The Lazy Magician

Intro
This is a gem, and an all time favourite of mine
I have performed the lazy magician for years and years and it never fails to
generate great response. The trick is suitable for table-magic, but you can
perform it as easily stand-up for larger groups.
In fact, the lazy magician is a sucker-effect: people think that the magician
fails, but at least he appears to be the winner!

Props and set-up

You need a deck of cards, that’s all. There is no set-up.

Performance
Ask a spectator to change places
with you: he comes behind your
table and you take his chair! Tell
him that you want to perform a
trick called the lazy magician.
That’s why you are sitting, while
he has to play the role of the ma-
gician at the close-up table.

the deck of cards and after he has photo 1

-
ly equal heaps and place them on
the table in a row, photo 1. Now
you continue: ‘take one of the
heaps, look at the cards and re-
member one of them, okay? Now

then take the heap in your left

hand face-down and turn the cards
one by one face-up on the table
but…remember at which number
your card is located in the heap!’

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Leave your chair for a moment and go to the table to demonstrate (with no
cards in your hands) what he is supposed to do. The spectator starts turning
the cards face-up on the table and (attention, this is important, remember

anything’ and you go back to your seat. De spectator counts aloud while
turning the cards one by one face-up on the table and he remembers the
number at which the selected card is located.

place two other heaps on top of your heap and put the other two heaps at
the bottom. So he ends with a complete deck of cards face down on the ta-
ble.
Leave your chair, walk to the table and while walking you recite loud en
clearly everything that has happened: You You
You have chosen completely free a card out of a heap that
You have selected and You are the only one who knows at which number
Your card is located.
Take the cards and go through the deck from the left to the right, until you

table by the spectator) Go only one card further and there you keep a break
between the two parts of the deck. Hand one part to the spectator and keep
the part with the keycard yourself.
Ask the spectator: ‘at what num-
ber was your card located?’ After
his answer you count that number
of cards one by one on the table.
This leaves the chosen card on top
and now it’s very easy to palm off
that card, photo 2, while you put
the heap back on the table.
Instruct the spectator to count the
cards from his heap one by one
photo 2
on the table until he arrives at the
actual number. In the meanwhile
you return to your chair and you
drop the card under your bottom.
When the spectator arrives at his
number you say ‘here you are!’ His
reaction will undoubtedly be: ‘but
this is not my card’, through which
you can reply: ‘did I say that?’
Immediately you ask him: ‘but

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what card did you really select?’
And while asking this you raise
your arms in the air. The spectator
names the selected card and you
say: ‘okay, the four of clubs, but
I told you this trick is called the
lazy magician. I did nothing, You
did everything. You
cards, You made the heaps, You
have selected a card…and I did
nothing…!
At that moment you come out of
your chair, you take it at the arm
rests, photo 3, and you go with it
to the spectator: ON THE SEAT IS
HIS CARD!!!

Two important tips

Be sure that you have a cer- photo 3
tain distance between the chair
and the table, through which it
is necessary to stand up when
you put a heap on the table or
throw the card on the chair.
Immediately after the spectator

heap (your keycard) you say:

‘I won’t see anything’ and you
leave the spectator alone at
the table and you walk back to
the chair. This improves the im-
pact of the lazy magician very
strongly!

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