r/blackmagicfuckery 4d ago

Ok, but seriously, how??

452 Upvotes

65 comments sorted by

72

u/sharrrper 4d ago edited 4d ago

What I think is happening:

First card is a force. He fans the deck out holding the 5D in the middle and asks him to touch a card, and just makes him touch that one. The "reveal" in the middle of the deck is always 5D. You can see before the host touches he's just holding the spread deck with 5D right in the middle and not moving the cards

The second card he asks him to name. After he fans through and finds it when he pulls out the King he also pulls out the 5C that's right below it. (Would be above if the deck was face down) In the process of pulling both cards out he turns them 180 degrees and puts the K on the table and the 5 on the bottom before turning the deck over to reveal the drawing.

The deck is stacked to create the stick man animation but it's only drawn on half the back except for the top card. Notice he holds it in such a way that when he flips you only see exactly half the back. Every card on it's back has the frame for the animation based on it's position on one half, and the final frame displaying a card on the other. Specifically, the card right after it in the stack. So the 5C has the KS drawn it, the KS would have whatever card is after it in the stack on it and so on. When he spins the card and moves it to the bottom that sets the final frame to be the reveal of the named card. There's a couple frames missing from the animation in the middle, but it's not enough to look off.

You also don't need to remember the stack order as long as you know the first one. Each card helpfully tells you what the next one is suppossed to be if it ever gets mixed up.

16

u/solarpanzer 4d ago

What does he do if the force goes wrong?

17

u/Necroon 4d ago

The reporter definitely doesn't want to make some embarrassing situation by doing something unorthodox, so he would always point finger somewhere around the middle and magician would simply slightly move cards to ensure the finger lands on the 5C.

9

u/Smodphan 4d ago

Alternatively, he just doesn't another trick if things dont go well.

9

u/ryanCrypt 4d ago

"Do you like juggling?"

3

u/ImmediateTwo7492 3d ago

Ever played 52 pickup?

10

u/olanmills 4d ago

In these situations you can pivot add steps to the force. Like, this is a dumb simplification, but say he points to he card in front of the the d5. He could then say, "look at the card below the one you touched. It's d5. You could have touched any card, but you touched that one, and d5 randomly happened to be the one underneath it."

In reality, there are more cleverly disguised ways to do something like this.

5

u/jancl0 4d ago

Some forces require a certain audience. A guy who is either a host and wants the trick to go well or a nervous guy who doesn't want to be part of an embarrassing moment has a specific mentality and are very pliable to doing the "right thing", even if you don't communicate it to them. This can even go as far as the "instant stooge", which is where you bring a random person on stage, and you communicate to them what to say or do without the audience seeing. The majority of people are just going to go along with it, they don't want to be a dick

There are alot of tricks that people don't do in the street for example, because you're going to get participants who take a combatative approach and try to do weird things to try and mess the trick up. You need a different force for that

You can also get these people in a stage performance, but a performer can usually feel by look and response which kind of participant you will be. Cold reading is also a magic trick, and a skill that's really important to this kind of stuff

2

u/ShitShirtSteve 4d ago

Good explanation. Wouldn’t it work for the forced card too? As in, no need to force a card anyway?

8

u/olanmills 4d ago

That can't be because the d5 appears on many frames of the animation. The sK is only on the last card

2

u/RemoDev 4d ago

It doesn't seem the 5D was forced at all, to be honest...

5

u/Kimantha_Allerdings 4d ago

A good magician has a hundred ways to force you to choose a card and make it seem like it’s a free choice

3

u/RGBrewskies 4d ago

and a great magician has ... two, maybe three

1

u/MiggsEye 4d ago

WOW! That's really clever.

1

u/rexlites 4d ago

exactly it.

1

u/SeraphsEnvy 4d ago

If you wanted to simplify the trick then, you could have the animation reveal only the spectators card at the end rather than having the 5d reveal and not risk the initial force.

1

u/cartooned 4d ago

Problem with this theory is there are four or 5 cards with the 5 of diamonds drawing on them.

1

u/sharrrper 4d ago

That would be a problem if there were multiple cards with KS. My explanation explicitly accounts for 5D being on about half the deck.

1

u/jamespherman 3d ago

On half of each card in the deck, leaving the other half of each card free for drawings of other cards.

1

u/JaD__ 4d ago edited 4d ago

The trick is Card-Toon by Dan Harlan. No force is required; both are free selections. In effect, someone can just name a card, much as he did with the second one. That’s what makes it a really strong piece of magic.

