Free Ideas

Stepometer

A simple yet baffling effect with a fun and unexpected degree of audience participation.

You start off by telling your audience about the enormous range of playing cards, explaining that “there are dozens of brand new decks of playing cards being continuously designed, produced and released all of the time - the card market is like a machine on full throttle!”.

You follow up with “I’m particularly excited today because I’ve finally got my hands on one of these…”.

To this you throw down what appears to be a regular deck of cards, raising your eyebrows as if to say ‘how cool is this’.

The audience look on bemused, to which you say “I can tell that you’re unfamiliar with what this is, allow me to enlighten you, this… is… The Stepometer Deck, behold!”.

“We all know what a stepometer is and thanks to the latest advancements in playing card technology, we can now integrate a stepometer into the deck, hence The Stepometer Deck, every cardman’s dream, let me show you how it works”.

The participant is now handed the deck, “I’d like you to stand up and go for a walk, I’m completely serious, stand up right now and begin exploring the room, counting out loud the number of steps that you take, then return back here to your chair, off you go”. To maintain a clarity of the count, you count out loud with them.

The participant proceeds to carry out this procedure, returning to their chair after let’s imagine twenty-four steps.

You continue “you’ve taken twenty-four steps and so you’re probably wondering now, how can the stepometer deck display this information… well, all we have to do… is spread the deck”.

At this moment the deck is spread face-down, where inside we see two face-up cards, in this scenario a two and a four, illustrating twenty four.

A practical and perhaps best method straight out the gate is an invisible deck - a great way to gain extra mileage from it.

You could also have edge-marks on two packets of cards from ace-ten (in each half of the deck) so that you are able to cut to whichever two cards are necessary. Therefore the reveal would change to "all we need to do is cut the deck two times”, where found on top of each packet are the corresponding digits.

Another route best suited for video is simply a miracle hit. You’d estimate (given the size/layout of the room) a number of steps that are likely to be taken and have those two cards face-up in the middle - give it a few takes and eventually it would hit, giving you an incredible video to share. If it went wrong, you could excuse yourself by saying “well this deck is only a prototype, clearly it needs some fine-tuning, but to redeem this situation I'll use magic instead" proceeding into some colour changes - admittedly not a great out (needs more thought) but better than nothing.

A magician-fooling modification to the presentation would be to blind your senses (closing your eyes and placing fingers in your ears) before the participant starts walking and have them count their steps silently in their head. Meanwhile, you’d have a secret accomplice and a code in order to communicate the final count to you. This would add a compounding layer of impossibility to the reveal, because in the audience’s mind you couldn’t have just ’sleight of handed’ the correct cards into position if you were never aware of the number.

What I like most about this effect is the act of the participant walking around the room, a simple but radical break from the norm of the participant being stationary. This physically and theatrically animates the effect, the participant isn’t just immersed in the action, they are the action. Creatively this tweak has the power to dramatically impact our ideas, because no longer is movement restricted to the table but it can seek to fully embrace the surroundings - adding an extensive and powerful new dimension to our scope for creative thought.

I think there are two valuable creative takeaways from this idea. One is the act of trying to simulate something with cards, asking yourself ‘how can the playing cards simulate the role of X’ and the other is the consideration of ‘how can the audience interact with the space’. Both provide us with fresh pools of thought, setting our creative sails into under-explored directions.

As I’ve mentioned before, if you want to end somewhere new, you have to start somewhere new. The secret to creating original material is simply starting where other’s haven’t - which is the role of creative exercises, to prompt new starting points for us. Anytime you catch yourself with an idea, try to trace it back to the creative exercise (the train of thought) that lead to it - as noting this will have a greater longterm value than the idea itself. 

We can imagine that ideas are gold and that creative exercises are goldmines. If we’re aiming for gold, then we’ll best succeed if we’re consciously exploring a goldmine, otherwise we’ll likely end up with fool’s gold - which is where the idea lacks originality, excitement and newness because it hasn’t stemmed from a new starting point, therefore it’s unable to intrinsically carry forward a set of qualities that in some way feel different, progressive or adventurous.

Perfume

An eccentric divination routine based around a pseudo-method.

You tell the audience that "smell is our strongest sense and as such has a profound power to evoke memories”.

