Biddle Trick presentation ideas?

[Antonio Diavolo]

I've known this trick for awhile and I honestly love the effect itself. But I've always had trouble trying to justify the whole "5 card" thing. I don't like the traditional "cutting to within five cards of yours" thing because spectators aren't stupid. They know you could cut right to their card if you wanted to so why bother with the 5 cards? I want to keep the surprise ending and stuff but I'm not sure how.

My "best" idea so far has been the spectator picking a card that would then become "Houdini" and tell a story about Houdini being wrapped in chains and locked up in a cell with four guards keeping an eye on him or something and then have him escape and reappear across the theater or across town or something like that.

I've toyed with the idea of forcing a card beforehand or playing it off as an "illusion" where their card was never in the packet in the first place or something but idk none of these have clicked with me.

Idk. I feel like it's a great trick but I've never found a justifiable presentation for it. What do you guys usually use? I won't steal your presentation verbatim of course. Just trying to get my creative gears turning a bit. Thanks guys!

 

[Justin.Morris]

I use a bit about an old movie called Maverick where the dad told his son that he could thinking about a card and just cut right to it.

My challenge is choosing the best ending.
Though not the best example of the performance (they were quite drunk and it was a super loud and busy environment), it's the general patter. Use whatever you like from it. My issue with the presentation is that younger people have never heard of the movie and have no idea who Mel Gibson and Jodi Foster are. Lol

 

[Antonio Diavolo]

I use a bit about an old movie called Maverick where the dad told his son that he could thinking about a card and just cut right to it.

My challenge is choosing the best ending.
Though not the best example of the performance (they were quite drunk and it was a super loud and busy environment), it's the general patter. Use whatever you like from it. My issue with the presentation is that younger people have never heard of the movie and have no idea who Mel Gibson and Jodi Foster are. Lol

Very good! Especially since they were drunk haha. I dig the movie reference as well. I love using movie references for my tricks. I sort of borrowed Tyler Scott's idea of talking about the Prestige for Double Cross except I go into a lot more detail about how he had Tesla build him a crazy machine and I talk about the X as if it was Hugh Jackman's character himself.

However, I personally don't really like outright saying that my tricks are sleights in front of them. I kinda prefer giving it some sort of story or reasoning for happening that's more magical if that makes sense. Either that, or I just do the thing Cardini used to do with his cigarette routine where the magic seems to almost be out of my control. Like with the Omni Deck, my main presentation is that I jokingly say I will make the deck disappear from their hands but I only get it half right and it just becomes a clear block. Stuff like that.

 

[RealityOne]

Something from a project I'm working on....

"Imaginary Elmer"

I fan the deck face down, take one card out, turn the deck over and insert the card face down in the deck. I then tell the audience that I'm going to project my imagination onto them. Whatever, I imagine is what will happen. "I'm imagining that you will pick one of the face up cards." I look to the cards indicating they should pick one. They pick the 8 Spades. "I'm imagining the card you pick is the 8 of Spades." That should get a small laugh and a r elease of tension. I close the deck and turn it face down. "I'm imagining you will put the card on top of the deck. " They place the card on top and I cut the deck burying it in the middle. "I'm imagining your card is somewhere in the middle of the deck. I'm also imagining that I have a 20% chance of finding your card. " Again a laugh and release. "So to make the odds in my favor, I'm going to pick five cards." You may get some reaction here, play to it. "Buy, to make it more difficult, I want you to shuffle the deck." Spectator riffle shuffles the deck. I then cut to five cards putting them face down in the spectator's hand. "Since I'm an amazing magician in my own imagination, I'm going to imagine that One of these cards is actually the 8 of Spades. "I'm going to show you the cards one at a time and I want you to imagine that one of them is the 8 of Spades". After going through the cards, I put the packet down in one spectator's hands and give the deck to another spectator. "If you imagined that your card was one of these five, I now have a one in five chance of finding the card. But let's do this by process of elimination." I turn over four cards one at a time, saying "I want you to imagine that this is not your card." I look at the card first and say, "I want you to imagine that this is [insert name of card]. As Inlook at the last card, "It would be too easy to have you imagine this is your card. So I want you to clear your mind and let's imagine that the 8 of Spades doesn't exist. Now turn that card over. ". The card is a blank card. "To prove that you imagined all of this, you will remember that I turned one card over in the deck at the beginning. " Take deck from spectator and show 8 of Spades is only reversed card.

(C) Publication Rights Reserved

 

[Antonio Diavolo]

Something from a project I'm working on....

