Lucky in Love by Ken de Courcy

Here is another magical gem from Ken De Courcy. It is packed with mystery, humor and audience participation. This card effect is suitable for close-up, stage, cabaret-floor or where you want to present it. The totally unexpected (yet logical) climax really hits the audience between the eyes and cannot fail to gather applause.

EFFECT: A lady is invited to assist. She chooses one of four envelopes and the remaining three are left in full view. She is then handed a red-backed pack to shuffle while the magician shuffles a blue pack. Then the packs are exchanged and shuffled again if you want.

Both performer and lady now cut their packs a number of times, eventually stopping and taking off the top card of their respective packs. These are placed back-outwards on the table, or retained by the lady, and the packs are discarded. (Note that the two packs are genuinely shuffled by spectator and performer and that the lady cuts freely the pack.) The two cards are turned over and are seen to match. Then the lady opens her chosen envelope and finds another duplicate of the chosen cards.

Finally, the remaining three (unchosen) envelopes are torn open. Inside the first there is a $5 bill; in the second, a $10 bill and, in the third, a$50 bill!

As usual, Ken give us the complete comedy patter that makes the whole thing logical and points up the climax.

1st edition 1985; 1st digital edition 2017, 6 pages.
word count: 2173 which is equivalent to 8 standard pages of text