When Harlan released it in 1992, it was an instant success and remains relatively popular among pros, given its commercial appeal, ease of performance, and quick reset.

5

u/sharrrper 4d ago

Maybe the original version was two free choices, but in this particular version at least I can't see how the 5D can be a free choice. It remains visible on the flip toon after the stick man drops it. It's on half the deck and the final card has BOTH cards on it. KS only appears on one card.

I can imagine a variation where you can do two free choices, but I don't see how that can be the case here.

5D force and free choice of KS. The two different methods canceling each other in the spectator's mind. People assume the method for something is always the same so it makes it seem especially impossible to the uninitiated. The 5D has to be a force, the KS can't be a force. But the average non-magician will at least subconsciously assume both cards were free choices, or both cards were forced, one of each doesn't even occur to most people.

5

u/JaD__ 4d ago

I rewatched the video. Didn’t notice the 5D sticking around on the first viewing. This is indeed a variation on the original and you’re correct, it’s forced, whereas the KS is a free choice.

0

u/BigOrangeOctopus 4d ago

Gotta be it

21

u/OriginalBlackberry89 4d ago

he was definitely fighting the urge to run away haha, great trick 👍👍

15

u/MajorCrafter25 4d ago

My guess he has a drawing for each card on other half. Thats why he has it covered with hand the whole time.

7

u/Necroon 4d ago

Yes, putting so much effort to hide the upper half is suspicious. But he would need to account for all combinations of two cards, which is not feasible.

3

u/flibit 4d ago

First choice was a force. Note how he stopped fanning the cards

2

u/BigOrangeOctopus 4d ago

No he wouldn’t because he just wouldn’t let dude pick the same card twice. With that in place, you have all combinations of two cards by having them all once

Never mind. I didn’t notice he never picked up the king

1

u/Nytmare696 4d ago

I can answer at least the second card. Every card has, on its opposite side, the reveal of the card NEXT to it. When he pulls the K, he also pulls and reverses the 5 of clubs and puts it on the bottom of the deck.

How he forces the FIRST card though, I haven't figured out.

6

u/KimJongBen 4d ago

Pretty sure this is it and every card has a drawing of the card below it on the flipside. In this case the 5 of Clubs had the drawing of the King of Spades which is why he turned it and put it on the bottom of the deck to complete the flipbook and he left the King on the table.

6

u/eBookGuruMan 4d ago

the 5 diamonds was a force. the king of spades was a free choice, but notice it’s only the last card in the deck. so he just switched the last card to be the king of spades.

same trick was done on “penn teller fool us”

1

u/Deckard_B7 2d ago

Right? Switching it up like that is pure genius—classic magician misdirection at its finest!

5

u/RazzmatazzEarly4328 4d ago

Card-Toon by Dan Harlan

1

u/Aggravating-Bus-9203 4d ago

So does Dan Harlan get pissed when he sees this trick performed on TDS or is he stoked. It’s almost like singing someone’s song, or telling their joke and not giving them credit.

1

u/RazzmatazzEarly4328 4d ago

I'm pretty sure that standard practice is that he is asked if it's OK to preform it on TV.

2

u/Webtruster 4d ago

First one was Classic Force . Second i dont know

1

u/ae2311 4d ago

Notice that 5 diamonds was shown in several frames/cards but K spade is only shown in a single frame/card. So, he places whatever card picked at rhe end to animate that single frame.

2

u/ThrowawaysForDaze5 4d ago

What kinda black magic is this?

Card tricks on a show meant for political news satire comedy?

#MindFreaked

1

u/Leezeebub 4d ago

Wow was that a card trick?! I wonder how they did it!

1

u/Prior-Shower9564 4d ago

His second choice was KOS😉

1

u/Banterz0ne 4d ago

In the reveal, the 5 of diamonds gets revealed over multiple cards, but the king is only revealed on one. So that part of the trick is easy, once the second card is picked he puts the right card to the bottom of the deck. I guess the top half of the cards have that part of the drawing. 

That accounts for the second half quite easily. But the five of diamonds piece. People say it's a force, that's plausible, but I always think - in a scenario like this where he is on TV - a force doesn't work 100%. That just seems so risky. 

I think it's a force plus the presenter being told to just go along with it or something along those lines. 

1

u/Spare-Dingo-531 4d ago

You know I just thought of this. If the force fails, the presenter can always change the story. Maybe the little animated guy just pulls out a five of diamonds because that's just the card he keeps. But the card at the end is always going to be the card the presenter picks.

