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Bob Wallace / Magic
← The Royal Road to Card Magic
Jean Hugard & Frederick BraueContents

Justice Card Trick

Card tricks that are performed while the magician is blindfolded make a particularly profound impression upon laymen. For this reason it is a good plan to include one such trick in a routine of card tricks.

1. Ask someone in the gathering to assist you, and when you have a volunteer place him on the left side of your table while you stand behind it. Have him shuffle the deck, and when you take it back glimpse the bottom card . Let us say it is the four of spades. Force this card upon your assistant, preferably using the classic force or the one-hand force, and have him show the card to all present.

Invite him to replace the card in the deck, make a short shuffle, then hand him the deck and ask him to shuffle it himself.

2. As he does this, take a white linen handkerchief from your pocket and fold it diagonally into a blindfold about two inches wide. Ask another spectator to tie the blindfold over your eyes. You will find, when you have been blindfolded in this manner, that you can see down the side of your nose and by tilting your head back a little but not too much–and glancing downwards you can see a certain area of the table top. You are supposed to be sightless, however, and therefore now you close your eyes, which will make your actions convincingly realistic.

3. Keeping your eyes tightly closed, take the deck and cut it into two packets, one of which you keep in your hand. Open your eyes and, glancing downwards and holding the cards within your area of vision, deal them face upwards on the table. Count the cards as you deal and when you see the force card–the four of spades–remember the number at which it lies from the top of the packet. Complete the deal without any hesitation, and ask the spectator if he has seen his

card.

If the card is not in this packet, take the other one and repeat the deal with it, noting the position of the force card–how far it is from the top.

4. Hand the packet containing the force card to the assistant, and close your eyes tightly throughout the remainder of the trick; your consequent fumbling will be convincing. Request the assistant to hand you the cards one by one, face downwards, and to think intently of his card. Let us suppose that you know that the force card is the eighteenth card in his packet. Take the cards one by one, appearing to concentrate on each card and leading the audience to believe that you will announce when you have been given the proper card. Instead, you wait until you are given the card before the one you know is his; in the present illustration, you will take the seventeenth card and hesitate before discarding it.

5. Abruptly you exclaim, "Just a moment! Hold that next card face downwards." Lift off the blindfold with your left hand. "What was the card of which you have been thinking?" Gesture toward him with your right hand.

"The four of spades."

"Right! Show that card to everybody!"

He does, and everyone sees that you have stopped him on his card.

Book contents

Front matter

  1. Title Page
  2. Preface

The Overhand Shuffle, I

  1. The Overhand Shuffle, I
  2. The Overhand Shuffle
  3. Using the Overhand Shuffle
  4. Overhand Shuffle Control
  5. Overhand Shuffle Practice Routine
  6. Tricks With the Overhand Shuffle
  7. Introduction
  8. Topsy-Turvy Cards
  9. A Poker Player's Picnic
  10. A Pocket Discovery
  11. Telepathy Plus
  12. Thought Stealer
  13. Pinkie Does It
  14. A Card and a Number

II. The Riffle Shuffle

  1. II. The Riffle Shuffle
  2. The Riffle Shuffle
  3. Riffle Shuffle Control
  4. Riffle Shuffle in the Air
  5. Tricks with the Riffle Shuffle
  6. An Instinct for Cards
  7. Mirror of the Mind
  8. Ultra Card Divination

III. Flourishes

  1. III. Flourishes
  2. Introduction
  3. Displaying the Top Card
  4. The Ruffle
  5. The Click
  6. Spread and turnover
  7. Springing the Cards
  8. A Flourish Count
  9. Throwing a Card
  10. Waterfall Shuffle
  11. The Fan
  12. One-Hand Fan
  13. Thumb Fan
  14. Pressure Fan

IV The Glide

  1. IV The Glide
  2. The Glide
  3. Tricks with the Glide
  4. Design for Laughter
  5. The Observation Test

V The Glimpse

  1. V The Glimpse
  2. Introduction
  3. Bottom-Card Glimpse
  4. Top-Card Glimpse
  5. Fan Peek
  6. Tricks with the Glimpse
  7. Gray's Spelling Trick
  8. Round and Round

VI The Key Card

  1. VI The Key Card
  2. Introduction
  3. The Key Undercut
  4. Key Undercut Shuffle
  5. Tricks with the Key Card
  6. Do as I Do
  7. The Three Piles
  8. The Twenty-Sixth Card
  9. A Meeting of the Minds
  10. The Non-Poker Voice
  11. Intuition with Cards
  12. Sliding Key Card