You say "we’ve all experienced a scent that mentally transports us to a distant memory, this is because our brain can memorise up to ten thousand smells, we are very much 'scent-imental' beings”.

You continue “so how does this relate to what’s about to happen next? Well, smell the deck…”.

Following this odd request/hook, the participant smells the deck and detects a wide, overpowering array of perfumes.

You disclose that you’ve created a new way to secretly distinguish cards, “you might have heard of a marked deck, well this is a scented deck, whereby rather than using my eyes I can use my nose, because I’ve learned to associate each card to a different perfume - I simply let the scent stimulate the memory of which card is associated, let me demonstrate!”.

To provide an example, you have a few cards chosen and proceed to individually smell/reveal them, “ooh Dior Sauvage, endorsed by Johnny Depp, JD, Jack of Diamonds, this one, ah Polo Blue by Ralph Lauren, a summer cologne that summons the energy of open waters, open water, sea, C, the letter C stands for clubs and is the third letter in the alphabet, so three of clubs, yes, perfect, this one, yikes that’s strong, Dolce & Gabbana Pour Femme Intense, has to be the Queen of Spades, yes, three in a row!”

After this comical yet impressive demonstration, it’s time to up the ante. You now have the participant blindfold you and remove a small clump of cards. They are instructed to fan them, as if playing a card game and begin fanning the air, in order to waft the mixture of scents towards you. From here you continue to repeat the divination process - divulging more amusing and oddly credible patter/mnemonics to bridge a plausible fauxcess.

For the final card you seemingly hit a snag, “hmm, waft again, again, nope, still not getting it.. oh I’m so stupid, I know why, I only used 51 perfumes (they’re so expensive), so there’s actually one card that doesn’t have a scent (go ahead and smell it), it must be this one, the ‘free of sprays’ - the three of spades!”

Method-wise, I would achieve this routine by having a small bank of ordered/memorised cards that I would force into play - therefore the entire effect/patter would be fully pre-prepared. I would also go to the effort of truly spraying those force cards with the corresponding scents. If someone recognised a scent it would greatly add believability to this feat.

As the performance is moreover an attempt to demonstrate an alleged real skill, it should incorporate an appearance of difficulty and risk - to excuse the pun, throw the audience off the scent of it being just a trick. Therefore factoring in a mistake serves as a convincer that this is fallible, which helps to humanise and convince us of the skill's legitimacy, for example “FCUK Friction, double F,  F colour diamonds, two of diamonds, no… FCUK indeed, give me a moment… oh I’m confusing FCUK for she with FCUK for he, FH, four of hearts, got it!”

If performed well, the pseudo method should feel plausible, however as the entire notion is ultimately farfetched, it positions the audience within the grey area between fact and fiction, unable to determine where the truth lies - this leads to an added and longstanding entertainment value, a sort’ve puzzle based souvenir.

Alternate phases for consideration: Finding any card called for - a card is named, you smell the deck and state the corresponding number of its position. Finding a packet - a colour, suit or four of a kind is requested, each card is briefly held under your nose, you state yes or no, when the 'yes cards’ are turned over it correctly reveals the requested packet. Identifying what’s missing - a card is removed, rather than smelling it, you smell the rest of the deck (perhaps springing it a few times close to your nose) and determine which scent/card is missing.

Call Of The Void

An eerie and relatable idea, acted out by a single card.

You state “for this effect we only need one card, so please go ahead, take out any card”.

This card is then carefully balanced at the edge of the table, so that as much of it as possible (without falling off) hangs over the edge.

The notion of Call Of The Void or High Place Phenomenon is then brought into conversation.

This is the universally felt sensation that occurs when we are stood at the edge of a high place, we uncomfortably experience a thought or urge to jump off - we know deep down that we won’t, but anxiously we feel hyper-aware that we could.

A 2012 study by Florida State University concluded that the brain instills this fear of jumping off for the very purpose of ensuring that we don’t. It is a counter-intuitive survival mechanism, whereby the urge to jump affirms the urge to live.

With this notion conversationally put forth, we return our attention back to the card, personifying it as the participant at the edge of a high place. The participant is told, “I want you to imagine that this card is you, you’re going to vicariously experience call of the void through this card”.

The participant is then given a choice, “so tell me, are you going to stay or jump…”.

