Daniel Young's

-Polaroid Memories-

M.D.M.A.
Polaroid Memories
M.D.M.A.

Welcome, here's another release from me. As usual, and not surprisingly, I hope
you like it. What started out as my Memoria (from my previous ebook) and my
good friend, Matthew’s Snap Shot, has now been combined. We thought that in
doing that it would be an interesting idea or trick. There are already several other
pseudo memorised deck routines out there in the ether, this one differs in the
sense that it's very flexible, and you have several options that will suit any given
performance situations. You can work it in your act, or on the spur of the
moment with a borrowed deck etc. From the basic concept several versions
sprung out.

It has now gone from a quick demonstration of memory to a full-blown

performance piece. M.D.M.A., by the way, stands for Memorised Deck Multiple
Alternatives, and has NO drug connotations... really. Seriously, though, here you
will be given a set of modules/alternatives that you can combine any which way
you want to to create the perfect routine for you and the circumstances you
perform in.

Sincerely,
Daniel Young
Contents
These are some of the modules/variations explained.

Memoria (original)
Tell the position of any named card in the deck.

Snapshot (original)
Tell what card has been removed from the deck using “photographic memory”.

Polaroid Memories
A combined routine consisting of Memoria and SnapShot.

Thoughts In Amber
Is like Polaroid Memories, but the advanced version. It's very hands off and very
clean. Albeit slightly more complex to learn.

The Shuffle
An additional phase where the performer determines the amount of cards
shuffled face p in to a face down deck.
Kickers
Date kicker and phone number. Can be used with either of the original version
and with the combined versions.

ACAAN ending
A spectator is apparently using his/her photographic memory to find a card as
well.
MEMORIA
This is a simulation of super memory, where you appear to memorise a
previously shuffled pack.

Effect
This is what it looks like to the audience: Someone shuffles the pack; you
let them peek at one card and shuffle it again. The deck is then spread face
up on the table. You engage in the memorization process, and after a few
moments you claim that you’ve memorised the whole deck. You gather up
the cards and turn them face up, and then you ask them to name their
card. You straightaway say that’s twenty-three cards down. They count
down to twenty-three and deal that card out on the table. “If I remember
correctly, the card here should be two of spades (turning over the 22 nd
card). And the card that hasn’t been dealt yet is the jack of hearts”, both
proves to be correct.

“And your card was ten of clubs, right? Turn it over…” And of course it’s
their card.

Method
The method is simplicity itself. You simply peek at the top or bottom card
and force that card. Any force will do. Afterwards have them shuffle the
deck once more. Now all you do is ribbon spread the cards and count down
the force card and remember its position. And if you want to get fancy,
and I think you should, you remember the card before and after the force
card. Square up the deck and give it to the spectator. Ask him to name his
card and straight away say twenty-three cards down (you obviously name
the position you counted to). Ask him to count down the cards in a face
down pile on the table. You slide out the card at the right position and
then name the card before and after.

It’s a powerful effect and with the right kind of showmanship it’s really
believable too. Just don’t make the memorization process too quick. That
won’t ring true, as opposed to seem like you’re genuinely doing it. Even
ask everybody to be quiet and let 10 seconds pass; it will feel like a long
time because of the silence. I’ve found that between ten and fifteen
seconds is theatrically sound length of silence.
I wanted to add that you could do a standard peek of the card. Where you
riffle through the cards with the faces towards the spectator and ask him
to say stop anywhere he likes. He does so and peeks at and remembers the
card he stopped at. You apparently close the deck, but in reality you keep a
little finger break. If you let the top half be pushed by the little finger it
will out jog to the left. And if you turn your hand over, you can now see
the index corner of the peeked at card.

