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Waterproof Performer Deck
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$11.99
← The effects
Out of This World
A spectator deals cards face down into two piles, guessing red or black for each without looking — and gets every single one right.
- Difficulty
- Beginner
- Performs
- Close-Up, Parlor, Corporate
- Type
- Card Effect
What they see
The effect from the front
Two cards are put on the table as markers: one red, one black. The spectator is handed the deck, face down, and asked to deal cards one at a time onto either pile, following nothing but instinct. Red here, black there.
They hesitate, guess, change their mind. Nobody sees a face. Partway through the markers are swapped and they carry on.
At the end the piles are turned over. Every red card is in the red pile and every black card in the black one. The spectator did all the work and holds the result in their own hands, which is why people remember this trick as something that happened to them rather than something they watched.
Provenance
Where it comes from
Created by Paul Curry, an American amateur magician, and released in 1942. It was an instant success and has been in print and in use ever since; it is one of the few tricks from that era whose inventor nobody disputes.
It is often called the greatest card trick ever devised, a claim that is impossible to test and repeated a great deal. What is true is that generations of professionals have kept it in their working repertoire, and that the original remains the version most of them perform.
Learning it
What it takes
Beginner to intermediate. The handling is not demanding in terms of sleight of hand, and a careful beginner can perform it within days.
The skill is in the performance: keeping the spectator relaxed, managing the pace of the dealing, and letting them believe they are doing it themselves — which they are, mostly. A rushed performance gives the audience time to think; a patient one does not.
It works with an ordinary paper deck, and on a soft surface the dealing is easier to control.
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What you need
Props for the Out of This World
Next
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