Counterfeit Cards

Effect

The performer shows a blank deck of cards, and then suddenly changes one blank into the Ace of Spades. Next, the Ace of Spades is split into two separate cards. Part of the Ace is on one card and part of the Ace is on the other card (see fig.1). Then another Ace of Spades is created, and then the entire deck is created. View The Performance

Materials

You’ll need one deck, one blank card, Three Ace of Spades, a good art eraser.

Preparation

Take one extra Ace, and erase the center pip (yes, it will erase). Take the second extra Ace, and erase the corner indices (see fig. 1). Place these two cards face to face with the “indices only” card face up. Place these two face to face cards on top of the deck. Next place the regular Ace of Spades on the bottom of the deck, and place a blank beneath this (see fig. 2). Obviously, this effect is an opener.

Counterfeit Cards Figure 1 Counterfeit Cards Figure 2

Performance

Perform a reverse fan to show all cards as blank. This is also known as the Blank Fan. Then square up the cards and show the bottom card to be blank. Next, perform The Erdnase Color Change (explained in Dethroned). This will cause the Ace of Spades to magically appear. Take it from the bottom, turn the deck over. Place the Ace of Spades on top of the deck face up. Now the situation, from the top down is as follows: a face up Ace of Spades, then below that, you have the two face to face erased Aces, then the rest of the deck, and finally, on the bottom is a blank card. Now perform the Atomic Split that is described in “I Said, ‘Watch the Joker.'” However, in this version of the Atomic Split, you’ll only be using three cards instead of five. When you’ve completed the Split, you should be holding the cards as in figure 3.

Counterfeit Cards Figure 3

You’ve apparently split the card apart and some ink is on one card and some ink is on another card (you tell the audience that you should’ve waited for the ink to dry). Next, show the audience the bottom card which is the blank card. Next, revolve the blank card over the left edge of the deck onto the top of the deck (see Dethroned fig. 10). At this point, you have a face up blank card on top and the Ace of Spades face down below the blank. Simply turn the blank card down, and perform the Erdnase Color Change again. This time it will be much more subtle because the cards are face down. All this does is switch the top and second from the top cards.

Now, do a double lift to show the blank. Turn the double face down again; then lift the single off to show that you’ve produced another Ace of Spades. Place the Ace of Spades off to the side on the table. You now have a normal deck with a blank on the top. Overhand shuffle the blank to the bottom of the deck as you say, “I can shuffle all I want, but it doesn’t matter because the rest of the cards are still blank.” Then do another reverse fan to show the cards to be blank. Then turn the deck face up and use the Erdnase Color Change to create one card. Place it aside, and you can create as many cards as you want, one at a time. After only a couple however, I will simply snap my fingers and show that the entire deck is now printed. You can either secretly remove the blank card or you can show it as one card that didn’t print and put it away in your pocket.

Either way, this is a great effect, and you’ll find that it’s a lot of fun to play around with The Atomic Split. You can do math effects with this move where you split an Eight into two Fours; then split the four into two Twos. There are a ton of various applications for this move. Enjoy! For an alternate handling (along with 16 other effects) order the Stone Cold Magic DVD and get the Stone Cold Magic E-Book For Free.