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The Card Trick That Has No

Explanation

The Effect

The Cardguy explains that he is really tired of people trying to come up with explanations for

what he does and he has therefore developed a Card Trick in which every possible explanation

will be eliminated as he goes. A spectator selects a card in the fairest possible manner and then

shuffles the deck. The Cardguy even lets her check to make sure that her card is still in the

middle of the deck! The Cardguy then tells the spectator that he will ask her three (and only

three) questions and each time her answer will be spelt out using one card for each letter in her

answer. After the three questions have been asked and the answers spelled out, regardless of

how she answers, her card will be on top of the pack! “And,” says the Cardguy, “You don’t

even have to tell the truth. You can lie to any of the questions and none of your answers

have to be consistent with the previous ones… oh, one more thing—I’ll let you do the

dealing!” True to form, the three questions are asked, the spectator spells out her answers and

when finished, her card is on top of the pack!

Background

This is one of the strongest presentations I’ve ever worked out. It requires only one sleight, but it

must be executed perfectly. In addition, the way the presentation builds is essential to the

strength of the effect.

The idea started when I was looking for a presentation for Bruce Cervon’s Perfect Speller as it

was printed in The Pallbearers Review (December 1968) and in The Cervon Files (Magical

Publications). The spelling procedure is reprinted with the permission of Bruce Cervon.

There are two parts you have to learn: a) the choreography of getting the card 15 th from the top

and how it interfaces with the presentation and b) the spelling procedure. They will be taught

separately to facilitate learning.

The Move Sequence (With Key Phases)

Start out by shuffling the deck while you give your opening lines: “You know, whenever

people watch these types of things, they always go home and tell their friend, wife or

husband what they saw. And believe it or not, their friend, wife or husband will always

offer an explanation, sure in the knowledge that it can’t be challenged. (‘Cause I’m not

there!) So, as a public service, I’ve decided to take steps to eliminate this source of constant

irritation to my audience members. I will now show you a Card Trick and eliminate every

possible explanation that your friend, wife of husband could possibly offer, thus sparing

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each and every one of you from a potential I’m-smarter-than-you-are-discourse! First,

remember that the deck has been completely shuffled!”

You will now have the spectator select a card by a method that is close to the traditional

spectator-takes-a-peek method but with one difference—you will motivate and justify this rather

strange method of selecting a card. First, explain that you will “go through the cards like this

(begin riffling through the cards) and you tell me when to stop. Now if you don’t like the

first card we stop on, you just tell me that you want another card and we’ll do it again,

OK? That way no one can ever say that I influenced your selection!” If she says the card is

OK, then move on but if not, then allow her to select a different one. Several times if needed—it

will reinforce the fact that the spectator had a free choice. When she decides on a card, show the

index to one or two more people and then riffle off the rest of the cards, keeping a break below

the selection.

“Now do you know why I had you pick a card in that rather strange way? You see, if I was

using marked cards, I’d need to see that back of your card to tell what it is, right? And

since we didn’t even take it out of the deck, then there’s no way I could have seen the back,

right? And that also means that I couldn’t have seen the face of the card either! And yes,

the cards are all different so there’s no way I could be using trick cards!”

As you’re remarking that the cards are all different, do the Dribble Peek: The cards are in the

left hand with the left little finger holding a break below the selected card. The right thumb and

second finger grasp the pack at the left inner and outer corners respectively and lift the left edge

of the deck up and to the right, rotating the deck face-up. The left little finger remains in contact

with the break at all times. The action will step the deck at the inner right corner (when the pack

is face-up) enough for you to see the index of the selection—but don’t look at the deck yet! The

left fingers and thumb hold onto the deck just long enough for the right hand to adjust its grip

and then the deck is lifted and dribbled into the left hand, bringing emphasis to the fact that the

cards are all different. The time to glimpse the card is while you are saying “…the cards are all

different!” It’s important that you don’t look at the cards until they start dribbling into the left

hand. In most glimpses you have to look directly at the deck and it’s difficult to do that without

suspicion. But with this cover you have a reason to look at the deck because it’s natural to look at

the deck while you’re dropping cards into your left hand. After you have dribbled the cards,

square the deck as you say:

“Can you think of another thing I might know about your card? I might know exactly

where it is in the deck, right? So go ahead and shuffle the cards until you’re happy!”

Allow the spectator to shuffle and when she’s through take the deck back.

“Now some people think I’m actually sneaky enough to somehow spirit your card out of the

deck, so I’m going to run through all the cards and let you see that your card is somewhere

in the middle of the deck. Here’s a tip: when you see your card don’t say “Oooo! There it

is!’ As a matter of fact, let me get through all the cards just so no one can accuse me of

using the process of elimination. And I won’t even look at your eyes, so no one can say “He

saw you blink’!”

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Run through the deck face-up and when you see the spectator’s card, start counting with the

selection counting as number one. Mark the 15 th card by keeping your right middle finger on it

(from underneath the spread) and jamming the other cards against the tip of your right forefinger.

