Just got back from a party, and had to share something that happened to me this evening;

So I'm doing a card trick, it's a version of the rising card where the patter is that I'm asking the spectator to help me visualise her card by looking into my eyes and focusing hard on her card so that she can see it in front of her (at which point, of course, it will physically rise up). The problem is, I'm not really that good with cards (I'm better at physical magic) and half way through I start to suspect I might have lost her card. I carry on anyway on the basis that if the trick does go wrong I can fall back on my backup revelation using an x-deck I keep in my coat pocket. I go through all the patter about getting her to focus until she can see the card and when the time's right rise the card. At this point she shrieks as if she's seen a ghost, grabs the risen card from the deck and flings it away in shock across the room.

It turned out that instead of focusing on the card she'd initially selected and shown to everyone (which I forget.. let's say it was the Queen of Spades) she'd thought hard instead on the Ace of Diamonds. As it turned out I had after all lost her chosen card, but guess which one had turned up instead; the ace of diamonds. No wonder she was freaked.

I'll never do a more perfect trick than this in my life. The chosen card was a genuinely free choice, the card that I actually had risen was in effect completely random, but had fallen so perfectly, not just in that it matched her thought of card but that it was one I was able to explain so easily with a bull story (I confided that I'd known she'd try to upset me, that most women would choose the suit of hearts whereas she, trying to avoid being obvious, went for the other red suit, and that the ace was the obvious first one to go for - thanks, Derren! ).

Any other tales of wonderful flukes?

LOL... this is once in a life time magic

I know what you mean. I had an experience with a telephone trick where I asked the person to imagine a card and tell me what it was.

I then call my accomlice on the telephone and ask them to name the card for the person. When I give the person the phone the wrong card is named but the card they had initially thought of (but did not name) was correct.

The person was sure I and this other person was in league with the devil.

Don't you wish more stuff happened that way? Enjoy those few and precious moments.

Not incredible, but cool!

In my juggling routine, one of the things I regularly do is something called "The Kangaroo." Essentially you stretch out the bottom edge of your shirt and bounce a ball off it while you juggle. It's cute and people always like it.

Enter...a new costume. I know, I know, you should always rehearse in the costume you plan to perform in, but it was a last minute costume change. Show's going fine and I get to the kangaroo. Unfortunately I'm now wearing a button-down shirt. I figure I'll give it a shot, and if I mess up, well...I know lots of ways to laugh it off.

Here goes, and I...miss!

Yep, the ball goes flying completely the wrong direction.

That's okay, audiences are good natured, I'll give it another try. Ball goes up, I prepare the shirt for the bounce and...the ball disappears!

I looked around for a full second before I realized that one of the shirt buttons had come undone and the ball had landed perfectly INSIDE the shirt. As it was much more kangaroo-like then the original move, I took a bow and internally laughed till I cried!

I'm sure this is just a relative fluke ... but when using the Invisible deck, I had a fellow name the JOKER as the thought of card (figuring he had stumped me for sure). oh.. the look on his face .... I'm sure it's happened to others, but its one of those unintended gifts to the invisible deck performer.

That story rocks!

Well, I do magic at work a lot, but usually not for customers. I work at McDonald's. Anyway, the other night a guy and his daughter came in, and they ordered some stuff - their total came to $3.01. I know people get annoyed with that extra penny (myself included), so I said, "They just have to throw that penny in there, don't they?" and the guy kind of laughed and said, "Yeah . . . and I don't think I've got one." He looked through his pockets for a while and I said, "Might want to check on the floor - you never know what you'll find there," halfway kidding. They both laughed and were kind of like, "Yeah, right! Not with our luck . . ." and then suddenly the guy looks down and says, "Well, actually, YEAH , there's one right here!" And he picks it up and hands it to me. They left there with smiles on their faces, a rare event indeed for our crummy little burger joint.

I never intended to do anything astonishing there, but they certainly looked at me like I was a magician after that.

This was probably my best performance. Unfortunately I can't take credit for it! If I could, I oughta kick this IT (not the thread kind) job and go pro.

Here it is:

Back in college, my friend was telling another friend of mine that I could do magic. The other friend scoffed and said she'd believe it when she saw it. I showed her some card tricks, and though she thought they were interesting, she kept saying 'Humph, but it's not *real* magic!' Duh. But I decided to tease her about it and kept insisting it "WAS real magic'.

I was winding down, and as my last trick I got ready to do a two card transpo (from my hand to hers). I always pick the AS and JD for this, and begin as if I'm going to do an ESP trick - "What do you think the top card of the deck is? Don't think hard, just let me know whatever card pops into your mind." Of course it usually fails, though sometimes people do pick JD. Well, she picked the JD, and her jaw momentarily dropped, then she composed herself and said, 'That's easy, you have like a one in fifty chance'. I conceded (though what she said actually doesn't make much sense), then went on: "What is your *favorite* card? I know, most people don't have one, but just humor me here...". She said AS - and when I revealed it (I just about exploded, but somehow managed to deadpan) she screamed and hit me. Then I did the transpo and she screamed some more. This coincidence totally broke her and now she was totally gushing about how amazing it was that I could do that, woah that was a weird thing that happened, where did you get that ability, etc.

She asked me how I did it, and I told her that I 'really' get the feel for things, sometimes. And for whatever reason, I decided to TOTALLY go out on a limb and tell her that I knew, for example, what she had for dinner. Of course she was immediately skeptical again. I took a wild guess and said, "Did you have a hamburger for dinner?".