So just peek at it and hand the deck back, proceed as normal. I’ve found
this to be my preferred method. It’s something nice when they don’t
actually pick a card, as that will be remembered as her just naming any
card. As I pointed out; it’s very important that it seems genuine, so don’t
do it in two seconds. I sometimes take as much as twenty seconds to do it.
People are not willing to buy into everything you say, it has to ring true.
SNAPSHOT

Effect
“Has anybody heard of photographic memory”, says the mentalist, “it’s the ability
to retain images in the mind much like a photograph. So for example I could
study a book or magazine for a minimal amount of time, and hours later I could
still tell you the contents of any page. I’d like to demonstrate something along
those lines with a pack of cards. The reason I use a pack of cards is because they
represent 52 different easily identifiable items.” The mentalist spreads a deck of
cards face up on the table. “These items can be rearranged into any order you
like.” The mentalist mixes the cards up as he gathers them up. The cards are
offered to a comrade and further mixing of the cards is requested.

“There’s no way now I can know the order of the cards” The cards are spread face
down on the table. The comrade is asked to select any card and hide it from view
with his hand. “Here’s the interesting bit, I’ve been trying to develop a
photographic memory. So far I can remember the exact order of a pack of cards
in ten seconds. If there are only 51 cards I should be able to do it slightly quicker.
I’m going to spread the cards face up and I’d like you to count loudly to ten.” The
mentalist spreads the cards face up and looks through the cards. When the
comrade reaches the count of seven, the mentalist gathers the pack and turns it
face down on the table. He stares directly in the comrades eyes, sits back in his
chair and begins…

“I saw 26 red cards and 25 black cards, that means that your card was black. Of
the black cards 13 were clubs and 12 were spades, so that means it was a spade.
All picture cards were there, plus the ace, I saw the four, the nine, the eight, the
three, the five, the ten, the seven, the six. So it has to be the two of spades… turn it
over!” The comrade does and the two of spades is revealed, the mentalist remains
the genius he always was.

Method
A marked deck. Ok, there’s a bit more than that, but not much. When the cards
are spread for selection, you asked the comrade to touch the back of any card. As
soon as he does, you push the card forward and spot the marking on the back of
the card. The reason you ask him to cover it is to throw off any nosy magicians
that might be onto you. The rest is all presentation, but a bloody good one.
POLAROID MEMORIES
The only difference here really is a small one, we don’t spread the cards on the
table, and instead we count them onto the table. The deck is being held face down
in your left hand, and the cards are turned over and counted in a pile, or
alternatively counting from the face of the pack and that card being number one
and so on. This is simply for ease of counting, as counting from a spread as in the
original Memoria can be a bit tricky and take a long time. Whilst that is fine in
Memoria, it’s detracting from the effect of Snap Shot, because the cards are
spread on the for too long and who knows what you could’ve been doing then.

Phases
Let someone shuffle your deck and take out a card unseen and spot the markings
on the back.
Have a card peeked at and you obviously peek it in the process.
Have someone shuffle the deck again.
You count through the cards, whilst apparently memorizing the order. In actual
fact, all you’re doing is counting to the card you peeked at, when you come to the
number simply stop counting and deal through the rest of the deck. Remember
that number.
They name the card they are thinking of.
You count down to it, reveal the two cards next to it, if you’re doing that bit.
Now go into the Snap Shot presentation of the trick.

Notes
There was some discussion whether or not it’s more powerful to do the Snap Shot
or Memoria last in the effect. I was wrong, I was partial… I invented Memoria, I
wanted it to be the finale. “I can see clearly now the rain is gone…” Memoria
involves counting and a deck, it’s quite obviously weaker than doing something
completely verbally, you can get more animated and build the drama more.

It should also be noted that a force can substitute the marked deck if you don’t
have one handy. Also means you can do this with anyone’s deck. Bear in mind
that it’s not as clean, but hey… whatever rocks your boat.
MEMORIES IN AMBER
This is where it’s getting complicated, but also very, very interesting. Imagine
having someone shuffling a deck of cards, you do not have to touch the cards at
all whilst one has been put aside sight unseen AND randomly chosen. No peeks.
No forces. No marked cards! Let me write the fun part of an imaginary ad copy
for it…

You borrow a deck from a kind stranger. He cuts the deck and remembers a card.
Another spectator selects a card at random from the deck and places it aside sight
unseen. The deck is shuffled again. The magician has not touched the cards AT
ALL during this procedure. The cards are then counted through and memorised.
The magician can tell where exactly the second spectator’s card is located in the
pack. THEN he can tell exactly which card is missing!