"Imaginary Elmer"

I fan the deck face down, take one card out, turn the deck over and insert the card face down in the deck. I then tell the audience that I'm going to project my imagination onto them. Whatever, I imagine is what will happen. "I'm imagining that you will pick one of the face up cards." I look to the cards indicating they should pick one. They pick the 8 Spades. "I'm imagining the card you pick is the 8 of Spades." That should get a small laugh and a r elease of tension. I close the deck and turn it face down. "I'm imagining you will put the card on top of the deck. " They place the card on top and I cut the deck burying it in the middle. "I'm imagining your card is somewhere in the middle of the deck. I'm also imagining that I have a 20% chance of finding your card. " Again a laugh and release. "So to make the odds in my favor, I'm going to pick five cards." You may get some reaction here, play to it. "Buy, to make it more difficult, I want you to shuffle the deck." Spectator riffle shuffles the deck. I then cut to five cards putting them face down in the spectator's hand. "Since I'm an amazing magician in my own imagination, I'm going to imagine that One of these cards is actually the 8 of Spades. "I'm going to show you the cards one at a time and I want you to imagine that one of them is the 8 of Spades". After going through the cards, I put the packet down in one spectator's hands and give the deck to another spectator. "If you imagined that your card was one of these five, I now have a one in five chance of finding the card. But let's do this by process of elimination." I turn over four cards one at a time, saying "I want you to imagine that this is not your card." I look at the card first and say, "I want you to imagine that this is [insert name of card]. As Inlook at the last card, "It would be too easy to have you imagine this is your card. So I want you to clear your mind and let's imagine that the 8 of Spades doesn't exist. Now turn that card over. ". The card is a blank card. "To prove that you imagined all of this, you will remember that I turned one card over in the deck at the beginning. " Take deck from spectator and show 8 of Spades is only reversed card.

(C) Publication Rights Reserved

That's pretty good haha.

 

[Justin.Morris]

The trouble I've had is that I can't decide if it's better to play the magician in trouble route or the master of the cards. Often when I do the magician in trouble, people really buy into it and unless I make it obvious, they rarely put it together that it was all part of the show. They make comments like "too bad it didn't work the first time". They genuinely feel bad for me.

The other way, "watch your card vanishes and reappears somewhere impossible" lacks purpose in my patter (why should it appear there of all places?). But people don't feel like I screwed up.

Both get good reactions and amazed, but one leaves them feeling bad for me, and the other leaves them more impressed with me.

 

[obrienmagic]

Check out “biddless” by John G. He selects the 5 cards one at a time rather than cutting to a block of 5. Makes it seem more like he is just narrowing it down.

 

[Antonio Diavolo]

The trouble I've had is that I can't decide if it's better to play the magician in trouble route or the master of the cards. Often when I do the magician in trouble, people really buy into it and unless I make it obvious, they rarely put it together that it was all part of the show. They make comments like "too bad it didn't work the first time". They genuinely feel bad for me.

The other way, "watch your card vanishes and reappears somewhere impossible" lacks purpose in my patter (why should it appear there of all places?). But people don't feel like I screwed up.

Both get good reactions and amazed, but one leaves them feeling bad for me, and the other leaves them more impressed with me.

That's been my issue too. I can't decide whether to make it seem intentional or like I messed up initially.
I like the magician in trouble plot to be honest. I'm naturally clumsy so it kinda fits my personality.

Check out “biddless” by John G. He selects the 5 cards one at a time rather than cutting to a block of 5. Makes it seem more like he is just narrowing it down.

I'll check it out! That does sound a lot more natural.

 

[Sazzaro]

(Sorry for my bad english post)
I don't like the magician in trouble plot and i really like the biddle trick. I thing the the biggest problem of the biddle trick is the lack of coherence global of the trick. Plus i don't like controling cards I always feel like it is stupid to shuffle the deck by myself when it would have been more credible to let the spectator take the card, put it back and shuffle the deck by himself.
So here is my version of the biddle trick:

