Magic Tricks Revealed: The Fantastic X-Ray Card Trick

by: George Hutton

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Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 Time: 10:51 AM - 0 comments

This is a classic trick that is quick to learn and powerful to demonstrate. You can use it by itself, in a spur of the moment type of thing, or with many other tricks that you have carefully hidden up your proverbial sleeve. This requires a deck of cards, and some practice in front of mirror. It also helps if you can ham it up a bit while you are doing this illusion.

This is what the trick will look like to your soon blown away group of happy spectators. You produce a normal, everyday deck of cards, and calmly explain that you have powerful X-ray vision. You hold the deck of cards out, so they can see the bottom card, and you can't. You prove the amazing strength of your X-ray vision by staring through the deck and reading the card on the bottom.

Then you close your eyes, and move the card that is on top, to the bottom. After that open your powerful eyes, intently stare through the deck, and see the card at the bottom. The stunned crowd looks on in amazed silenced. After you do this for every card in the deck, even the most doubting skeptic will be convinced of your powerful X-ray vision.

Here's how do to do the trick. Take a normal pack of cards, and flip the top card over, so that it is facing up. Then flip the deck around, so the audience sees that card. They will assume that it is the card on the bottom, and the rest are facing in the same direction. So while you are holding the deck facing out, they are looking at what they think is the bottom card, and you are looking at what they think is the face down top card, when in reality you are simply looking at the next card, which is face up.

This can take some practice. Many prefer to start this trick out by cutting the deck a few times, taking a peek at the bottom card, and then quickly putting in on top while telling some engaging story. Others prefer to hold the deck behind their backs while they do this. The most important part is to keep talking, and keep the audience engaged. This trick can easily impress people, but if you're not careful, you can get caught just as easily.

One way to avoid detection is to act as if you aren't quite sure of the card. Act as if your X-ray vision is that calibrated, and miss a few cards, but not by much. For example, instead of calling the Queen of Hearts, call out the Queen of Diamonds. Instead of calling out the Ace of Spades, call out the Aces of Clubs. And simply pretend like you are attempting to see the cards. If you can really ham it up, the audience will be more apt to see if you read the card correctly than to see how exactly you are doing this powerful trick. Have fun with this.