Before they can answer, you continue “on one hand you know you should stay yet on the other there is an urge to jump isn’t there, you can hear it, you can feel it and after all, in this scenario, you’re only a card… what’s the worst that could happen, so tell me what do you do, stay or jump?”.

Given the combination of humouring the decision, anticipating an effect and no actual risk, it creates a fun mood where I believe the majority of people will be curiously tickled enough to say jump - and if they don't I’d say “in which case nothing happens…” so that they become prompted into changing their mind.

With their choice being to jump, all eyes are now firmly fixed on the card. Once the suspense has reached a palpable high, we see the card (without being touched) become imbalanced and fall off the edge - a magical yet unnerving experience.

I think it’s fitting for our response now to either be jovial or serious. For example, it could be funny to slowly look down at the card, look back at the participant, pause and then say, “what the hell were you thinking”. Alternatively there’s a foothold for a more philosophical/interpretive response, for example we could say, “sometimes we make the wrong choice and we fall, when we do we have to pick ourselves up and give ourselves another chance”. Coinciding this, the participant is instructed to pick up their card and replace it on the edge, where the choice "stay or jump" is once again repeated. I suspect that this time they will now feel queued to say stay and so the card is then given to the participant as a memento with the line “keep this card where you’ll see it and let it remind you to always give yourself and others, a second chance”.

Currently the former approach is the route I’d take - but that may well be because the latter has only been spitballed here, with some workshopping it could develop into something far stronger.

Other lines that might be worth workshopping here: “We all make choices, but in the end our choices make us”, for any gaming fans I got this from playing Bioshock. “We are our choices”, Jean-Paul Satre, who actually referred to this phenomenon as the “Vertigo Of Possibility” - philosophising that we are constantly standing at the dizzying edge of a life-changing choice and that our identity is the result of which actions we take. Ultimately I do believe that all of our choices have the power to greatly shape who we are/become and so dialling into this thought for the final message could evoke a deeper, personal impact.

Regarding method, I’m imagining some invisible thread and a tiny ball of wax. The wax end would be imperceptibly sat on the table edge and the other end would be perhaps attached to your shoe - allowing your hands to be visibly distanced from the card during the fall. The card would be positioned above the wax and so when the thread is moved by your foot it displaces the card.

Another possible method (with the right table) could be to gently knock your heel against the table leg - something to enjoy trying at every table you next sit at. Naturally you’d need to ensure that the sound levels were compatible and that there was no contact between the participant and the table to prevent them from feeling a vibration.

This effect is the result of a creative exercise I call visual representation. This is where cards can be used to visually convey a scene in order to create contextual opportunities for new effects. For example, if I wanted to convey a ladder against a wall I could lean a card against the card box. From here, I'd consider what thoughts/events/stories/meaning does this bring to mind - for example, walking under a ladder is supposed to give you bad luck. So now I’d consider how can I magically demonstrate bad luck within this scene. For example, perhaps a card is chosen and pushed under the ladder and from thereon it experiences bad luck - a hole magically appears in it, then a tear, then a pip smudges, the card continually endures damage until disappearing all together. To keep the scene relevant, we could then say “there is no such thing as bad luck, it is just a figment of your imagination”, before turning round the ladder and revealing it has been the selection all along.

So with visual representation, we’re essentially engaging the audience with imaginary play, except the imagined legitimately interacts with the physical. We think of a scene, visually convey it, consider what occurs here and then magically demonstrate it. This playfully allows us to provide unique, one-off experiences for our audience because we can imaginatively transport them to anywhere we deem of presentational interest: a bank heist, landing on the moon, trapped inside a whale, naked on live tv or as in the case of this effect, standing on a cliff edge - there’s absolutely no limit to where we can figuratively set our stage, providing an endless variety of weird and wonderful effects to be excitingly discovered.

Coffee

A fun time & place idea for when you’re with a friend at the cafe.

A card is selected and lost back inside.

After multiple failed attempts at finding the card, you seem to be on the verge of giving up.

Just when it feels as though you've truly messed up, the sucker-punch is delightfully delivered.

You tell your friend to look at your coffee and in doing so, they see that the latte art depicts a drawing of their card.

Regarding method, I think that this would involve finding/speaking to a barista who is competent at latte art. You’d need to find out which card they could reliably and clearly draw - this doesn’t have to be a complete image of a playing card but simply just the indices.

