Fifty One Faces North, Three Faces South

By Mark Elsdon

Background:
Like many other magicians, this plot has become a bit of an obsession for me. Before I outline
one of my handlings and variations thereof, I’ll give you a little background information.
However, if you just want to get to the trick, read the first ‘Effect’ below and then the ‘Method’.

Paul Curry first suggested the plot that is now known as the Open Prediction. Basically: The
magician writes the name of a card as a prediction. The spectators know the name of this card
(hence ‘open’ prediction). The spectator is asked to deal from the face down deck, turning the
cards face up one at a time into a pile. Anytime he chooses he is to leave one of the cards face
down. The remainder are dealt face up. When the face down card is turned over it is the predicted
card.

In Ibidem #3 Stewart James offered a treatise titled ‘Twenty five Methods for the Open
Prediction’. One of the variations he named ‘51 Faces North,’ which included very specific
conditions that made the effect seem impossible, both to spectators watching the effect and
magicians later trying to reconstruct it. Despite James’ method apparently being lost to us when
he died, it did eventually end up being published in the inaugural issue of The Penumbra
magazine. Whilst the method did meet all of the stated conditions (and accompanying
commentary) and was intriguing in its construction, it failed to live up to many magician’s
expectations in terms of both commercial appeal (and therefore practicality) and directness (and
therefore impact).

A list of the magicians who have worked on this plot reads like a who’s who of card magic and
yet new ideas and handlings are constantly being developed. My personal favourite handling
(other than this one, obviously!) is Paul Wilson’s from his book ‘Chaos Theories’. It uses a
regular deck and is elegantly straightforward. As well as the two sources already mentioned, the
interested student would also do well to read the articles and twenty solutions contained in
Volume 1 of The James File.

Of the several methods that I have developed, this is the most direct and allows for a very clean
handling of the deck by the spectator, conforming to one of the most difficult of James’
conditions: that the spectator must deal through the whole deck himself. Most methods (including
Wilson’s, great though it is) do not meet this requirement. So here then is…

The Effect:
A deck of cards is shuffled. The magician then makes an ‘open’ prediction by writing the
name of a card on a piece of paper. The whole audience is aware of the identity of this card.
A spectator is given the face down deck and instructed to deal cards into a face up pile on
the table. At any point he is to leave one of the cards face down and then continue to deal
the rest face up. The predicted card has not been seen during the deal through the deck.
The deck is spread and the face down card removed. It is turned face up and seen to match
the prediction!
Now we have reached a point where we must discuss a problem with ‘51 Faces North’. You see,
Stewart James was an expert at creating a factually honest but deceptive dealer-ad type
description of a trick where crucial details are either omitted or left purposely vague, and whilst
the details that are mentioned are true, they are not the ‘whole’ truth. Similarly, such is the case
with the description of my version of the effect described above, but you will be happy to know
that the most important details are exactly as above. Here are the two things that aren’t
mentioned (although the astute reader will probably have guessed them already): the magician
must perform the shuffle at the beginning and at the end the face down card must be turned face
up by the magician. That wasn’t so bad now was it!

The problem with the whole dealer-ad approach to describing tricks is that it is designed to make
you part with your money in a never-ending quest to buy the ‘perfect’ trick – one with a
devastating and completely fooling effect accomplished by an invisible yet easy method. Eugene
Burger calls this ‘the tyranny of the new’ and it is one of the reasons that most people interested
in magic are terrible performers. Unfortunately skill is required and no it cannot be bought.

In the context of the James effect this type of dealer-ad effect description leads us to a situation
where written descriptions of the effect are rarely matched in cleanness by the actual performance
of the trick. They simply never look as good or as direct as they sound.

In the description of my handling for the effect above I could also have mentioned that the deck
can be borrowed but left out the detail that the borrowed deck must be a deck of Bicycle Rider
back poker size (either colour). Fortunately, though, this is the brand most used by magicians so
it shouldn’t be too difficult to borrow such a deck if you want to use the trick to fool your
magician friends. The reason it would have to be a Bicycle deck would be to match the gaff used.
What gaff? We’ll get to that in a minute.

I could also have mentioned that the shuffle may be done by the spectator rather than the
magician and left out the detail that the magician must then retrieve the deck and spread through
it face up before handing it back to the spectator. Oh, and you would also need to be able to do a
turnover pass and a one hand top palm. It’s all trade-offs, isn’t it?

