this
one came together nicely. It's not impromptu (obviously), but you can put it to-
gether quickly. This one-trick pony is a perfect use for one ofthose old decks you
may have lying around.

It is a "mapping" type of trick, where each of fifty-two different locations are as-
signed to a playing card. At least that's how you make it appeal Of course, the cards
are forced, but here the mapping approach helps disguise an interesting construc-
tion that layers the use of duplicates onto a deceptive mathematical procedure.

Finally, there's a twist in the tale. Obviously, any four cards/states can be forced and
you could end up with four perfect matches. How boring and predictable is that?
As you may have guessed, I prefer the construction with a twist. That twist turns
this set of ideas into a trick that's ready for pnme trme.

I think you'll have fun with this.

MISE EN SCENE

Altered Stqte
You'll need a dedicated deck of cards to prepare for this trick. On the face of each
card, you'll write the name of one of the fifty states, the District of Columbia or
Puerto Rico. But we'll cheat just a little.

You'll also need three "state" quarters and one regular quarter. Let's say your "state"
quarters are Hawaii, West Virginia and California.

On the face of four of the playing cards, write "Hawali." Use a black permanent
marker. If there is a lot of white space on the card-for example an Ace,Two or
Four-write it large once. If there is less white space, write it smaller, but many
times. If it's a face card, write in each of the margins, or use a silver permanent
market. (Photo 1, next page.) MLx it up a little.

On four more cards, write "\Mest Virginia." On four more, write "California." On
four more, write "Washington."

On the faces of the remaining thirty-six cards, write the names of the other states,

John Bannon
 1

{
\\s'\lr\
\h

and be sure to include the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. For the geo-
graphically challenged, you can easily find a list ofall fifty states on the internet.

Put the four groups of four on top of the rest of the deck, with the four "Washing-
ton" cards on the very top. Ready to rumble.

Conlrol Stqte
Bring out the deck of cards and the four quarters. Do not show the faces of the
cards and dont mention "states" or "quarters," just cards and coins.

"I want to show you a card trick with maybe not global, but at least national signif-
icance."This is just some nonsense to introduce the trick and begin foreshadowing
the territorial implications a hook.

Give the deck an Ose False Cut. Hand the "coins" to your participant. And then,
do another false cut.

Time for the "Matrix Force." Deal out the top sixteen cards in four rows of four.
These are your force cards. (Photo 2.)

Tell your participant that she is going to make certain choices and to end up se-
lecting four ofthese cards. Instruct her to place one ofthe "coins"onto any card she
wants. Casually add that, once she does, you will eliminate all of the cards in the
same row and column as her selection.

Destination Zero
 2

She places a coin on a card. Remove all of the other cards in the same row as the
selected card, and then the same column. (Photo 3.) Place the discards on top of
the deck.

Repeat this two more times. After three selections there will only be one card left.
Have the last coin placed on top of it. It should be clear that if she had made dif-
ferent choices, this last card would have been different. Feel free to point this out.
Slide the four cards up or down to form a single row. Casually remove each of the
quarters and hand the coins back to your participant.

The Matrix F'orce forces one card from each row. Because of the duplicate states
(not duplicate cards), we have one of each.If you follow along, you can tell which
card was in the first row. This will be the "Washington" card. Be sure to note which

John Bannon
card this is. (If this makes you uncomfortable, you can mark the backs of the four
"Washington" cards.)

Now the fun starts.

Solid Stqte

Now is the time to start filling in the details. Take the deck and begin spreading it
face up. Show that the cards are inscribed with the names of the states. Call out the
names of the states as you pass the cards from hand to hand (point out the District
of Columbia and Puerto Rico as you come to them).

Do this at a speed such that your audience will get the point way before you reach
the thirty-sixth card from the face. Keep calling out the states until you feel like
they've had enough-and then do a few more. Obviously, do not go past the thir-
ty-sixth card. (You may want to note the thirty-sixth card-seventeenth from the
top-before you start. For tricks of this type, however, thirty-six cards is a luxurious
margin.)

You can explain that the deck of cards was created to help choose the location of
a family vacation. Now call attention to the four "selected" cards. Turn over one of
the cards that is not the "Washington" card. Say it's the "Hawaii" card.

Comment on how Hawaii would be a fun vacation destination. Then, ask innocu-
ously, "Say, one of those coins wouldrit happen to be a 'Hawali'quarter, would it?"
This is a nice moment. Right no\ r, eyen before your participant locates the "Hawaii"
quarter, everyone knows exactly what the effect is going to be-the selected cards
will match the coins which are, of course, "state" quarters.

Once "Hawaii" has been confirmed, turn over the next card, again saving the
"Washington" card for last. This second card, say "West Virginia," confirms the
audience's conclusions about the effect. At this point, they'll expect all four cards
will match all four coins.

When the third card, "California," matches the quarter, the trick becomes redun-
dant and not surprising. Because your spectators have assumed the conclusion, they
may be impressed, but no longer truly interested. Time to change gears.

Do not turn over the last card; merely lift it sllghtly as if to peek at it. Ask your
participant which state is on the last quarter. She will inform you that there is no
state,because it's not a "state" quarter but a regular one.

Destination Zero
Unexpected and surprising. Interest level rises. With a climax no longer foresee-
able, your audience is now "tricked."And that's the name of the game.

United Siqte

Now for a successful conclusion. Take another peek at the card. Pause a beat or
two-not too long. Then say something along the following lines:

"Okay, I have a trivia question for you. There is only one state that was named after
a president. Do you know which president? Right, George Washington."

Look at your participant and ask, 'And which president is on the last quarter?
Washington? Hmmm, I wonder ..."

Now lift and display the face of the last card to display the great state ofWashing-
ton-a logical, but totally unexpected climax. Perfect.

POST MORTEM

Molrix Force
I have seen this kind of matrix force generally referred to as Mel Stover's "Irre-
sistible Force," from the Jantary 70,7957, issue of T/te Nezu Phoenix. According
to Max Maven in Prism, the concept dates back to Walter Gibson (ln tl38) and
Maurice Kraitchik (rn 7942). Doing the force with an array of playing cards has
been done by David Britland ("The Four Bit Machine," Psychomancy 11.986)) and
T. A. Waters ("Insight Straight," Mind Myth and Magick fHermetic Press, 1993]),
among others.

