@Baran: "Actually, yes. Whenever I perform magic at school, "I'll say something like, "Pick a card" and someone says "I know that trick!". Like there are so many tricks with 'Pick a card,' it just doesn't make sense"
You are right, it really doesn't make sense to US, as magicians. But laymen think differently, and they don't know enough to differentiate in their minds among all the many tricks that could take place after they pick a card. Learning how they think and react, even if it's not what we would expect, is an important key to success.
This is why I avoid card tricks that begin with "Pick a card." Their uncle, or grandfather or some friend along the line (maybe all three or more) have done tricks for them that begin that way - and usually poor tricks, at that, like just getting the bottom card on top of the selection and then finding the card. Big deal, right?
As an alternative, you can hand them the deck in the beginning and say, "OK, Just go through the cards and find one you like, and when you do, please remove it and hand me the rest of the cards." Or you can dribble the cards from above into your hand and tell them "Just say stop anytime you like." And at that point you can let them decide whether they want the top card of the cards in your left hand or the bottom card of the cards remaining in your right hand. This will throw them off - it's not something they have seen and you will not get that response, "I know that trick," or "I've seen that one." Then you can control the card and go into your trick. Or you could just force the card doing, for example, the Hindu shuffle force or cross-cut force. Those are not "pick a card" either. And that way, you can even have them put the card back anywhere in the deck they want and even shuffle themselves afterward - which to a laymen is very strong - because they generally suspect we are controlling the selected card.
