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Learn A Casual Prediction Trick
Example of the final prediction
When performing casually for friends and colleagues, you often can perform much more exciting and engaging methods. You know whom you’ll perform to, and you’ll likely know when and where. Casual performances allow for more casual routines. You can use your phone and random objects that are nearby.
If you like, you can lean into the casual setting and make a performance feel impromptu, made-up on the spot and unrehearsed. When in fact, it’s all a carefully choreographed dance routine.
The trick you’re about to read is based on one of the first magic tricks I ever learned.
I’ve taken the method and inflated it in such a way that lends itself to these casual performances. Every time you perform this trick, it will look and feel different. I think something about this fact makes it exciting to perform, and it also makes it more suited to those everyday performances.
Alarmed — Trick
You’re at work, and a colleague asks to see a trick.
So, you take out a deck of cards and shuffle them up.
Each of your colleagues will pick one card at random.
Let’s imagine there are three colleagues.
So, that’s three random cards selected.
It doesn’t matter if we all see the cards, so they can lay them face up.
In fact, we only need one card after all.
However, it’s up to them which card they choose.
All three of your colleagues must decide which one of the three they choose.
You mention that their choice of person, and their card, says a lot about the group.
This does nothing short of creating drama amongst your team.
They decide to go with Alex because she is the youngest of the bunch.
She chose the four of hearts — so the four of hearts it is!
You pause, intrigued by their decision.
You ask Alex if she noticed you placed your phone on the table before the trick.
She says she did but thought nothing of it.
“I actually made a prediction, you see,” you say.
They look around at each other, confused but somewhat engaged.
You continue, “but I didn’t want to forget about the prediction, so I set it as an alarm.”
Just like that, your phone alarm begins to blast out.
On the screen, visible to all, is the reminder attached to the alarm.
It reads, “Don’t forget to tell Alex that she chose the four of hearts.”
That’s it — that’s the trick.
The Method
This trick is not one for the working pros, but it’s perfect for casual settings, and you’ll be able to set it up and perform it right away. So, what’s the secret?
You’ll need to learn how to force three cards upon your spectators to do this trick. The easiest way to do this is a single cross-cut or riffle force. Deal out the top three cards at the point the spectator cut to or called stop at.
Before you perform this trick, you’ll need to set the alarm on your phone. If I were you, I’d get the alarm set up now, with the name of the colleague and the card you plan to force. When it comes to performance, you can openly turn the alarm on and place your locked phone on the table. It’s at this moment that you can set the alarm to go off three minutes from now, and you can update the name and playing card if necessary.
So, how do you know your colleagues will choose the right person and card from the three forced options?
Well, I’ll tell you now.
You don’t.
This trick relies on multiple outs.
You’re forcing all three cards upon your spectators.
Ideally, you’re also forcing them to be individual spectators.
Doing this means you can predict the spectator's name and the selected card.
You can always perform this and only predict the card value and suit instead.
If they choose the alarmed card, then you kill time for an extra minute until your alarm goes off. It’s a great moment when it does. On-screen, you see the prediction, and something about the sound and sudden lighting up of the screen is terribly exciting.
If they choose force card number two, you swiftly ask one of the spectators to open your phone and navigate to your notes app. The first note is a written prediction with the selected card and name. Oooh la la…that’s good.
If they choose force card number three, then you swiftly open your phone with the spectators and go to your photo album. There’s one selfie video you recorded that morning. You’re on your way to work, and you predict the name and suit of the card on camera and the colleague who will get selected later that day.
With both alternate outs, you must remember to navigate to your clock app and turn off the alarm at some point. This doesn’t take long to do, especially on an iPhone. Determine a good number of minutes in the future to set your alarm in such a way that you can easily kill time till it goes off if needed, but you can also have plenty of time to reveal one of the other two outs and then turn off the alarm.
I love all three outs, but the alarm is rather wonderful.
You’ll find over time that people are more likely to select one of the three force cards you choose to use. The good news is that there’s always a one in three chance that the trick will end with the alarm prediction going off.
Part 3. Enhance the Illusion
There are a few simple ways to make this routine more engaging and fooling. As with most card tricks I share, a false shuffle or a false cut goes a long way. If you want to go to town, you can get the spectators to shuffle the cards and either load on the three force cards or cut them from a spread when you take back the deck.
If you want to make your life easy, use a looping stack. Build a deck that only had the same three cards repeated throughout. This way, the spectator can cut the deck as much as they wish. The top three cards will always be your force cards.
Consider adding a partial stooge. If you’re performing with friends, there’s always a good reason to fold one of your friends into the mix. A partial stooge is someone who appears to be a regular spectator but plays an active or passive role in part of the trick’s method.
Partial stooges are great when performing with friends because partial stooges still end up fooled by most of the same trick. This is because they only know a part of the trick’s method. It’s great for friends who want to be involved but are not the best actors. By allowing them to be fooled by most of the trick, their genuine reaction covers up the fact that they played a partial role in the method.
In this trick example, you could ask your partial stooge to say a particular word during the selection process. Maybe you ask them to pick one word to describe Alex.
This particular word could end up getting predicted alongside everything else.
“Remember to tell Alex she chose the four of hearts and that she is ‘wonderful’”
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