Thursday, June 19, 2008

Cold deck switch during a lecture

How do you incorporate a move that requires such heavy misdirection (such as a cold deck switch) during a lecture with a camera zoomed in on your hands? Here's an idea I came up with back in 2004/2005 that I've used in every lecture since.

I would call up 3-6 spectators for a hand of poker. I'd hand the deck to the person to my left to shuffle and deal. As he/she shuffled I would explain the importance of the cutting the deck (by this point I has already demonstrated several cheating moves so this was fairly easy). I'd instruct the dealer to pass the cut to the player on his left (instead of his right, the correct way) for the cut and 'catch' myself in the mistake. I'd then bring the question up to the audience- "Does anyone know where you pass the deck for the cut?"

Even though someone always blurted out the answer I would ask someone in the back of the room. While attention was on this spectator in the back answering the question I'd switch decks. This style of misdirection is a Tommy Wonder idea called redirection as misdirection. If a spectator is burning your hands (or even a room full of spectators and a camera) address a different spectator and almost always this serves as good enough misdirection to do whatever dirty work you want to do. Works like a charm.
be well,
JW