Borrowed Deck of cards!

Shuffled by the spectator!
No marked cards!
No forces!
No peeks!
The magician doesn’t touch the card at all during the selection process!

Method:
First off, let me scare the feeble minded away: You need a memorised deck. No, Si
Stebbins just ain’t gonna cut it, man. A proper memorised stack, of the likes such
as Mnemonica or Aronson’s Stack. If you don’t know either of those stacks, and
don’t want to buy the books, then take a full deck without jokers, shuffle it, and
marked the cards on the back from 1-52. Now, memorise them… just like every
other good mentalist and cardician has.

You also need a Shaxon Flapless Envelope, or just a standard Flapless Envelope. I
won’t describe the makings of it here, as I think that you should know it or at
least seek it out for yourself.

Take the bottom card of your stack, in my case that would be Nine of Diamonds
and place the remainder of the stacked deck, without the box, into your left side
jacket pocket (with the faces facing outwards). Take the card you removed (nine
of diamonds) and stick it into the Shaxon Envelope, the envelope with the flaps.
Put the flapless envelope on top and insert the flap into it. Place these envelopes
on a bigger stack, which you should keep in your right side jacket pocket. The
reason you take the bottom card of your stack is simply so that the stack order
isn’t disturbed at any point.

Now you need a matching deck of cards, which will remain un-stacked and un-
gimmicked.
Have it shuffled.
Ask someone to cut off a portion of the deck and look at the card they cut to and
then replace the cards. You can also skip this phase and just have them naming a
card later in the routine. Although I like having the selection made.
This is a matter of preference, but you can have the deck shuffled again if you
want to.
Have someone take a card out of the deck sight unseen and gather up the cards
in your left hand. Dip into both your jacket pockets as if looking for the
envelopes; your right hand just grabs the envelopes. Your left hand, however, is
switching the decks in the pocket. So you come out with the stacked deck and the
envelopes. Have the spectator slide his card into the envelope and keep a hold of
the envelope for now. Obviously executing the “moves” necessary for using a
Shaxon flapless envelope.

Now you’re all set. Deal through the cards without altering the order and
“memorise” them… Turning each card face up as you count it to the table.

Once you’re done “memorizing” them, just hand them to a kindly kind of
spectator. The person who looked at a card previously reveals the identity of his
selection. You proceed to simply name the corresponding number in your stack.

And the finale is just a simple matter of presenting Snapshot; “I could see 26
black cards…” etc.

Oh yeah… if you want to borrow a deck of cards for this trick you just need to
make sure they are the same as the ones in your pocket. Think magicians. Think
red bikes.
THE SHUFFLE
If you have a memorised deck anyway, such as Mnemonica or the Aronson Stack
you can add a phase into the routine. Personally I prefer it in the beginning as it
not as strong as the other phases. What you ask some person present to do is to
cut the deck wherever they want to. Then turn the cut off portion face up and
shuffle it in to the remainder of the deck. All this is done whilst your back is
turned. All you need to do upon turning around is to quickly spread the deck in a
ribbon spread fashion and spot the top face up card. Which will tell you how
many cards they turned over, by simply remembering the number that the face
up card normally holds.

So spread quickly and then gather them up. Claim that with your photgraphic
memory you could quickly calculate how many cards were face up. Name the
number and later reveal just how correct you were. The reset should be obious to
you, just remove the cards in correct order and place them back on top of the
deck again. This phase is good in the sense that the cards seemingly get shuffled,
and are being handled in such a way that no one would think that you're using a
stack.
KICKERS
I would like to add some bonus ideas that I think works well in this routine. The
main thing here is the kicker. I normally present either Memoria or Snapshot,
sometimes I do the combined version, Polaroid Memories, and add this kicker.

