Card Force Trick

Tuesday, May 27, 2008   |   Magic Tricks

1. Allow your victim to completely shuffle a deck of cards
2. Fan the cards, and say "As you can see, these are now in no particular order" When you do this, quickly observe the last card in the fan. This is the card you will be "forcing" on your victim. If you know any deliberate shuffling techniques, you can throw some in here for sizzle... just keep the force card at the end.
3. With the force card at the top of the deck, it is time to perform the force. Two options are fairly simple. If you are better with your hands or have done a number of card tricks before, the "Ruffle Force" is for you. If you're charismatic and like to talk your way through tricks (a con artist type) and not very good with your hands, you may prefer the "count force".
4. For the count force, ask the victim to pick a number between one and ten. One is not ideal, but people never pick one.
5. Say "Ok, do exactly what I do: Count down off the top of this deck like '1, 2, 3, 4, 5'" (up to the number they choose) and deal a card face down for each number you say.
6. Pick up the pile from your "example" and lay it on top of the deck. When they repeat your action, they're actually moving the force card BACK to the top of the pile.
7. Have them choose the top card, which is the force card.
8. For the ruffle force, hold the deck between your thumb and ring finger with the nails of your first two fingers lightly touching the bottom card.
9. Hold the bottom card in this position facing your victim/audience.
10. Angle the deck so that there is a slant about 1" long between the top of the deck (closest to you) and the bottom of the deck (furthest from you.)
11. As you arrange this, smoothly lower the very last card (the force card) to the level of the very first card. If you do this properly, it will not be visible to your audience.
12. Say: "I'm going to ruffle through these cards, and I want you to tell me when to stop."
13. Use the thumb of your free hand to ruffle the slanted part of the deck over your free forefinger.
14. When they say "stop", pull the cards in your hand out of the pile. This will leave the front half of the deck and the very last card between your thumb and ring fingers, with open air between.
15. Flop your hand down horizontally, while extending your first and second fingers. If you do this naturally, the force card will smoothly line up with the rest of the deck.
16. Have the victim choose the top card.

• Card tricks are all about the person doing them -- if you aren't dextrous with your hands, don't try the ruffle force. Likewise, if you aren't the type who is a fast talking hustler, don't choose the count force.