Relativity and the Cards

Among the best of comparatively recent card tricks is one wherein two initialed cards change places under apparently impossible conditions, for no duplicates are used. The only drawback to this mystery is the fact that a special card is necessary, which takes it out of the most favored class of card tricks, those that can be done with a borrowed deck at any time. To remedy this the following method has been devised.

THE EFFECT:--Two cards freely chosen are marked, one with a spectator's initials, the other with those of the performer. Each card is placed in a pocket of the person whose initials it bears, yet they change places and are removed by the spectators themselves. Here is one place where that much overworked expression, "a knock-out,' might be used in truth.

THE METHOD:--Any pack of cards may be employed and the only preparation necessary is for you to take any one card, preferably not a court card or a card with many spots on it, say a four or a six of any suit, and write your initials plainly in pencil on its face.

Having done this put the initialed card face up on top of the deck. Take any other card and place it, also face up, on top of this initialed card and, finally, take any other card and put it face down on these two.

This is the way things stand just prior to beginning the trick. On top of the pack you have a card face down, under it a card face up, and under this again, that is third from the top, is a card bearing your initials, also face up.

You begin by false shuffling the pack. This can be done by either the riffle or the overhand method. If you use a riffle you must be careful not to allow anyone to get a glimpse of the reversed cards. Spread the pack and allow a spectator to choose a card. Do not say, "You notice I do not force a card on you," or anything of the kind. Be satisfied to allow it to be seen that a free choice is given. It is fair enough to give the person the option of replacing his card and taking another if he desires it. That is convincing enough without suggesting to your audience that there is such a thing as forcing a card.

As soon as a card has been taken you separate the inner ends of the three top cards with the ball of your thumbs and slip the tip of your left little finger under them.

You take the card from .the drawer and let everyone see what card it is, then place it face up on top of the deck. You ask him what his initials are and write them plainly on the face of his card in pencil. Let us suppose he has chosen the eight of diamonds.

You turn the card face down, lift it off the pack with your right hand and place it in the person's inside coat pocket. Or, rather, that is what you appear to do. In reality, thanks to the break held by your left little finger, you have turned the four top cards, as one, thus bringing the card with your initials on it, the four of spades, to the top, and this is the card you put in the spectator's pocket.

Naturally you must not allow anyone to see the face of this card. To avoid doing so when putting the card in the spectator's pocket, you keep it face down until you have it inside his coat, then turn the card so that its face is toward the cloth and only its back is visible as you drop it into the pocket.

You have succeeded in getting your initialed card into the spectator's pocket, it remains for you to place his initialed card in your own pocket with all apparent fairness. The method by which you manage this is ingenious.

The other initialed card is now face down, third from the top, just above it is an indifferent card face up and on top of the pack is a card face down. This is the natural result of your having turned four cards, as one, to bring your card on top. You must now bring these three cards to the middle of the pack. So you undercut about half the deck and shuffle the lower portion on top in a perfectly fair and open manner.

Explaining that one more card has to be selected and that you wish to have it done so that all can see that the selection is purely haphazard, you say that you will have someone put the pack behind his back, which you do to illustrate what is to be done. He is then to take off the top card and put it on the bottom of the pack, take the next one and reversing it, push it into the deck somewhere about the middle.

The moment you placed the pack behind you, you took off the top card, turned over the next one, replaced the top card face down, and brought the pack forward again. You merely gave an illustration of what is to be done, or so it seems to the audience.

You have someone stand alongside you and again instruct him what he is to do. Then put the pack face down in his left hand and gently guide his hand behind his back.

"Remember," you say, "Put the top card on the bottom. Someone might suspect me of knowing what that card is. Turn the next card face up and push it right into the pack. Done? Thank you." You take the pack.

"Somewhere in this pack is a card under the one that this gentleman has placed face up. That is the card we will use to complete the experiment. I can think of no fairer way of selecting a card. No one, not even this gentleman himself, can have the faintest idea of what card it is."

You spread the pack, exposing the reversed card, and you take out the card below it. It is, of course, the first card that was chosen, the eight of diamonds, 'on which you placed the person's initials. (The card the spectator reversed he merely righted in so doing.) You look at it, holding it face towards you. "The four of spades," you say. You hand the pack to the spectator beside you asking him to run through it and satisfy himself that the four of spades and the eight of diamonds have been taken out. This will keep him busy-while you pretend to write your initials on the card, which you then place in your pocket.

The trick is done, you have only to bring out the effect. Addressing the person who has the pack, you say, "You do not find either of those cards? How could you when this gentleman has the eight of diamonds in his pocket and I have the four of spades in mine? I merely wished to have no loophole left for any suspicion of unfair play. What is about to take place is an example of Relativity. They say that only half a dozen people besides Einstein himself understand his theory. Well, I won't attempt to explain it, I'll just prove it. The celebrated Erasmus of Rotterdam, maintained that a thing can only be in one place at one time. That was true in his time, but after all truth is only relative. These two cards will disintegrate and reintegrate, I mean they will go to pieces, and then pull themselves together again in such a minute fraction of time that practically, they are in two places at one time. Are you ready, sir? Go. Will you take the card from your pocket? You have the four of spades? It has my initials on it? Will you take this other card from my pocket yourself? It is your eight of diamonds with your initials on it. Now you must be Satisfied that Relativity is a Fact."

Properly performed or presented, this trick is as near to a real magical effect as can be conceived. A fastidious performer may object to one point', that of putting the pack behind your back to reverse the second card. The expert will have his own way of avoiding this perhaps inartistic feature. The following is an easy and practical alternative.

After you have shuffled the reversed card and the first chosen card to the middle, you stand with your right side to the audience and you square

the pack by running your right thumb and fingers along its ends. You palm the top card and move your hand to the outer edge of the pack. With the left thumb push the next card a little off the pack to the right, just far enough to catch its edge against the right forefinger. In the act of bringing the right hand back over the pack you turn the card over and leave the palmed card on top of it. The turn is covered by the back of the right hand and a trial before a mirror will show how simple the move is. After reversing the card you repeat the squaring movement very openly, running the ends of the pack through the right fingers and thumb, then the sides between the fingers and thumb of the left hand.

(Credit for the effect must go to the talented inventor, Annemann. The only kudos now claimed is for its adaptation to a borrowed deck, that is by the elimination of the prepared card.)