How to Do Magic Tricks With Cards
Magic tricks can be great conversation starters. It is an easy way to make yourself stand out in a crowd and it can keep your body and mind active. Some people think magic is hard to learn, but it doesn’t have to be. There are many simple tricks that can be mastered in a short time.
5-Minute Crafts will teach you how to do magic tricks with cards.
1. The mind reader card trick
- Before you start, make a prediction on a piece of paper and place it in an envelope. You can choose any card you’d like to use. In this example, we picked the Eight of Clubs.
- Grab your deck of cards and arrange the Eight of Clubs on top in secrecy.
- Give the envelope to a spectator, telling them not to open it.
4. Fan the cards and show them to the audience.
5. Using the Cross Cut Force, induce them to choose the Eight of Clubs.
- Cross Cut Force is a technique that requires cutting the cards in half and putting them in a cross shape.
6. Encourage a member of the audience to cut the cross shape, split the cards in half and place them to their right.
7. Take the left part (which was originally from the bottom), turn it sideways, and place it on the top of the cards in the pile on the right. Wait for a couple of seconds so the spectator forgets which half originated from where. Look up from the stack of cards and tell your participant that the deck is normal, and nothing tricky has been done. Remind your participant that they had the option of cutting elsewhere but chose to “cut there.”
8. Grab the top half of the cards while you say, “Cut here” and then remark, “And you chose this card,” pointing to the top card of the bottom half (the Eight of Clubs).
9. Ask the participant to disclose the chosen card after turning it over to see if your prediction was accurate.
2. The Inverted Card
- Flip over the bottom card of your stack secretly, so that it is the only card facing up before you start.
- Spread the cards out and let an audience member choose one. Be cautious so the spectator doesn’t see your bottom card.
- Have them reveal the card to everyone without letting you see it and instruct them to memorize it. Turn the deck of cards in your hands lightly as you are letting them remember the card.
4. Place the spectator’s chosen card to face down in the center of the deck while keeping the deck tightly closed to prevent anybody from seeing that the cards are reversed.
5. Place the cards behind you and announce that you will locate their card without peeking. Turn the top card over so it will be facing up.
6. To find the sole face-down card, spread out the face-up card, fan through it, and show the chosen card.
3. Three-Card Trick
- Take the Ace of Spades, Queen of Hearts, and Ace of Clubs out of the deck. Put them on the table from left to right. Tell your participant to choose one of the 3 cards. Then tell your participant to point to the card that they chose. While they are doing this, you should turn your back to them and not look at which card they will choose.
- Instruct the participant to pick up the 2 cards they didn’t choose and swap them. For example: if they chose Ace of Clubs like in the example, they would then have to swap the Ace of Spades and the Queen of Hearts.
- Then ask them to flip over all 3 cards.
4. Turn around once again and have them swap the 3 cards by moving them to the left or to the right. Observe the middle card closely while they do this.
5. When they’ve finished shuffling, turn over the card you were following:
- If the card is the Queen of Hearts, that’s their chosen card.
- If it’s an Ace of Spades, they went for the Ace of Clubs.
- If it was an Ace of Clubs, they went for an Ace of Spades.
6. Flip the 2 cards that they didn’t choose and instruct them to think of the one they chose. Push their chosen card forward after claiming to read their mind.
4. Repeat after me
- Remove the Jokers from 2 decks of cards.
- You have 2 decks. Instruct the participant to select one. Tell the audience to watch everything you do from now on closely, and both of you should start to shuffle the cards.
- Cut both decks of cards in half and look at the bottom card of your deck. Remember it while you complete your last shuffle. In this instance, we’ll use the King of Hearts.
4. Swap decks with your participant to prove you aren’t using a trick deck.
5. Tell your participant to cut the deck in half and set the cards to their right.
6. Ask them to remove the top card from the stack, put it to their left, and remember the card. Then ask them to place it on top of the cards to their right without revealing it to you. After that, tell them to take the left pack and pile all the cards on top of the stack on their right. This will look like the chosen card is buried in the center of the deck, but it is close to the previously memorized vital card from the King of Hearts.
7. You are carrying out the same task as they are. Remember your chosen card — the King of Hearts. Then swap the decks once again.
8. Instruct your participant to search their deck for their card and pull it out face down. You’ll act as though you’re searching for the card you randomly chose, but actually, you’re looking for the King of Hearts. The card to its right will be their card. Pull it out face down.
9. Turn both cards over after a count of 3 to demonstrate that you chose the exact match.