Calling The Shots No ratings yet.

Method: Glimpse the bottom card and shuffle the deck, retaining the bottom card in place, while you tell your friend or guest that you are going to make him… (or her) pick cards out of the deck without looking at them. (False shuffles: If you riffle shuffle, remember which half was the bottom of the deck and drop the bottom card of this half first. If you overhand shuffle, when you lift the cards with your right hand, hold back the bottom card with your left fingers.)

Let’s assume that the bottom card is the 3 of diamonds.

Set the deck on a table. Tell the guest that you want him to pick some cards out of the deck but not to look at them.

Tell him to draw the top card of the deck and put it face down on the table. Act like you’re concentrating and say, “It is the 3 of diamonds.” Pick it up, look at it and say, “I am right.”

Don’t let your guest see the card. At this point he probably thinks you are faking it. Before you put the card face down on the table, memorize it. We’ll assume that it’s the 2 of spades.

Now tell your friend to pick any card in the middle of the deck. This one really gets them. Your guest flips eagerly through the deck and pulls out any card and lays it face down on the table.

Concentrate again and say that this is the 2 of spades. Look at it and say, “I am right again. 2 out of 2.” Don’t let him see the card. Let’s say that it is really a queen of hearts. Put the card face down on the table.

Tell your friend to draw the bottom card off the deck and lay it face down. Once he has done this, concentrate and say that it is the queen of hearts. Once again check your result and say, “I am right.”

At this point your guest is very skeptical. You ask, “What cards did I ask you to pick out of the deck?” Grab the three cards and through a little sleight of hand rearrange them so they are in the same order as you called them. As he names each of the cards, drop it in front of him.

Say you were able to hypnotize them or something to make them draw those cards. For added effect as they draw tell them the card. Have them draw three or four times from the middle of the deck and tell them each time they drew the same card. In the end it will look like they had.