ACAAN RITUAL

Dani DaOrtiz

I must admit that among all the versions of "Any Card at any number" I've executed
during the last years, this one has become one of my favourites. I think that the
reason, is the fact that, in a single routine, it's possible to feel the "personality" of
other routines from my repertoire. I have taken what I consider some of the best
aspects of other tricks of mine, for the creation of this effect.

I took some elements from the structure of "ACAAN without touching the deck", the
idea of camouflage from the "Triple Intuition", the chaotic Ireland control I use in
"ACAAN 18", the thought-of card strategy used in the "Triple Intuition 2.0"...

In short, I have tried to create a "Card at any Number", with a thought-of card, using
chaos, without touching the deck and completely semi-automatic. I hope you enjoy
it.

PROPS

For this miracle we'll use only six duplicates. The structure of the routine will make
these duplicates totally "invisible" to the audience.

PREPARATION

The preparation of the deck, from top to bottom: 17 indifferent cards, the six
duplicates and the rest of the cards.

We will start with the deck face down in left hand dealing position, maintaining a
little-finger break between the first 17 cards and the rest.

THOUGHT-OF CARD STRATEGY

Let's start by spreading the deck between our hands, handing out to a spectator on
the right, a group of 8 or 9 cards, asking him to mix it up. We'll take the rest of the
cards above the break, handing them to another spectator on the right, asking him to
bring them under the table, and shuffle them. The duplicates are now on the top of
the deck.

Spread again the top portion and take the first six cards (the duplicates), giving them
to someone on your left, asking to bring them under the table and shuffle them too.

Give the rest of the cards to a fourth spectator on the left.

Now let's make up a "game with the spectators", which will have a double intention.

Apparently what we'll do is shuffle the deck among different spectators, but our real
intention is to have a spectator look at a card, without anyone remembering this
moment, creating in the mind of the audience the sensation of a freely "thought-of"
card. To do this, look at one of the spectators on the right, ask him to take a card
from the packet he's shuffling, and without looking at it, lose it again and continue
shuffling. Tell the audience that all this is only to have fun.
Look at the next spectator on the right and ask him to take a card from the top of
the deck and place it on the bottom, and continue shuffling.

Looking now at the spectator on the left, who is shuffling the duplicates underneath
the table, ask him to take any card, remember it, loose it again and continue
shuffling. As you tell him this, mime how he should draw out and look at the card, so
to prevent him from taking out the pile seeing they're duplicates.

Without any pause, and even before the third spectator starts to do his actions, look
at the fourth spectator and ask him to cut and complete his packet three times.

Now, ask the first packet to the first spectator (from the left), take it, spread the
cards in the hands and start to throw small packets on the table, so to form an un-
squared pile of cards. This, should give the sensation that the shuffling process
continues.

We'll do the same with the second spectator (on the left). We'll ask him for his cards
and throw them in small packets on the pile previously formed on the table.

Now ask the third spectator for his cards (the duplicates), and do the same: spread
them, take two or three cards at the time and drop them on the pile on the table.

Do the same thing with the fourth pile.

In this way, on the table there will be only one un-squared pile.

The order of the deck will be reversed: (from top to bottom) the rest of the deck, 6
duplicates and 17 cards.

At this point, looking at the spectator on the left (the third spectator), we will say:

- We need someone to think of a card. Do any of you have one?

He'll say yes. Remember that he saw one of the 6 duplicates.

In order to "transform" his selection into a merely thought-of card, just tell him
"think about your card".

In this way, each time we'll ask him if he's thinking of a card, he'll understand we're
referring to the selected card.

FINDING OUT THE POSITION

So far we have done what is necessary to give the sensation of a "thought-of card".
Now, we will continue with the position. We're really going to force the spectator to
tell us a number from 1 to 26, approximately, without the audience giving
importance to this fact.

To do this, we will look at one of the spectators on the right and ask him to cut about
twenty cards, telling him we're only going to play with that group. Tell him that he
must do that because you can't touch, then he must do the "magical passes".