VII The Palm

  1. VII The Palm
  2. Introduction
  3. Top Palm
  4. Palm Glimpse
  5. Replacing Palmed Cards
  6. Tricks with the Palm
  7. Card in the Pocket
  8. Now You See It!
  9. Grab-Bag Card
  10. Good-Luck Card
  11. Do It and Fail
  12. Gathering of the Clan
  13. Spring Catch
  14. A Vested Interest
  15. Piano Trick

VIII The Backslip

  1. VIII The Backslip
  2. The Backslip
  3. Backslip Force
  4. Backslip Control
  5. Tricks with the Backslip
  6. Lightning Card
  7. The Tantalizer
  8. Under Your Hat

IX The Overhand Shuffle, II

  1. IX The Overhand Shuffle, II
  2. Injog and Break
  3. Overhand Break Control
  4. Overhand Lift Shuffle
  5. Lift Shuffle Force
  6. Spread and Break
  7. Holding a Break
  8. Spread and Break Control
  9. Tricks with the Overhand Shuffles
  10. The Sevens
  11. Obliging Aces
  12. Leapfrog
  13. Spectator's Card Trick
  14. A Poker Puzzle

X False Shuffles and Cuts

  1. X False Shuffles and Cuts
  2. Optical Shuffle
  3. Charlier Shuffle
  4. The Cut
  5. Palm Cut
  6. Tricks With the Shuffles and Cuts
  7. An Incomprehensible Divination
  8. Circus Card Trick
  9. Black Jack, Detective

XI The Double Lift and turnover

  1. XI The Double Lift and turnover
  2. The Double Lift and Turnover
  3. Double-Lift Glimpse
  4. Double-Lift Card Reverses
  5. Tricks with the Double Lift
  6. Rapid Transit
  7. The Trey
  8. Ambitious Card
  9. Throughth and Consequences
  10. Insidious Dr. Fu Liu Tu

XII The Pass

  1. XII The Pass
  2. Introduction
  3. The Pass
  4. Riffle Pass
  5. Spread Pass
  6. Spring Pass
  7. Tricks with the Pass
  8. Off Agin, On Agin, Finnegin!
  9. Kangaroo Card
  10. Righting a Wrong
  11. Blindfolded Pack
  12. Double Speller

XIII Miscellaneous Flourishes

  1. XIII Miscellaneous Flourishes
  2. Color Change
  3. Double Color Change
  4. The Changing Card
  5. Self-Cutting Deck
  6. A Pretty Cut
  7. Pop-Up Card
  8. A Bit of Byplay
  9. Charlier Cut
  10. Acrobatic Aces

XIV The Reverses

  1. XIV The Reverses
  2. The Reverses
  3. Reversed Location
  4. Tricks with the Reverses
  5. Spellbound
  6. A Tipsy Trick
  7. Double Reverse
  8. Mentalivity
  9. Mountebank Miracle

XV The Hindu Shuffle and Other Controls

  1. XV The Hindu Shuffle and Other Controls
  2. The Hindu Shuffle
  3. Hindu Shuffle Control
  4. Hindu Shuffle Force
  5. Hindu Shuffle Glimpse
  6. The Step
  7. Natural Jog
  8. Twelve-Down Riffle
  9. Tricks with the Hindu Shuffle
  10. All Change Here
  11. Ewephindit

XVI The Classic Force

  1. XVI The Classic Force
  2. The Classic Force
  3. One-Hand Force
  4. Bottom Force
  5. Slide-Out Force
  6. Two-Card Force
  7. Riffle-Break Force
  8. Sliding-Key Force
  9. Double-Lift Force
  10. Cut Force
  11. Tricks with the Force
  12. Justice Card Trick
  13. Fours of a Kind
  14. Pulse Trick

XVII Top and Bottom Changes

  1. XVII Top and Bottom Changes
  2. Top Change
  3. The Changing Card
  4. Top-Change Byplay
  5. Bottom Change
  6. Top and Bottom Changes

XVIII Arrangements

  1. XVIII Arrangements
  2. Arrangements
  3. Tricks with Arrangements
  4. The Selective Touch
  5. A Future in Cards
  6. Jacks Wild
  7. Think Stop
  8. Deal Away
  9. The Educated Cards
  10. Reds and Blacks

XIX Routines

  1. XIX Routines
  2. Routining Card Tricks
  3. A Table Routine
  4. A Rollicking Routine
  5. Card-Discovery Routine
  6. Razzle-Dazzle Routine

XX Platform Tricks

  1. XX Platform Tricks
  2. Conus Ace Trick
  3. Ladies' Looking Glass
  4. Everywhere and Nowhere
  5. Egyptian Pocket
  6. Cards to the Pocket
  7. Enlarging and Diminishing Cards
  8. Three Cards Across
  9. Everybody's Card, I
  10. Everybody's Card, II