At one of our weekly Chicago sessions, David Finkelstein suggested a deck of

cards marked to represent the fifty states plus Puerto Rico and the District of
Columbia. The deck, then, could be explained as a "random vacation destination
generator." David has some interesting ideas with the concept. The application of
David's "state decl{'to state quarters was a natural.

Pristine

Instead of using an old deck of cards, you can make your own "Nationwide" deck
by using a blank-face deck. I prefer the organic,leftover deck approach-it seems
less like a prop.

John Bannon
AK.47
PRECIS

The participant thinks of, and commits to, any card. Really.

Without asking any questions, the performer removes one card from the deck and
places it onto the table.

He has correctly identified the freely thought-of cardl

NOS ENCANTA

Okay, there's a little more to it. And, okay, it doesnt always work like that, but the
overall effect is the same. And it never sucks. Never.

I think this trick di-

may be the shiny jewel in this particular crown. The trick was
rectly inspired by a routine by the inventiye and clever Al7an Zola Kronzek, called
"Think Of One." Essentially, Allans approach descended from Bob Hummer's
"Mindreader's Dream."The crux of all such routines in this family is that the par-
ticipant must move a number of cards equal to the value of her thought-of card-
or, in Allaris case, rema'ue the cards and hide them in the card box.

Removing and placing the cards in the card box is an interesting diversion to that
method-driven sticking point. As long as the performer does not go near the card
box, he can glean no information about the number of cards (unless, of course, your
participant can discern the use of a sunken key card, but then the trick is merely
academic anlrvay). Accordingly, the activity of removing a specific correlated num-
ber of cards is diffused. The participant's attention may be on the card box, but as
you'll see, the performer never avails himself of this information. Not even close.

"AK-47" retains Allans box concept, and reengineers the rest. It employs some
significant subtleties so that essentially you can appear to always nail the selected
card without any fishing. It is that direct.

Destination Zero
If Allans "Think Of One"was the suave sophisticated uncle to Bob Hummer's wild
child,'AK-47" is its stealth-like Ninja cousin.

MISE EN SCENE

Reody, But Not Set, Go

You will need to know the thirteenth card from the top of the deck. There are a
number of different ways to go here. I prefer to start by having the spectator shuffie
the deck, if only to dispel the notion that it is set up or that I know the locations
of any of the cards. So, I prefer to get this vital piece of knowledge on the fly. You'll
see ...

Okay, to perform, have the deck shuffied. Say,'Jessica, I want you to think of a card,
any card. Really. Make it interesting and dont think of an Ace. Everyone thinks of
an Ace. Got one?"

What a great way to start a trick! You want to emphasize the choice, but you want
to be sure she does not think of the Ace of Spades. At the conclusion, you dont
want her to go for the easy solution that everyone-including her (!)-thinks of
the Ace of Spades. Without guidance, it happens more often than you may think.

The Pqrliciponl Commits

You now need to have your participant remove a number of cards corresponding
to the value of her thought-of card. But wait. First, you still need to get your thir-
teenth card key. Second, it would be nice to justif,z this procedure in some not-too-
lame way.

As far as justification, there really is no good one, at least, not that I am aware of.
But a vague statement that appears to haye relevance under the circumstances, may
be adequate. I follow mental-phenom Hector Chadwicks advice:

"Okay,Jessica, you are just thinking of a card, right? I need you to commit yourself.
So what I want you to do ..."

Commit yourself Short, sweet and seems authoritative. It's a nice way of justi$ring
(or at least providing a context for) an action that, while method driven, is not
strictly required by the presentation. Kudos to Mr. Chadwick for understanding
and sharing the value of this ploy.

John Bannon
 1

Now for the key card. Taking a tip from an earlier trick, "Clock Of Dooni' (Smake
and Mirrors 179921), we'll get it in the course of explaining how you want your
spectator to "commit."

Pick up the deck and continue, "... I am going to look away. When I do, take the
same number of cards as the value of the card you are thinking of and put them
into the card box. So, ifyou are thinking ofa three, take three cards and put them
into the box."

Here, spread/count three cards into your right hand.

"If you thought of a ten, you'd take ten cards. Fouq five, six, seven, eight, nine and
ten. Of course, aJackwould be eleven, a Qreen would be twelve, and a King would
be thirteen. And seal them into the card box."

Destination Zero
 3

So here, taking cards from the deck, count the three cards in your right hand up to
ten, pause and then take the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth cards. The cards are in
a loose, unsquared packet. With your left thumb, pin the packet to the top of the
deck, sidejogged to the right. (Photo 1.) With your right hand, re-grip the packet
from above in Biddle grip. (Photo 2.) Now, as you gesture toward the card box,
glimpse the bottom card (do not forget this card; take a second to really remember
it). (Photo 3.) Finally,look directly at your participant and say,'Are you with me?
Do you understand what to do? Perfect." As you speak, casually bring your hands
together and replace the right-hand cards onto the deck. Piece ofcake.

Make sure she understands. Then, hand her the deck, turn away and let her carry
out your instructions. When she is finished, turn back.

So far, she's freely thought of a card. She's committed herself. And you have appar-
ently done nothing to the deck that she shuffied (the demonstration is psycholog-
ically invisible).

Now the fun begins.

fhe Peilormer Commits

Pick up the deck and feign concentration. Then, act like you have reached a con-
clusion. You are going to look through the deck and to remove one card. You must
act like you alreadlt know what card you are looking for.

You can say,'Jessica, you've committed yourself; it's only fair that I commit myself."

John Bannon
Spread quickly through the deck. When you reach your key card, count it as "one"
and continue counting until you reach the last card (that is, the top card ofthe deck).
Subtract that number from thirteen.The difference is the value of the thought-of
card. For example, if you count five cards, then the mental selection must be an
tright.If you dodt see your key card, then the mental selection must be a King.