Once you’ve recruited your barista/accomplice, you then liaise the day/time of your visit in advance and thus the stage is set. You enter the cafe, let your friend find a table whilst you sort out the coffees and then once you’re sat at the table with them, simply force the card and let the effect play out - have it returned, pretend to get it wrong, feign embarrassment, then knock them sideways with the reveal.

The effect itself is very visual, unique and memorable, but for your friend to realise the extra mile that you must’ve gone to in order to pull off this effect, I think there’s an extra degree of appreciation - it’s certainly a story they’ll be telling for years to come, particularly as they’ll be reminded of it every time they drink a coffee.

Alternatively, the latte art could be spread over both drinks, for example one could feature a heart (which is already a classic latte art design) and the other could feature a number. The drinks could be set down at such an angle that the latte art wasn't obvious until attention was brought to them - but you’d need to be quick to prevent the participant from drinking away their half of the reveal.

Given the elaborate preparation of this effect, I imagine this would be best suited to a one-off video - and a great video it would be! But if the circumstances were right, i.e. your local cafe has a skilled latte art barista with whom you're friends with, then it’s possible you could perform this regularly, the design would simply become your personalised default so that it’s always on standby.

Another route to consider is the use of a stencil, alongside a coffee such as cappuccino where typically cocoa powder is sprinkled on top. Sprinkling the powder through a playing card stencil would allow for an easier, portable version of the effect - whereby you could even apply the design yourself.

If using a takeaway cup with a lid, the reveal would remain hidden until the lid was removed - this might be useful for preventing the design being spotted prematurely as well as allowing you to transport and perform the effect in a different location. Rather than a card being revealed it could be a number, the card is then found at that number - this means that they could choose and lose any card (marked deck allowing you to know its identity) and upon struggling to find it, you would actually just be repositioning the card into the correct position - this is something I often do (to great effect) when sat at tables which feature table-numbers.

A wonderful quote by William Butler Yeats, “The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper”. This is very much how I feel about revelations (and creativity in general), our surroundings always offer us something to reap benefit from, we just have get into the habit of pushing our mind’s eye to see it.

Plaster

A cheeky idea that exploits what’s hidden in plain sight.

You hand out the deck to your participant (palm down) and a plaster is seen on the back of your hand.

Simultaneously you state “Normally I’d shuffle, but I’ve cut and injured my hand, would you mind shuffling for me?”.

The participant shuffles the deck and upon being returned, you spread the cards (feigning some mild discomfort) and invite your participant to select one.

The selection is returned and once again you hand out the deck to be shuffled.

Whilst the deck is being shuffled, you say “thanks again for shuffling for me, normally I would but as I said I've cut and injured my…”

You display the back of your hand again and to the audience’s surprise, we now see that the plaster has vanished!

With a wry smile you say “spread through the deck, face down” - where the plaster is discovered fastened to the back of one card, the selection.

The method here would involve a duplicate plaster pre-stuck to a force card - its thinness allowing it to reside imperceptibly within the deck.

From here you'd hand out the deck face-up for shuffling to minimise the risk of flashing the plaster - to further safeguard this, you could even request a sideways shuffle or a wash of the cards on the table.

After receiving the deck back, you gain control over the plaster-card and force it upon your participant - in such a way that the back of the card won’t be seen. Gaining control should be reasonably self-working as the plaster will create a natural break (small but distinctly visible from the edge) for you to pick up on and cut at. For me, I would control it to the bottom of the deck and execute a hindu force.

Once the deck is handed out for shuffling again, your next objective is to remove the plaster from your hand. If prior to sticking it on, you’d weakened the plaster’s adhesion, then it would only be lightly stuck to the back of your hand and therefore quicker/easier to detach. 

This removal could be facilitated alongside a gesture to the line “so go ahead and give the deck a good overhand shuffle for me”. For example, let’s say the plaster is on your right hand. If you gestured an overhand shuffle whereby your left hand was the receiving hand - then your left fingers become briefly positioned to the back of your right hand and thus could quite easily pull at and steal away the plaster, then casually ditching it into your lap (if seated) or back pocket (if standing) as your hands relax.

