Learn Magic Tricks

A magician never reveals his secrets….. Fortunately for you, I’m not a magician.

The best card trick I know is told as a story. You set it up by pulling all of the Jacks, Queens, Kings, and Aces out of the deck (from now on, I will refer to them using only the first letter of their name). Keep the cards in piles with their like cards. Now the story begins:

” Once upon a time there was an innkeeper

(hold up any random card from the 2-10 deck and place in the center of the table, this card is just used to tell the story and has no actual purpose)

he had four rooms in his inn

(indicate the four rooms, one at each corner of the innkeeper card, to make things easier separate the rooms about 2 inches from the inkeeper. Rooms will henceforth be named 1, 2, 3, and 4 starting in the top left corner and moving clockwise).

One day four J came along and asked for a room. They were having a fight and didn’t want to room together, so they asked for separate rooms.

(put a J in each room).

The next day, four Q came along. They were also having a fight so they didn’t want to be in the same rooms as each other. But they didn’t mind sharing with someone else. So the innkeeper put them in with the J’s.

(put a Q in each room)

(Repeat story with K and A.)

Everyone was very happy, but a few days later the authorities showed up (pull a random card from the 2-10 deck to be the authority. It’s not part of the trick, it just helps tell the story)

He said that this was not right. The room assignments needed to be random. So the Innkeeper gathered up all of his customers.

(Pick up the piles one at a time, keeping the cards in order. ex. put 1 on top of 2 which is on top of three which is on top of 4. It doesn’t matter what order you pick up the piles. turn deck upside down)

He divided them into two groups.

(cut the deck into two piles and put one on top of the other. don’t cut the deck into three piles. You can cut the deck as many times as you want.)

And put them each randomly in a room.

(distribute cards face down moving clockwise. 1234123412341234)

Everyone was surprised to discover that in each room

(turn one pile over)

was three J

(or whatever card you see, repeat with the rest of the piles. You should end up with each pile having the like cards together.)
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The nice part about this trick is that there is no trick to it. It all has to do with numbers. Once you show it you can actually have someone else do it, with you narrating. Everyone is impressed when they discover they can do the trick without even knowing how.