Out Of This World by Paul Curry

I first read about this effect in Paul Clive’s excellent book Card Tricks Without Skill when I was a 12 or 13.  I have used it on and off ever since and although I’ve read over one hundred variations since then I still pretty much perform it the way Curry first described it.  There is a fascinating account of this card trick being performed to Winston Churchill in Curry’s Magician’s Magic which added to my intrigue of this effect when I was a teenager.

In recent years the only thing I have changed is to use a deck of Steven Perry’s Belly Strippers so that you can start with a very clean shuffle of the cards before you begin.

I love this amazing card trick 🙂

Effect: The performer shuffles a pack of cards and starts to deal them into two piles – the red cards in one pile, the blacks in the other. After a few cards have been dealt into each pile the deal is stopped and the performer explains that were he to continue to deal in this manner it would merely be a question of time until all the red and black cards in the pack were segregated. The cards just dealt, with the exception of two, one red and one black, which are left face up on the table at some distance from each other, are shuffled back into the pack.

Handing the deck to a spectator the performer instructs him to deal the cards into red and black piles, as demonstrated, but to do so with the cards FACE DOWN – WITHOUT LOOKING AT THE FACE OF A SINGLE CARD.’ “Since, under those conditions, you won’t know the red card3 from the blacks” he continues, “You will have to guess at the colors. On this card” he explains, pointing at the face up red card on the table, llYou are to deal all those cards you believe to be red – while on the black card you are to deal those cards you think are black”. The only stipulation the performer makes is that the cards be dealt singly.

After about half the cards have been dealt in this manner by the spectator the performer stops the deal and places a red card face up on the supposedly black pile and a black card face up on the red pile. The performer explains that to prove conclusively that the spectator is being unconsciously controlled the deal will now be guided by the two new face up cards. In other words the spectator will now deal those cards he believes to be red onto the pile previously reserved for the cards he believed to be black – while the cards he believes to be black will be dealt onto the “red” pile. The spectator shuffles the cards yet to be dealt and completes the deal.

We don’t believe we are exaggerating when we say that up to this point the spectators will be skeptical as to the outcome of this rather fantastic undertaking. The surprise then, when the two halves are dealt thru to disclose that the spectator has actually separated the two colors, is astounding to say the least! For each of the two face up “guide” cards in each half is found to have above it a group of cards of the corresponding color.

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