Perform the "Drunken Shuffle" Card Trick
This is a clever trick that ends up surprising the viewers in the end. The Drunken Shuffle is an "Ace Card Trick" which results in 4 aces being revealed at the end in a magical and amazing way.
Steps
- Place the only four aces in your normal deck at the top.
- Introduce the trick by saying "I am the kind of magician who likes to shuffle cards. Let me show you my 3 favorites."
- Perform The "Bridge Shuffle" which consists of you cutting the deck in half and "slicing" the cards down one after the other on the table. When doing this, it is important to make it so the four aces stay on top.
- Perform the "snake", which is a quite simple shuffle where you hold the deck in your right hand and hand off cards into your left hand until the deck is totally in your left hand. It is very important to count off the four aces on the top first so that they are the first four cards that land in your left hand during the shuffle. The end of the shuffle should resolve in the four aces being on the bottom of the deck.
- Tell the viewers that this third shuffle is one of your favorites; it is called the "drunken shuffle." It would be a good idea here to make a joke about it like: "The only time you ever see this one is when you are watching a couple of drunk heads trying to shuffle cards."
- To perform the Drunken shuffle, closely follow the detailed steps below:
- Place the deck with the four aces on the bottom in your right hand.
- With your right thumb, rub over about the top 15 cards or so into your left hand. ( doesn't have to be exactly 15 cards, just around there.)
- It is important to hold the cards in your left hand with your thumb on top and your four fingers on the bottom.
- Flip the 15 cards you just handed over to your left hand face up.
- Hand over about 15 more cards to your left thumb so that the two sets of 15 cards are now back to back in your left hand.
- Flip the cards in your hand over again. You should still see a face up card since the two sets are back to back.
- Hand some more cards to your four fingers to that you are just adding to the bottom pile of back to back cards.
- Flip your left hand over again and hand some more to your thumb.
- NOTE: there should still be two piles of cards that are back to back and you are just adding to them every time you do it.
- WHILE YOU ARE PERFORMING THE PREVIOUS STEP, HAND ALL THE CARDS FROM YOUR RIGHT HAND OVER EXCEPT THE LAST FOUR CARDS WHICH ARE THE FOUR ACES.
- NOTE: Right now you should have 2 almost even piles in your left hand back to back, and the four aces in your right hand.
- Place the four aces face down on either side of the deck.
- The deck put together should now look like a normal deck with the top aces face down and the two back to back piles underneath it.
- Now that you have performed all three shuffles you say "So do you agree that these cards are pretty messed up now?" ("yes")
- Say your right and follow the following steps:
- Explain "some cards are back to face" --- split the lower part of the deck and show them that the bottom half is back to face.
- Explain "some cards are face to back" ---split the top part of the deck and show them that the top is face to back.
- Explain "some cards are even back to back" and find the point in the deck that is back to back. (there should only be one back to back spot)
- Once you have split the two piles, one with the four aces and one with no aces, flip the four ace pile over so that the four aces that are on top go into the middle of the deck.
- Finally say, "But with a little luck we can put it back to normal."
- Blow on the deck and say whatever then spread the deck out face down on a table.
- There should be four aces near the middle and the only four cards face up.
- At that point, just say "Well, almost".
Tips
- Practice while reading this with a deck of cards in your hand.
- Everyone screws the trick up the first few times so have patience.
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