Re-Tweak: Sort of Psychic Part 3

Sort of Psychic, by John Bannon is a trick I’ve written about a couple of times before. Here and here, specifically.

This is likely going to be a trick that is always in my repertoire. It’s a very straightforward entry point into the Spectator as Magician plot that audience’s seem to easily grasp. The arc to the effect feels pretty natural. The spectator thinks of any card in a deck and sort of “tunes” themself to that card by trying to guess which packet it’s in. After a few rounds of this—and after becoming accustomed to the feeling of being right or wrong in regards to the sense of where their card is—they’re now able to cut a shuffled deck directly at their thought of card (despite never naming it out loud).

I’m not going to get into the method or the previous tweaks I’ve mentioned. You can track down John’s trick and read my other posts above if you’re not caught up.

Today I want to offer a tweak for the effect that comes from Tomas Blomberg. This makes the part of the effect where the 16-card pile is divided into two packets feel even more casual. That was the weakness in the original effect. The 16 cards would be coalesced and then every other card would be stripped out. It felt too regimented, and my previous tweaks were an attempt to address that issue.

Here is Tomas’ handling. We pick up at the point where the 16 card packet has been split in two 8-card portions and the spectator has just indicated which packet contains their card for the first time. You’ll need a thorough understanding of the trick, and to follow along with cards in hand, for this to make much sense.

A - Once they’ve indicated which pile has their card in it, drop the other pile on top.

B - Now do an overhand shuffle in this manner: Run three singly, and toss the rest on top. Run four singly, toss the rest on top. Run five singly, then pull off all the remaining cards as a chunk, except the bottom card in the right hand’s packet. Drop that last card on top.

You now have four options on top and four options on the bottom, with one cover card on top, and one cover card on the bottom.

Adding these cover cards prevents the issue where the spectator’s card is continually on the top or bottom each round.

C - Ask your spectator to cut the pile into two packets. These don’t have to be even packets. So long as the pile is cut somewhat evenly, the trick will work. If they cut off anywhere from 5 to 11 cards, the trick works. Keep track of where the top of the deck is.

D - Have them try and psychically find their card. Make note of which pile holds their cards. And reassemble the packet into the orientation it was in before it was cut. In other words, put the top portion back on top.

E - If they said their card was in the top half, you’re going to shuffle face down. If they said it was in the bottom half you’ll turn your wrist and do a face-up overhand shuffle. Either way you do the same thing. Run three card singly, and then pull off everything above the bottom card on the right hand’s portion and drop that last card on top.

F - The four remaining options are now 2nd and 3rd from the top or 2nd and 3rd from the bottom. Again have the spectator cut the pile in half. Again, it doesn’t have to be anywhere near perfectly in half.

G - Once they’ve indicated where their card is for the final time, reassemble the packet by putting the top portion of the packet back on the bottom portion. If their card was in the top portion, place the 16-card packet on top of the rest of the deck. If their cards was in the bottom portion, place rest of the deck on top of the packet. Either way you now have the full deck together and you know which one of two cards are theirs.

H - Riffle shuffle, retaining the options in position. Then cut/shuffle the cards to be set up for the finale. You can figure that part out.

Letting them cut the pile into two packets really makes it feel like you can’t possibly know or care which cards are in which pile. That, in turn, makes the whole thing feel extra-casual, which is exactly what you should be going for with this trick.

Thanks to Tomas for sending this along and allowing me to share it with you.