Hey fellow coffee drinkers,

when going through RRTCM again, just a while ago, I came across the basic techniques of secretly reversing a card in the deck again, that are a subject there.

After a while I come up with a short trick around a simple reversal, that would use the reversed card only as a kicker and actually presented the illusion as something else entirely.
Let me explain:

- The Spectator selects a card from the deck, that is casually ribbon spread on the table.
- He remembers it and shows it to a couple of other spectators (not all of them) for them to remember it, too.
- The card ist returned to the pack and "lost"
- The Deck is ribbon spread again and the spectator is asked to try and pick the exact same card again.
The Patter around this would be, that the longer the memory of their selected card remains in their consciousness, the clearer they should be able to actually see their card, even if they are looking at the back of it.
Of course the magician can see the card immediately because of his magical trained eye.

- To make it easier for the spectator, the magician shows him a specific part in the spread to concentrate on (about 8 cards or so).
- The spec concentrates and decides on a card.
- Its revealed. Its not the same card, of course.
- The magician says not to be discouraged, because we will try it one more time in a moment. It was their first try and they did not have time to practice. Just to make sure that the magician has not lead them astry or misdirected them, he shows a couple of bottom and top cards from the deck, asking if the first selection is among them.
Its not.

- The deck is shuffled and cut by the magician (I think it could also be done by a spectator, but there is a risk) and placed back on the table. - - Before it is ribbon spread again, the magician tells the spectator to really concentrate hard one more time.
Because the card is in his memory for a longer period now, he should easily be able to tell his card apart from all the others.
- The deck is spread. The spectator will surely see his card, because it is reversed in the spread and the only one facing up.

What I like about this, is the pychological misdirection.
Through patter, you are convincing the spectators that they will be able to see and identify a card by looking at its back.
This should hype them up accordingly, because if that were really possible, THEY would be able to do magical things (or cheat at card games) themselves.

When the climax hits and the card is reversed in the spread, it should come as a surprise.
What should also be neat, is to play around with how many of the spectators actually get to see und remember the first selection.
Because the climax of the reversed card should hit different depending on whether you know the identity of the selection beforehand or not.

When the deck is finally spread, people who know the cards identity and are entirely in on concentrating to see the card, despite it is face down,
should actually be mislead into thinking that they "see" the card, and not because it is simply reversed. There should be a short time-frame where they are not actually sure what they are seeing.
The other half of the spectators that did not know the cards identity, of course, accept reality immediately and see a reversed card in the spread.
In short: there should be a difference in perception.

In any case, the reversal of the card as a climax comes as a surprise and rolls over the climax in their heads (seeing a card because they know what it is) like an avalanche - creating an illusion they can not reconstruct.


I hope this was clear. It is a very simple and easy to do trick, but suprisingly hard to transcribe, while taking care not to expose unnecessarely. And while not speaking english as a native language

What do you guys think?

All the best
Alex