This action would be naturally misdirected, one because they’re focusing on the shuffle and two, because you’re apparently just gesticulating, talking with your hands to express/instruct what to do - therefore collectively it’s a very innocent, justifiable thing to do, it raises no suspicion, especially because the plaster is not at all on their radar as something relevant to the effect, it’s simply a foreshadowed object that's hidden in plain sight.

In addition, you’d keep their attention occupied with remembering their card, recognising it’s lost, repeating the fairness of selection etc etc - engaging them with other thoughts to boost inattentional blindness.

Of course after removing/ditching the plaster, you must be mindful to keep the back of your hand hidden, only leaving your palm visible to prevent them prematurely detecting the vanish.

For the revelation, it would be helpful to have the plaster positioned diagonally across the card, so that during their spread/search it runs less risk of being missed - elongating the process and dulling the effect. If the card can easily be found at speed, it serves to benefit the pacing and in turn, the climax.

Albeit an innocent object in itself, inferring that the plaster is related to something accidental (the opposite of planned), compounds the belief that it is an irregular, temporary and unsuspecting part of your performance. All in all, the plaster/accident is simply perceived as momentary, unimportant information, it’s merely a pixel amongst a wider picture, it psychologically is seen and forgotten concurrently.

Nonetheless, it’s important not to place too much emphasis on the plaster otherwise our audience might then suspect that there’s something more to it, which risks them keeping an eye on it and/or being less surprised at the vanish/reveal - both reducing the trick's impact. This makes it a balancing act to lean into a greater presentation than is served up here - there’s a delicate tipping point from being made aware of something to feeling it’s important, we have to tread the line carefully.

You could perhaps when mentioning ’the injury' add a jokey, self-deprecating line with words to the effect of “you’re probably thinking, well if you’re a real magician, why don’t you just heal it”. Then during the revelation, you can call back and say “I found your card and healed my hand - guess I am a real magician after all”. That for me is probably as far as I would push it to increase awareness of the plaster without crossing the threshold and detrimentally planting an expectation.

Another consideration is the potential for a kicker. For example, beneath the plaster on the card could be a word or a number - which ties into a previous or future effect. For example, you could have the name of a different card written beneath the plaster. At the start of the routine you could casually force this card using a riffle/peek force and then say “actually forget that card, shuffle the deck instead”. You then proceed into the Plaster effect and at the end call back to the thought of card, “out of curiosity, do you remember the card that you first thought of right at the start… well even more curiously, peel off the plaster…” - where this card is shockingly revealed too.

I love effects where seemingly innocent aspects of the performance later prove relevant, where the ordinary transforms into the extraordinary - it’s a really fun moment both for audience and performer. Creatively it reminds us to pay greater attention to our surroundings, to sharpen our senses and perceive through the lens of ‘everything offers something’. When we do, we discover that inspiration is all around us.

A quote from Einstein, “Creativity is seeing what others see and thinking what no one else has ever thought”. To coincide the thought of ‘how could this be involved in a trick’ with everything you see/experience, is the key to continually creating new and exciting effects.

VR

A really whacky and memorable idea, well suited for parlour.

You conversationally bring up the subject of VR, touching on how our future is becoming slowly but surely integrated with it.

You could say "like the early days of the internet, it’s potential wasn’t fully recognised, but then it started to evolve and explode exponentially”

“This is the future I predict for VR, before we know it, all aspects of our lives will be surprisingly augmented by VR.”

You humorously continue, “I mean take card magic for example, the revolutionary developments of VR can now allow us to go inside the deck… you heard me right, I can go inside this deck of cards!"

Following this line you bring out a VR headset, “I’ll prove it!"

With this captivating hook firmly put forth, a card is now fairly selected and lost back inside the deck.

You state “If you tell me the name of your card, I can virtually venture inside this deck, take a look around and tell you it’s precise position”.

The card is named and you place the headset on, “Ok, I’m going in”.

You now proceed to describe the experience, “you’re probably wondering what it looks like in here, what is it I can see, well… imagine being in a glass elevator inside the middle of a building with fifty two floors, except the floors are playing cards, that’s what I can see and indeed control”.

You continue “so I’m currently at the top of the deck, I’m about to start descending through the deck, one floor/card at a time, I’ll count and name them out loud so you know exactly when I get to your card”.

You proceed to act out this journey and eventually stop on a number, “8, the five of hearts, I’m here, number 8, it’s beautiful!"

