If this should go in an existing AGT thread, please move it, but I’m asking a question about magic more than the show itself. Like most of us, I’ve seen a million card tricks. Some of them I have a vague idea as a layperson how they might’ve done it. I’ve also seen Penn and Teller explain a couple things. I’ve never seen the kind of trick a guy did on the episode with first round of judge’s cuts in this season’s AGT, with guest judge Ne-Yo.
AGT has several magicians this season. This one is the guy who is also a football player. He did a trick this time around that involved an oversize deck of cards and him drawing (“predicting”) on a tablet of paper. I won’t describe the whole thing, but if anyone saw this trick and knows or even has an idea how it was done, is it kosher to share the secret here? With spoiler box of course. If there’s a SDMB rule against explaining magic tricks, excuse me for asking, but this was one of the biggest headscratchers I’ve seen in terms of card tricks! Usually it’s fun not knowing but this one is driving me bonkers.
[spoiler]I’m not a magician so I don’t know exactly how he did the “force” to the 5-clubs, but I do know that’s not a particular challenge. The card was always going to be the 5-C.
As for the finale, though–you can see (especially with the shadows) that at first, the card is just another piece of paper sliding out from a slit in the drawing of the deck. He could easily draw the card out with a thin thread.
Then, before ripping off the paper, he grabs a rather thick portion of the pad and flips it over, then ripping the paper off from the backside. The page with the slit is now 10 or so pages down (so you can’t see it, even through the other papers), and then he has a duplicate copy (with the drawn-on card) that he can remove and give to the judges.[/spoiler]
[spoiler]The 5 of clubs force is pretty easy to spot. When he fans the deck, you only see the first 15 (by my count) cards. This leaves around 37 unseen cards, a solid block of which are the 5 of clubs. You can see the performer only offering the 5C block of the deck when Ne-Yo selects his card. (even after Ne-Yo changes his mind, it is clear which portion of the deck is offered up for his second choice)
Also, when the reveal occurs, compare the drawing on the page that is ripped out with the original drawing. They are very different. You can also easily see how the page he rips out is not the page with the rising card on it.
Speaking of the rising card, it could have been done with a string (as mentioned) or some sort of sliding mechanism operated by the unseen fingers of the performer’s right hand.[/spoiler]
By the way, the Penn & Teller trick linked to is, in my opinion, much more impressive.
mmm
So that’s 17 revealed cards at the bottom of the deck. He turns the deck face down for the selection. Possibly he only makes the “change your mind” offer because the first selected card wasn’t from the all-5-Clubs two-thirds of the deck.
Or, perhaps more simply, the cards are stuck together in pairs, each card backed by a 5 of clubs. When he shows the faces, there will be a normal-looking variety, but when he shows the backs and tells someone to choose, they will always be touching the back of a five of clubs. Note he doesn’t ask Ne-Yo to pull the card; Dorenbos hands it to him, allowing him to separate the five from its partner. In the semi-side view of the deck, the cards look pretty thick to me. The card he hands to Ne-Yo is pretty thin in comparison, i.e. the cards in the deck are double-thickness until he halves one.[/spoiler]
To me, the funniest moment was:
Dorenbos: I drew an entire deck of cards and Ne-Yo’s card is inside. See that? See what I mean? See what I did there? Get it?
There are so may ways this trick could have been done, that the real trick is guessing which one it was. It isn’t helped by the large number of cuts in the clip. At one stage I count 4 cuts in less than two seconds.
The easiest way to do the trick seems absurdly simple.
The spiral notebook contains 54 pages. One page is “blank” page for drawing a square on. The other 52 pages are printed double sided. On one side is the same picture of a box of cards, with a slit cut in it. Note that we never see the magician draw a picture. We see him moving a pen, and then he shows us a drawing of a box of cards, but the drawing has been pre-printed on every page.
On the other side of each page is a picture of a different card coming out of a box. A slide out picture of card is attached to that page with post-it note glue.
Once the volunteer reveals the correct card (5 clubs in this case), the magician begins the patter about how great it would be if he could change the picture by hiding the book against his chest. All the while he is thumbing to the appropriate page in the notebook. He then unsticks the post it note and slides it through the slit. He then tears off the page, turns it over and shows the audience the picture printed on the other side.
