Piano Trick

Announce that you will try to show a simple card trick of pure skill, and ask the company to pay particular attention to your movements, for your success will depend on whether or not they detect your sleight. Make this statement as a sincere challenge for its purpose is to condition those present to look for a sleight which you never perform and thus divert them from the real explanation. "If at any time I make a false movement," you continue, "I want you to stop me immediately and say so."

1. Hand a pack of cards to someone for shuffling and, when he is satisfied that they are well mixed, take them back and invite him to assist you. Have him place the tips of the fingers and thumbs of both hands on the table, the hands arched as if playing the piano. It is from this position of the hands that the trick takes its name.

2. Take any two cards from the pack, show them, and say, "Here are two cards, a pair, even. I place them between your

fingers in this manner." Place them in the space between the person's ring and little fingers, the sides of the card resting on the table, and have the person grip them in that position.

3. Take two more cards, saying, "Two more cards, another pair, always even." Place them in the space between the ring and middle fingers, adjoining the first pair.

4. Show a third pair and repeat the phrase, "Two cards, a pair, always even," and place them between the person's index and middle fingers.

5. Now take one card only and place it between the thumb and index finger as you say, "One card only, odd" (Fig. 62).

6. Continue by filling the four spaces of the other hand with pairs of cards, being very careful each time to lay stress on the words even and pair. You do not place an odd card between the thumb and index finger of this hand. The peculiarity of this arrangement always attracts attention and arouses much curiosity as to what you are going to do.

7. Proceed by taking away one of the pairs of cards, showing them. "Two cards," you say. "A pair, even." Take one card in each hand and lay them apart, face downwards, on the table. Take a second pair, repeating the formula, "Two cards, always even," and place one on each of the first two cards. Proceed in exactly the same way until you have laid all the pairs in two piles.

8. "Now," you say, "we have made two piles, each of which contains an even number of cards. That is right, isn't it?" The reply is always in the affirmative, strange as that may seem when you know the trick.

"Very well," you continue, "if I place this odd card–" (you remove the single card from between the person's thumb and index finger) "– on either heap, it must make that heap odd. Correct?" Again there is universal agreement. "Very well. On which of the two heaps shall I put this odd card? This one? So now this heap becomes odd while the other remains even. I warn you, you must watch very closely, for! am about to attempt a very difficult sleight. If you catch me at it, I want you to say so. If you don't–I'll be happy. I place one hand on this heap, now become the odd one, as chosen by you. I place my other hand on the even pile and I keep them well apart, as you see.

"My trick is this. I shall pass one card from one heap to the other, so that this odd pile will become the even pile and the even pile the odd one. Remember, if you see the card as I throw it across, I want you to say so. Ready? Watch closely! Pass!"

9. Suiting your actions to your words, you have placed your hands palms downwards on the two packets, keeping them about eighteen inches apart. At the word "Pass" you make a quick sidewise motion of each hand an inch or two and at once rather excitedly exclaim, "Did you see it go?" Of course they didn't, and you say happily, "Then my trick is a complete success. This heap, which was odd, is now even." You rick up and count the cards by pairs–"two, and two, and two, and two–even. While this one, which was even, is now odd- -two, and two, and two, and one–odd, isn't it?"

Do not be misled by the apparent simplicity of the trick. Presented as described above, it has a really astonishing effect, but remember that the presentation is everything.