Wicked. I'll try it as that. But then as always with magic - it's the right response to the right audience.

I think it is true that many laymen know, or "kind of know", of the 21 card trick or they feel that there must simply be a mathematical reason for the outcome when the cards are simply laid out in columns.

Paul Green has an excellent version in one of his lecture notes. Likewise, Bill Goldman in the Magic Bar and Grill #9. Both decrease the dealing and create motivation for each move so they make sense and hide the fact that it’s the 21 trick.

A fellow magician started the 21 card trick telling me "check this" to which I replied, "come on...the 21 card trick? I've seen it," and he said, "not like this you haven't."

When it was done, not only had he determined my chosen card (no surprise there), but I had chosen the only red card out of all blues. (or so it appeared).

It was pretty sweet, and will convince any layman.

I don't want to tip, and hopefully you can figure the method, but those that need a little help PM me. I thought it was a real nice touch on an oldie/goodie effect.

Jon Racherbaumer has a very nice version as a freebe on his website now........

I learned a variation of this trick, as we probably all did, when I was younger. My dad also taught me a version using the whole deck of cards. He would start it off as "Think of a card", cut to three piles, have me look through etc. Does anyone know if there is a name for this variation? This one would only work with a full deck of 52.

Chuck Smith's Imaginary 21-Card Trick is well worth a look. Kills anyone familiar with the 21-CT. See MAGIC Feb 1995 or Jon Racherbaumer's latest ebook, The 21-Card Trick: Rigged, Reconsidered, and Retro-fitted. This is almost 200 pages and available (with over 2 dozen ebooks & manuscripts for download at his site, http://www.jonracherbaumer.com with a premium membership). Bargin of the year.

Richard

Mike Powers' latest book Power Plays also has an interesting version of the 21 card trick that may play well.

It ends in a spelling sequence in which the spectator can lie or tell the truth and they still end on their card!

...Can anyone help me locate this trick????
Which magician is credited for the "27 Card Trick" ..AS PERFORMED BY TOM CRAVEN.. (3 rows of 9 cards) similar to the old classic 21 card trick? ...and where can it be found? Linking Ring, Genii? Lecture notes? Book?
Thanks,
MRSAT

Take a peek at "The World's Most Obscene 21 Card Trick" (Steve Bryant) in "The Little Egypt Book of Numbers"
It's not for every tase and definitely not for every audience, but for the right ones, it slays.

On of the greats Marlo, wrote a 7 phase (if memory serves me correctly) 21 card trick. It can be found in "Marlo Without Tears." It is very good, with some neat ideas. I was more than impressed with the amount of material on the material.

If this is the one that Tom Craven did for me at last years Magi-Fest, it is an absolute killer and I hope none of you try to look it up. One of the most original and mind blowing tricks I've ever seen and perfect for the person who wants to show you the 21 card trick.

Joey:

You need to get out more. Or you need to open your mind.

John Cornelius has a version that will really mess your mind up.

Here's the story behind it, as Bob Karlebach told it to me.

Bob Karlebach, who used to be a drummer for a sporting goods company, as well as a counter man for Tannen's, made it a habit to look up magicians anytime he came to a new town. He got to San Antonio one afternoon, looked in the Yellow Pages, and found John Cornelius listed. He called John and asked him what kind of magic he did.

"I do original magic."

"Do you want to get together for dinner tonight and do a bit of sessioning?"

"Sure."

After dinner, the went back to Bob's hotel room. Bob asked John to show him one of his original tricks. So John shuffled a deck of cards, asked Bob to cut off about half of them, look at the face card of the packet he had cut off, remember the card, and shuffle the packet. Then he gave the packet to John.

John dealt out the cards in the traditional three row layout. He asked, "Which row contains your card?"

Bob said, "Er...John, everyone knows this trick. I thought you did original magic."

John said, "Oh, you've already seen this? I guess I won't do it then." And he picked up all the cards but one. The card he left on the table was the one Bob looked at.

The method is devilishly simple, but it really blows the socks off the people who think there is no creative or good version of the 21 card trick.

Joey,

Balderdash. If you feel there are no creative or good versions of the 21-card trick out there, then it's time to get off the pot and make it happen. The imperial professor Palmer is dead-on accurate in his statements.

My version is called "Mick Be Nimble" and can be found in my 2002 lecture notes titled "CardWorker". I published it only after entertaining thousands of resort guests with it. That's plenty enough proof for my bowl of pudding.

Best,
Mick

I am not sure who created it but I do a version where it turns out there is a X on the back of there selected card

Mark Fifield

I sometimes still do the original. If it's a kid. The old sucker bit about "I bet the next card I turnover will be yours"

You've got to remember that kids haven't spent 30 years seeing the trick done over and over again. It's new to them.

Although I'm greatful for this thread and some new ideas.

Bill's post reminds me of my favourite scene from Penn and Teller's magic and mystery tour, where the magician leads Teller up the garden path with the cups and balls.

-Rd

I have to second Marlo's version of the 21 card trick. I believe it is called 21 revisited and can be found in the cardician. I love doing this for no it all card players who try to show you the treaded original version.

There's a story I have heard about a magician in the States (I think) taking Lennart Green to dinner. The waiter discovers they are magicians and offers to show them a trick. The host groans as the 21 Card Trick is laboured through...only to see puzzlement on Lennart's face. He had never seen it before and was amazed!

(Have I got this right? Will someone correct me if I haven't? It's too good a story not to be true!)

Ross, that is an impressive story! I also hope that it's true.

I've only recently finalised my version of the 21 Card Trick. The general feel of it is now far more of the audience doing a lot more in the trick than I do.

It works best with four spectators: one spectator thinks of a card, and then after each deal, another spectator guesses which pile the card is in. This is a development from an idea I read about in Lemezma's "How to be a Mind Magician." If it hits, it's uncanny, and the last time I performed this, all three spectators hit.

After the triple deal, I then deal out into seven piles of three, and work equivoque until one card is settled on.

Interestingly enough ... if you do this effect using 24, 27, 30 cards, etc. The final position changes.
But then it is not the 21 Card Trick any longer ... right? ...
hey guys, I was only saying ...

I am a fan of Jim Swain's handling from his aptly titled Book. 21st Century Card Magic.