You remove the headset and the participant is instructed to deal to that position. True to your claim, the card is found in the corresponding position.

You could jokingly conclude with “Well that was ten grand well spent”.

I’m imagining the best effect/method for this is The Lazy Man’s Card Trick, first published in 1948 as Think Stop by Jack Miller in Royal Road To Card Magic, page 229. In which case, this simply adds a new/futuristic presentation to an old/simplistic effect.

It might even be possible to doctor the headset so that you could peek through it, therefore the headset could be placed on much earlier into the routine - heightening the impact because ostensibly you were blinded throughout more of the process.

To entertain an elaborate route, the headset could be linked to a hidden camera, so it simply acts as a monitor allowing the performer to watch the action (quite literally in front of them) and in turn digitally peek the key-card.

Perhaps a prelude to this effect, which is always a worthy consideration for gaining extra mileage, could be to first demonstrate the effect without the headset. You could frame it as a demonstration of a skill you’ve been working on - the ability to quickly spot the position of any card in the deck. 

So you would carry out the lazy man’s card trick and (despite knowing the exact position) pick up the deck, quickly riffle it in an attempt to identify its position and then purposefully miscall it, naming a number that’s two or three cards off. Then feigning some mild frustration when you discover you were slightly off. However, you can redeem this ‘failure’ by delivering a second phase which incorporates the VR presentation - allowing you to demonstrate how this feat can be achieved with 100% accuracy, providing a fun and progressive twist to the routine.

This effect employs a pseudo-method which excites our audience’s imagination, because it allows them to feel ‘in the know’ as well as experience a concept that they likely haven’t encountered elsewhere. This brings about a useful creative exercise, we can ‘imagine a world where X was possible’ and then explore ways to demonstrate that with magic. Similarly we can look around and consider ‘what could X be a pseudo-method for’. In either case we’re striving to connect our magic to something that hasn’t been experienced before, typically giving rise to an original effect.

Closing thoughts on pseudo-methods are that you toe the line between magic and reality. On one hand you’re saying ’here’s the trick’ on the other you’re saying ’here’s the method’. When we do this, we should consider how likely are the audience going to buy into our pseudo-method. If not very, then don’t insult their intelligence, comically lean into the pretend nature of it - invite the audience to laugh with you, not at you.

Two-Torial

A trend-bucking routine/opener for when you’re accompanied by two people.

After introducing yourself, you say “let’s do this differently, instead of me, I want you to be the magician”.

You explain that “one at a time, I’ll teach you both a quick trick to perform on each other”.

To begin, one of them must close their eyes and put their fingers in their ears until tapped on the shoulder.

For the first participant, the lesson involves showing them that all the cards are the same (eg. Jack of Spades) - and so after a card is selected/returned, they can pretend to read their friend’s mind.

Their friend is tapped on the shoulder and this first effect is performed, much to their friend’s amazement.

For the second effect, the first participant is told not to close their eyes and not to put their fingers in their ears, but instead to “pay very close attention”.

The second participant is told “incredibly, you’re going to do far less and yet amaze your friend far more”.

After this compelling hook, you say “I want you to imagine all of the cards changing into your card, the Jack of Spades… in fact no, forget that, do this… imagine the Jack of Spades disappearing… completely vanishing from the deck*… have you done that”.

*You could at this moment, say "I’ll whisper the secret into your ear... belief” - heightening the curiosity for the first participant.

“Now slowly pick up the deck and spread it face-up onto the table”.

Upon doing this, the faces are all seen to be completely regular as you cheekily address the first participant saying “see, absolutely no Jack of Spades to be seen anywhere, incredible!"

Whilst still magical for the second participant, the impact for the first participant is far stronger due to the dual reality - their experience being that the entire deck has changed.

Comically rounding off, you say “well both of you did brilliantly and remember rule number one of being a magician, is never share the secret!”.

This tongue and cheek gag is clearly at odds with what’s just occurred, but it serves to reinforce that each person knew something that the other didn’t - playfully deepening their sense of mystery.

It’s worth emphasising here “seriously though, a mystery is far greater than a secret, if one of you begs to know, just make something up” - encouraging them not to discuss but helpfully provoking a degree of mystery-protecting scepticism for if they choose to do so.

