Influence by Michael Chatelain

Can we influence things, events, or decisions – or can't we?
After your audience attends this demonstration, they will have no doubt about it...

A red-backed card is placed face down in the center of the table. A spectator is invited to turn the card over at the end of your performance. You will not touch the card again.
Now, you take out a blue-backed deck of cards, showing both front and back. It is a perfectly normal deck, where all cards are different.
Give it to the spectators to shuffle, cut, and freely examine.

At this point, you point out that it is absolutely impossible to know the order of the cards, as the deck has been passed from spectator to spectator, and everyone has given the deck a shuffle.

Explain that you will not manipulate the cards and that the order of the cards will remain as determined by chance. To rule out any manipulation, the entire deck is immediately put back into the box.

As things stand, no one – not even you – knows the order of the cards.

Hold the deck in the box with only your fingertips and pull out the cards one by one in sequence. Whenever he wants, a spectator says: "STOP!"

Once everything is ready, you begin:

Take out the first card with your fingertips, then the second, etc...

As slowly as possible, the cards are drawn from the box. At any time, the spectator can say "STOP!"

Like the others, this card is also taken out. It is, for example, the Queen of Spades.

Pull out a few more cards to show that a second later, the card would have been completely different. But fate dictated that the spectator stopped at the Queen of Spades. Take out the rest of the deck and show it. No duplicates, no other Queen of Spades!

If the prediction card, which has been visibly lying there since the beginning, is identical to the card you just drew from the deck, then we must admit that we are witnessing a real miracle, because:

- No manipulation was possible
- The deck is completely ordinary and was shuffled by the spectators
- The spectator said STOP whenever he wanted
- We said MIRACLE, didn't we?

Ask the spectator to turn over the prediction card himself.

Unbelievable! The word doesn't do it justice, because in fact, the prediction card is the Queen of Spades! How is that possible?

Read the strong points. You will be convinced that INFLUENCE is truly extraordinary!

Strong points:
* You use YOUR regular deck of cards!
* The spectator shuffles the deck himself!
* The cards are immediately put back into the box without changing their order.
* Once the cards are in the box, no manipulation is possible.
* You take out the cards one by one in the order they appear.
* NO forcing! This sounds crazy, but it's true nonetheless! The spectator has the FREE CHOICE when to say "STOP!"
* The prediction is not exchanged.
* Quick reset.
* No manipulation. An incredible gimmick takes care of everything, so you can focus entirely on the presentation.