Maatching the Cards

Matching the Cards
(created by Norman Beck, written by Simon)

This routine is an interesting counterpoint to "Magician Makes Good," and proves there’s more than one way to look at things, even within the constraints of the Aronson stack.

Effect:

A card is selected and placed aside face down, unseen. The performer offers to try to cut to the mates of that unknown card. The deck is cut and the card cut to is turned over to reveal, say, a Ten. The performer then successfully cuts to two more Tens. This means the unknown card should be the fourth Ten, but when it is turned over it turns out to be a Jack. After a moment's consternation, the magician gets an idea. He makes a magical gesture over the three Tens, and they are turned over and shown to have changed to the remaining three Jacks.

Working:

This effect is made possible by the fortuitous positions of three Tens and three Jacks at stack numbers 32 to 37 in the Aronson stack. In creating the stack I [Simon] originally arranged these cards together to facilitate performing the Ten Card Poker Deal (see A Stack to Remember), but Norman has made an ingenious use of their proximate positions to create this entirely different effect.

Let’s assume, as is usually the case for those who regularly work with the Aronson stack, that the bottom card (the 9D) is a tactile key (either a short card, or crimped, or whatever). To prepare, with your deck arranged in Aronson stack order, cut the 10D to the top. Then, secretly transpose (exchange) the order of the top two cards (so the top card is the JC). This is the work of an instant, and can be done while idly toying with the deck. You’re ready to begin.

1) False shuffle, and then obtain a break below the 9D. Force the JS (immediately below the break) by your favorite method, and place it aside on the table, unseen.

2) Give the deck one or more false cuts (a double undercut works fine). Double turnover the card you’ve apparently cut to, revealing the 10D. Turn the double face down and deal the top card (really the JC) face down to the table.

3) Double Undercut the top card to the bottom. Double turnover to reveal the 10C. Turn the double face down and deal the top card (really the JH) face down to the table, with the other supposed Ten.

4) Again, Double Undercut the top card to the bottom. This time triple turnover to reveal the 10H. Turn the triple face down and deal the top card (really the JD) face down to the table, with the other two supposed Tens.

5) Explain that this means the unknown card that was initially selected must, of course, be the remaining Ten. Turn it over, but act distraught when it is seen to be not a Ten, but the JS. Make a magical gesture over the three supposedly Tens, and then turn them face up, revealing that they’ve now changed to Jacks!

Clean Up to Restore Stack Order:

The effect is over, but it’s fairly easy to get back into Aronson order. Cut the 10C back from the bottom to the top. With your right hand casually pick up the JH, JC and JD, in that order from the face. Your left hand, holding the rest of the deck, secretly obtains a left pinky break beneath the top card, the 10C. The right hand flips its three cards face down onto the top of the deck, and immediately does a small packet Slip Cut of the cards above the break. That is, the left thumb peels off just the top card, the JD, as the right hand moves to the right with its three card packet, and then immediately drops those three cards back on top. The net effect is simply to place the JD back into stack position beneath the 10C. All that remains is to cut the 9D back to the bottom, and replace the JS back on top. If your 9D is a tactile key, you can do this without looking at the faces. You’re back in Aronson order.

Background:

The foregoing plot follows the classic Vernon "Matching the Cards" routine, which the Professor used in his Magic Castle close-up act (Dai Vernon’s Inner Secrets of Card Magic, p. 22; see also Vernon’s Tribute to Nate Leipzig, p. 167). Originally Norman had a somewhat more convoluted way of beginning the effect, and it was Jamy Ian Swiss who suggested the pre-set exchange of the 10D and the JC, which greatly simplifies the procedure. The clean-up that restores stack order is the same as used in my "Jack Coincidence" (Try the Impossible, p. 213).