Three Card Prediction by Arthur Emerson

This effect was first published by Arthur Emerson in his 1967 self published booklet The Fourth Evening At The Magic Circle. Unlike a lot of his partner’s, Larry West, effects this relies on no tricky counts or moves but rather subtleties and some clever presentational ruses.

Effect: One evening each year, at the Magic Circle, Alf Moore presents his “Crazy Night” … wild, imaginative, hilarious flights of fancy, with even some magic thrown in. It was after one of these affairs that Jon Tremaine, Pat Page and I went to supper and discussed “entertaining presentation”-precisely what Alf Moore had just given us.

Then we advanced to “entertaining mentalists’ presentations”… and by the time we had arrived at the Peach Melba the following effect had been developed … with particular emphasis on the presentation!

Here is the final wrap up of the effect:

“Ladies and Gentleman, as this gentleman takes my three predictions out of his pocket and finds what I wrote about Tom, I remind you that I had a great deal of assistance in successfully predicting Tom’s actions. In Tom’s case, he looked at the cards, handled the cards, chose a card and looked at his choice. All these factors make dealing with Tom a little bit easier. Tom actually selected a card which he still possesses. Sir, will you read what is written about Tom’s actions. “… “TOM WILL SELECT THE SIX OF HEARTS” Remember, my friends, I made that prediction before I had Tom select a card. What card did you select, Tom?” Tom replies and hands you the Six of Hearts.

Now Mary was a much harder prediction. If you recall she merely named a card. Yet to aid me I allowed her to look at the faces of the cards in the deck for a moment and then with all cards out of sight, she named a card. We all heard her name the Ten of Diamonds. Sir, what did I write about Mary’s actions before she mentioned any card or even knew what she was going to do?”… ‘MARY WILL NAME THE TEN OF DIAMONDS. ” … “Again I am correct.”

“Finally, the hardest test of all-Dick. Without seeing the faces of any cards, he chose a card that he has in his possession but does not know its identity. I made a prediction for Dick, it is there in the gentleman’s hand I made that prediction before Dick selected a card and placed it in his pocket, ho one in this room, not even Dick or myself, has seen that card. Wouldn’t this be a great demonstration if the card I predicted is the card Dick holds. Please read the Prediction.”… “DICK WILL GET THE KING OF SPADES”… “Dick, will you remove the KING OF SPADES from your pocket.and when he does, prepare for the applause!

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