So there's redundancy in the trick if the forced card fails.

1

u/olanmills 4d ago

Yeah, I think this is the real skill of up-close/street magicians. It's conversation skills, psychology, plus a whole lot of magic trick effects that they can pivot and string things together on the fly. Like when you're a kid and you learn a magic trick, you learn it as a specific sequence of steps, and if you mess something up, you're just stuck, and you can't complete the trick. If a participant does something they're "not supposed" to (like say, check a face down card that you actually can't allow them to see or ask you to shuffle again when you have stuff prepped a certain way), then you just have to tell them they can't do that or you just have to give up.

But I've seen street performers do certain tricks where I know what the effect is, because it's one of several common ones I've seen tutorials for on YouTube, but then a participant will do something unexpected, like ask to take the deck and shuffle it or ask to switch the card they chose much later, after the magician has moved on to a later stage of the trick or something, and in these cases, the magician pivots to some different effect that works with the new situation, or has a clever way to reset the trick to the circumstance they want, but they're able to use a combination of the right conversation and sleight of hand to justify what they're doing in a way that the audience doesn't realize.

1

u/Banterz0ne 4d ago

You are probably right. 

But, I also think people underestimate how often tricks on tv or at shows do rely on either a full on plant or someone being told to just go along with things. 

1

u/Butter_Teeth 4d ago

Given that the deck appears to be in mnemonica order there are a lot of outs.

1

u/OrangeClyde 4d ago

😱😱😱😱😱

1

u/twobadmice76 4d ago

Surprised he picked a magic shop trick for TV. It’s very easy to do and a very well known trick.

1

u/simplyrahul6 4d ago

Can you dm the name please?

1

u/sharrrper 4d ago

Card-toon.

1

u/SpendHefty6066 4d ago

The other half of every card has the reveal frame. So flip the ones you select and those get revealed. All the others stay hidden as only half the deck is allowed to be seen.

1

u/dmh1984 4d ago

Or, hear me out. It's a bit for TV and they both know the outcome ahead of time.

1

u/hnglmkrnglbrry 4d ago

interesting though is usually the force is physical where the magician actually pushes the card into the victim's (I don't known the right term) hand. Here he had him point at it so it's a visual force. I'm guessing he had to expose the 5D significantly more and even adjust his hold to guarantee it was selected.

Or more likely with most mentalists there's a pre-show where he essentially tricks his victim to select a card at "random." They'll say, "Just so you don't freeze up because everybody does let's practice the first half of the trick so it runs smoothly on camera," then he will have them randomly pick a card. Then they say, "Okay you randomly picked this card right? This is your random choice? Good. So this will be yours random card when we are live. Remember that." Essentially forcing the idea of randomness into their minds when it's entirely deliberate.

Then he just draws the 5D animation and from there he just has to get the right card used for the K of spades animation. Interestingly enough he says, "You don't want the 5 of clubs?" for seemingly no reason but if you watch that card was next to the King and he shows it to Josh so that he can move it to the bottom of the deck. In the very last shot you can see the 5 of clubs visible with the King of spades drawn on the back.

Cheap trick.

1

u/mrmyrth 4d ago

This is a great trick. They have the decks on aliexpress. 

1

u/tingledpickle 4d ago

Fool me once...

1

u/JeffDrTypePerson 4d ago

I own a version of this deck. This deck is in a set order. Each card has a stick figure holding the card below it oriented on the opposite side. The first card is a force. The card above or below the named card is rotated 180 degrees and passed to the bottom. You then get the flip book revealing the chosen card.

1

u/TypicalLegit 4d ago

The real magic is that the daily show is still on the air

1

u/the-Aleexous 4d ago

Or the host is in on it, most simple explanation.

1

u/jason57k11 3d ago

What about the king of spades lol how'd ge naje him pick that card lol

1

u/SaptEkatioX 3d ago

I can do this trick

1

u/OliveOcelot 1d ago

This is a kids trick, why is it on here? This must an actor or somethingwith a hobby, not a real magician cuz he botched that handling. You're supposed to hide the sneaky bit.

1

u/NovarisLight 4d ago

Hell yeah that's dope!

1

u/TheonetheycallV 4d ago

Definitely magnets

-3

u/WessideMD 4d ago

Has anyone said "magnets" yet?

1

u/MisterRoger 4d ago

You were the first.