Once you have determined the value, remove any red mate of that value; I generally
remove the first one I come across. Place it face down onto the table.

Now we will use an extremely subtle way to determine the color of the thought-of
card. After placing the red mate onto the table, look at your participant and say,
"You didnt take a black card, did you?"

This is more of an equivoque than an out-and-out fish. The question itself is more
of a statement and it is ambiguous: Are you stating that she did think of a black
card, or that she didnt? It fits nicely either way. The resolution of the ambiguity-
either way-is strengthened by your apparent prior commitment to a particular
card.

If your participant answers, "No," which means she thought of a red card, say, "I
didn't think so."

If she answers, "Yes," which means she thought of a black card, say, "I thought so."
Either response seems to confirm the quasi-statement you made before. Remem-
ber, you already placed a card onto the table, so the answer cannot affect the out-
come. Everlthing seems very fat.

So now you know whether your participant chose a red or a black mate.

The Cqrd ls Red

If your participant thought of a red card, you are essentially done. She either
thought of the card on the table, or the other red mate that's still in the deck. To
end the trick, we'll employ another insanely great subtlety.

Immediately after saying, "I didnt think so," continue hesitantly, "I've committed;
this card is as close as I could get."

Hand the deck to your participant and ask her to remove the card she is thinking
of. She'll either see her card or she won't.

Destination Zero
If will be a little confused because she will not
she sees her card and removes it, she
expect it to be there. Have her show the card and name it out loud. Strike an imp-
ish grin, and show the tabled mate, saying, "I told you this was as close as I could
get and you can't get any closer than this." Same value and color, you are -r, correct.
The trick here is to create the impression that of courseyott knew what card she was
thinking of, but you removed the mate for dramatic, presentational effect. I first
saw John Carey do this on a video download. However, Raj Madhok added the
truly-inspired "close as I could get" device which completes this powerful, perfect
subtlety.

If she does not see her card, two things are possible. Either you nailed it
and it is
the card on the table, or her thought-ofcard is in the card box. So, ask her for the
name of her thought-of card.

If itis the card on the table (which it will be almost allof the time), perfect.If it's
not, show your tabled card, which is the same color and value, and say, "I told you
this was as close as I could get because the fname the card] is in tbe card box!" Say
this dramatically, as if somehow you knew the identity and location of her card all
along. Not anti-climactic at all, you proved your point by removing the mate which
was, in fact,"as close as you could get."

Al1of these endings are absolutelyfabulous. She thought of a card andyou either
found it directly or had a little fun revealing it-without apparently asking any
questions and without going near the card box. For these purposes, let's call this
the "Hit Or Mate"gambit.

The Cqrd ls Blqck

If your participant thought of a black card, you have only a little acting to do. Re-
member, your participant has no reason to think the tabled card is not a black card
(as youjust apparently correctly stated).

Immediately after saying, "I thought so," continue hesitantly, "IVe committed; this
card is as close as I could get." So far this is identical to the red scenario.

But here comes the acting part. Hand the deck to your participant and ask her to
remove the card she is thinking of. As she reaches for the deck, pull it back, again
hesitandy, as if you are changing your mind. Say, "Wait! I think I might be able to
get a little closer." Pick up the tabled card and insert it back into the deck. Qrickly
run through the deck and remove the first black mate you come across and table it.
Say, "Okay, this rs as close as I could get."

John Bannon
Given the total impossibility of what you are attempting to do-discerning a
thought-of card-this detour is harmless. Remember, you apparently haven't done
anything yet. Also, your participant has no reason to think the tabled card rs not
a black card (as you just apparently correctly stated), and, if they think you have
exchanged a black card for another black card, you are very far ahead ofthe game.

Okay, now a black mate is on the table and you are positioned to end with the "Hit
Or Mate" gambit. Hand the deck to your participant and ask her to remove the
card of which she is thinking.

As before, if she sees her card and removes it, have her show the card and name it
out loud. Then, show the tabled mate, saying "I told you this was as close as I could
get and you can't get any closer than this." Same value and coloq once again, you
are correct.

Again, you want to create the impression that, of course you knew what card she was
thinking of but wanted a little drama.

Similarly, if she does nzt see her card, two things are possible. Either you nailed it
and it is the card on the table, or her thought-ofcard is in the card box. So, ask her
for the name of her thought-of card.

If it is the card on the table, terrific. If it's not, show your tabled card, which is the
same color and value, and say, "I told you this was as close as I could get because the
fname the card] is in the card box!" Say this dramatically, as if somehow you knew
the identity and location of her card all along. Remember,you proved your point by
removing the mate which was, in fact, "as close as you could get."
All of these endings, too, are absolutely fabulous.

AK-47 Contingencies

The above scenarios are what you'll encounter virtually all of the time. However,
because some cards are in the card box there are three rare occurrences that are eas-
ily dealt with, but we need to be prepared for them.In dealing with contingencies,
the explanation can be daunting. Rest assured, there is method to the madness and
things are not nearly as complicated as they may appear. Stick with me.

Destination Zero
Both Red Mqies ln The Box

The first contingency arises when you go to remove a red mate and neither are in
the deck, which means both are in the card box. No problem, remove a black mate
instead and proceed with the "You didrit think of a black card, did you?"equivoque.

Ifyour participant thought ofa black card, perfect! Proceed with the typical black-
card scenario outlined above.

If your participant thought of a red card, a little more acting is required-just a

little. As usual, say, "I didnt think so," and continue hesitantly, "I've committed; this
card is as close as I could get."

Then, hand the deck to your participant and ask her to remove the card she is
thinking of. As she reaches for the deck, pull it back, shake your head and pick up
the tabled card and insert it back into the deck. Qrickly spread through the faces,
and then say to your spectator, "I am having a problem here. Are you thinking of
a Heart?"

Ifshe says, "Yes," say, "Tltat's the problem. The [name the card] of Hearts is in the
card box. You did think of the [name card] of Hearts, didnt you?"

If she says, "No," say, "Zhat's the problem. The [name the card] of Diamonds is in the
card box. You did think of the fname card] of Diamonds, didrit you?"

