by Christoper Williams

Effect: The performer spreads a borrowed deck in his hands, removing a pair (for example, two Kings) and putting them face up on the table. The deck is tabled or pocketed or otherwise put away. A spectator is asked to name a card. Immediately the two Kings are spread and there is seen a third card, face down, between them. This card is turned over and is seen to be, of course, the card the spectator named

Set up: None

Method: There are a few ways to do this. I will explain a method for doing the way which seems most suitable.

From what I gather from the challenge, what is wanted to seem happen is the spectator thinks of ANY card, and it appears face down between the two Kings which was previously set aside.
To do this, you use an old mentalism ploy, whereby you make the spectator think they are thinking of ANY card they like, in reality, you know the card and where it is. No Force is needed either for this.

What you do is remove the two red kings and place them face up on top of the deck. The reason you do this you say is because you don’t want these cards to be chosen for this. Now you say ‘I want you to think of ANY card you like, but as most people usually pick the same cards when asked to think of one, such as the Ace of Spades or the Queen of Hearts, I would like you to take ANY card out whilst I turn my back, this way it is down to fate not chance what card you think of’. Perform the effect to actions, turning your back after spreading the cards and the spectator chooses ANY card. Now you say ‘I would like you to visualize the card you are holding, really THINK about the colour, the value, everything about that one card. As you are holding the card, the visualization is stronger than just thinking of a card in the deck.’
Now you turn back and pick up the rest of the deck. You now have two options. You need to get the selection between the Kings…how to do this. The most obvious it the tilt. Get a break under the top card and perform Marlo’s tilt move.

Brent Braun has some nice touches on this, and those that know them, I recommend them highly. Now you pick up the top two cards as one, I use a strike double lift, but any will work, this exposes the second King, and hides the selection. Push the king off the top of the deck and take it under the right hand card(s). Place the right hand cards on the table, place the deck aside. Remind them they could have chosen and thought of ANY card in the deck. The deck is aside, all you have are the two kings. If you want you can pick up the kings and block push off again, just showing two kings. Place them down on the table, get the spectator to put his first finger on top of the kings and name his thought of card out loud, and then lift his finger and spread the cards, revealing the selection face down between the kings. The nice moment here is that they have seen just two kings, and you haven’t touched the cards since. That is the first method.

The other method is one I am sure Tyler Wilson will be using :p, and comes from his effect Dirty, stinking Ape in the middle. What you do is get the selection place back near the centre of the deck face down. Now as you supposedly push the card in square, you actually in jog the card. There are many methods for doing this, and there is a great description found in Tyler’s book ‘Dominatricks’. In fact you can learn his effect here.

Now as you show the two kings, you strip the selection out with the top king as you reveal the king beneath it. Again, the method is tipped in the link given. Such a brilliant effect.

Now you finish the exact same way as mentioned above, from when the card is face down between the two kings.

Enjoy this method and the many others I’m sure people will come up with!