I hope this is the right place to put this. If not, let me know and I'll attempt to correct it.

I was in Chinatown, in Honolulu, a few weeks ago and came across a couple of neat, little items that I thought might work well together in a trick, so I bought a handful. The first item is an ornate envelope into which a playing card fits perfectly and the other is a tiny Mahjong tile (intended, I believe, to be a charm on a bracelet or something similar) with the image of a particular playing card.


So, here's my presentation idea...


1. I explain that I am going to perform an illusion using an empty envelope (displaying the empty envelope and placing it on the table), a blank Mahjong tile (displaying the blank tile and placing it on the table), and a deck of cards (placing a boxed deck of cards on the table). Optionally, I may solicit a spectator to participate at this time.

2. I remove the deck of cards from the box, thoroughly shuffle them, and then display them - face-up - to the audience to show that it is, in fact, a complete deck of randomly shuffled cards. Having forgotten to remove the jokers, I now remove them and place them back into the deck box. I now solicit a spectator to participate, if one was not previously selected.

3. I ask the spectator if they would like me to shuffle the deck again or if they are happy with the shuffled deck as-is. If requested, I shuffle the deck.

4. I riffle down the edge of the deck and have the spectator indicate when to stop, placing the top portion of the deck on the bottom.

5. Their selection, now the top card in the deck, is displayed to all and then placed, upside down, in the middle of the deck. The deck is then placed face-down on the table.

6. I explain that the Mandarin symbol on the front of the envelope signifies "Good Fortune" and that, since an envelope is designed to contain something, we will place a card inside. I remove one of the jokers from the deck box - flashing the face as I start to remove it, place it into the envelope, and then have the spectator hold the envelope securely in their hands.

7. I display the blank Mahjong tile and explain that it is often considered bad luck, or bad fortune, for a Mahjong tile to remain blank; it needs an image. I place the tile on top of the deck and rub it all over the top. "Since all but one of the cards in this deck are face down," I say, "the design on the card backs sort of fades away, like radio static, and the only 'image' (air quotes) the tile can see is the one card that is face up." At this point, I turn over the Mahjong tile to show that the underside now contains an image of the spectator's selected card. I place the tile, image facing up, to the side.

8. I now take the deck and spread it, face-up, across the table to show the spectator's selection as the only face-down card. I also point out that the spectator's selection is not found to be face-up anywhere in the deck, re-emphasizing that the face-down card is most definitely their selection.

9. I remove the face-down card, set it to the side, and return the rest of the deck to a single, face-down stack.

10. I turn over the spectator's selection to show that the image on the face of the card has now vanished.

11. I ask the spectator to place the envelope on top of the rest of the deck, to place the Mahjong tile on top of the envelope, and to cover the stack with both of their hands. I reiterate that, under their hands, we now have 51 cards, an envelope containing a joker, and a Mahjong tile with the image of the missing card.

12. I explain that it is considered bad fortune to lose one item of a set, for example breaking a plate or teacup that leaves you one short of the number of seats at your table, and emphasize that we definitely have some bad fortune underneath their hands since we are exactly one card short of a full deck. However, everyone knows that jokers are wild and can represent any card in the deck - and that's why we put a joker into the "Good Fortune" envelope. So, in a way, we really have a full, 52-card deck under their hands.

13. I ask the spectator to lift their hands, discard the Mahjong tile, remove the joker from the envelope, and place it face-up on top of the 51 cards. When they do this, they will discover that the joker has transformed into their selection.

14. I pick up the deck box, turn it upside down to dump out the remaining joker, and explain that we now have a full, 52-card deck plus one joker and one blank card that used to be their selection.

15. At this point, I place the 51 cards back into the deck box.

16. Depending upon the situation, I either return the rest of the cards to the deck box (concluding the trick) or else hand out the transformed card, the blank card, the remaining joker, the Mahjong tile, and the envelope for inspection.



Thoughts?

Sounds good,
I don't think step 3 is necessary, if they're suspicious of the shuffle,
offering to shuffle more won't do much, better to not call attention to it
i think.

Good point. I tend to do a bit of the nonchalant, whatever, it's up-to-you styled delivery anyway with a couple of different shuffle-until-you-stop-me forces so it feels natural to me there, especially if I've just now asked for a volunteer. Sort of a first decision type of thing.

With a different delivery, though - or perhaps even with the same - I think you're right, it could be an unnecessary step that draws attention to the force.

Thanks!