Let's unpack this a little. You ask if thinking of a Heart and, if she agrees,
she is
everlthing is copacetic. Clearly, you'd have a problem if her thought-of card is not
in the deck. What's more, she confirms the suit and you retort with thefull name of
her thought-of card. Completely unexpected.

If she does not agree, the subtext here is that had she thought of a Heart there
would be no problem, but a Diamond is problematic because her card is in the
card box. Again, she confirms the suit and you come back with thefull nante of her
thought-of card.

Let her remove the cards and confirm that you are correct.

Both Blqck Motes Are ln The Box

This is not a problem if the "You didn't think of a black card, did you?" equivoque
reveals that she is thinking of a red card. What if she thought of a black card, and

John Bannon
you try the "I think I can get a little closer" gambit, but neither of the black mates
is in the deck? We'll resolve this in the same way as when both red mates were in
the box.

As you are spreading through the cards, shake your head and say to your spectator,
"I am having a problem here. Are you thinking of a Spade?"

If she says, "Yes," say, "That's the problem. The fname the card] of Spades is in the
card box. You did think of the [name card] of Spades, didrit you?"

If she says, "No," say, "Zhati the problem. The [name the card] of Clubs is in the card
box. You did think of the fname card] of Clubs, didn't you?"

Look familiar? The rationale is exactly the same as before. Because you are so far
ahead by knowing the value of the card, the amazement factor still is huge.

AII Four Mqles Are ln the Box

Okay, this should neter happen, but it is possible. But even here, you can end
grandly. As you spread through the cards and realize your predicament, look at
your participant and go for the "You didnt pick a black card, did you?" equivoque
and respond appropriately ("I thought so," or, "I didn't think so.").

Now that you know the coloq proceed with the appropriate "I am having a problem
here" gambit.

No problem at all.

Recop
Okay, I hope you have a sense for the flow of this trick. It
really moves well. The
liont share of the method is the key card, which gives you the value of the card
and puts you very far ahead. The other subtleties help smooth out the rest of it.
Virtually all of the time, you simply place a card onto the table and bring the trick
to a successful conclusion. Even in the rare contingency cases, most end as insanely
great as the regular trick.

Destination Zero
POST MORTEM

Key Cord Strotegy

At the 2014 Fechter's Finger Flicking Frolics, I had the opportunity to discuss
this routine with Allan Kronzek himself (we've been running into each other at
that event for many, many years). Allan was intrigued by my embellishments and,
among other things, shared with me his method for obtaining the thirteenth key
card.

After retrieving the spectator-shufled deck, Allan begins aface-up overhand shuf-
fle, with the faces toward his participant. He asks his participant to watch and see
if any of the cards stand out for him, and if they do, he should remember it. If no
particular card stands out, he can think of any card. Of course, this is just a cover
story for the faces-out shuffie-he can think of any card. You'll get your key card
duringthe shufle.

Start the shufle by pulling cards off the face of the deck singly. As you do this,
silently count the cards. You should not be paying any particular attention to the
faces as you shuffie, but when your silent count reaches thirteen, take a look to see
what the thirteenth card is-remember it. Once you've hit the thirteenth card (and
glimpsed it), shuffie offas usual.

At the end of the shuffie, ask your participant if he has a card in mind. If not, let
him think ofany card, any card at all.

Bockground qnd Credits

Allan published his routine tn Genii magazine, but he's been doing it since 2005.
See A. Kronzek, "Think Of One," Genii (Augtst2012) at page 40. Since that time,
there have been "variatiotts," all of which, as far as I knolv, completely missed A1-
lans fundamental point of using the card box to focus attention and, by focusing
attention, to divert it.

Hector Chadwick's Zhe Mental Mysteries Of Hector Chafuoick is a mentalism

neo-classic and a highly sought-after tome. His "commit yourself" gambit is sim-
ple, but so incredlbly useful.

John Carey introduced what I call the "Hit Or Mate" gambit prototype in "Think
And Sync,"/o hn Carey Collection 2 (Yrdeo, Vanishing Inc., 2013). Raj Madhok re-
fined it in ayet unpublished routine.I think Raj's final incarnation of this subtlety

John Bannon
is a thing of beauty. Right up my alley.The equivoque and the "get closer" gambit
added here extend the range to cover all four suits.

fhe "that's the problem" equivoque was born of necessity here to deal with the card
box contingencies. Nevertheless, it may have some future utility.

The 'AK" of course refers to Allan Kronzek, who started me off on this; the "47" is
just for fun. That said,I understand that the actual AK-47 is the world's most pop-
ular assault rifle because it only has a few moving parts and very little can go wrong.

Destination Zero
DEPTH CHARGE
PRECIS

From a shuffied deck, a participant cuts ofrsome cards and counts them to obtain a
random, secret number. A second participant looks at two randomly-selected cards
and, using the value of one and the suit of the other, mentally constructs a playing
card. The deck is reassembled.

The performer acknowledges that one participant is thinking of a number that no

one else could possibly know. The second participant is thinking of a card that no
one else could know and, in fact, no one-not even the participant-has seen.

He hands the deck to the participant that is remembering a card and asks her to
deal cards onto the table. The performer counts them aloud and the first participant
says "stop" when her secret number is reached. After she does, he asks the other
spectator for the name of the mentally-constructed card. The performer asks for
the top card of the deck.It is the mentally-constructed card!

NOS ENCANTA

A fun any-card-at-any-number ('ACAAN") variation. The "any number" is con-

strained by the participant's cut, which is unlikely to be too many or too few, but
is not really any "chosen" number. The performer, however, cannot precisely know
the number (although he could estimate) and could not know in advance the rel-
ative size of the cut. The "any card," as the combination of two apparently random
cards, could conceivably be "any card,"but not in the sense that the participant can
choose "any card."Then, there is the interesting dimension that the "chosen card" is
never actually seen by anyone until the end. So, it's more like "any-randomly-con-
structed-card-at-a-generally-determined-unpredictable-number" ('ARCCAAG-
DUN").It's still fun.

