Greg Berman - Devil's Acaan

Method: In my ebook Inspired, I talk about an effect called Inspired by Staniforth. That effect was inspired by Nate Staniforth and his book the Lottery Illusion. This ACAAN effect also is partially inspired by the Lottery Illusion as well as stories I heard about the great Berglas. Those who have The Lottery Illusion will certainly know why. However, if you don’t have i t , I can tell you that it goes to Nate’s observation that if one wants to create a miracle, then one should go to more trouble than anyone would ever believe you would go to. Furthermore, I was always inspired and spellbound about all the stories I heard about the Berglas Effect. The stories were larger than life. One stood out to me and was repeated in the The Berglas Effect book recently published. Mr. Berglas was driving with Peter Warlock. During the drive he casually asked him to name a card. Later a number. Then upon arrival to their destination he asked Warlock to open the glove compartment and take out the only deck of cards there. And of course the chosen card was at the chosen number. This and other stories were repeated over the years adding to the legend of Berglas. I thought many times about how I could do something similar. So the goal was not to create a stage ACAAN. Rather one in an informal setting. Further, the goal was to make it look impossible and have the story told over and over with the hope it would get embelished! After much thought I settled in on Devil’s ACAAN. One additional note before we get into the details. If you are reading this right now, you probably followed a thread about it on the Café. One interesting phenomenon is that I stated facts about this effect and then others would make a post claiming things that were not true (i.e. the deck could be seen at all times, etc). I felt it was my job to always speak correctly but not to correct others fishing for the method. First, this effect has limitations. It should probably only be done one on one. So reserve it for someone you are trying to impress to get work, publicity or whatever reason. You need to find a

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Effect: You are meeting with someone at a coffee shop or café and sitting in a booth. You introduce yourself and you reach into your jacket pocket and briefly show a deck of cards and explain that you hope to show them something special later. At some point you ask them to select a number between 1 and 52. Few minutes later you ask them to mentally select a card and announce it. A few minutes later you say, “you may be curious why I asked you to select a number (you selected 28) and a card (you selected 4 of hearts). After explaining that you asked in a manner to influence them without them knowing you remind the spectator that you have one deck of cards in your jacket. You ask the spectator to take your jacket which is hanging next to you in the booth and take out the deck of cards you previously showed the spectator. You explain you never want to touch the cards. They take the deck of cards out and count turning each card face up til they arrive at the 28th card. They turn it over and it is the 4 of Hearts.

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DEVIL’S ACAAN By Greg Berman

You and your confederate will arrive early to get the proper seating. If you are to meet the spectator at 2:00—arrive at 1:30 in order to get the necessary booths. What if the seating doesn’t work? Have another effect ready to go in case this happens. Assuming the seating works out (meaning you have a booth back to back where your back is against the back of the booth where your confederate is sitting), greet your spectator and begin your conversation. I like to take off my jacket while standing and say “later I hope to show you something special with this deck” and I show them the deck of cards in my pocket and put it back in the jacket. The jacket I use is a leather jacket. If it is warm weather I will use my suit jacket. You will place the jacket over the booth in a way that the pocket is facing up and not down. In other words in a position where the deck will not fall out but far enough down that the booth blocks the spectator from seeing it. Practice this a few times and it will become second nature. . Early in the discussion I casually ask the spectator pick a number between one and fifty two. They do so and I intentionally change the subject and go on speaking. During this time my confederate has noted what number the spectator has said. Later I casually ask the spectator to name any card—they say the 8 of hearts. If I believe there is any question about my confederate being able to hear the selection, I repeat it saying “you chose the 8 of hearts, it could have been any card but you chose that one.” Pacing is important. Asking the number and then later the actual card should be done in a offhand manner and spaced out by at least a few minutes. The Confederate will now take the deck of cards out of the pocket. If the jacket is placed correctly, the move by the confederate is invisible to the spectator. The jacket should be hanging over the booth far enough down that the move of the Confederate is invisible (the back of the booth blocks the confederate’s move). Further, the Confederate will need to practice making the move while his or her body remains still. With practice the deck can be taken out and placed back in without the spectator seeing anything unusual. The Confederate has now placed the 8 of hearts in the 18th spot. The Confederate places the deck back in the jacket and can signal you with something like a cough, etc. Once the signal is received I say something like “You may wonder why I asked you to pick a number and card, right? When we sat down I showed you a deck of cards and said I wanted to try something special with you. I put it in my jacket and not once did I touch my jacket while we talked. I don’t want to touch it now because 1 don’t want you to think I could switch anything even though that would be impossible. Please pick up my jacket. Check the pockets. There is just one deck of cards in it and nothing else, correct? Now open the deck carefully and do not change the order. Go ahead and count each card turning it face up til you get to the 18th card.” And of course you are right.

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location with a booth that has another booth right next to you (i.e. back to back—think the coffee shop on the TV show Seinfeld.). You need to have a jacket that you will keep the deck of cards in your pocket and take the jacket off after sitting down. Finally, you need a confederate in the booth behind you. So his back is against your back so to speak. I know some of you will be disappointed by this last part. This effect is not for everyone. But remember, for the person you are performing for they will only see you and they will take out the deck of cards from your jacket that you did not touch and will remember a miracle. Please give this a fair reading and I will discuss the confederate part near the end.

Every ACAAN has some compromise. Some force a number or card, others involve sleight of hand, some are not 100%, others involve a gimmicked deck, etc. This version has very little compromise. If I told you that I could teach you a deck switch invisible to your spectator using sleight of hand you would practice it for 40 hours. Instead I am giving you an invisible deck switch that if you spend 40 hours on you will be able to perform it just as good (actually better) than some type of sleight of hand. Keep in mind that you and your confederate need to practice the switch. Is this a lot of trouble for a card trick? Yes—that’s the point. People do not expect you to get a booth early, have a confederate, practice all this—all to do a card trick. I have never had anyone think that I had a confederate while performing this effect. All the spectator sees is you taking off your jacket, noting a deck of cards in your pocket, and removing your jacket. Later you ask them to remove the only deck of cards in your pocket and that you never touched. Also, when choosing a confederate, choose someone the opposite of you. If you are conservative and older, choose someone younger—maybe someone covered in tattoos! If you are younger and have tattoos, choose someone who is older and wears a suit. You get the idea. Is it harder to find someone the opposite than you to be a confederate? Sure, but the point is that no one will ever expect you to be in conspiracy with such a person. So there you have it. Every ACAAN has a compromise. There are two here—1) the deck is not in full view the whole time. Ironically, most of the times I have performed Devil’s ACAAN and the story is repeated they forget this fact. They remember me showing the deck at the start and since they KNOW I did not touch it, they forget the fact that the deck went back into the jacket and 2) you need a confederate (this compromise though is completely invisible to the spectator). Please make the effort to try this and leave your spectator with something that they will remember for years. Credits: The Lottery Illusion by Nate Staniforth

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If you have any concerns about using a confederate, let me address them. First, I never use an instant stooge (well almost never) because I do not trust them to keep a secret. If you are performing at a show and ask someone in the audience to be a stooge or confederate, you are risking that everything you do will be compromised if they tell just one person (who then tells others, etc.). But in this case the confederate works. It will be someone you trust 100%. Further, confederates can be obvious sometimes. Look at Criss Angel when he makes a 100 people freeze in the middle of a room—its obvious they are confederates. In this case, your confederate never interacts with you! He or she is simply at the booth next to you. You do not talk and to the spectator they are not involved in anyway with the effect.