If the spectator cuts a very small group, just pick up a few more cards from the
deck, giving them to him. Ask the spectator to shuffle the packet he is holding.
While this is happening, look at any spectator from the audience (or group of people)
and ask him to think of any position in the packet. Approximately a number from 1 to
20. Tell him to choose a pretty high number, to make it difficult.

KNOWING THE NUMBER

Let's play again with the spectator who's holding the pile.

Ask him to take the second card from the top and place it in third position. Now tell
him to pass a group of five cards from the middle to the top...to take the top one
and pass it to the bottom.

Obviously, all these actions are spontaneous and you don't need to memorize them.
You can improvise at this point.

Now comes the important part:

Tell the spectator: - Take the second card and...

Stop and say: - Well, no! Not the second one!

Now, looking at the spectator who is thinking about the number, ask him what
number is it. Whatever he says, look to the spectator who has the packet and tell
him: - Then, the seventh card... and put it on the bottom.

Everything will look like a game, but what we've really done is listen to the number
the spectator told us without anybody giving importance to this fact. They'll
understand the purpose of the question and we didn't create any expectation with
that number.

ADJUSTING

Now, to finish, ask the spectator to take a group of cards from the top, and the put
in the lower half...

While we're saying this, what we'll do is take the cards from the table and pass cards,
so that the group of duplicates, begins from the number chosen by the spectator.

In other words: we know that the duplicates start from position 18 to position 23
from the bottom of the deck. So, if for example the spectator has named the number
20, we must take two cards from the top, and pass them to the bottom.

If the spectator had named the number 15, we would have to take 3 cards from the
bottom and place them on top. In this way we will adjust the position of the cards so
that the duplicates start in the position named by the spectator.

However, remember that this adjustment is made as an example of while describing

Finally tell to the spectator: - The important thing is that you have to shuffle!

I don't know if I've managed to put the gag on paper: we've given a lot of importance
to the precision of the actions the spectator did, concluding by asking him or her to
shuffle. This is how it should feel this whole situation, as a gag and a game with the
spectator, in reality what we've done, really served us to know the position chosen by
the spectator, and adjust the duplicates to that position.

Finally ask the spectator to leave his packet on the tabled pile.

THE RITUAL (CHAOTIC IRELAND SHUFFLE)

Now we're going to announce that it's time for the ritual. Ask everybody to stand up.

Now, ask one of the spectators to take the deck. The important thing will be the
position where the duplicates start. Let's suppose they start from the twentieth
position ( from the bottom).

Ask him to cut a small packet from the top, and leave it on the table.

Now ask him to do the same thing again, taking a slightly larger group, leaving it onto
the pile he already left on the table.

When we are close to where the duplicates are, in our example 20 from the bottom,
we'll ask him to deal cards one by one, stopping whenever he wants. Once you notice
he has passed the portion where the duplicate cards are, conclude by saying: - With
the rest of the cards you have... just shuffle them and drop them on top of the rest
of the cards on the table.

What we've really done with this shuffle procedure is to reverse the position of the
duplicates, placing them in the same position that they occupied from the bottom,
but now, from the top. That is to say, if they before started from position 20 from
the bottom, now they'll be positioned from the 20th position from the top.

DENOUEMENT: THE CARD AT THE NUMBER

Now, announce that, after the ritual, the thought-of card is in the chosen position.

Ask, for the first time, to the third spectator, what card is he thinking.

Obviously, we already know it, being one of the duplicates he saw at the beginning.

Ask immediately what position the other spectator chose. Let's suppose it was the
20th.

Ask the spectator who thought the card, to take the deck and start dealing slowly,
one card at the time, face up, until the chosen position is reached. Ask him to name
his card again and slowly turn the next card showing her identity. It will be the one!

Enjoy the reactions!

WORKING AFTER THE EFFECT

While everybody is reacting, ask the spectator for the deck, without giving it any
importance, take the first six or seven cards, turn them over as a single unit and
leave them onto the previously dealt cards. Continue taking groups of cards from the
deck, dealing them face up on the table. Do it with the whole packet.
The intention is to show the rest of the cards. However, due to the structure of the
routine, after having dealt any number of cards we'll always end up revealing the
first card of the duplicates.

Thanks to that, it will be possible to show the rest of the deck as I just explained,
hiding the duplicates in a subtle way.