Okay, this version does not strictly meet our "self-working" parameters, but it's
ridiculously easy to do. You'll need to do an overhand "slip" shuffie and a double
undercut would be nice, but not essential. (It had to happen.)

John Bannon
For sticklers, a second handling (which was actually my first one) is as self-working
as it gets and has a nice hands-off aspect to it. In that handling, however, we once
again deploy the dependable Balducci Cut Deeper Force, and I figured that, if you
made it this far, you'd done enough of them. That said, both handlings have merit.

MISE EN SGENE

You only need a four-card setup. Start with any two cards of different values. The
cards only need to be of different suits, so a Heart and a Diamond, for example,
will work fine. Having different colors is a better look, but requires little more
a
mental attention than finding, say, the red Threes and Jacks. Let's use the Nine of
Diamonds and the Three of Clubs. Now; get the two cards with the same values
but the other soit: here, the Three of Diamonds and the Nine of Clubs. Arrange the
pairs so the higher-value card is above the lower-yalue card. All in all:

Nine of Diamonds
Three of Clubs
Nine of Clubs
Three of Diamonds

fhis stack is on the bottom of the deck (Three of Diamonds at the face).

Any Generally Determined, Unpredictable Number ...

Shuffie the deck without disturbing the bottom four cards. A rilfle shufle (ust
rifle past the bottom four or so cards before starting the shulfle), Hindu shuffie or
the Spread/Drop (that was explained way back in Bluff Oracle Aces) work well.

Place the deck in front of Participant A. Ask her to cut off as many cards as she
likes. You should emphasize that it is a free cut and she can cut as many or as few
as she likes. Tell her that after she cuts, she is to place the cards under the table, to
count them and to remember the number.

Instead of having your participant cut off a packet, you could ask her to take a
bunch of cards from the center of the deck while it's spread between your hands or
on the table.

Destination Zero
 1

Any Rondomly Constructed Cqrd ...

After your participant cuts and begins counting her cards, pick up the remainder
and give it a face-up overhand shuffie, running the first four cards singly, and then
shufling off. This moves your stack to the back of the packet. The stack, however,
is in reverse order:

Three of Diamonds (top)

Nine of Clubs
Three of Clubs
Nine of Diamonds

While you make this first shuffie, address Participant B, saying that she has a part
to play as well. There is a back-and-forth blocking between the participants.

You now begin a second face-up overhand shufle, but at the first "chop," take the
face and back cards of the packet. Use your left thumb to drag the face card into
your left hand and your left fingers to drag the back card at the same time. (Photo
1.) This is a "slip shuff.e" and the first part of the "Multiple Slip Force."

Continue the shufle and have your participant stop you by saying, "Stop."When
she does, stop and place the left-hand shufled cards face down onto the table.

With the remaining cards, repeat the slip shuffie a second time and, again, have
your spectator tell you when to stop. As before, place the left-hand shufled cards
face down onto the table.

John Bannon
At this point, on top of the two tabled packets are the Three of Diamonds and the
Nine of Clubs. On top of the remaining cards are the Three of Clubs followed by
the Nine of Diamonds. Note that the lower-valued card-the Three-precedes the
higher-valued one.

Place the remaining cards face down by Participant A. Tell her that when she is
finished counting, she should remember the number, and replace her cards on top
of the remainder packet.

Return your attention to Participant B.Take the top card of each of the two piles
and show them to her.Tell her that she should use the value of one of the cards and
the suit of the other card to mentally construct a third card. Congratulations,you
have just forced either the Three of Clubs or the Nine of Diamonds.

Replace the cards on their respective piles. By now, Participant A has returned her
cards to the pile near her. Reassemble the deck by placing that pile on top of one of
Participant B's piles and then everything onto the last pile.

ACAAN

Okay, now you need to do two things.

First, you need to put some psychological distance between the location of Par-
ticipant As packet and the ending countdown. You don't want your audience to
thinkyou are simply recounting the cards that were cut by Participant A (which, of
course, is exactly what you're going to do). Time misdirection provided by a recap
of events plus some purported mixing by a false cut or two ought to do it. Impor-
tantly, you need to create the perception that you "did something" to bring about
the climax; this is not the kind of trick in which you want to appear to do nothing.
Second, you need to morre the top card to somewhere near the bottom of the deck
(that is, below the rest of the counted packet and forced cards). This will place one
of the forced cards-the Three of Clubs-at Participant As number and the oth-
er-the Nine of Diamonds-directly after it. You can simply begin your "mixing"
by moving the top card to the bottom with a double undercut or moving it to the
lower half with a slip cut. Alternatively, do an abbreviated overhand shuffle, run-
ning one card and tossing the rest of the deck. Follow up with an Ose False Cut.

To conclude, hand the deck to Participant B (having B deal the cards adds some
distance from As cut-offpacket). Ask her to deal cards into a face-down pile. Ask
Participant A to count the cards, and when B has dealt the same number of cards
as her secret number, she should say, "Stop." As B deals, count the cards aloud until

Destination Zero
your participant stops the deal. Verif,, that, until this moment, she was the only one
who could know how many cards would be dealt.

Now ask Participant B to name her mentally-constructed card. The pre-arrange-

ment was set up so the lower-valued card would be on top of the dealt pile and the
higher-valued card would be on top of the deck (that is, the next card). So ...

If she names the lower-valued card-the Three-it's the last card dealt, the card
actually at the secret number. Pick up that card and, after a short build-up, show it.
If she named the higher-valued card-the Nine-it's the next card, the one on toP
of the cards still held by Participant A. Ask her to hand you her top card. Don't ask
her to turn oyer her top card,just to hand it to you.The subtlety oftaking the next
card works best here, I think, if you do not highlight or explain it. Again, after a
short build up, show the mentally-constructed card.

POST MORTEM

Deplh Chorge Beto

The first, self-working version of this trick used the Balducci Force. Start with your
value/suit pairs on top. For example:

Three of Diamonds (top)

Nine of Clubs
Three of Clubs
Nine of Diamonds

You know the dril1. Place the deck in front of your participant and ask her to cut
less than half the deck, to turn over the packet and to put it back on top of the
deck. Now ask her to cut more than half the deck, to turn over the packet and to
put it back.

