Effect: (What the audience THINKS they see...) Someone picks a card, puts it back into the deck, and then YOU magically find it!

Have you ever wondered how a magician does that trick? Well there are actually hundreds of different ways to do this, but I'm going to tell you an easy way right now!

Method: (How the magician makes the illusion work...) Have a spectator (someone who watches you do magic) shuffle a deck of cards and then pick one. (Make sure they look at the card and remember it.)

Take the rest of the deck back and cut the cards about halfway. Have the person put their card on top of the bottom half. (While they are doing this...you will secretly peek at the bottom card of the top half. Shhh, it's a secret!) The secret card you just looked at is your "locator" card. Remember it.

After they put their card on top of the bottom half, you will "complete the cut" by replacing the top half back on top of the bottom half. (This puts your "locator" card right smack next to the spectator's card!) Now, have the spectator cut the cards several times. Don't worry, the locator card will always stay next to the spectator's chosen card as long as you DON'T shuffle...only cut the cards.

That's it! All you have to do is look through the cards and find the card that is next to your locator card. Take it out and show that you did it!

This is a magic trick all by itself (in fact, it was my first card trick), but it can also be used to determine the value of a selected card for OTHER magic tricks.

See "Related Articles" below to see what I mean.

Here is a presentation and explanation video: