The Core
The inspiration for this piece was Al Koran’s “Head-
line Countdown”1. In that effect, a double sheet of
newspaper is torn into sixteen pieces and a named
number counted down to arrive at a seemingly
random piece. In fact, through small variations in
the way the halves are placed together during the
tearing, a predicted target-piece is positioned at the
named number.
“The Core” applies the same idea (in reverse) to a
deck of cards: By slight variations during a seemingly
regular elimination process, any one of the fifty-two
cards can be made to remain at the end.
As a bonus, your spectators learn how to peel a deck.
EFFECT
In a rare instance of a theological-biolog- A regular deck that has been sitting un-
ical card trick, a spectator takes a fantasy- touched on the table the whole time is
trip to the performer’s personal Garden of slowly and carefully “peeled” as well.
Eden: Learning that a deck of cards is very Amazingly, it seems to be the deck from
much like a piece of fruit, the spectator is the spectator’s imaginary journey: The card
asked to peel an imaginary deck and to at the very centre – the core of the deck – is
name which card he finds to be the “core” exactly the named card.
of that deck.
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METHOD OVERVIEW1
2
The “peeling” of the deck is nothing but a
series of reverse faros: Every other card is
outjogged and stripped from the deck. This
is repeated until only a single card remains.
The process is quite honest and regular,
however, each peeling-round can be start-
ed by either injogging or outjogging the
first card (Photos 1 and 2). By varying this
single parameter, any one of the fifty-two
cards can be made to remain at the end.
The procedure described uses some very
basic binary mathematics. It was chosen for
the explanation because it best illustrates
the underlying principle. There is however,
a way to think of this that does not require
any binary and which you may find easier
during actual performance. This “shortcut”
is found in the comments under the head-
PERFORMANCE
ing “another way”.
Place a deck in memorized order on the
1 This routine was first published by Supreme Magic as table and address a male spectator: “Have
The Koran Newspaper Prediction (De Courcy, ca. 1970),
and later as “Headline Countdown” in Al Koran’s Legacy
you ever seen a theological-biological card
(Miller, 1972), page 53. It is a streamlined handling of trick? No? Well, imagine you are in a beauti-
Edmund Rowland’s “An Impromptu Torn Newspaper ful garden. In fact, not just any garden, but
Test” from Pentagram, Nov. 1952, page 11.
the Garden of Eden – paradise! Can you im-
agine that? Good. You’d be naked, of course,
but don’t let this distract you. In the middle
1 of the garden you come to a big tree, the tree
of temptation! And hanging from the tree
are dozens of ripe decks of cards. Hey, it’s my
paradise! Now, imagine you pick a deck off
the tree and peel it to see which card is the
core of that deck. The card at the very cen-
tre of a deck is the core, you see. Every deck
has a different core. Which card is the core in
your imaginary deck?”
The spectator names a card. Subtract one
from its position in the deck and remember
the result as your key number. (Suppose the
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spectator names the card with stack num- The simple rule for each round then, is this:
ber 20. You subtract one and remember key If the value of a round is needed, the first
number nineteen.)2 card of that round is outjogged. If the value
of the round is not needed, the first card is
You will now “peel” the deck: Every other injogged.
card is outjogged and then the outer half of
the deck is removed. This is repeated sever- Let’s play that through with our example:
al times until only one card remains. Each
of those peeling-rounds has a value: The The spectator named card number 20. Sub-
first round has the value one. The second tracting one gives nineteen. To make nine-
round has the value two. The third round teen, the required round-values are one,
has the value four. The next eight, then six- two and sixteen.
teen, and the last round has the value thir-
ty-two. (Note that these numbers simply The first round has the value of one. This
double from one round to the next.) number we need, so the first card is out-
jogged (and then every other card, till the
Also, while the peeling itself is always quite end). As always, the outer half is stripped
regular, there is a secret variation at the be- from the deck and placed aside.
ginning of each round: Each round can be
started either by outjogging or injogging The second round has the value two. This
the first card. (If treated matter-of-factly, number is also needed, so again, the first
this goes completely unnoticed.) To know card is outjogged.
whether to start each round with an injog
or an outjog, consider which of the round- The next round has the value four. This
values (one, two, four, eight, sixteen, thirty- number is not needed, so this time, start
two) is needed to total the key number. by injogging the first card (and then, as al-
ways, every other card till the end).
In our example the key number is nineteen,
so the needed numbers are sixteen, two and The next round’s value is eight. This is,
one (16 + 2 + 1 = 19).3 again, not needed, so inward the first card
goes. (After stripping out the outer cards,
only four cards are left.)
2 As has been pointed out by Doug Canning (see Semi-
Automatic Card Tricks, Volume VII (Beam, 2006), page
168), instead of subtracting one from the card’s stack The next round has the value of sixteen,
number, you can also place the bottom card of the stack which is needed. Therefore, the first card is
to the top before the beginning of the trick. In that case,
the key number is simply the card’s stack number. outjogged, as is the third. Both outer cards
3 When figuring out which of the numbers are needed to
are stripped out. Only two cards are left.