She had, and went wild.

End of story.

----


I know, I know - it was so totally wrong! And I still haven't told her that it was all dumb horse luck. But don't worry, I usually never lead people along like that. And, she deserved it =)

LOL That is one of the best stories I've ever heard!

I know, sounds almost too good to be true, in retrospect.

Odd how these things happen.

I thought this thread was a comment on dolphin fashion!!!!

If only I had your luck. Graet story.
Thanks for sharing
Nick

I was at a friends house, picked up a deck of cards on the table, and noticed there were two 3 of Hearts in the deck. I didn't have a trick in mind... I just duly noted it. A friend of theirs stopped by, and he happened to be standing in front of me, bingo, I dropped one 3 of Hearts in his back pocket. As he was leaving, and me standing 10 feet away, I riffle forced the other 3 of Hearts, thought hard, and told him he had selected the Jack of Spades. Wrong. He left.

20 minutes later, I called him on his cell phone, and told him I thought his card was the 3 of Hearts. He said "right! very good"! I said, "thanks, look in your back pocket", and hung up the phone. Flipped him out big time.

You have to make luck happen. Every card trick, try the classic force. Ask them why the number 18 is important to them. Take chances!

I was over at the same friends house, and a person I did not know came over. I looked at him, and told him his birthday was in May. (?) He said "Yeah, how did you know"? I looked at him again, took a deep breath, and said "May 21st". I nailed it. He was stunned.

Point being, you ain't gonna get lucky without at least trying.

Jason

>I looked at him again, took a deep breath, and said "May 21st". I nailed it. He >was stunned.

I'm stunned, that's my birthday too.

I've had a couple of happy flukes, the best one was I knew I had a piece of paper in my car with Kind of Diamonds written on it from doing a trick the night before.

Just before leaving the house I ask my girlfriend to think of a card, intending to do something else entirely. When she names the Kind of Diamonds I say ok and leave it at that. She's confused.

When we get to the car I let her get in first, then before I get in I say, "look at that piece of paper, what does it say?". She was stunned.

Always keep a piece of paper with a prediction written on it. Everynow and then the "Prediction" will come true.

-Rd

Love situations like that:

-I was doing some strong mentalism with cards (ID/BCS), and one guy couldn't get enough - following me around and around. He then challenged me - ok, what card am I thinking of? I can sometimnes get near by fishing a bit, but I bit the bullet - 4C? He ran off.

-I was doing some mindreading, and about to start on my ODDS routine, and I mentioned how 'psychics' could draw an object someone was thinking of. The girl I was doing it for said, before I could say anything, 'I've got an image'. I mentioned that we would do it slightly more as a test, so asked her to choose a card with an image on. She threw the card at me - she told me she had already been thinking of a zebra. Weird!

I got a good one....

I was mimicing the Amazing J's link ring gag in a college show for a filler. I was on a riser style platform. The style with the 3 bars that run across the back to prevent people from falling off of it. The riser also had a thrust that was about 20' in front of the main platform and I was working from the end of the thrust.

Well if you've seen J's gag he takes 2 rings, makes a few comments, shows them linked and throws them behind himself. I only had 1 ring and my K** ring so I did the gag with that. When I launched the rings behind me I heard a small crash and started to move on when I saw everyone sitting in shock.

The k** ring had linked onto the top safety bar 20' behind me. Everyone in the audience went nuts and I ended the show

I've got two flukes that have stayed in my mind for a long time.

-When I was maybe 8 or 9 (before I started magic) my cousin took a deck of cards, mixed them face down on the table, and then pulled one out. He said "If you guess this card, I'll give you $20". We went out for ice cream that night, and the 4H has been my favorite card ever since!

-I was performing at a school's reading night, doing some walkaround for the kids. I had done a couple card effects for one young man who was really into the magic. Right when I finished a trick, he said "What's my favorite card?" I palmed the top card and 'pulled' it out from his ear. I said, "It's the one you always keep behind your ear isn't it?" and he replied, "No, it's the QC!" I turned the card over and took a bow.

When you get so amazingly lucky, sometimes I think its more of an experience for the magician rather than the performer (With the exception being mentalism). The spectators don't know how improbable the magic sometimes is. It's almost like you want to shout in their faces "DID YOU SEE THAT! HOLY SMOKES!" but then they would give you weird looks and rush off to find the nice people with a white jacket for you.

Comdex, Chicago. I was working for Tricom Data. Every single time I did the Brainwave deck for the four days of the show the named card was the Queen of Hearts. Every. Single. Time. Over 200 times. The guys in the booth kept count.

Ever since then, I have kept an envelope with the Queen of Hearts in it on the table when I perform. Not once since then (over ten years) has ANYONE named the Queen of Hearts when I have done that trick.

Honest to whatever deity you care to have me swear to.

Lee Darrow, C.H.

Lee Darrow,
why not keep an envelope with all the cards except from the QD?

The late Great Tommy Cooper used to get someone to think of a card, select one at random from a deck and ask them to name it. He'd then look at the card, say 'correct' and throw it away. No magic - just a comedy piece.

I use this fairly regularly and yes, once, and it only ever has been once, they matched! I don't know who was more surprised, me or the audience. I took the credit obviously and left them completely astounded.

I suppose the chances are that if you do it often enough, it will happen but it's a real knockout if it ever does. The odds by the way are 2704:1