Lucky Git!
by Oli Foster

Oli Foster leads an exciting double life as an underwriter by day and magic enthusiast the rest of the time. Ahem. When he's not pretending card stacks are work-related, he enjoys collecting old magic books and working out superfluous mental card routines, like the one you're about to read...

Effect: Jack and Sarah are invited to participate in a bit of nonsense. Both shuffle a deck of cards, select one and cut it back into the deck.

The magician turns to Sarah and asks her to spell her name out loud. As Sarah calls out each letter, the magician deals a card from the top of the deck. The card dealt on the last letter of Sarah’s name is found to be Sarah’s card!

Jack cuts the cards some more and names a number. Jack deals this number of cards from the face of the deck and, sure enough, the last card he deals is his card!

No stacks, maths or sleight of hand (to speak of), easy!

Method: This is practically nothing but the part I think you’ll like is that both revelations are set up openly, under cover of natural actions, without extraneous handling. The only setup is to ensure the deck contains an indifferent card that you can instantly cut to. This could be crimped, thick, short etc. I use a breather crimped card. You may also want to subtly mark this card, (either with a sharpie that matches the back colour or a pencil dot) so that you can see when it’s been cut to. This card starts out at the face of the deck so, because you can cut to it, you can perform this after other effects with the same deck and have the cards shuffled.

When you introduce yourself at the start of your set, you’ll naturally ask the names of the people who are taking part in your routine. Remember these names for when you come to this trick and ensure that the first revelation is performed for somebody whose name you can spell, preferably a lady for the first effect and a gentleman for the second.

After both spectators have shuffled, receive the deck and cut your key card to the face as you turn to Sarah. Start to spread the cards from the top of the deck with their faces outward and parallel to your chest, asking Sarah to have a good look and take out any card she likes. As you thumb the cards from left to right, mentally spell a letter of Sarah’s name for each card you spread. When you’re two letters away from the end of her name [in this case, you’ll have mentally spelt “S-A-R”, slightly injog these three cards and continue to spread the rest of the deck.

When she’s taken one, square up the deck and insert a break beneath the jog. Ask her to show everyone else her card and, while she does, cut all of the cards above the break to the face of the deck.

Place the deck on the table in front of Sarah and ask her to cut off about half the cards and place them to the side. Now indicate for her to place her selection on top of the cut off packet and replace the rest of the cards on top. Have her give the reassembled deck another couple of cuts before returning it to you.

On receiving the cards, cut the key card back to the face of the deck as you turn to Jack. Spread the deck and ask him to select a card and replace it in the same way as Sarah [by cutting some cards off the top of the deck, replacing his selection on this cut off packet and finally replacing the balance of the deck on top, before giving the reassembled deck a few more cuts. This is conveyed in gesture rather than words and is basically the same action as replacing his card on top of deck and giving it a complete cut but, as this is performed at a table, the action of cutting a packet off the top of the deck gives more of a visual image of the card being “lost in the middle of the deck”.]

When you receive the cards from Jack, look him in the eye and ask him if he has a lucky number. As you ask this, cut the key card to the top (rather than the face) of the deck. If he says yes, ask what it is. If he says no, tell him he must choose one and ask him to name a number. As per David Britland’s notes on the Berglas Effect, a “number” without parameters suggests a single digit but, if Jack’s chosen number is two digits, ask him to select one of these digits as a ‘super lucky number’ and to remember it for something you’ll save for last.

But first, you’re going to find Sarah’s card. Despite the free replacement and cutting, Sarah’s card now rests on the last letter of her name with the key card on top of the deck and Jack’s card second from the top. Here’s where it gets cheeky though.

Ask Sarah to spell her name out loud and say that you’ll deal a card onto the table as she calls out each letter. However, this revelation will secretly set you up for the final phase. While Sarah is spelling and you’re dealing a card for each letter, mentally count each card you deal. When you’ve dealt the number of cards Jack has named as his ‘lucky number’, deal the next card slightly askew so that it sticks out of the pile diagonally and continue dealing the cards as Sarah spells.

Let’s imagine Jack has named the number two, meaning that three cards will need to be dealt from the top of the deck. Sarah spells “S-A…” and you inwardly ignore her whilst you deal a card for each letter and mentally count, “1, 2...”, dealing the cards in time with her spelling. Without stopping, the third card is dealt slightly askew while she spells the next letter, after which, you stop your mental count and continue to deal the cards while she continues to spell her name. The rhythm is maintained throughout without pausing and the last card dealt is Sarah’s selection, which is placed face down in front of her.

Before you reveal her selection though, you casually return the dealt cards to the top of the deck and here comes the tiny, ridiculously simple bit of chicanery on which the final revelation depends. Carelessly scoop up all of the cards above the sticking out ‘skewed’ card and replace them on top of the deck, as though your fingers missed the couple of other cards that remain on the table. Your other hand seems to correct this by scooping up the remaining three cards and placing them ontop. As the order of the cards has been reversed by dealing them face down, this simple action has placed Jack’s selection at his named number before ‘his trick’ has begun.

The only variable is a possible requirement to deal more letters than there are in your first spectator’s name, as you could potentially have to deal up to ten cards and many people have names which spell with about five. There are two solutions to this. If you’re performing for a couple, you could spell both of their names! Or there is a pretext to deal a few more cards as required:

Let’s imagine Jack has named the number seven, so you know you will need to deal eight cards. On spelling Sarah’s name, you’ve counted five cards so you know you still need to deal a further three. Table the card that fell on the last letter, as described, and say to Sarah, “It was fate for me to meet you here tonight because, if you had been anybody else, this trick wouldn’t work. If you’d had a different name, for example, with just one more letter in it, we would have landed on a different card.” As you say this, turn over the top card to display the face before tossing it onto the tabled pile. “Or you could have had a really long name and I’d still be dealing cards right now, each one completely different.” With this deal off the required balance, turning each card to display the face before dealing it face down. You’re only likely to be out by one or two cards and, if anything, this little display should strengthen the subsequent revelation.

“But fate was smiling on me because you were good enough to allow me to show you this one trick – this one trick that will only work for you. Sarah, you have before you the card that fell on the last letter of your name. Tell me, what was the name of the card you cut into the deck?” As she tells you, turn over the tabled card with a flourish and pause for applause.

Turn to Jack and ask him to do you the favour of cutting the deck a couple more times. This is simply to dispel any idea of anything being preset, as though it doesn’t matter what order the cards are in. When you receive the deck, ask Jack what his lucky number was. This is again a moment of misdirection as you simultaneously cut the key card to the face of the deck. This action places Jack’s card at his named number from the face.

When he’s named his number, say “that’s interesting because, yet again this wouldn’t have worked with anyone else because other people might not have had that lucky number. Let’s see how lucky it is. Actually, if you’d like to hold onto the cards…” Hand him the deck face down. He’s ahead of you at this point, as you ask, “and tell me Jack, what was the name of the card you cut into the deck?” When he responds, say that you’ll be impossibly fair and ask him to deal that number of cards from the face of the deck so that everyone can see. Here, he responds before the audience on discovering his selection at his named position.

A reasonable mileage from a single crimped card. Enjoy!

Oli Foster