The Adjustment Bureau is an ACAAN effect inspired by Philip K. Dick's story The Adjustment Team and its film adaptation, The Adjustment Bureau. The performer tells the spectator about a shadowy organization that manipulates the course of the world with strategic adjustments, predicting people's decisions and using this information to alter their life paths.
The performer then attempts to do something similar with the spectator, presenting a normal deck of cards placed on the table, which the performer never touches throughout the performance. The spectator chooses a random card and a random number-both of which are completely open and fair choices, with the possibility of selecting any card and any number between 1 and 52.
The performer explains that the odds of the spectator's random number leading to their chosen card are unlikely-it won't happen unless a necessary "adjustment" is made. Before the spectator makes their choices or reveals them, the performer writes down a prediction: an adjustment number that, when combined with the spectator's number, leads directly to the position of their selected card.
- Extremely easy to do.
- The performer never touches the deck, ever.
- No sleights.
- No peeks.
- No mental math.
- Completely normal deck; can be used for other tricks afterward.
- The card is a completely free choice.
- The number is derived from truly random choices made by the spectator, with no influence from the performer.
- There are no outs; the trick plays out the same way every time.
- The spectator's card can genuinely be anywhere in the deck-whether it's the bottom card, the top card, the 5th, the 29th, the 41st, etc.
- The performer truly doesn't know the spectator's card or number until the end.