Now; have your participant take the face-up cards under the table and count them.
Look away as she does this. While she is counting, have a second participant take
the top two cards of the remainder. Tell her that she should use the value of one of
the cards and the suit of the other card to mentally construct a third card.

When the first participant has obtained her secret number, have her replace her
cards on top of the deck. Presto. Now cut the top card to the bottom and you are
done. Finish as described above.

John Bannon
This handling is efficient and has a nice "hands-off" aspect to it; you don't touch
the deck until you must "do something" to bring about the effect. That said, I felt
that the spreading offof the face-up cards in order to count them was too awkward
and started working on a non-Balducci way of achieving the necessary forces and
posltlons.

Bockground qnd Credits

This trick was initially inspired by two tricks. The first was John Gelasi's "Yes we
CAAN' Qust Cards, l/o/. 1 le-book 2011]). That routine had the interesting con-
cept ofusing the Balducci Force (i) to obtain a random block offace-up cards that
could be counted to obtain a secret number and (ii) to position a selected card at
that number (by replacing the counted packet). The second was Raphael Czafs
'Acocovan" (e-book 2010). Using a substantial stack, the trick employed Balducci
mechanics to have a suit and a value selected and used to construct a third, t^rget
card, which was found at a selected number.

You can see how combining the Gelasi placement strategy with the Czaja card
construction approach and using the single Balducci to both force the placement
and the necessary cards led to the "beta"version. Deconstructing the beta and add-
ing the Slip Shuffie Multiple Force, in turn,led to "Depth Charge."

Of course, the notion of using a cut-and-counted packet to obtain a "secret num-

ber" as well as effect a placement of a particular target card is quite well-known. I
first saw it in Johnny Benzais''A Counting Trick," rn Zhe Best of Benzais (Harnes
1,e67).

Finally,I had been told that the Multiple Slip Force (my name for it) was a Marlo
idea, who used it to produce the Aces. While I have not found any better reference
than that, an exact Marlo citation has proved elusive. I have used the procedure in
a few tricks and have found it to be completely deceptive. (See, for example,'Aces
Over Easy," High Caliber fSquash,2013].)

Destination Zero
BANCO
PRECIS

The performer displays a stack of envelopes. He ofrers to give a participant the

chance to win "over a million dollars." "No,really, over a million dollars."The catch
is that the participant must pay one dollar to play.

Pocketing the dollar, the performer explains that he has eight envelopes. Through a
series offair choices, the participant chooses four envelopes for herselfand four for
the performer. The performer explains that four of the envelopes have real money
in them and four do not. The participant may have already won "more than a mil-
lion dollars."

The participant opens her envelopes and checks the contents. None contain mon-
ey; each is empty.

The performer notes that the participant must have given him all of the money and
offers the participant another chance. The participant selects one of the remaining
envelopes, leaving the performer with three.

The performer reminds the participant that she had a chance to win more than a
million dollars. He opens one of his envelopes and inside is a real bill in the amount
of 500,000,000 dinara (five hundred million Serbian Dinara).

His second envelope has a real bill in the amount of 50,000,000,000 (fifry billion
Yugoslavian Dinars).

His third envelope contains a real bill in the amount of one hundred trillion dol-
lars ($100,000,000,000,000). He remarks that he promised an opportunin.to u'in
more than a million dollars and notes that this bill is way more than that. The bill
is genuine Zimbabwean currency, denominatedin dollars.

The participant now opens her envelope and finds inside a single one dol1ar bi11.
The performer observes that, at least, she got her dollar back.

John Bannon
NOS ENCANTA

There is a lot to like about this routine.

First, it's self-working, following a yery deceptive selection process developed by

Bill Simon. ("The Four Qg,eens," Mathematical Card Magic [1964]).This procedure
was very popular in the mid-eighties. The Simon procedure was also the core of
Dave Solomon's insanely popular, "Power Of Poker." (J. Bannon, Dear Mr. Fantasy
[2005] at page 190.)

Second, with a very few exceptions, most "Bank Night" presentations are uninter-
esting or seem inevitable. (Notable exceptions include Stephen Batgatze's "I Hate
Kids," andJohn Archer's "Blank Night.")

The "more than a million dollars" hook, performed earnestly, has an "almost-plausi-
ble" aspect to it. Participants carit bring themselves to believe you'd risk that kind of
money (falsely assuming US currency), but have to acknowledge your claim. And,
of course, the Zimbabwe dollars resolve the credibility issue in a nice way.

I also think the two-part construction adds some depth to the overall plot. The
participant's first four envelopes are empry or can have whatever you want in them.
E-pT seems the least cluttered way to go. The second phase changes the method
and provides the payoft'. I find the genuine, very high denomination "inflatiori'cur-
rency fascinating and even amusing, the one hundred trillian dollar bill especially
so.

(In the post mortem, we can talk about other, less intricate presentations.)

Finally, making the participant pay to play and having her win her dollar back (in
the face of the mega-cr.rre.cy) adds a nice closure to the whole routine.

MISE EN SCENE

Beginning
There is a one-time preparation. You will need:

Eight security envelopes. Mine are black.

One dollar bill.

Destination Zero
 1

Three pieces of high-denomination "inflation" currency (for example,

500,000,000 Serbian Dinara, 10,000,000,000 Yugoslavian Dinars and
100,000,000,000,000 Zimbabwe Dollars). Zrmbabwean currency is the eas-
iest to find, and is conyeniently denominated in "dollars"; there are others.
You can find them from online dealers and/or eBay.

Leave four of the envelopes empry. In one of the other envelopes, place the dol1ar
bill.

The high-denomination bills go in the remaining three envelopes. (Photo 1.) I like
to mark these envelopes so I can open them to display the bills in ascending order
(ending with the one hundred trillion dollar note). With black envelopes, a black
pen dot works great. I mark a corner on the flap side of the envelope: one with a
dot, one with two dots and the third with a dash.

Among the "currency" envelopes, you can tell which one has which bill-the un-
marked envelope has the dollar in it.

