Mastering ‘Out Of This World’

Out Of This World is one of the strongest routines in all of card magic. That’s true for several reasons, which we’ll explore—but the fact that it’s easy to do, can engage even large groups of spectators, and has a different flavor compared to most “pick a card” effects, all of this makes it truly special.

Paul Curry, the creator of the original effect, said that Winston Churchill was so amazed by a performance of OOTW (as we’ll call it from now on) that he asked to see it dozens of times in a row. 

But what is OOTW? Here’s the effect: the spectator separates a deck of cards into two piles, trying to follow their “intuition” to divide the cards into reds and blacks without looking at them. In the end, the magician reveals that the spectator has succeeded: the cards are perfectly separated into red and black piles.

Many magicians ask: what’s the best version of OOTW ? There’s a common belief that the original version is already perfect and can’t be improved.

We don’t think that’s true. And to prove it, we’ve examined some of the versions performed by the world’s best magicians. We’ve focused on the most unique and innovative takes (did you know even Derren Brown has his own version?) and tried to analyze how this effect can be made nearly perfect.

We’ll talk about details, presentations, subtleties, and methods—to give you the most complete guide to this effect.

Why Is It So Strong?

One of the most celebrated thinkers in magic, Eugene Burger, recalled that in the 1950s, this was the most popular routine among magicians. Today, we’re used to seeing millions of “pick a card” routines—impossible location effects get a lot of attention from hobbyists. But if you look at the working pros' repertoires, OOTW remains a top choice.

One notable name with many excellent performances of this routine online is Nate Staniforth (a magician, writer, and collaborator of David Blaine). Watching him in action makes it clear how a simple card routine can become something more powerful—and in a sense, more complete.

Because, unlike many effects, OOTW is modular. It can be shortened or lengthened easily, and just as easily adapted to different styles and audiences, as we’ll see shortly.

For example—it can be done with the full deck or just part of it, depending on how long you want the routine to be; cards can be dealt by one or more spectators; the effect can be framed as the spectator’s intuition or the magician’s ability to predict; it can be a quirky interlude in the middle of a set, or a showstopping finale.

Several elements contribute to make this such a strong routine. First, as mentioned, it’s not a “pick a card” effect: we already do plenty of those, so variety is always a good thing.

Second, unlike other effects, here the audience can instinctively relate to the impossibility of the outcome. Think about it: red vs. black is 50/50, like a coin toss. It’s a binary choice—yes/no—that we deal with every day.

If we have to work hard to convince an audience that finding a selected card is impossible (especially when they expect us to find it), an effect like OOTW requires no extra explanation—it already feels impossible. When an effect starts off that strong, it’s a great effect.

The trick itself is simple and requires little to no technical skill, which means you can focus entirely on everything else: presentation, pacing, subtleties, and adapting the performance to suit your character and audience.

But here comes the problem: when things are simple, we often get lazy and don’t put in the effort to make them beautiful. The method is only the starting point—the magic lies in everything else. Watching how the best performers handle OOTW is a powerful reminder of that.

Let’s Talk Methods

Because OOTW has a fairly simple method, YouTube is literally flooded with tutorials in every language explaining how to do it. There’s even a Wikipedia page for Out Of This World that explains the method!

And if you're hearing a little voice in your head screaming, “This is a disaster! How are we supposed to perform when everything’s revealed online?”, let’s instead focus on what we can actually do: how can we make this routine truly unique, special, and different? That’s not something you’ll learn on YouTube.

First, the classic method. The original method involves secretly pre-sorting the deck into reds and blacks before the performance. Two “indicator” cards are removed—one red, one black—and placed face-up. The rest of the cards are dealt face-down onto the two piles, one at a time.

When you reach the midpoint of the deck (i.e., all cards of one color have been dealt), you introduce two new indicator cards, reversed in orientation from the originals, and continue dealing the rest of the deck. At the end, one of the two piles will already be perfectly sorted; the other pile just needs a quick sleight (moving the indicator card from the bottom to the top during an offbeat moment), and then you reveal the cards are correctly separated.

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