THE AMBITIOUS OPENER

Two spectators each select a card. The two selected cards are returned to the deck by the spectators. By just touching the top of the deck with one finger the magician causes the two cards to rise to the top of the deck.

This nearly impromptu effect requires only a deck of cards and is quite useful as a warm-up for an Ambitious Card routine where a certain card insists on rising to the top of the deck despite the best efforts of the spectators and magician to locate it elsewhere.

Props and Setup
A deck of cards. The deck is slightly pre-arranged, although this should not scare off would be performers.

The arrangement is to place the 7 of Diamonds and the 8 of Clubs as the two top cards of the deck and the 8 of Diamonds and the 7 of Clubs as the two bottom cards of the deck.
This setup can be made casually after another effect or the deck can be preset and this effect used to open.

Handling
Handling & Presentation
If you're familiar with a false shuffle this is a good place to practice it for a moment. Then turn to one spectator and then a second and force a card on each of them as follows.

The setup finds the 7D and 8C as the two top cards of the deck, while the 7C and 8D are the two bottom cards. The deck is held in the left hand, backs up, left thumb against one long side, left fingers against the other long side. The deck does not rest directly on the left palm, rather there is some air space between the bottom of the deck and the top of the left palm.

The right hand approaches the deck from the short end closest to the performer. The right thumb goes under the deck, the right fingers over the top of the deck. The right first and second fingers come to rest on the top of the deck at the short end furthest from the performer.
Turning to the first spectator, the performer uses his right second finger to pull back the cards on the deck one after the other, requesting the spectator to say, 'Stop.' When the spectator speaks up, the performer raises the stock of card cards that have been pulled back and displays the bottom-most card of the stock to the spectator, then thumbs that card off the bottom of the stock so that it drops face down on the table.

The stock is returned to the deck, the deck squared up, and the process repeated with a second spectator so that a second card is selected, shown to the spectator briefly and then dropped onto the first selected card on the table.During this selection process, the right thumb comes into contact with the bottom card of the deck and when the portion of the deck pulled back by the right fingers is pulled away the right thumb presses on the bottom card and brings it away as well. When the stock held by the right is pulled back and clears the stock remaining in the left hand the bottom card of the right stock is the former bottom card of the deck.

The stock in the right hand is tilted up very briefly so that the spectator just gets a glimpse of this bottom card, then the card is thumbed off face down onto the table top. The process is repeated and now two spectators have apparently chosen two cards.

The deck is placed on the table. The magician picks up the two face down cards and turns them over, swinging them apart to display both, but not called out their value.


He turns the cards face down again, mixes them between his hands, then hands one face down card to one spectator telling the spectator to push it into the deck so that about half of the card remains extended from the deck. He hands the second card face down to the second spectator and asks that the spectator also push the card into the deck about half way.

The magician stares down at the deck, raises his hands so that his open palms are visible to the audience, and squares up the deck in the process pushing the two protruding cards flush with the rest of the deck. In squaring the deck, the magician keeps his hands from covering the top of the deck even momentarily, pushing the protruding cards into the deck from the sides, front and back.

Again the magician raises his hands palms toward the audience, then extends his right finger and touches the center of the top card for a moment. He pauses, then turns over the two top cards. To the surprise of the spectators the two selected cards have mysteriously risen to the top of the deck.

Performance Notes
Please note the timing and the pauses that allow these two principles to be combined into a new effect. The force is quite simple with good cover and in this case is more of a selection than a force so it doesn't have to be anything more than it is. In other words a cleaner or more convincing force wouldn't make much difference here.

The fact that the 8 of Diamonds and 7 of Clubs appear to be the 7 of Diamonds and 8 of Clubs after being absent from view for a few moments is the basis of many early Princess Card Tricks. Here the two spectators are each given a brief glimpse of their selected cards, but the rest of the audience only glimpses the two cards as a pair before their rise to the top.
The effect can also be worked with one spectator. Run through the stop force, but in each case drop the card face down on the table without initially showing it to the spectator. Table the deck, pick up the two cards, spread them slightly so the spectator can see their faces, hand the two cards to the spectator face down asking him to mix the cards and then push them into the middle of the tabled deck.

By Richard Robinson