Once the cards start jamming against my right forefinger, I usually don’t need my right middle

finger to keep my place. When you’ve gone through the entire deck, ask the spectator: “Did you

see your card? Is it in there?” and as you say that, gesture with your hands, breaking the deck

into halves at the 15 th card and then replace the halves in the opposite order. You’ve effectively

cut the deck with a gesture and placed the selected card 15 th from the top.

“Now most magicians won’t tell you what they’re going to do before they do it—but I’m

not as smart as most magicians so I’ll tell you what’s going to happen. I’m going to ask you

three and only three questions about your card to which you can lie or tell the truth. And

to make it even more difficult, none of your answers has to be consistent with any of your

previous ones. Each of your answers will be spelled out by taking one card from the top of

the deck for each letter in your answer and when we’re done, regardless of whether you lie

or tell the truth, your card will be on top of the pack! Oh, one more thing—you’re

dealing!” Hand the deck to her and tell her not to deal any cards until you ask her to do so. Ask

the first questions and then tell her: “We’re going to deal one face-down card from the top of

the deck for each letter in you answers, okay? All the cards will go in a single pile.”

Have her deal out the first answer using one card for each letter and watch to make sure there are

no misdeals. Follow the rest of the procedure explained in the next section and then when you

get to the point where you’re holding a single face-down card say : “My three questions are up!

No lies this time—what was the name of your card?”

When she names the card, slowly turn it face-up, collect your fee and go home!

The Spelling Procedure

The key to the whole procedure is to remember that the idea is to get the spectator to deal off 8-

12 cards by the time you get to the third question.

1) The first question is always “Was your card RED or BLACK?”

2) The second question is always “What was the SUIT of your card?”

Whatever their answer, give them the option of using the “s” or not; i.e. if they say “spades”, ask

them “Do you want to spell ‘spade’ or ‘spades’ with an ‘s’?” There are only two exceptions

to this rule and that’s if giving them this option would cause the dealer to deal out a total of less

than eight cards or more than twelve cards. There are only two cases when this happens:

a) If the spectator says “Red” to the first questions and “Clubs” to the second

question, then you need every letter in that combination because they add to eight,

the minimum number you need to have dealt before the third question. Therefore

you need to have the dealer spell out “Clubs”: “Okay, the suit was clubs….”

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b) If the spectator says “Black” to the first question and “Diamonds” to the second

question then you have one more letter than you need. Therefore you have the

dealer spell out “Diamond”: “Okay, it was a Diamond…”

The third question is dependent on how many cards have been dealt off the pack already and is

described in the following chart:

Number of Cards Dealt

The Third Question Is

Was it a number card or a picture card?

(Spell out “number” or “picture”)

Was it a number card or a court card?

(Spell out “number” or “court”)

Was it a court card or a spot card?

(Spell out “court” or “spot”)

Was it high or low?

(Spell out “high” or “low”)

Yes or No?

(Spell out “yes” or “no”

The “yes or no” question can be anything pertaining to the card or the spectators answers such as

“Yes or no—have you lied yet?” or “Yes or no—is your card higher than a seven?” I

always preface the question with the “yes or no” choice because some people will try and be cute

by saying something like “maybe”.

Notice that the words in each question vary by only one letter. This means that the card will fall

on either the last letter or end up on top of the pack. If the card is going to fall on the last letter,

stop the spectator before she deals that card : “Place that card face-down on my left palm.”

After she does so, say “This is the last letter of the last question. No lies this time—what

was the name of your card?”

Turn the card over, collect your fee in goods or services and go home. Since the card never hits

the table, technically it was still on top of the pack.

If the card ends up on top of the pack after all the answers have been spelled out, use a similar

closing line : “Place that card face-down on my left palm.” After she does so, say “You

answered any way you wanted to and all of you answers were spelled out. This is the card

that ended up on top of the pack. No lies this time—what was the name of your card?”

Turn the card over, collect the same fee and go home!

Entire Contents are Copyrighted by Steven Youell

A Few Tips:

1) There is not as much memory work as you would think in this effect but it is imperative

that you do not let your thinking show. Since your questions depend on the responses of a

spectator you need to simulate random responses while you are practicing this effect.

Here’s the way I do it: First I get an old deck that has a different back than the one

you’re using and shuffle it. Set it down on the table and work through the effect up until

the point where you would ask the spectator a question. Ask the questions and then turn

over the top card of the tabled deck. That card will simulate the spectator’s response. At

each question, turn over a card from your tabled deck and let the card represent the

spectator’s answer. In this way you’ll be able to generate totally random responses so you

can learn to ask the appropriate third question with no hesitation.

2) Remember that the key here is to get the audience to believe that you are taking great

pains to eliminate every possible explanation. You’re not, of course, but what counts is

not what you actually do, but what the audience believes you do! Everything in this

presentation (including the move sequence) is designed to strengthen the audience’s

belief that you have eliminated every possible explanation.

Please let me know if the description is easy to follow or if

you find any typo’s!

Thanks!

Entire Contents are Copyrighted by Steven Youell

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