Concluding the routine you could say “anyway, since we’re taking it turns, now it’s my turn to be the magician” before proceeding into the rest of your set.

Method-wise, I’m imagining a deck switch would be the best route. Therefore we’d need to orchestrate a distraction to provide cover.

Perhaps we could capitalise off the moment of ‘mind-reading’, by incorporating a new prop and activity (fauxcess) to hijack attention away from the deck.

For example, once the card has been returned you could say “great now square the deck and place it down, then take this pen and paper, I want you to stare at your friend and try to get a feeling of whichever card their thinking of” - nudging them to play along with a gleam in your eye.

In addition, the other person is instructed to “stare into your friend’s eyes and really scream that card over and over in your mind”. 

The combination of each persons tasks would likely provide a sufficient amount of misdirection for you to casually pick up the one-way deck and switch it for the regular faces (minus Jack of Spades) deck.

If you wanted to be even bolder, once the pack has been tabled you could say “now each of you close your eyes, I’d like you Jane to focus on sending the card and you Tom to focus on receiving the card, perfect, keep going, that bridge should be forming now, you’re doing great” etc, exploiting this hilariously easy opportunity to execute the switch.

Naturally after switching the deck, it should be found in the exact same position to avoid a discrepancy - therefore it’s important to condition the deck to be set down at a conveniently close position to you.

Regarding plot and presentation you could perhaps factor in a kicker. For example, after explaining the premise you could say “and there’s a prize for the best performance”, whilst simultaneously displaying a small envelope - which is kept in full view or could be sat on.

Following the routine, you segue into a fun throwback, saying “you know what, I’m so stunned by your performances, I’ll let you share the prize”, gesturing towards the envelope with a knowing smile.

Suffice to say that inside the envelope would be the Jack of Spades, leading to an extra surprise hit of a transposition.

An opener containing a divination, a vanish and a transposition, all seemingly performed by the audience, what more could you want.

An opener which is performed by the audience totally goes against expectations, it breaks the norm - by aiming to seek and challenge norms/expectations, we can discover beautifully new and exciting material/experiences for our audiences.

If we don’t dare to do things differently, nothing changes. To explore what others don’t, is to introduce what others won’t.

By allowing the audience to take responsibility and credit for the magic, you powerfully equalise yourself with them, you greatly dilute any perceived sense of status or authority, serving to relax and build a stronger fun/friendly rapport with them - key emotional requisites for optimising the enjoyability of your material.

Daisy

A fun effect for when you’re outside near daisies, in a park for example.

A card is chosen and lost back inside the deck.

Curiously, you then instruct your participant to “pick a daisy, any daisy”.

Following up with “now carefully pull off a clump of petals, any amount and count them”.

(Daisies typically have no more than 30 petals)

With the number of petals named, the cards are dealt and the selection is revealed at the corresponding position in the deck.

Aka, ‘any card at any number of petals’.

Method wise, a Svengali deck would be a very easy, self-working route.

If a consistent number became apparent (e.g. 10-20 petals) you could use a one-way bank.

An advanced handling would be to control their card to top or bottom and rely on a second or bottom deal.

If you’re using a memorised deck and the selection is returned into the same position, you could calculate where to execute a pass in order to correctly reposition it.

Or a mixture of the aforementioned, such as controlling the card to 15th (ready for a potential miracle hit) and then relying on a shift or false dealing if required.

For presentation, you could say “we’ve all heard of flower-power right? But few have seen it in action, so let me show you”.

You could also state that “magic is all around us” or “nature is a form of magic” and to prove it, feign to choose something at random, “for example, why don’t you take a… what shall we go for… a daisy, let’s try this, pick any daisy for me”.

There is also the famous ‘love me, love me not’ game* where the petals are removed one at a time. Combining this with a Svengali deck could enable this cute and amusing presentation.

*French origin, ‘Effeuiller la marguerite’, meaning to pluck the daisy.

Given the nature aspect, there could also be an alchemy route to explore. You could say “originally magic was performed with whatever the earth provided, trees, grass, flowers (gesturing to each) so in this effect I will try to feature some of magic’s archaic roots” or “combine the old with the new”.

To surprisingly incorporate nature (or indeed your environment) into the performance provides an exciting and unexpected twist for your audience, as well in this case a very novel souvenir.