Twenty-One Cards
Three columns, seven cards each. Point at the column your card is in, three times, and I'll have it.
Twenty-one cards, dealt face up into three columns. Look them over and settle on one. Don't hover between two — commit to a card and keep it to yourself.
Then I'll ask which column it's in. You'll answer three times, and that's all you'll ever tell me. No card is marked, nothing is counted out loud, and I'm not watching your face. Deal when you're ready.
You gave me three answers. Left, middle or right, three times over. That was enough for the card to walk itself into a place I already knew, whether you picked the ace or the seven of clubs.
The trick is old, and it's old because it holds. I use the same kind of thinking in close-up work, with a good deal more misdirection and far fewer columns. If you'd like that happening at a table full of guests, that's the job.
How it works
Each time you name a column, that column is gathered up between the other two and the cards are dealt out again. Sandwiching your column in the middle cuts the possible positions down by roughly a third every round: twenty-one to seven, seven to three, three to one. After the third deal your card sits eleventh from the top, dead centre, and it does that no matter which card you chose.
- Props
- A standard deck, twenty-one cards from it
- Difficulty
- Easy to learn, harder to perform well
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Close-up magic, mentalism and stage shows for corporate events, parties, churches and theatres.
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Based in Milwaukee · performing across Wisconsin · travelling nationwide