The Card In The Pocket
This trick is particularly good for a beginner who hasn’t yet mastered the various sleights necessary for the performance of the more elaborate tricks. A card that a spectator has secretly thought of disappears from the pack, and is discovered in the tail pocket of the performer’s coat.
The performer commences the experiment by offering the spectators a pack of cards, with the request for one of them to note and bear in mind a certain card and to note at what number, counting from the bottom of the pack, the card lies.
This having been done and the pack returned to the conjurer, the conjurer, under the pretense of looking for the chosen card, quickly passes the cards one by one from the left hand into the right. By doing this, the former bottom card now becomes the topmost one.
Above the last card, the conjurer places three more indifferent cards taken from the bottom of the pack. The conjurer then claims to be unable to discover the card in this manner, and returns the pack to the spectator with the request for the spectator to count off from the top of the pack the same number of cards that the spectator’s card was removed from the bottom card. After this request has been complied with, the conjurer knows that the fourth card from the top of the pack must be the selected one.
Seizing the three uppermost cards, the conjurer places them face downwards upon the table and boldly asserts that the chosen card is among them, inviting the spectator to look and see that it is really the case. While the person is engaged in doing so, failing of course to discover the chosen card among them, the conjurer takes advantage of this opportunity to palm off the top card of pack. Throwing the pack on the table, the conjurer asks the spectator to name the card.
We will suppose it is the Four of Hearts. “The Four of Hearts?,” says the conjurer, “That cannot be, as I have had this card in the pocket of my coat all the evening.” Reaching into the indicated pocket, the conjurer produces the selected card, and upon inspection of the pack it is found to be missing.
This trick is from the book “Card Tricks and How To Do Them”, published by A. Roterberg.
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