Place the empty envelopes on top of the "currency" envelopes, flap-side down. Each
group can be in any order.

Stqrt
Ask a participant for a dollar bill.

Once you have it, introduce the envelopes and explain that you and your partic-
ipant will play a game and she will have the chance to win "more than a million

John Bannon
dollars."This likelywill be met with some skepticism. So, get serious on them. "No.
Really. Over a million dollars."

Finally, explain that it costs a dollar to play and pocket your spectator's bill.

Round One: Simon Sixty-Four

Through fair-looking choices, your participant will divide the enve-

a series of very
lopes into two groups. But, she will get all empty envelopes, you will get all of the
currency envelopes, as follows:

Holding the stack of envelopes in your left hand, deal two envelopes side-by-side
onto the table. Ask your participant to point to the envelope she wants to keep.
Push the chosen envelope toward your participant. Drop the stack of envelopes on
the other envelope.

Pick up the envelope stack and repeat the selection procedure: Deal two. Partici-
pant points to one. Chosen envelope pushed toward participant. Non-chosen en-
velope "discarded"by dropping the stack onto it.

Your participant has two envelopes so far; you have none. So this time the process
is used to let your participant choose one of the envelopes for you. Deal two more
onto the table. Ask her to point to the one she wants you to have. Slide the chosen
envelope toward yourself, dropping the stack onto the discarded envelope.

Repeat this process to have your participant choose a second envelope for you.You
each now have two envelopes.

Deal two more envelopes and allow the participant to choose one for herself re-
peating the process. Next, repeat and have her select an envelope for you. Drop the
last envelope on top ofthe non-selected envelope. You each have three envelopes.

There are two envelopes left. Because you dropped the last envelope on top ofthe
tabled one, the uppermost envelope is an empty envelope and the lower a currency
envelope.

Place the last two envelopes side by side, noting which is which. You now need
to force the empty envelope by equivoque. Say something like, "I need one more
envelope. Point to one."

If she points to the currency envelope, act like she was choosing one for you. "OK,

Destination Zero
I'11 take that one." This resolves the ambiguity nicely since you just said that you
needed another envelope.

If she points to the empry envelope, act like she was choosing one for herself and
leaving one for you. Slide the other envelope toward yourself. "OK, you can have
that one and I'11 take the last one."

This has been Bill Simon's procedure from his seminal "The Four Qreens" from
his L964book, Mathematical Magic. Colm Mulcahy in his April 2006 internet col-
umn on mathematical card tricks named the procedure the "Sixty-Four Principle."
Apparently, he chose this title because, mathematically, the choices could result in
sixty-four different outcomes. But things are not exactly as they seem.

The trick is not about the illusion of choice, but the illusion of outcome. While
all choices are fair, none of them matter. When your participant chooses for her-
self, she is choosing from two empty envelopes. When she chooses for you, she is
choosing between tvso currency envelopes. fhe discarded envelopes are recycled
and return in pairs to offer the same free choice and illusory outcome. When you
are down to one of each, the outcome is controlled by equivoque.

Now that each of you has four envelopes-every choice made by your partici-
pant-explain that four of the envelopes have money in them and four do not.
Have your participant open each of her envelopes and see what she has "won." Of
course, all she gets are your condolences.

Round Two: Money Money Money

Draw the obvious conclusion that you participant must have given you the four
envelopes with money in them. Sympathetically, offer her one more chance.

There are two ways to go here: either another equivoque or a mechanical procedure
that looks quasi-random. In either case, pick up your envelopes and mix them a
little. Look at the marks and identi$, the unmarked envelope with the dollar in it.

Quqsi-Rqndom

The easiest way is to cut the unmarked envelope to the top of the stack. State that
you will give her one "at random." Do a "duck and deal" with the stack. In other
words, move the top envelope to the bottom and deal the next onto the table. Then,
move the next card to the bottom, and deal the next onto the table. One more duck

John Bannon
and deal and you are left with one envelope. This process is rigidly mathematical
and certain, but does not appear so. Hand the last envelope to your participant, but
caution her not to open it.

Equivoque

The other way is to offer another magician's choice, even easier that the one in "IJl-
terior," because there are only four envelopes. Place the remaining envelopes in two
rows of two envelopes on the table, noting the location of the unmarked envelope.
Without elaborating, ask your participant to point to a row.

If she points to the row that does not contain the unmarked envelope, scoop up the
row and place the envelopes aside. She apparently chose the row to be discarded.
You do not need to explain this to her.

Ifshe points to the row with the unmarked envelope, do the same thing: Scoop up
the other row and place the envelopes aside. In this scenario, she apparently chose
which row to keep.With either option, the plan is perfectly obvious and does not
need to be explained or justified.

Howeveq for the second equivoque, you can't use the instruction "point" because
you've akeady established what it means, and you can't use the "lift one finger" in-
struction, because you did that in the first phase, so you must change gears and do
something different.

Fortunately, only two envelopes remain in play-one is unmarked with the dol-
lar in it. Ask her to pick up one of the envelopes. If she picks up the unmarked
envelope, gather up the tabled envelope. If she leaves the unmarked envelope on
the table, take the one she picked up and place it with the first two. This is a fairly
standard equivoque.

In any event, she is left with the unmarked envelope containing the dollar. Have
her take it, but caution her not to open it yet.

Finol Show And Tell

Remark that with her one envelope she has definitely won some money and "a1-
ready may have won over a million dollars."

But first, let's see what she could have won. Using the marks, open the envelope

Destination Zero
with the lowest denomination first (only 500 hundred million Dinara). The genu-
ineness of the bill and its high denomination should generate some interest.

Open the next envelope (only 500 billion). Peek inside the last envelope and re-
mind your spectator that she could have won "over a million dollars." Announce
that inside this last envelope is one hundred trillion dollars. No one will believe
you. Remove the Zimbabwean bill and show it around.

Say that you are sorry that she did not win the 100 trillion dollars, but she must
have won some money. Have her open her envelope to find the one dollar bill.
"Well, at least you won your dollar back."

