carruth00

Something tells me the audience member was picked beforehand so he could be 'instructed' politely to avoid picking a court card.. as the audience might be confused by it's value. This would eliminate 16 cards Joshua would have to deal with if he were searching for the selection after the cards were divided and placed on the table. I don't believe the audience guy was an actual shill. I DO believe the audience guy was given a different deck from the one used. And I do believe some of the cards were double-facers.. blank on one side and numerical on the other..

I didn't see him palm a card in.. I looked for that very closely as i was convinced that was the method. I have it DVR'd a went back and watched it numerous times. The question is.. how did he know the 4 of diamonds would be selected? It bothered me that the audience member was selected beforehand. That indicates there might have been collusion or a little pre-show work. When a card trick seems a little too impossible, the solution is often something we wish it wasn't. The bottom card was obviously 'marked', a short card or whatever.. so he could determine eight cards were shifted to the bottom. Since the whole premise was a magic trick for a blind girl, perhaps the cards were braille. Once the card directly beneath the former bottom card was determined, counting the remaining cards gives you the thought-of card. If he knew beforehand that the four of diamonds was to be selected, all this 'counting' was unnecessary. That leaves the four being secreted in after the value and suit was determined -or- a gaffed deck. Once the two packets were reassembled with the bottom eight cards there was still a degree of 'searching', as if he was looking for the four. Unless there was an opportunity for him to secret in the four via a camera cut, I suspect the cards were gaffed. I know he gave away the deck, but THAT might have been when a deck switch occurred. He could still claim no deck switch DURING the effect. There was obviously a little period of time not shown after the end of the trick and the time the spec walked off stage. There was not enough time to gather all the cards, unless a few seconds was edited out as unimportant..

I went back and watched the show again and Kostya is working with a clean deck. It was simply a wonderful cull, done in about three parts, very quickly, and performed while he was showing P&T how well the cards were mixed. You can actually see him flip the bottom half face up right before fanning the cards for the final reveal.

There are some off-the-shelf watches that will do what Falk wants if they are pulled out far enough. As such, they are not gaffed. I think that's what Falk was getting at.. But, this effect is generally performed with the gaffed watch, as you can allow the spec to see the time at the beginning, which Falk didn't do, then, put it under a scarf, set the time, and the time will still be pre-determined by the watch. One of the more expensive props would have been more impressive. P&T still understood the method. As for Kostya, -if- the deck wasn't gaffed, and I still believe it was, it was a wonderful cull.... The only thing that makes me think it wasn't was Teller picking up some of the cards after the effect was over and having a hard look at them back at his chair..

A normal deck? Not quite... Think more along the lines of a half normal deck. Note Teller got to shuffle his half.. and Penn never got to actually shuffle HIS half.. Kostya did it for him.. for a reason.