Influence by Mickael Chatelain

Can we or can we not influence things, events, or decisions?
After participating in this demonstration, your spectators will no doubt have their answer...

A red-backed card is placed face down in the middle of the table. A spectator will be invited to turn over the card at the end of your demonstration. You will not touch the card again.
Now take out a blue-backed deck, show it back and front. It's a regular deck in which all the cards are different.
Give it to the spectators to shuffle, cut and examine freely.

At this stage, point out that it is absolutely impossible to know the order of the cards since the deck has been passed from spectator to spectator, each of whom gave the deck a shuffle.

Explain that you are not going to manipulate the cards and that the order of the cards will stay as dictated by chance. To avoid any and all manipulation, the entire deck is immediately replaced in its case.

As things now stand, no one, not even you, knows the order of the cards.

Hold the deck and its case at the tips of the fingers and take out the cards one by one in order. Whenever he likes, a spectator tells you, "STOP!"

As soon as everything is set, you begin:

Take the first card out at the tips of the fingers, then the second, etc...

As slowly as possible the cards are removed from the case. At any time the spectator tells you, "STOP!"

As with the others, the card is removed. It's the Queen of Spades, for example.

Take out a few more cards to show that one second later, the card would have been completely different. But fate determined that the spectator would stop on the Queen of Spades. Take the rest of the deck and show it. No duplicates, no other Queens of Spades!

If the prediction card in view since the beginning is identical to the card you have just removed from the deck, let's admit that we're witnessing a veritable miracle since:

- No manipulation was possible
- The deck is ordinary and shuffled by the spectators
- The spectator said STOP whenever he wished
- We said MIRACLE, didn't we?

Invite the spectator to turn over the prediction card himself.

Incredible! The word doesn't do justice, as in fact, the prediction card is the Queen of Spades! How is this possible?

Read the strong points. You'll be convinced that INFLUENCE is truly exceptional!

Strong points:
* You use YOUR ordinary deck!
* The spectator shuffles the deck himself!
* The cards are immediately replaced in the case without changing their order.
* Once the cards are in the case, no manipulation is possible.
* You take out the cards one by one in the order they appear.
* NO forcing! That seems crazy, but is however true! The spectator has a FREE CHOICE of when to say, "STOP!"
* The prediction is not switched.
* Quick reset.
* No manipulation. An incredible gimmick takes care of everything, leaving you to concentrate on presentation.