Hey everyone, welcome back to That Magic Guy. Today I'm going to teach you what I honestly think is one of the best card tricks for beginners. Seriously, this trick is absolutely brilliant.
But here's the kicker. Even if you're a seasoned pro, I think you're going to fall in love with it, too. You can perform this trick anytime, anywhere with any deck of cards.
It can even be a borrowed deck. There's no setup, no slide of hand, and I can pretty much guarantee this is going to become a go-to favorite in your repertoire. You'll be performing it all the time.
Let's dive straight into it. This trick is all about storytelling. It's got such a fun little presentation, and it's just as much fun to perform as it is to watch.
So, first things first, you hand over the deck and let your spectator shuffle it up as much as they like. It doesn't have to be your deck. They can use their own if they want.
It's a totally fair shuffle. Once they're satisfied, they pick a card. This card, it's going to represent them in our little story.
And in this story, they're a criminal. Yep. We're diving into a detective mystery plot here.
You tell them to memorize the card. This is you. Remember it.
This is going to be your card. Then you take the card and lose it back into the deck. You say this is you going into hiding.
You start shuffling the cards and then you ask them to say stop whenever they like. They can stop you anywhere. Wherever they stop you, you slide their card in and lose it in the pack.
To mix things up even more, you ask them to give the deck a couple of cuts just to really make sure their card is hidden well. It reinforces the idea that their card is totally lost in the deck. At this point, you say, "Right now, you're the criminal on the run, and now it's time to find you.
But I'm not going to be the one doing the searching. I'm calling in some help. Two detectives.
Now it gets fun. You say, "Let's use two detectives. " How about the two queens?
Two strong, nononsense female detectives. They're going to track you down. You take out the two queens and place them into the deck.
One detective goes near the top and the other goes near the bottom. You show this clearly. Right now, in between these two detectives, there are a lot of suspects.
The queens have their work cut out for them. This is where the mystery gets good. You now hand the deck over to the spectator and let them cut the cards wherever they like.
You say, "Now look what's happening. Our detectives are closing in. They're narrowing down the list of suspects.
After the cut, you spread the cards and show that now there are only seven cards between the queens. The queens have been hard at work. And look, they've already narrowed it down to just seven possible suspects.
Then comes the interrogation. You say, "All right, it's time to question these suspects. Let's see who's telling the truth and who's hiding something.
" You perform a downunder deal. A really easy but powerful little move. You deal one card down, one card under.
Repeating this pattern. One down, one under, one down, one under. Our detectives are asking questions and narrowing the field.
Eventually, you're left with just three cards. Now, we're getting somewhere. Only three suspects left.
You then do one more round of questioning again down under dealing the last few cards. The detectives ask a few final questions and then you're left with just one card. They've found their culprit.
You flip it over and boom, it's their selected card every single time. And you say, "What amazing detectives. " Case closed.
All right, let's break this down step by step. But before we get into the explanation, if you love learning magic and especially easy self-working card tricks, do subscribe to my channel. Your support helps me push out quality content every week.
Now, let's dig into this awesome trick. This trick is an amazing example of how powerful a simple principle can be when wrapped in a compelling story. You get so much mileage out of this routine.
And remember, no slight of hand, no gaffs, no setup, just one clever move. So, here's how it works. You start by having the deck shuffled by the spectator.
Once you take it back, square it up carefully. But here's the secret. You're going to glimpse the bottom card.
Let's say it's the seven of hearts. That's your key card. Now, you ask them to pick any card they like.
Let's say they choose the nine of diamonds. You don't see it, they remember it. You begin an overhand shuffle, keeping that seven of hearts on the bottom.
At some point during the shuffle, you ask them to say stop. Wherever they stop you, they place their card on top of the pile in your hand. Now, here's the key moment.
You drop the rest of the deck, the pile with the seven of hearts on the bottom, on top of their card. This means the seven of hearts is now directly above their card in the deck. That's crucial.
You can even let them give the deck a couple of cuts. Now, if they do just a couple of simple single cuts, their card and your key card usually stay fairly close together, still in the middle of the deck. This adds an extra layer of fairness.
Now you say, "Let's find our detectives. " This gives you a perfect excuse to look at the faces of the cards. You do this casually, but what you're really doing is locating your key card, the seven of hearts.
Once you spot it, you cut it to the face of the deck. Doing that actually brings their selected card to the top of the deck. Next, pick two matching court cards, say two black jacks, to serve as your detectives.
As you remove these, be careful not to flash the top card. That's their selection, and you don't want to reveal it yet. Put one jack fifth from the top, counting four cards and placing the jack face up.
Put the second jack fourth from the bottom of the deck. Now you've got a sandwich with their card hiding somewhere in between. Show the deck again and say, "Here's our lineup of suspects.
" Let them cut the deck again. It adds another fair touch and doesn't disturb anything important. Now spread the cards again and point out, "Look, the detectives have narrowed it down.
Just seven suspects remain between them. " You then remove all the cards above the top jack and below the bottom jack. Those are out of play.
You're only working with the sandwich of cards in the middle now. Perform your down under deal. Deal one card down, one card under.
Keep going until you're left with three [Music] cards. Drmatically say only three suspects remain. You do the down under move again.
One card down, one card under, and you're left with one card. Flip it over slowly. Boom.
The detectives nailed it. That's your card. And it will be every single time.
And that's the trick. Isn't it awesome? This amazing routine is based on a clever concept by the legendary Aldo Colini.
What an icon. His material is always fun, powerful, and super practical. If you love this trick, don't forget to like, share, and subscribe.
All right, that's it for today, magicians. I hope you enjoyed this trick and found the tutorial easy to follow. If you've got any questions or thoughts, just drop them in the comments below.
I love hearing from you. And in the meantime, go out there, have fun, perform often, and I'll see you very soon with another amazing trick here on That Magic Guy.