INTUITION by Hondo and David Leon Productions

~ Magic Friday by Jamie D. Grant ~

What The Audience Sees:

”This week was so cool. Jamie did this amazing trick where he came in and handed us an envelope. He then took out a deck of cards and put them onto the table. Then he turned to Big Ted and asked him to name any number between 1 and 52. Big Ted said “18” and Jamie handed him the cards. He told Big Ted to deal off seventeen cards and put the eighteenth to the side. Jamie then proved to us that it was a full deck by dealing off the rest of the cards and, sure enough, there was fifty-two, plus a couple of Jokers. Now came the crazy part! Jamie showed us that the cards in the deck were all different, which they were, and that Big Ted (who was now beginning to sweat) could have picked any number but chose eighteen. Jamie asked Big Ten to turn the card on the table over and it was the Two of Diamonds. Jamie then turned to me and asked me to remove the card that was in the envelope. And it was the Two of Diamonds as well! It was nuts!!! How did he know what number Big Ted (who ran out of the room) would name? The guy is psychic!”

How It Went:

As you know, I only perform great tricks for Magic Friday. I don’t review bad effects simply because I can’t show ‘bad’ magic to my clients. I do find, however, that among the great magic that I review, that I really love some more than others. Recently “White Star” was a massive success and, this week, I can say that Intuition really hit home with me. I love this effect. Are there some concerns? Sure. But those small things are what will keep this out of the hands of regular magicians much, as much as I hate to admit, to my benefit.

I do have the benefit on Magic Friday of having five minutes before each performance to reset and this is where most people will have the concern. I’ll be up front. To reset, you have to deal the entire pack onto the table. That’s it. But, if you’re a Walk Around magician, that can potentially be problematic. For me, though, the strength of this trick far outweighs that issue. I mean, the spectator can deal to his number, if you wish, and it’s going to be 100%. Awesome! And for those people who have this and think that the +1 or +2 may be a problem (sorry, you have to own this trick to know what I’m talking about here), I can say conclusively that it made no difference whatsoever. Every time, no matter what the situation, this trick killed.

It’s hard for me to say why I liked this trick so much. I think it’s because it seems so clean. This is definitely something that will most likely go into my parlour show (where I never do more than 2 card effects anyway, thereby negating the reset thing). There’s also no crazy moves or handlings. You know what I think it is: This is the kind of magic that a spectator could do, but can’t because he’s not a magician. It’s the kind of trick that people can think “Imagine if someone named a number, and I knew the card at that position?” and now, thanks to Hondo and David Leon, we can. I loved it and people all day Friday loved it a well. And dealing out the cards to show them there was a full deck wasn’t a problem either. It was the kind of thing, I think, they might do if they had to do a card trick. A great success overall.

Best Lines:

”You knew we were going to ask to see all the cards, lol!!!

-This was said after I dealt all the cards out and turned them over. Interesting that this group thought that the cards might all be the same, or a stack of some sort. They looked all different though.

”Lol! How...on...Earth...did you do that?!?!”

-This guy loved it.

Angry Bob Rating:

For those of you reading this article for the first time, Angry Bob is a co-worker who has an understanding of some magic because his uncle was a magician. Angry Bob knows that TT’s exist, for example, but he has no desire to become a magician himself. He also has an anger management problem that can be experienced first hand if he can’t figure out how a trick is done. A high rating means he has no idea.

This will be a tough one. He was shocked when I showed the cards all different but immediately asked to see the deck. This, however, is simply a stock reaction for someone that has some knowledge for magic. Spectators are, or should be, satisfied when you simply show them the cards, without them having to handle them. So maybe a 3.5/5? Needless to say, I told him to forget it, lol.

My Rating:

I’ll let you in on a bit of Magic Friday method here. Whenever I get an effect that I think will play well, I spend the time to learn it and practice. Then I’ll come on the Café and read every post about it that I can find to see if there are any tips or ideas I need to know before I go out into the world. And, a lot of time, I’ll read posts that can be negative or say a trick is no good but, because I actually try them out, I know they simply haven’t been field tested properly. This trick is a prime example. Intuition, in my opinion, is great. If you have it and are worried, I simply say go out and perform it. But here’s the key: Refrain from doing a couple of tricks for whoever it is. Try and simply do Intuition and leave it at that. You won’t be disappointed.

9/10. And I’ll stand by that rating.

Note: I went out Saturday night (last night) knowing that I was going to publish this review today. In order to make sure I followed my own advice, I brought out Intuition and, sure enough, everyone asked me to show them something. I told them that I would, but that I would only perform one trick and one trick only. I then pulled out the envelope and said, “You see, I knew that you were going to ask to see something. And I have an envelope here to prove it. But this will be the only thing I’ll do tonight. But it’s going to blow your minds!” Sure enough, it totally blew them away.

The JDG Tip:

Make sure you reset the deck before you perform this again. Luckily I only made that mistake when showing it to my magic gang, lol. But it's a great tip. Reset it immediately after your show!

Other than that, let the spectaor deal the cards and let someone hold onto the envelope or the card. There is so little you have to do with this trick that you should take total advantage of that.

Closing Thoughts:

I watch a lot of Dvds, lol. A lot! And I have seen the range of production values from the downright comical to the most amazing. What I’ve learned for myself, however, is that I’ll gladly take terrible production if I like the teacher and the trick. I don’t care too much about lighting or sound. I would learn magic from smoke signals if I had to. That said, I really liked David Leon. He came across as so honest and personable that I was quite surprised. It’s just him on the couch teaching the effect. There was no mind blowing graphics or music or anything. Just a really nice guy teaching an awesome trick. Bravo.

Have a great week everyone!

jamie d. grant
creator of the Limited Edition David Blaine “Anything Is Possible” bottle, now available, for a limited time @ Fantasma Magic
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