Some recurring rumors would report that NASA's delays with the launches of new rockets intended for planetary exploration are justified by problems with the "Countdown." Referring to this, the illusionist tells the audience how their engineers have recently allowed themselves to be convinced that the solution to the problems lies in a special "anti-jinx ritual" entrusted to their Safety Officer. A spectator is called upon to play the part, and it is explained to her how shortly thereafter the magician, using a simple deck of cards, will proceed to simulate three different Countdowns (from ten to zero) and she will necessarily have to interrupt each of them at any time at her complete discretion.

The three cards laid down to represent the numbers uttered at the spectator's stop, will then be considered and turned over one by one to decide the next space mission. The first card will represent the value and the second the suit of the card that will be chosen as the mission's destination "planet," while the value of the third and last card turned over will indicate the temporal coordinates suitable for completion: the distance calculated in months of travel, but also the position from the top of the deck where they hope to magically find the mission's target card.

Amazingly, by counting the cards one by one, at the indicated spot the magician will find the very card he chose!

However, he will immediately explain to the public how the U.S. intelligence services tend to want to cover up and hide any possible failure from the rest of the world, in order to prevent the leaders of the big agencies from losing face ...

To this end, he will demonstrate how the faces of the other cards in the deck have virtually never existed, showing how the deck is now composed exclusively of backs, fanning it and showing the cards on both sides!


"Nice effect!" - John Carey

"I had the privilege of witnessing practically a preview of the presentation of the effect during an informal evening among friends: I must say that this is a really well-structured work, easy to perform (although it is obviously necessary to devote the right quality to the presentation). A routine of great impact on the audience that will not fail to amaze even the "insiders". With this effect Biagio Fasano takes you into orbit!" - Mazz Mariano (Mentalist).