Fat Shit
/I highlighted John Bannon’s trick, 51 Fat Chances in my post on Failsafe Tricks.
If my email box is to be believed, a lot of people overlooked this trick when it first came out (as I did).
Essentially it’s an elimination procedure, narrowing down the deck to one card which is forced, or at least known to the magician before the elimination begins.
I wanted to share a few ideas with you that have come in, to help frame this as a tool that could be used in numerous tricks, rather than just the one specific trick you learn on the download.
From Salim K.
I was gonna keep this to myself but I'm sharing my favorite premise for 51 Fat Chances...
Nikolas Mavresis & David Jonathan's Charms Deck.
I bring out my coin wallet and take the coins out, "we'll use these later" if you'd like...
In the meantime I ask the participants if anyone has a good luck charm? I ask rhetorically to set up the following point. Do you know how these luck charms came to be? Well as a matter of fact while most people walk around and just choose their luck charm, only a few get them by the ancient tradition. One of the first spells magicians across time learned was how to connect people to their true charm. Kind of like how the Navi connect to the banshee in Avatar. Would you like me to help you find your's? I think I have a good sense but first please confirm that my coin wallet is empty. Now, take these cards and give them a good mix and a few cuts (I start a wash shuffle for them, easier on the participant and the cards)...
Perform 51 fat chances. Once they've "connected with their charm" I have them place the wallet on the card for a moment then allow them to open the wallet only to find a physical version of "THEIR CHARM" that has been chosen for them through this bit of ceremony. This is now your true personal luck charm that's yours to keep.
Method:
51 Fat Chances with the Charms Deck and a pre-loaded Quiver.
After they shuffle and cut I spread the cards in my hands just to show all the charms and show the random order, culling my force to the top. I never touch the cards again.
One can buy many small variations of many of the charm images in the deck from amazon in bulk, I literally found ten then stopped because that should be more than enough for a good while.
With two quivers one could switch the wallet and have an alternative charm loaded for an immediate repeat performance with different results just by finding and forcing the next loaded charm.
Taking the coins out adds the subtlety that surely nothing else is in there but even still the participant can stick their finger in and not find anything if the loaded side is uppermost.
From Madison H.
Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I think it makes a really great trick to do with Chris Rawlin’s roulette cards. Have them shuffle, you read the mark of the top card and place that number as your bet. Every number that gets turned face up is out. Yours will be the last man standing.
The process feels kind of like the card version of a random spin of a roulette wheel.
I would probably say that I get one number and they get all other 37 numbers. So the odds are astronomically in their favor. You need some imp for why you never lose.
Piggybacking off Madison’s idea, this technique is exceptionally strong when using a marked deck of any kind.
The nature of the elimination procedure is such that you have an eternity to do anything tricky you might want to do from the point you know what card is going to be revealed to the point the card is revealed.
For example, you put the deck and a folded prediction on the table. They shuffle the cards as much as they want and then go into the elimination procedure. While they do this, you lap-write the card that is set to be revealed on a duplicate billet and long before the card is revealed you can switch in that prediction for the dummy billet at a moment of zero heat.
Or you could put a Mystery Box on the table with the deck. Have it shuffled as much as they like. And while they do the elimination procedure you have easily a full minute to get a matching folded card from an index to be produced from the Mystery Box.
John’s procedure is funny because it combines two methods magicians generally think are trash to produce something that is quite good, given the right context.
In 51 Fat Chances you have something that is both:
1. A force from an examinable deck, shuffled by the spectator, and never touched by the magician.
and
2. A procedure that naturally generates a time gap for you to accomplish any furtive actions necessary for the trick.
That’s already very strong.
And if you add in other deceptive elements like marked cards, billet switches, secret writing, indexes, etc., you can craft something incredibly powerful.