At the Magic Desk : Read The Card Trick

A very clever self working trick secret which is guaranteed to baffle your audience all at the magic help desk.

Magic Trick Effect: The magician shuffles the deck and takes the top thirteen cards for the trick. Holding the cards face down, he proceeds to spell the first card name, Ace. "A C E," and for each letter, he puts one card under the packet of thirteen cards. He then flips over the next card (the fourth,) and it is an Ace. He repeats this process for each card number, Ace through King. At the end, he has all thirteen cards face up on the magic desk, in sequential order.

Magic Trick Preparation: First, take out 13 cards from a deck, the cards do not have to be the same suit, but you need the thirteen cards from Ace to King. After you have them out, place them in this order, begin by placing the three face-up on the table. On top of that, place the eight. Then, place the Seven, Ace, Queen, Six, Four, Two, Jack, King, Ten, Nine, and last of all Five. And then put these on top of the deck face down on the magic desk.

Magic Trick Performance: The trick almost works itself. To start, pretend to shuffle the cards, leaving the top thirteen untouched. You can do some false shuffles, or you can do real shuffles but keep the top 13 cards on top. After you shuffle, you can fan through the deck, and show every card, for the pre-arranged 13 cards don't look like they are arranged at all. Remove the top thirteen cards as a group and arrange them like a fan, so that your audience can see their faces. Square up the cards, and hold them face down on the magic desk.

When you spell out each card, do it as follows: let's say you're spelling the word . Spell A, remove the top card and place it on the bottom. Then spell C, and remove the top card and place that on the bottom. Next spell E, remove this top card and place it on the bottom. Flip the new top card and show that it's an Ace, and place it on the magic desk.

Continue in this manner until all the cards are face up on the magic desk. (You spell the cards in order: Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K) Your audience may realize that the cards must have been set up beforehand, but this only adds to the mystery and you can treat it as a puzzle for them to try to figure out to add to the mystery, don't use cards all of the same suit. A mixed group of suits makes it seem less like a "stacked" deck.

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