Let’s say you’re doing Snapshot, and you say that you saw 26 black cards and only
25 red and so forth and so on. As you’re doing it you are dealing the face down
cards into a pile on the table and every now and again you put one card to the
side, sight unseen. You reveal which card they had chosen. NOW comes the
kicker, you turn over the cards you dealt to the table, the ones you were placing
aside, and they reveal today’s date!

It just a simple matter of having cards that will make up today’s date in a stack on
the bottom of the deck and later bottom dealing every so often as you’re pattering
on about how many black or red cards you’ve seen. I suggest developing a system
for this, because otherwise it will get confusing as to how many cards you need to
deal out, and if you’re going to start counting them you’re going to lose yourself.
I suggest that you deal off cards regularly as you patter, and every time you make
a statement regarding what you have and haven’t seen you bottom deal one off to
the side.

If you’re presenting this fact as amazing card counting skills, gambling technique
and whatnot, you can instead of having today’s date have four aces.

It should be noted that this stack, whether corresponding to a date or being the
four aces, can be copped and the deck can then be shuffled and you just add the
cards back on the bottom when you get the cards back.

One version that gets a fantastic reaction, but is somewhat tricky to do, is to have
cards to match someone’s phone number. You obviously need the number
already, so if you’re performing for friends it could be a good idea, or if you’re
performing elsewhere you can simply ask a friend of the person you have in
mind for the trick, what their number is.
ANY END

As a finish to the whole routine you can add a final kicker or phase, namely
where the spectator apprently does the same thing as you have just done. You
shuffle the cards, and then ribbon spread them on the table for the spectatior to
see. Ask him, not to actively try to memorise them, but to merely glance over the
cards in front of him. Then YOU name a card, and he tells you which position it
holds in the deck. Count down and reveal he was correct.

Basically all you do here is my Any Card At Any Number effect, that I have
published previously. I will add it here as well for your benefit. Basically, all you
need to do is to remember the top card, and name that as the random card. Ask
them to deal down any number of cards in your hand and you do a bottom deal
to reveal that they were correct. Normally I slightly hide the top card as I spread
the deck, just in case they would remember the top card for some reason.
Apparently, though, the spectator has used his photographic memory.
ANY
Here’s my version of the classic plot Any Card at Any Number, since there has
been a recent fascination concerning this effect,
Most presentations of this effect are “coincidence” effects, something I do not like.
It can be charming at times when you perform for couples, though, talk about the
coincidence that they even met etc. But here’s a presentation I’ve been using, and
it’s quite nice.

Effect:
“As you know we have a conscious and a subconscious mind, and it’s in our
subconscious mind really strange things occur. Many people can, and I’m one of
them, go to bed at any time and wake up by themselves at a specific time, give or
take 5-10 minutes. So if I need to get up at 7.00, no matter when I go to bed, WILL
wake up close to seven. So subconsciously I keep track of the time, which is very
amazing. I seriously doubt I could sit with my eyes closed and consciously count
to 8 hours and 43 minutes.

Is there anyone here who have noticed the same kind of phenomenon in here?
Great, why don’t you help me out (her name is Anna). And you sir, why don’t you
help out as well (his name is Tom). Tom would you shuffle these cards for me
please, it’s not that I’m lazy I just want everyone to know this is a fair game. I will
flick the cards like this (riffling through the cards), and you just call out stop at
any time, ok? Anna, whilst I’m doing this will you please close your eyes and just
listen to the sound of the cards? Great, let’s do this. Ok, you said stop there, will
you remember that card for me? Good. Anna, open your eyes please. Can you
honestly tell me how many cards that was? Didn’t think so, but don’t worry about
it. Just relax, and let your subconscious work out what number it heard and then
subtract it from 52, then we should get to the exact card. 34 you say? Ok, let’s see,
why don’t you deal down 34 cards into my hand… So Tom, what was your card?
Four of hearts? And this is the 34th card… Wow, that’s simply amazing Anna,
spot on!”