So, if I wanted to write a James-style dealer-ad description of the ultimate version of my handling
of this effect, it would look like this:

The Effect:

The magician borrows a deck of cards, which are given to a spectator to shuffle. The
magician then makes an ‘open’ prediction by writing the name of a card on a piece of
paper. The whole audience is aware of the identity of this card. The spectator now holds the
face down deck and is instructed to deal cards into a face up pile on the table. At any point
he is to leave one of the cards face down and then continue to deal the rest face up. The
predicted card has not been seen during the deal through the deck. The deck is spread and
the face down card removed. It is turned face up and seen to match the prediction!

Whilst technically this description is true, I think that if you saw the effect performed you would
be disappointed that it didn’t actually live up to how clean it sounds in the above description.
I do think, though, that the description on the previous page accurately describes what the
audience sees and that the method (yes I’m getting there!) is as direct as the effect makes it
sound. Here at, at last then is:

The Method:
Stated baldly – a double-faced card, a palm add-on and a triple turnover. Here are the full details:

Preparation:

You need a same-both-sides double-facer that matches your deck. I use a same-both-sides Ten of
Diamonds. Remove any card from the deck – this will be the card you predict. Let’s assume it is
the Eight of Clubs. Place it face down below the double-faced Ten and place them both in your
outside right jacket pocket, with the regular card closest to your body. Also in this pocket is a
pen. In your outside left jacket pocket is a piece of paper. The regular Ten of Diamonds is on the
bottom of the deck.

Performance:

Bring out the deck and as you explain the premise of the trick to your audience, casually shuffle
the deck, keeping the regular Ten of Diamonds in place on the bottom. Hand the deck to one of
the spectators on your left. Remove the pen and paper from their respective pockets and write
‘Eight of Clubs’ on the paper. Say that this is the prediction and tell them the name of the card
also making sure that several spectators see the written prediction. Fold this paper in half and
place it down to your left.

Tell everyone to be on the lookout for the Eight of Clubs as the deck is dealt through. Make sure
the assisting spectator is clear what he is to do and then invite him to begin dealing the cards onto
the table. As he begins to do this, take a step back. All eyes will be on the cards. Put the pen away
back into your right pocket and at the same time palm the two cards that are in there and bring
your hand back out. Let your hand hang naturally at your side for now – do not act guilty and do
not engage in any arm-crossing or hands-behind-your-back gestures that are not part of your
natural body language. And most definitely do not put your hands on your hips (unless your
initials are EB).

Once the spectator has finished dealing, pick up the now face up deck (with the regular Ten of
Diamonds on the face) with your left hand. Since you chose a spectator to your left the deck
should be on the table to your left anyway. Ask him if he saw, “The card that I predicted?” As
soon as he begins to reply “No”, transfer the deck to you right hand and immediately do a palm
replacement with the two cards that you have palmed. Immediately, pick up the folded piece of
paper with your left hand (it was to justify this transfer of the deck from hand to hand that you
placed the prediction on your left earlier) and begin to unfold it as you ask the spectator if he
remembers which card you predicted. Unfold the prediction using both hands, even though your
right one holds the deck, and whatever he replied show the prediction around some more. Due to
the double-facer a Ten of Diamonds still shows on the face of the deck and everything appears as
it should. This whole choreographed sequence takes just about a second.

Spread through the deck keeping the first few together so as not to expose the face down card and
a second Ten of Diamonds. When you come to the spectator’s face down card outjog it and then
transfer it to the face of the deck. It should be done with the attitude that you are just ‘resting’ it
there while you recap what has taken place. Perform a triple turnover to show the Eight of Clubs,
which you then thumb off and hand to the spectator. The Ten of Diamonds still shows on the face
of the deck and even if you spread one more card an indifferent one shows.

The Ten which is on the face is the gaff and can now be palmed off or ditched from the deck as
you put the piece of paper back into your left jacket pocket whilst the left hand also holds the
deck.

It may help you to perform the triple at the end more easily (and you cannot afford any fumbling
at that point) if the regular card that you palmed in is crimped. I always use a Breather Crimp.

And if you’ve ever seen me do this in a lecture don’t forget the ‘cough technique.’

Copyright © 2008 by Mark Elsdon.