Control A Card To Top
Learn an easy method to control a card to the top of the deck.
This card sleight is useful to know and can be used in many card tricks.
It is particularly useful for the Magical Drop trick , and a few other cool rou tines which you can find in the card tricks page of this site.
Start by asking the spectator to choose a card from the deck. The deck can be fanned out in front of them and the spectator given a genuinely free choice.
Their card should be memorized by them, but not revealed to you, the magician.
Spectator is then asked to cut the pack, anywhere they wish.
You then pick up the two halves and while holding them open in a jaw like position, ask the spectator to put their card back in the middle of the deck.
You secretly obtain a pinky break at this pont, keeping your pinky on top of their card.
This move will be hidden from the spectator because of their angle of viewing the deck
Bottom half of deck is now pulled out and the cards are dropped in small packets onto the top of the deck.
The last card to be dropped on top, is the spectator's secret card.
Secret card is shown in blue above for demonstration purposes.
When the bottom half is pulled out from deck, small packets can be pulled from it and placed on top of the deck. The last card to be placed on top of the deck, will be the spectator's card. Your thumb and fourth finger should be able to gently grip small packets of the cards due to the way that you are holding the deck in the mechanics position.
Don't worry about your spectator seeing the pinky break as they should be viewing the trick from an angle that they can only view the sides of the pack that look completely normal.
With the secret card now on top of the deck, you are all set to perform the rest of your chosen magic trick.