The Three Piles

The use of delay in performing a sleight is of great value to the conjurer. A moment's consideration will make it clear that to attempt to perform sleights at the start of a trick, when the attention of the onlookers is concentrated on your actions, is poor strategy and invites disaster. The element of surprise also is of inestimable value. This use of delay, to gain surprise, is applied here to the use of the key card, and the result is that even those who are familiar with it will fail to recognize its use.

Briefly the plot of the trick is that a card which has been merely thought of is discovered and revealed by the magician in a surprising fashion.

1. Have a spectator shuffle a pack of cards and cut it into three portions, about equal, while your back is turned. Instruct him to choose any one of the three piles, then to take it and, spreading its cards with the faces towards himself, select mentally any one card and commit it to memory. When he has done this, tell him to shuffle the cards he holds so that he himself will not know the position of his mentally selected card among the others.

2. Turn around and say, "I think your card is about twelfth from the top. Deal the cards face upwards and see if I'm right, but don't tell me where the card is if I'm wrong." Begin to turn away again but contrive to sight the first card the spectator deals, then turn away completely. This first card is your key card; remember it. Later, the spectators will forget that you turned around for a moment and will maintain that your back was turned all the time. This is the impression you wish to make.

3. When he has completed the deal, the spectator tells you that you were wrong. "Oh, well," you say, shrugging off your supposed mistake, "it makes very little difference."

4. Instruct the spectator to place his pile on the table, take the other two piles, and shuffle them together; cut the packet, place his pile on the lower portion, and then replace the cut. Finally, tell him to square the pack and make as many complete cuts as he likes.

5. Turn around, take the pack, and run over the faces as you make some casual remark, such as, "Well, you certainly mixed the cards thoroughly," or, "I forgot to notice if the joker is in this deck." In reality, you find your key card and count five cards below it and casually cut the pack at this point. Your key card will now be the sixth card from the bottom of the pack. Put the deck on the table face downwards.

6. Review briefly what has been done–a card merely thought of, the pack shuffled and cut several times, and all done while your back was turned. Then add ruminatively, "You will remember that I failed to name the card's correct position in the deck. I don't understand that.., just how far down was it?" This question does not seem important and your tone and inflection imply mild interest only. Actually the spectator's reply tells you the present position of his card.

7. If he states that its position was sixth, then the required card is now at the bottom of the deck; if seventh, at the top. In such instances you bring the trick to a surprising finish at once by showing either the top or bottom card. If the position was from the first to fifth, take the pack in position for the glide and remove cards from the bottom. When you come to the spectator's card, glide it back and continue to deal cards until the spectator calls "Stop!" Remove his card and place it face downwards on the table. Have him name the card he thought of, then slowly turn that card face upwards.

If, however, the position was higher than seven, spread the cards and run your forefinger over them, hesitating now and then, and finally stopping at the right card.

Merely producing a card that was thought of makes a surprising finish to the feat, but it will afford the student excellent practice to devise more astonishing methods for revealing it.