make the key number, it is easiest to look at them from
the largest to the smallest. With just a little practice this The last round has the value thirty-two,
will become quite easy. To orient myself, I found it hel-
pful to remember the two “landmarks” 16 + 8 = 24 and which is not needed. So, the first card is
32 + 8 = 40. injogged (and the second card outjogged,
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RETURNING HOME
As you have seen, during the trick, the dis-
carded groups are placed onto the table one
on top of the other, forming a pile. What
has not been mentioned yet, is this: Start-
ing with the third packet (round three),
each packet is placed on top of the previous
ones at an angle (Photo 4). After the trick,
this will make it an easy matter to pick up
the same packets again, separately.4
3 To bring everything back in order you basi-
cally do the whole trick backwards: One by
one you pick up the packets from the top
sort of). The outer card is removed (to of the discard pile and alternate them again
keep everything clear and consistent, use a with the cards in your hands. There is no
sideways “stripping-out” movement, even need to remember any in-out sequence,
though there is nothing left to strip the card the packets are simply always interlaced to-
out from (Photo 3)). gether such that the card with the highest
stack number ends on the face of the com-
The first time you do this you may surprise bined packet.
yourself, but the remaining card will always
be the one the spectator named (in this
example, stack number 20). Turn the card 4 I realize now it is too late to mention that, but I did
face up to show that you have been peeling not want to confuse you at the time. Sorry. I suggest
you put your deck back in memorized order and do the
the very deck from the spectator’s imagina- trick again, this time placing the packets at an angle as
tion! mentioned. That’s ok, I’ll wait.
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5
Let’s play this through: At the end of the ef- Simply continue like this, always picking
fect you hold the named card in your hand up the next packet from the top of the deck
(stack number 20, in our example). The and alternating it with the cards in your
first “packet” you take from the top of the hands. When the packets become bigger,
deck is only one card (the last card that was you may want to spread the cards slightly
eliminated). Take it and place it on top or in opposite directions and interlace them
below the card in your hand, wherever it one by one at the corners (Photo 5).
belongs in memorized order. In our exam-
ple this card is number 52 so it is placed After having added and interlaced the
under the card in your hand. fourth packet, you will hold thirteen cards
in your hand. Place those on top of the
Take the next packet from the deck (two rest of the deck, stepped a bit towards the
cards, in our example). Alternate those two left (Photo 6). Everything up to here takes
with the two in your hand such that the about twenty seconds and should be done
highest stack number ends up on the face in the offbeat and the reaction after the ef-
(you simply restore memorized order, so fect. At this point, talk a bit and let some
this is entirely intuitive). time pass.
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Eventually, pick up the deck and place it reverse faros and binary mathematics. In
into left-hand dealing position, converting summary, the working can be described
the step to a break. As you introduce the like this: Any card’s position minus one,
next effect, cut to the break and faro shuffle expressed in binary, gives the sequence of
the small packet into the rest of the deck in- and out- reverse faros needed to make
(a look at the face cards of the packets will that card remain at the end.
tell you whether to use an in- or out-faro).
Follow by giving the whole deck another
faro shuffle, either in or out as required, to Another way
restore the order. While I hope it has been useful to under-
stand the underlying principle, as prom-
ised, here is another way to think of this,
COMMENTS
which you may find much easier: Simply
While such nomenclature was largely take the stack number of the named card
avoided in the description itself, you will (without subtracting one) and see whether
have seen how “The Core” makes use of it is odd or even. If even, outjog the first
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card, if odd injog the first card.5 For each A number of remarkable variants and addi-
new next round, divide the number by two tional ideas for this effect by Doug Canning
(when odd, round up) and repeat. With can be found in the wonderful Semi-Auto-
this process, instead of doing all the calcu- matic Card Tricks series, specifically, Vol.
lations at the beginning, you go from round VII (Steve Beam, 2006) page 169. See also
to round and follow the position of the card David Solomon’s trick “Sorting The Deck”
in real-time, so to speak. in Vol. VIII of the same series (Steve Beam,
2010) page 282.
Whichever mental approach you chose,
the strength of the method is that it is Finally, let me draw your attention to the
counter-intuitive: Because the elimination gem of an article that is Alex Elmsley’s
procedure appears completely regular, the “The Mathematics of the Weave Shuffle”.7
last card seems to be predetermined – it ap- As Denis Behr rightfully pointed out, “The
pears to come from a fixed spot. Core” is basically Elmsley’s first “Binary
Translocation” done backwards. Elmsley’s
The presentation is designed to emphasize writings on the subject are a veritable treas-
this: The deck is likened to a piece of fruit ure trove of ideas, and the ever brilliant Ste-
whose core is “the card at the very centre”, phen Minch gives several additional sourc-
and to get to it everything else must be es that should keep you busy for a while.
“peeled” away. At the same time, the plot
motivates the multiple reverse faros and
helps making an otherwise potentially te-
dious procedure entertaining.6
To take full advantage of the method it is
important not to move too fast during the
elimination-rounds. In fact, already when
picking up the deck from the table, your
handling should make clear that you are
not changing the position of any card: No
shuffling, no cutting – nothing. The last
thing you want your spectators to think is
that you somehow sneaked their card to the
right spot.
5 The injog pushes the card towards you, of course, so
an easy mnemonic is to think to yourself: “I am odd.”
(And because you are reading this book, I suspect, this
is probably true.)
6 Another image to mention during the first (longest) 7 Originally published in three consecutive issues of
reverse faro is the many skins of an onion and talking the 1957 Pentragram it can also be found in Stephen
about “always removing the outer skin” just as the outer Minch’s amazing The Collected Works of Alex Elmsley,
half of the deck is stripped away. volume II (Minch, 1994) on page 302.
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