Method:
Have the deck shuffled and handed back to you. Preferably perform this for a
couple, have one person stand on your right and one on your left. You hold out
the deck in regular peek fashion in left hand, which is with the back towards you.
(I’m not too worried, I’m sure you understand. All you need to do is a normal
peek manoeuvre as long as you get a break where their card is.)
Have them stop you as you rifflethrough the pack, where ever they stop you just
open the pack there and let them peek at the card. You obviously take a little
finger break where they stopped you at. With the right hand you bend the upper
half of the pack upwards, so their peeked-at card is at the bottom of that half. Let
their card fall down, so that it’s resting on the top of the bottom half. Retake the
break with your little finger. Talk or do whatever you deem necessary in the
meantime.

When the time comes, turn to the person to the left and ask him/her to look at
the person on the right and just think of a number between 1 and 52, the first
number that comes to their mind. This is perfect misdirection for you, partly
because he’s blocking the audience view with his body, plus that you direct
everybody’s attention to the person on the right, as if something interesting
would happen there. As they are looking at each other you execute a turnover
pass, or any other pass will suffice.

Even a cut if you’re really bold. The handling I’m often using is when I’m holding
the deck in left hand with the little finger break above their card, then with my
right hand I grab the bottom half with the thumb at the pack and fingers at the
front. Then I’m basically just gesturing towards the spectator on my left and as I
do so I slide the bottom half out and replace it on top. Whatever the means you
use, the first persons thought of card will be on top of the pack. Alternatively you
could force the card and just use any method you wish to bring it up on top.
Hand the pack to a third person. Ask for the person who’s thinking of a number
to announce that, he does, let’s say it was 18. Ask the person who’s holding the
card to deal down 18 cards into your waiting left hand.

Once they’ve dealt 18 cards into your hand you clearly push off the top card and
say “this is genuinely the 18th card, right?” as I’m flicking with the left hand
thumb. They can’t do nothing but agree. You have pushed the card off the deck
holding it in right hand and asking the previous question and flicking it once or
twice with your left thumb. After flicking it the second time I do what really is a
bottom deal, but it’s more like a bottom change (as opposed to “top change”). It’s
all covered in an upward motion. I will break it down step by step.

1. Do the flicking with thumb.

2. The card is resting side jogged on the deck and your right index
finger is resting on the bottom card.
3. Left hand moves upwards and turns palm down, at the same time
as left thumb pulls the real 18th card back flush on the pack. The
right index finger is pulling out the bottom card and the hand
remains motionless while the left is moving.
4. Gesture with left hand (that’s holding the pack) towards their
head and ask, “what’s that card in your mind?”
5. Go back down with the hand and place the card in your right
hand side jogged on top of the pack. Just like the truly 18th card
just was placed, all this happens while the spectator is in the
process of naming his/her card.
6. Now all you need to do is to just turn over the card and reveal the
“18th” card.

It’s really not difficult at all, just try it with a deck in your hands and
you’ll see.

One interesting thing is the way you can change the memory of the sequence of
things. The person who deals the card in the end should’ve shuffled them at the
beginning. So when you reiterate what has just taken place you say pointing to
the person who chose the card: “You just thought of any card, right? (Turning to
the number guy) And then you just thought of any number between 1 and 52,
right? (Turning to the third spectator who shuffled and dealt the cards into your
hand) And you, you shuffled the cards, I didn’t even touch them and then you
dealt them into my hand, right?”

By rearranging the sequence slightly no one will notice it and it will later serve to
manipulate their memory ever so slightly. I would like to add this point, if the
number they name is for example 3, or any other low number, you do have a
problem. So prevent that by saying “give me a fairly big number between 1-52, so
let´s say a number between 10-52.”

Another thing that makes the control of the thought of card even easier is by
shuffling the cards; so after they peeked at a card, shuffle up the deck, so that no
one knows where that card is. In actuality, you know exactly where it is – it is on
top of the deck. Sometimes I do the shuffle sometimes I don’t, and to be honest
with you, I don’t know which is best. I like them both, hope you enjoy it.
Polaroid Memories – M.D.M.A. Is the second installment in the Drug Trilogy
© 2008 Daniel Ljungkvist
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