Surprise! Jazz in Social Magic is back! If you missed the first four posts in the series, here’s one, two, three and four. Or just click the first and use the arrows at the bottom to navigate. Once again, we’ll be putting out a series of three JISM posts. This one is a retelling of a performance, but the next two cover an interesting principle you can use for some 50/50 effects including Which Hand, and others where failures can be replicated. Enjoy!
So I found myself in an aisle seat on a cramped plane chartered to take me across the coast. Seated next to me was a couple, both with unusual accents.
I was at a point in my traveling journey where I was simply exhausted, barely functioning on minimal sleep. As the plane began its taxi phase, I broke out a fresh deck to fiddle around with. I usually try not to do anything flashy in public, but since it was a new deck I couldn’t resist a couple thumb fans.
The couple seated to my right were looking at my hands every few seconds. Noticing this, I very subtly put the 7 of Spades in the card box, and the 7 of Hearts in the breast pocket of my shirt.
I contemplated. Should I perform, and commit myself socially for the next four hours, or keep to myself? I decided to keep to myself.
“Are you a magician?” asked the woman.
“Uh… yes I am, actually.”
“We had a magician at our wedding, he was amazing. He was the absolute highlight.”
“Yes, yes he was…” the husband said in concurrence. I ended up telling them how happy I was that they had a positive impression of magic and that the magician they met was amazing.
I was then asked by the couple to do my “favorite” card trick. I explained to them that my favorite ones were tricks I could do with my mind, not using fast hands. I turned to the woman and asked her to say the first number from 1 to 10 that came to her mind. I made sure to flash a 3 on the face of the deck to kill that possibility.
She smiled, and said 2. Fuck, I thought.
Without a pause, I turned to her partner and asked him to do the same. He said 7. Immediately, I asked him, red or black? He said black. The woman chirped up as well and enthusiastically said red. I acknowledged her answer but continued with the man.
I used Michael Murray’s Tombola principle to whittle it down to the spade. My sleeves were rolled up. I gave him the deck, making sure he knew my hands were empty. I invited both of them to look for the 7 of Spades while my empty, spread out hands stayed away from the deck.
“It’s not there,” he said.
“See the card box in the front stowaway there?” I asked. “Pick it up and give it a shake.”
He shook the box, and everyone heard a little rattle.
He opened the box, and turned over the 7 of Spades.
They were both speechless. As they were reacting, I culled the 2 of Hearts to the top of the deck. I wanted to do something with the red two the woman mentioned. I ended up placing the seven back on top of the deck face-up, getting a break under the top two cards. I asked her outright which she preferred among Hearts or Diamonds, gambling on the idea that she would choose a heart. She did. I picked up the double (the 7 of Spades and 2 of Hearts) and did a simple shake-type color change by revolving the back-to-back double.
We continued our conversation afterwards, and it turned out that it was the woman’s birthday. She felt happy that she got a “private magic show” on her birthday. It was a pleasant conversation, and they were a lovely couple. We exchanged numbers and went our separate ways.