POST MORTEM

Bqck And Forth

Bill Simons procedure has stood the test of time. Once its application in "Power of
Poker"went viral, however, dozens of "variations" started popping up. Most of them
concerned the 2-2-1,-7 dealing pattern and altered the pattern to a more familiar
back-and-forth pattern. In every case, the variations usually added a move (like a
second or bottom deal) to a perfectly good self-working trick. I don't see the need
to change anything. The procedure is deceptive and self-working as it is.

Bonco Lotio
Some may have a hard time finding the requisite inflation currency (years from now,
as it becomes collectible, it may be impossible). For others, it won't be worth the
effort. Here is a practrcally effortless version that can be cobbled together quickly
While not as interesting or unusual as using inflation currency, the structure and
payoff are the same.

Instead of using inflation currency, use instant "scratch-off" lottery tickets. Use
three different styles (there are dozens of different "games" and they are sold ev-
eryrvhere). Beside the relative ease of assembly, each game has a different theme
and a different opportunity to make a topical remark or joke. In addition, you can
follow through on a claim that your spectator "has a chance to win over $100,000."
Actually, it's a chance to win a chance to u.tin $100,000. Of course, there's no chance
at all. But, we knew that.

Buy three lottery tickets and a packet ofsecurity envelopes and you are good to go.

John Bannon
Bockground ond Credits
Kudos to Bill Simon, of course. Now, I am not the first to use the Simon proce-
dure (or even the expanded "Power Of Poker" procedure) with envelopes. I recall
the estimable R. Paul Wilson showing me a trick with envelopes and his "Power
of Poker" variant at Blackpool circa 2070. Joe McKay beat me to print with his
straightforward application of the Simon procedure in a "Bank Night" routine:
"B ank on 6 4th Str eet," MAGIC (Augus t 20 1.3), p ages 6 6 - 67 . I n the M cKay routine,
the participant ended with the four empty envelopes and the performer had all the
money. Kudos to Mr. McKay.If nothing else,I was highly motivated to reduce this
trick to practice.

The thing about Bank Night is that the participant is more-or-less certain that they
are going to lose, almost from the very beginning. They will not be surprised that
they did not win, so you have to surprise them with how they lose.ln other words,
there must be some unexpected aspects to the plot. Here, there are a few that I
think make the trick worth doing.

At the end of round one, your participant has all the empry envelopes. This is not
surprising conceptually, but given the apparent freedom of choice, very puzzltng,
especially when you represent that four of the envelopes have something in them-
obviously, the four she "chose" for you. So, when you offer her a second chance, she
is promised that she ui// zoin something and has another chance at winning some
outlandish amount of money. NorLL rt's really interesting.

Then, after she's "decided" on her envelope, you show the contents of the enve-
lopes she left for you. You make good on whatever unbelievable claim you've been
touting all along in a satis$zing coherent way: You weren't kidding, she really had a
chance to win 1,00 trillion dollars. Finally, when the spectator wins her dollar back
you have closure. She doesn't win, but doesn't lose anything either. You've travelled
full circle and hopefully it was a good trip.

Destination Zero
FINISH
Okay, we've reached the end of our self-working card trick journey. I hope you
enjoyed the ride, the discourse, and maybe even some of the tricks.

I promised tricks with na moves and I think I delivered. We did talk about some
"moyes" along the way. It's always a good idea to have a broad repertoire of sleights
and subtleties at the ready; it's virtually always a good idea to mlx things up in
a single set. If you are new to card magic, things like a Hindu shuffie, a break, a
double undercut and the Touch Force are all very handy (and easy) things to know.
And we talked about the "fun stuff." If nothing else, you know a little more about
how I approach the design, construction and performance of card tricks. You may
agree or disagree with me, but hopefully you had to think about it . . . at least a little.

What does la cosa nostra ("our thing") called "magic" do best? Evoke wonder? I
dont think so. Create unsolvable ptzzles? No, that's not it either. It's not about
wonder or, at the other extreme,puzzles. What "magic" does best is to challenge
our complacency.Magic is unexpected. Magic breaks the rules. Magic shows us that
we just don't know what we think we know.

People who arent aficionados of detective fiction may think the genre is all about
the puzzle-you know, whodunit? But that's only part of the fun. The real chal-
lenge involves conventions and rules for disclosing the mystery and to what extent
the author is discarding the conoentions and breaking the ru/es. fhe characters are
playr"g as much to the reader as to each other.What if you cant believe that the
narrator-who is your only portal into the story-is always telling you the accurate
truth? Now what?

Sounds like cheating.

But what if after few chapters you begin to suspect that the narrator has his ot'n
a
agenda? And what if halfivay through, you conclude that the narrator must be
deliberately misrepresenting what has occurred? Well, you are on notice; \.ou musr
take this misleading aspect into account.

John Bannon
Sounds like fun. Strange, but fun.

It's all about spectator judo. If I present a challenge, I want my participants con-
vinced they understand the challenge only to discover that I really was after some-
thing different. I want them to think theyve caught up with me and understand
what's going on, and then turn the tables on them. Participants are prepared to
accept "sleight of hand"where fast hands do things they dont see or detect. On the
other hand, they dont expect me to out-and-out lie to them. I want to show them,
and I want them to understand, the depth of the deception-gently at first, but
then, well, now they are on notice.

We have arrived at Destination Zero,but not the.fnal destination . ..

Destination Zero
ONWARD ...
There are other self-working card adventures out there. I have always had a pen-
chant for this sub-genre of card magic. The following is a list of some tricks that are
self-working (or nearly so), and the books in which they appear.

Play It Straight
lmpossibilio (ilW aThe Bannon Tiiumph)

Smoke And Mirrors Timely Departure

Beyond Fabulous
Dead Reckoning
Degrees Of Freedom
Deqr Mr. Fontosy Perfect Strangers
Tiait Secrets
Power Of Poker

Duplicity
Riverboat Poker
51 Fat Chances
Poker Pairadox Redux
High Cqliber Chronic
Ion Man
Power Of Poker (reprinted)
The Bannon Tiiumph (revised)
Origami Prediction

John Bannon
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