You could make a simplified version yourself in about 10 minutes. Take a notebook, and draw a box of cards on four pages. Cut a slit in the page to slide a post it not through. On the reverse of page 2, draw a picture of the box, but with a post-it note with the number “1” on it coming out the slit. On page 3, draw the picture with the number “2” coming out and so forth. Over the top of these pictures, stick a post it note with the corresponding number on it.
Play out the trick as shown, using three post it notes with the numbers 1-23, rather than a pack of cards. Once the audience member shows you which note they picked, thumb through the notebook to the appropriate page and open to that page. Unstick the post it note and slide though the slit. Then tear off the page, turn it over and show them the picture on the reverse side.
Thanks for the analyses! The rumors are true, Dopers really are the smartest online forum people in all the land(s). Granted I haven’t spent a huge amount of time trying to figure out magic tricks, but a couple of the (spoiler’d) suggestions never occurred to me. Now that you guys have described these methods, they make total sense. It’s really impressive when guys like this are so incredibly smooth with their movements and patter that they can pull off such tricks.
Also, on a couple of rewatchings, I must agree with mmm that the trick on the Penn/Teller link is more impressive. And Bryan Elkers, I laughed at Heidi’s deadpan “No” too.
Just wanted to make one comment about the cuts in the youtube clip I linked. I noticed the cuts too and am sure at least a couple of them are edits made by whoever posted the clip to youtube. I originally saw the trick on the actual full episode and it was pretty seamless. There were the usual cutaways for judge facial reaction but I did purposely watch to see if those seemed to happen at fortuitous times when the magician could be “doing” something the viewing audience wasn’t meant to notice.
One of the most obvious cuts/edits to the uploaded clip I linked to was a complete excision of the middle part of football guy’s backstory package - after they introduced him but before they show his aunt and girlfriend wiping away tears in the audience, on the full episode there was a section telling WHY his aunt raised him and his sister. It was because their father beat their mother to death. The uploaded clip cuts that whole explanation, jumping from him saying during intro that his aunt raised him and his sister straight to the shot of the aunt and his gf in the audience - a whole section cut out.
That part had nothing to do with the trick itself, but I think the youtube clip was maybe edited in other ways too, to slightly shorten it. Might be worth watching the whole episode if anyone wants to see whether they can detect any specific sleight of hand in an unedited version. Or if they can detect any point where there seem to be strategic cutaways for that matter! Real good trick either way.
Simple force, I believe Bryan Eckers is correct about the actual method. It’s pretty simple, the paper was slit, he drawing a line over the slit helped cover that up. I’ll have to watch again to see his final move, I think the pre-drawn page he tears out was behind the one that was slit and he drew on. He does it very well though, he has a smooth delivery, but I’m getting tired of magicians posing an impossible result that doesn’t happen and then saying “Wouldn’t that be really cool if it worked?”.
It occurs to me that the method I suggested would be more difficult with a standard-sized deck because the added thickness would be apparent. With his oversize deck, Dorenbos can conceal a lot more.
I agree, so many ways to do it, not possible to prove just one of them is right.
Mine involves an alternative to what’s been mentioned.
[spoiler]I don’t think a force is needed. Marked cards (and large cards are esp. easy) could be used.
As noted, the two pack of cards drawings are different. Both packs could be drawn ahead of time. During the “drawing” part he might be filling in the 5 of Clubs part only on the second sheet.
So it only comes down to the pulling up part. No string is needed, magicians can routinely do this with a finger pushing up from behind.
The cuts, good grief, the cuts …[/spoiler]
I consider this a nicely executed bit. Good motions to disguise tearing off the 2nd sheet, stuff like that. But not at all impressive in terms of the complexity of it.
And I decided to re-watch just now and he’s clearly not fanning out all the cards to select from, Ne-Yo had to tap an exposed card back. They cut when he’s about to tear off the sheet so I can’t see exactly what he did but I think he flips over two pages, and then tears off the back one that was pre-drawn. I wonder if they’re covering up something in the video that wouldn’t have been seen by the judges and the audience.
ETA: All the magicians are getting their asses kicked by those two little kids. They’re very entertaining.
The uploaded clip cuts that whole explanation, jumping from him saying during intro that his aunt raised him and his sister straight to the shot of the aunt and his gf in the audience - a whole section cut out.