This card trick is fairly simple in principle, but the audience will never figure it out. You will be convincing the audience that you have powerful X-ray skills and can stare through the top card on a deck, and read which card it is

Here’s how it will seem to your amazed audience. You ask somebody from the audience to shuffle the cards, and check to make sure it’s not a marked deck or anything. You then take the deck, shuffle it once more for good measure, and then hand them back the deck.

After they are holding the deck, you tell them to separate the deck into four equal stacks. They don’t have to be exactly equal, only approximate. Then you stun the audience by staring directly through the top card to the other side, reading the name and value of the card. You will be able to easily do this many times and never come close to being discovered.

Here’s the trick. As you shuffle the deck one last time, take a quick glance at the bottom card, and secretly place it on top of the deck. This may take a wee bit of practice, but after you do it a few times at home, you’ll be a natural in front of others.

Once you know which card is on top, you’re ready to proceed. Watch them as they cut the deck into four stacks, and remember which one has the card you just peeked at. Let’s call it card one to make it easy. Pick any stack that doesn’t contain “card one,” but you actually say “card one.” Then pick it up, and set it face down in front of the stack. Remember this card now as card two. You’ll need to have somebody remember all four cards, so you can reveal them all at once. On the next pile of cards, you say “card two,” and look at the next card, which in reality is card three. The trick is to stay one step ahead of yourself.

After you’ve finally come to the stack that has “card one” on top, you’ll actually be saying “card four.” Then with all four cards laid face down, you have the audience member who was recording the cards call them out again. After they do this, you quickly flip all the cards over, showing them your accurate readings. This takes a little of memory, so it can help to practice with your friends before doing it in front of strangers. Have fun.

How do magicians go about it when they desire to cause something to appear mysteriously? The most common solution of the problem is a laborious and tedious search. Catalogues are thoroughly shifted. Textbooks on magic are thumbed from cover to cover. The performances of other magicians are eagerly scouted. And the magic shops are visited again and again.

Of course, the deliberate decision to add an effect of a definite nature is not the usualway the average magician adds to his routine or repertoire. The usual trick is added by the run-of-the-mill magical enthusiast simply because something in the number appeals to him. It might be the appearance of the apparatus. Or the apparent profundity of the method, the deceptive feature. Or the comedy potentialities. Or any of a number of other factors. I’m convinced this is not the correct way to add program material. It seems far better to me to add material from the viewpoint of its importance in adding entertainment value to the performer’s routine.

However, should a magician decide to add a production or appearance number to his program, usually through search he finds some type of trick that supplies the desired general effect. The specific trick selected usually determines the object with which the effect is accomplished. Then, the object to be used established, if he desires to tie it into a unified routine, he shapes and warps and changes matters until he meets his requirements as nearly as possible.

The somewhat more exacting magician will usually adopt the second method. Here, he will decide to add some type of production or mysterious appearance. Before embarking upon his search, he will determine the object or objects with which he wishes to accomplish the effect. Then, as before, he will make the search. But this investigation is not so general. Specifically, he knows what he wants to cause to appear. His hunt is limited to tricks in which the desired object is used. If he fails in his search, or if the tricks he finds do not seem satisfactory to him, usually he will decide upon a second object to take the place of the first choice