The Luck of The Balducci
Effect:
Spectator examines and shuffles the deck. Upon completing the shuffle, you ask the spectator to remove your lucky card (Ace of Clubs) and place it on top of the deck. The spectator then chooses a lucky card (Ten of Clubs). Both lucky cards are lost in the deck. With no funny moves, his lucky card pops out face up in the face down deck. The cards are then spread to reveal that your lucky card (Ace) as well as the Jack, Queen and King are all face up in the deck.
Selling Points:
Remember, the spectator shuffled and examined the deck and made sure that no cards were face up. There is no culling; The cards all end up face up (Triumph style) in the middle of the deck in order with no funny moves.
Setup:
A duplicate Ace of Clubs is used as well as a small stack that you add to the deck after it’s shuffled. Don’t worry, this stuff is super easy. Below is a snap shot of what you need. Ace, King, Queen, Jack of Clubs – face up. Then an indifferent face down card, followed by a face down Ten of Clubs. Then an extra Ace of Clubs. The “extra” Ace is just left in the deck. The six card stack is palmed in your right hand with the back of the Ace against your palm.
Handling:
Have the deck thoroughly shuffled by the spectator. Have him then look through the cards (backs toward you) and ask him to remove The Ace of Clubs, your lucky card, and place it on the deck face down on top. You then ask him if he has a lucky card. As you ask the question you reach over with your right hand (or whatever hand is palming the cards) and load them on top of the deck as you pick up the deck.
This question is plenty of misdirection for the load. If he says “yes” that he has a lucky card ask him what it is. If it’s the Ten of Clubs then you’ll have a miracle in a minute. If however, it’s anything else, tell him that you don’t want him swayed by his lucky card so we’re going to create a temporarily lucky card for him just long enough for this “experiment.”
If he says “no” that he does not have a lucky card, you simply say that we’ll help him create one. Do so as follows. Holding the deck in Overhand (a.k.a. Biddle Grip) Grip in the right hand, slowly dribble cards off the bottom of the deck into the left hand as you tell him to say “stop” when he feels lucky. The location of the stop is not a force, so he can truly stop wherever he wants as long as you don’t get into your top face up stack.
When he stops, don’t show him the card yet. Rather, tell him that in order for the card to become lucky, it must first spend a moment in contact with your lucky card (Ace). So to facilitate that, you turn the upper packet face up use your left fingers to slide the card on the back of the top packet (the card that was the top card a moment ago – the loaded on Ace of Clubs) out to the left about a half an inch. See the image below (left hand removed for clarity – and to work the camera).
You’re simply showing that you’re about to place the packets back to back thus placing your Ace back to back with his (yet unknown) lucky card. What’s really happening as you place the cards back to back is that the palmed in Ace from your stack is going back to back with an indifferent card. You close up the back to back deck and pause for a moment. Then comment that the cards have bonded and the stopped at card is now officially lucky.
Spread the deck and stop when reach the first face down card. This will be the Ten of Clubs which will be directly below the original Ace of Clubs that the spectator placed on top of the deck. Up jog it being careful not to spread past the card below the Ten which is the indifferent card from your palmed in stack. This is just a cover card to prevent the rest of the stack from being seen. After up jogging the Ten – you still haven’t shown it yet – turn the top half of the deck face down again.
Position Check:
The deck from the top down:
- Ace of Clubs (the original one the spectator put on top earlier in the effect)
- About half the deck face down
- The Ten of Clubs out jogged face down
- A face down indifferent card
- Face up Jack of Clubs
- Face up Queen of Clubs
- Face up King of Clubs
- Face up Ace of Clubs (the duplicate you loaded on from your stack)
- The rest of the deck face down
Now for the first time you tilt your left hand to show the spectator his newly created lucky card. That sounds like a lot of stuff to get to the force card. I promise it’s not. It takes two seconds and uses solid patter to justify everything. After showing him his lucky card (Ten of Clubs), push it flush but keep a pinky break beneath it. I tend to just use an angled-push through and catch a right thumb break at the back of the pack; then transfer it to the left pinky.
Next, either pass or double undercut the Ten to the bottom of the deck. When you’re done, the Ten will be on the bottom, and your stack of four face up cards will be just beneath the top (face down) card in the deck. Execute a quasi-Faro shuffle of the top 15 or so cards from the deck. It doesn’t have to even come close to a perfect Faro. Just a simple push through shuffle will suffice. Be careful not to expose your face up cards. Do one more (for a total of 2) quasi-Faro shuffles.
While performing these two shuffles be careful not to cut to or expose the face up cards. Also, be careful not to flash the Ten of Clubs on the bottom of the deck. So you’re done with all the hard stuff at this point. Remember it all took just a moment to get there. Also, while doing the two quick shuffles, you’re explaining to your participant that the great thing about lucky cards is that even after shuffling them into the deck and losing them, they’ll always show up just when you need them.
The Big Reveal:
You’re now going to cause the Ten of Clubs to appear “popped out” from the middle of the deck. You’re simply going to perform the J.K. Hartman Pop Out Move. The video below shows this move a few times from different angles. When doing the move, be careful not to cut to a face up card. Also, if you’ve done your two shuffles correctly, the first face up card (Jack) is about half way down the deck. So when performing the pop out move try to cut the deck closer to the top of the deck and therefore above your stack. Also, keep in mind that though I keep saying “cut the deck” I really mean “break the deck.” You don’t actually cut it; you just break it and slip the card in . . . again, see the video below.
As you’re performing this move (which only takes a millisecond), you’ve just said to the participant that lucky cards always show up when you need them most. Then you say let’s see if we can get it to appear right now. Then do the Hartman move. Bam! Their luck card appeared. Then you say, “The reason it appeared is because we really needed it.” Slowly spread through the cards and reveal the rest of the Royal Flush face up. Continue your sentence above ” . . . we also needed my lucky card too . . . we needed them to complete our Royal Flush.
Final Thoughts:
Keep in mind that if you were able to get the Ten to “Pop out” above your stack, the flush will appear in ascending order. However, sometimes the Ten will (due to the way you happened to shuffle and break the cards for the pop out move) be right in the middle of the flush, at the bottom, etc. It could end up anywhere. In those cases, it’s no big deal. The cards just won’t be in order. That’s ok with me.
In fact, I used to perform this by starting with an overhand shuffle right before doing my two Faros. This just made the handling seem more free and fair. I would then do another overhand shuffle after the Faros. This would mix up the order of the flush. I had no problem with that. I don’t think it hurts the routine at all.
Regarding palming the cards and “getting into” this effect, it’s pretty easy to do. You can just have the stack in your pocket the whole time. Use the rest of the deck for any effects you are doing. Then when you’re ready to do this effect, it’s easy enough to palm the cards and just hold out while the spectator’s shuffling the cards . . . easy stuff folks.
If any of what you’ve read in this article is a little fuzzy, watch the video below. It’s an over the shoulder shot of the whole routine. It’s all very slow, and very exposed. There are several places where I reveal the set up and show how the cards are stacked, etc. This is just for your education, not for the audience to see. Enjoy the clip, and reread the effect if you need to.
This is a simple effect with a nice hook and a few well scripted lines that give the effect some personality and flow. And I love the final line of “we need it to complete the Royal Flush . . . ” Then spread to reveal.
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