"This totally fooled me! It's VERY clever and VERY deceptive." – Marc Paul
"By far the best solution I've seen for this card plot. I have numerous unpublished solutions of my own but none are as deceptive as this one. When the Unnamed Magician first shared the basic idea with me, I was blown away." – Tommaso Guglielmi
"It really does live up to its title." – Alexander Javier
"An outstanding method. The creative thought process that is needed to come up with something like this is something I can't even begin to imagine." – Tony Bianco
"A mystery for the ages. I can't see anyone, layman or magician, working this out. I certainly couldn't." – Evan Collins
"A secret that is worth at least five times the asking price." – Shane Daniels
In the 1950s, after the open prediction plot became popular due to Paul Curry and Ed Marlo, Stewart James claimed to have created a holy grail version which he called "51 Faces North." Although he never published it, he did release a number of conditions that his method met. It is because of those seemingly impossible conditions that Stewart's unpublished version came under the spotlight for the open prediction plot and remains under there to this day.
I have for a long time attempted to do the same thing with the over-the-phone telepathy plot. I challenged myself with a number of seemingly impossible conditions and then tried to meet those very conditions with a workable method. After months and months of research and experimenting, I was finally able to achieve my goal. I was able to create what I consider to be the 'holy grail' method for the over-the-phone telepathy plot. And it is my pleasure to share it with you.
Having said that, I've actually already published an over-the-phone telepathy effect which, if you're interested in, can be found here: Over the Phone Telepathy: On Steroids.
That effect uses a deck that has a single gimmicked card in it (other than that, the deck is ordinary). In this ebook, I want to discuss another method of mine (the 'holy grail' method), which uses a completely regular deck – so the deck contains no gaffs or gimmicks. There isn't even a single card that's gimmicked or 'prepared' in any way. All the cards are ordinary. Additionally, even beyond the deck, there aren't any gimmicks. That is to say, nothing other than a single ordinary deck is used to accomplish the feat.
I truly believe if there is a holy grail method for the over-the-phone telepathy plot, this is it. The conditions, which I will state below, are simply too good (in my opinion). When performing in front of lay people, there are plenty of other effects of this kind to choose from. But the trade-off that you'll be making there is that you'll have to give up one or more conditions for a more entertaining and less tedious routine. And that's fine – there's nothing wrong with that. It's just that, when performing in front of other magicians and mentalists, I think my routine is the way to go in order to maximize the fool factor (due to the conditions). I have fooled many well-versed magicians and mentalists with this routine, hence why I am sharing it with you so that you can use it to try to fool your own magician/mentalist friends.
An effect description isn't necessary as my friend has taken the liberty to demo a full performance. However, it is important to keep the following conditions in mind as you watch the video:
- Nothing other than a single ordinary deck is used to accomplish the feat. There are no gaffs or gimmicks of any kind.
- The selection is not forced in any way. The spectator has a completely free choice.
- After a card is selected, the spectator really can slide that card into the deck anywhere they want.
- After the spectator slides their card into the deck and subsequently shuffles the deck, the magician never touches the deck again.
- When the spectator calls the assistant, they do so using their own phone (which the magician never touches at any point in time).
- The number and name of the assistant are given to the spectator at the beginning of the effect before the selection is made.
- During the call, the magician sits as silently as a ghost. He doesn't make any verbal sounds and he also doesn't make any non-verbal sounds.
- There are no electronics or other devices involved. So the magician doesn't use any sort of hidden electronics or devices to secretly communicate the name of the selected card to his assistant. (The first condition above already entails this, but I thought it was worth mentioning anyway.)
- There are no additional assistants involved (the only assistant is the assistant on the other end of the phone line).
- The assistant could be located across the world from where the magician and the spectator are located. So this is a long distance telepathy effect.
There are a lot of conditions, but, as I said, I take this to be the holy grail method for the plot, so it's important to list all the conditions. The conditions for this effect are very similar to the conditions of my effect "Over the Phone Telepathy: On Steroids." In fact, all the conditions listed above are the same as the conditions of that effect, except for the first condition. The first condition of this effect states that the deck is completely ordinary, whereas the first condition of that effect (if you check its ad copy) merely states that the deck doesn't contain any duplicates (which leaves open the possibility that the deck contains gaffs or gimmicks). And it is precisely this small but important difference that makes this effect more impossible.
1st edition 2024, PDF 13 pages.
word count: 4267 which is equivalent to 17 standard pages of text
