With the help of my fellow Ovalites, I came up with a variation on a very old Daniel Madison trick. Before I get into that, I thought it’d be fun to share what led up to the conception of the effect. If you don’t care, skip along to “The New Method” below.

The other day, the perfect scenario happened. I had an inkling that the chance to perform would occur, so I put the Advocate by Daniel Madison in my pocket. I went to practice at my local martial arts club, and after class, some of my fellow classmates were talking about my magic. Despite being a part of the club for just over a year now, no one knows I do magic apart from one person, and he was telling someone next to me about the card effect he saw me do. She asked me to show her something the next time I bring a deck of cards with me. I told her that I did have a deck of cards, but it was an invisible one (try not to roll your eyes). I asked her to take out a card from the invisible deck, whilst miming spreading the cards. She took one, and I asked her what card it was.

“The 8 of Hearts.”

“Wow, you see that so clearly. The thing is—if I clasp my hands together like this, and concentrate, I can get it to materialize.”

I opened my hands and there was a real, physical playing card there. I had her turn it over and it was her freely named playing card. They both freaked out.

The effect happened in such a casual, conversational, random way that they were both caught off guard completely. It reinvigorated my love for the Advocate index, and it’s again something I carry on my person everyday. I was thinking that the real strength of having an index on your person was being able to be creative and improvise and come up with an effect in any given moment.

With that being said however, I was reminded of the structured effects and routines I used to do with it. There was one routine from the original PDF that I’ve always wanted to do but never attempted. It was called “Air”. The idea was that after having a card named, you get the participant to throw the deck into the air, and you’d catch the named playing card out of the air. I always loved the idea of that visual moment. The problem with the version in the PDF was that there was always a possibility of the duplicate of their named card being spotted in the air or on the ground if flipped face up. This never sat well with me. I recently started to revisit the idea and came up with a completely different method.

The New Method

The main advantages of this method is that there is zero chance of them discovering a duplicate on the floor, the deck is left (mostly) examinable, and the retrieval of the card can be done at the last minute, at lightning speed. I’m going to explain it to you here now.

Instead of a full deck index, we’ll be using a smaller index and combining it with equivoque. It’s only one equivocal question, we’ll be forcing the court cards. Thanks to misindexed cards, we will only need 6 cards in total (a red jack, a red queen, a red king, a black jack, a black queen and a black king). You will place the red cards in your left pocket, the black cards in your right pocket. 3 cards in each pocket. You can order them how you like. The deck used in performance will have no court cards in it, instead it will have 2 (or 3) Jokers, and a few advertisement cards. You’ll have a 40-45 card deck. The participant will not be able to tell that there are cards missing.

Here’s how the equivoque will go:

“Imagine you throw the whole deck in the air and they’re falling in slow motion towards the ground. But some of them are falling faster than the others. Either the number or picture cards. Go ahead and shout out whichever you want, numbers or pictures!”

Pause for a very short beat, then say:

“Whichever ones you say are the ones that…”

If they interrupt to say the number cards finish this sentence with “…hit the ground first. What did you say?”

If they interrupt to say the picture cards finish this sentencee with “…remain suspended in the air. What did you say?”

After they repeat their answer, continue. This ploy is from Ollie Mealing, and we thank him for his valuable contribution to the world of equivocal speech.

“Alright, so the number cards are all on the ground and the picture cards are still falling slowly. All the jacks, queens and kings are hanging in midair. I reach out and grab one. Which one do you see me grab?”

You just rope them back into choosing the picture cards every time, then it’s a free choice from there. What’s cool about this script is that we can say “Now, I am going to attempt to do this for real. We are going to throw up the whole deck and I am going to try to catch the same card you imagined catching.”

Next, have them take the deck and shuffle it. Explain that in a moment you want them to throw the deck into the air. As they shuffle, go into your pocket and retrieve the card. Perhaps your hands might casually be in your pocket to begin with. It should be an easy and quick process, you’re taking one card from a group of three. Palm it, and take your hand out of your pocket and assume a “ready to catch” position. Let your participant finish shuffling, then ask them to throw the deck up on a count of three.

Once they throw it up, reach in with the palming hand and produce the palmed card. Make sure to produce it so that the back of the card is facing them. If the deck doesn’t break up and flutter in the air, you could punch it with the palmed hand to produce a sprayed card effect. Now all you have to do is cover the relevant suit as you turn over the misindexed card.

To end, here is a bonus idea I had that I thought was funny. If any of you end up trying it, please let me know. I also had the idea of taking the 6 gaff cards and distributing them in my socks, instead of my pockets. 3 black in my left sock, 3 in my right sock. Then I’d tell the participant I’d crouch down and jump up and catch a card from the cloud of cards they’re about to make by throwing the deck into the air. Depending on what color court they name, I crouch down, angling the corresponding side away from them, secretly retrieving the card from my sock and putting it into a one-handed palm.

I do this as I tell them to throw the cards on a count of three (three, two, one, jump). Then I jump and produce.