Controlled Luck

Effect

Two spectators are chosen from the audience, and to one is handed a hat full of numbered cardboard squares. The performer offers these for examination and explains that they are numbered from 1 to 52. The assistant is told to mix them thoroughly, and from this point on the performer never touches them again.

Now a pack of cards is given to a second spectator to be shuffled, and he is asked to stand to one side of a table. The first spectator holding the numbered squares stands at the opposite side of the table. The performer now moves away about ten feet, stands facing both assistants, and announces that he will write a prediction about events to happen. This prediction he writes, either on a pad or on a business card which he has just borrowed.

The spectator with the cards we will designate as “A,” and the spectator with the numbered squares as “B.” “A” is now directed to draw the cards off the deck, one at a time, to hold them up before his eyes and to look intently at the face of each card. Then he is to drop it face down on the table without mentioning what card it is.

Simultaneously, as “A” holds each card up, “B” reaches into the hat and draws out a number which he calls aloud. This procedure goes on until the performer calls, “Stop.” “A” is now holding a card and “B” a number. The performer steps forward and hands his prediction to a third spectator who reads it. The prediction says:

“When 'B' calls the number twenty-six, 'A' will be looking at the six of Spades 6” Spectator “B” has, of course, just called the number 26 and holds it in his hand, and spectator “A” holds up his card for all to see. This is the climax - it is the Six of Spades 6! This makes a new and different effect, and the best part of it is that all the numbered squares and the cards may be examined and will be found to be unprepared in any way.