I let a spectator shuffle the cards.
When i take back the cards I fan them face up to show that it's a regular cards. I use this time to look at the first card of deck.
I force the first card with a riffle shuffle, that force allow me to naturally cut the deck in two parts, one in each hand.
I ask the spectator to take is card and remember it then I give the top paquet at another spectator asking him to give 3 random cards to the spectator with the selection.
The selection card is shuffle with the 3 random one and i ask the spectator if he really have his card in mind.
I take back the 4 cards and i show them (2 cards in each hands and i still have the back part of the deck in dealer hand) saying: "one of this 4 cards is yours correct ? One out of 4 if i don't find it i'm a pretty bad magician" I use the action of showing the card to make sure that the card of the spectator is second or third and if not i cut when i put all the cards on the top of the back paquet ready to do the biddle move.
Now I will play a game with the spectator asking him to answer "yes" to all the question i'll ask him.
I show the cards one by one (and i do the move) while asking for each card: "is this your card?"
I do several jokes since the spectator will have to say "yes" like "do you find me attractive?", "is this show boring" "are you fucking lying to me?" etc
In the head of every other spectators i'm trying to disrupt him to detect the right cards.
I put back the back paquet (with the selection) on the top of the other paquet. At this point the first paquet is ether in the hand of the spectator that give the 3 randoms cards or on the table it doesn't really matter.
"ok so one of this 1...2...3...4 cards is yours (emsley count) i think i know wich one it is"
I put the predented 4 cards in the hand of the spectator and I say that i'm gonna try to remove the right one.
I pretend to grab it in my hand: "oh it's the *name of the card*" and i give the imaginary card to another spectator.
"don't drop it i hate when my cards are dirty".
At this point i got some pretty good reaction since everybody think that i detect when he was lying to me.
"oh you look skeptical make sur i really took your card" BOOM great réactions
"Can you throw the card back in the deck" the spectator pretend to do it and i spread the deck.
BOOM again, the card is show face up in the middle of the deck but you all already knew that.

Sorry again for my english i hope that you understood my description. This is one of my favorite trick. So easy to do, and muttiple moments of reactions witch is really important to me. I feel like when there is only one climax people tend more to look at it as a puzzle and try to understand how it's done.

 

[Flustration]

People tend to look at it as a puzzle always. If you don't look at it as a puzzle it helps them to suspend belief.

From your description you are cool btw.

 

[Antonio Diavolo]

People tend to look at it as a puzzle always. If you don't look at it as a puzzle it helps them to suspend belief.

From your description you are cool btw.

Mine?

 

[kennethcmerrill]

(Sorry for my bad english post)
I don't like the magician in trouble plot and i really like the biddle trick. I thing the the biggest problem of the biddle trick is the lack of coherence global of the trick. Plus i don't like controling cards I always feel like it is stupid to shuffle the deck by myself when it would have been more credible to let the spectator take the card, put it back and shuffle the deck by himself.
So here is my version of the biddle trick:

I let a spectator shuffle the cards.
When i take back the cards I fan them face up to show that it's a regular cards. I use this time to look at the first card of deck.
I force the first card with a riffle shuffle, that force allow me to naturally cut the deck in two parts, one in each hand.
I ask the spectator to take is card and remember it then I give the top paquet at another spectator asking him to give 3 random cards to the spectator with the selection.
The selection card is shuffle with the 3 random one and i ask the spectator if he really have his card in mind.
I take back the 4 cards and i show them (2 cards in each hands and i still have the back part of the deck in dealer hand) saying: "one of this 4 cards is yours correct ? One out of 4 if i don't find it i'm a pretty bad magician" I use the action of showing the card to make sure that the card of the spectator is second or third and if not i cut when i put all the cards on the top of the back paquet ready to do the biddle move.
Now I will play a game with the spectator asking him to answer "yes" to all the question i'll ask him.
I show the cards one by one (and i do the move) while asking for each card: "is this your card?"
I do several jokes since the spectator will have to say "yes" like "do you find me attractive?", "is this show boring" "are you fucking lying to me?" etc
In the head of every other spectators i'm trying to disrupt him to detect the right cards.
I put back the back paquet (with the selection) on the top of the other paquet. At this point the first paquet is ether in the hand of the spectator that give the 3 randoms cards or on the table it doesn't really matter.
"ok so one of this 1...2...3...4 cards is yours (emsley count) i think i know wich one it is"
I put the predented 4 cards in the hand of the spectator and I say that i'm gonna try to remove the right one.
I pretend to grab it in my hand: "oh it's the *name of the card*" and i give the imaginary card to another spectator.
"don't drop it i hate when my cards are dirty".
At this point i got some pretty good reaction since everybody think that i detect when he was lying to me.
"oh you look skeptical make sur i really took your card" BOOM great réactions
"Can you throw the card back in the deck" the spectator pretend to do it and i spread the deck.
BOOM again, the card is show face up in the middle of the deck but you all already knew that.

Sorry again for my english i hope that you understood my description. This is one of my favorite trick. So easy to do, and muttiple moments of reactions witch is really important to me. I feel like when there is only one climax people tend more to look at it as a puzzle and try to understand how it's done.

I love this! thank you for sharing.

I really like the Biddle trick, and it's one of the few effects I feel really comfortable performing, but I also have a hard time figuring out a presentation that doesn't seem totally arbitrary and unnecessary. If Sazzaro doesn't mind, I might borrow a couple ideas from him. I'll tell people I learned the effect from the Great Sazzaro himself