Jazz In Social Magic is a series starting with a trilogy about marked cards over the next two days that will guide you to become better at jazz magic. Why, what did you think it was? Get your mind out of the gutter.

Several years ago, a close family member passed away. It was a shock, but I had just moved apartments, so a family friend was helping move a table they had owned into the new apartment. Luckily, this one had an elevator.

We talked about our memories of the deceased, and I told him how I always thought he was really cool growing up. He was flattered and a little surprised.

Then he said, “Oh, still into magic tricks?” He’d noticed the decks of cards lying around.

“Yeah,” I admitted. “Just tinkering around. I could show you something kinda cool if you want.”

“Sure! I got a little time.”

“Ok,” I said. “Grab that deck of cards over there, or whatever deck you want.”

He went and grabbed the marked deck I indicated. All the decks he saw were marked.

“Alright, take them out and shuffle them up some. Shuffle them good, and name a card. Any card.”

“The seven of hearts.”

This is not going where you think it’s going, I promise you.

“The seven of hearts, okay, that’s a good choice.”

He was doing a very good job riffle shuffling this marked deck.

“I think they’re pretty well shuffled now,” he said.

“Probably.”

I took the cards from him and without a false move spread them facedown across the polished wooden table, evenly and neatly, a miracle in itself. As I did, I started scanning for the seven of hearts. There! About five cards left of the center of the spread.

“Alright, what card did you say?”

“The seven of hearts.”

“Cool,” I said, trying to keep my cool. I was getting better at jazz magic, but this was ridiculous. This was basically The Trick That Cannot Be Explained, and I had never done that for a spectator before, let alone gotten very good at it.

“I just want you to go ahead and put your finger on any card in this spread you want,” I said, pointing at the three different quarters of the spread that the seven of hearts wasn’t at.

“Any?”

“Any.”

“Okay…” he said, and he put his finger directly on the seven of hearts.

“Cool,” I said, now trying even harder to keep my cool. “Now turn it over.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

He turned over the card, and gasped.

“Pretty good, huh?” I said with a faint smile, trying to pretend like I hadn’t just pulled off the best trick of my life so far.

“That’s… That’s… Wow,” he said, dropping the card and putting a hand to his mouth. “I’ve never seen something like that in person before… Like on TV… Better than on TV… Thank you! Honestly, thank you!”

“You- you’re welcome. I’m glad I could show you that.”

“I guess I have to get going now, but…”

“We should stay in touch!”

“Yeah!”

Then he got going.

And we did.

The end. Thanks for reading about my cherished memory.

So, what’s the moral here?

Number one, since it’s fresh in our memories, is the ending. I took my winnings and ran. Imagine if I had tried another lesser trick after that. I cringe even thinking of it. Tomorrow though, we’ll hear from another contributor who found another opportunity immediately afterwards in a similar, but surefire, situation.

Secondly, I think it must be said that jazz magic is good. A lot of people are afraid of failure, but that’s not what jazz is about. If he had put his finger on a different card, that would simply mean a different direction. It’s truly worth exploring more, especially because it’s very easy to practice alone as long as you can shuffle a deck and try some Vernon-style jazz.

Essentially, this was a pseudo-performance of The Trick That Cannot Be Explained, with a freely named card instead and a gimmicked deck. Which is especially easy to practice by yourself. TTTCBE I mean, not the bastardized version. Being lazy when you aren’t performing won’t get you anywhere.

Or as one magician said, after I recounted the performance to her long ago…

Risk is good and cool, actually.

Anonymous

And third? Well, that’s the use of a marked deck, which should be frequent, but that’s coming up tomorrow.

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