Arrangements

In the present chapter we shall give you a number of tricks requiring an arrangement of the cards which will bring about a result you desire. These arrangements must be made without the knowledge of the audience, and this may be accomplished in one of these ways:

1. You may prepare the arrangement before you perform, place the cards in their case, and offer the trick as your first feat.

2. You may place the arrangement in your pocket before performance. The absence of six or seven cards, or even a dozen, will rarely be noticed. When you need the arrangement, palm the cards and secretly add them to the pack.

3. You may arrange the cards openly between tricks. You will already have seen how this is done in the feat described as The Obliging Aces . The general rule is that when you are making an arrangement openly you must do it boldly. The moment your manner becomes furtive you will create suspicion.

Between impromptu tricks there are always a few moments of laughter and comment, and you can make your arrangement at this time if you do it as you talk, dividing your attention between the cards and those about you. You must remember that, although you know you are making an arrangement and may at first be self- conscious, those about you do not know what you are doing. You can let them think you are searching for the joker as you shift cards about, or you need offer no explanation at all.

Some of our most adept card experts make arrangements with the utmost sang-froid . Their manner is so disarming that, though they are seen arranging the cards, their audiences never connect this with the trick that follows.

4. You may arrange the cards during the course of the trick which precedes the one requiring the arrangement. Let us say that you are performing a key location trick and have found the correct card and are prepared to reveal it. Instead of doing so immediately, you pretend perplexity and run through the cards, occasionally removing one and returning it, then moving a few cards here and there, as if in search of the card.

Actually you are arranging the cards in readiness for use. Most short arrangements can be made in a matter of seconds. With the cards properly arranged, you bring the trick in hand to its proper conclusion and are ready to perform the feat requiring the arrangement.

After the arrangement has been made and before the trick is introduced, always shuffle the cards thoroughly by the overhand method , controlling the arrangement in the manner that has been fully described.