Unbelievable Pocket Change

Original Author: Jean Hugard

Effect: A spectator picks a card, after having placed another in your pocket. Through a short demonstration in hypnosis, the two cards change places.

Card Trick:

This trick is best done at a table, while standing opposite your subject.

Hand the deck to a spectator to shuffle, cut, and do whatever he wishes with. As he is doing so, inform the audience that you are about to perform a small experiment in hypnosis. Have your subject pick one card, any card he wishes from the deck, and without anyone seeing it, including himself, have him place it in your right-hand pocket.

Proceed by asking him to pick a number between 1 and 20 or so, and not to tell you. Have him then count down through the deck to the thought of number, and look at the card at that position, remember it, and put the counted cards back on top of it when he's through. Demonstrate this if he seems to be confused.

As he is doing this, secretly reach in your pocket and palm the card which was placed there at the beginning of the routine. When he is finished, very casually take the cards from him, placing the palmed card on the top of the deck. Hand the deck back to him as if you never had it, and proceed in this way:

Ask him to tell you the number that he thought of, and to count out face down on the table that amount of cards from the top of the deck. Explain that as far as anyone should believe, the card at the top of this stack should be the card the subject looked at earlier.

As you are explaining this, casually take the rest of the deck from him and palm the top card, which in reality is the card he originally saw. Moving as smoothly as possible, and pointing to the cards on the table with your left hand, slip this palmed card back into your right-hand pocket.

During this action, explain to the audience that although you haven't made any other mentions of the hypnotism, it has already begun, in fact, your subject has been hypnotized from the very beginning of the trick to do and see exactly as you wanted him to.

Ask him to name the card he saw, which should by all rights be the top card in the stack on the table. Ask him if he is sure of this card. Have him turn over this card, and he will of course be surprised to find that it is not the card he expected.

For the finish, remind the audience of the card originally placed in your pocket, (which of course at this time is the card that the subject glimpsed in the deck.) Have him remove it himself for the best effect, and show it to the audience.

This is a GREAT effect, and never ceases to amaze even my friends who have to figure EVERYTHING out.

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