Magic Tricks

I came upon this little jewel while trying to find 'other' and 'better' ways of performing some of my Magic. Joe Noblezada does a great job with this trick in Self Working Card Tricks (Penguin), although there are two spots that I felt needed a little improvement. One of those is not shuffling the cards per se, and the other is a 'funny' move for which I want a reason to make. Both are easily covered. In fact, those are minor points, the effect works just fine the way it is presented as a self working card trick. I will continue to use that ( although I add in a false shuffle) but it was because of that. I came upon Paul Voodini's version and this one IS a little different in that ideally you have four people as the participants. (You could do it with three if you play one part). In Paul's version it essentially eliminates the question of shuffling. If that is an issue with you, pick up one of Penguin's many resources for versions of false shuffles. I like Luke Jermay's version,(Penguin) but there are many others. So, I do the set up which looks great on the face of it and then false shuffle anyway, and then, like so much of Paul's work, it's down to presentation. As far as the 'trick' goes, once you do the set up, you are pretty much 'good to go'! He gives you several ways to present it. He suggests you create your own version which I did based on his scripted version and it works for me. You can also amend this effect to suit your time needs. He briefly addresses this but in the right hands or presented from the right person, this could be done in 5 minutes or as he puts it, 'all evening' . The 'trick' is easy. No problem there. It will be received as well as you can present it. Good job Paul!