Influence by Michael Chatelain

Can we influence things, events, or decisions – or not?
After this demonstration, your spectators will certainly have a clear answer to that…

A red-backed card is placed face down visibly in the middle of the table. A spectator is invited to turn this card over only at the end of the performance. You will not touch it again.

Now you take out a blue-backed deck of cards and show the faces and backs. It is a completely normal deck of cards, with all cards being different.
Hand it to the spectators so they can freely shuffle, cut, and examine it.

At this point, you emphasize that it is absolutely impossible to know the order of the cards, as the deck has passed from spectator to spectator, and everyone has shuffled it.

Explain that you will not manipulate the cards and that their order is left to chance. To rule out any form of manipulation, the complete deck is immediately placed back in the box.

At this point, nobody – not even you – knows the order of the cards.

Hold the deck of cards with the box at your fingertips and begin to take out the cards one by one in order. Whenever they want, a spectator says: "STOP!"

Once everything is ready, you begin:

You pull out the first card, then the second, and so on – very slowly and controlled.

As you take the cards out of the box one by one, the spectator can say "STOP!" at any time.

Precisely at this moment, the current card is shown – for example, the Queen of Spades.

Pull out a few more cards to show that just a moment later, a completely different card would have appeared. But fate has determined that the spectator stops exactly at the Queen of Spades.
Then show the rest of the deck: no duplicates, no other Queen of Spades!

If the prediction card, which was visibly on the table from the beginning, is now identical to the selected card, then we are talking about a real miracle, because:

• There was no manipulation whatsoever
• The deck is normal and was shuffled by the spectators
• The spectator could freely say "STOP!"
• And yes… we are truly talking about a MIRACLE

Ask the spectator to turn over the prediction card themselves.

Incredible! This word is hardly enough – because indeed, the prediction card is the Queen of Spades! How is that possible?

Read through the strong points – you will be convinced that INFLUENCE is truly extraordinary!

Strong points:

• You use YOUR own normal deck of cards!
• The spectator shuffles the deck themselves!
• The cards are immediately put back into the box – without changing the order
• Once the cards are in the box, no further manipulation is possible
• You pull out the cards one by one in the given order
• NO forcing! Sounds crazy, but it's true – the spectator freely decides when to say "STOP!"
• The prediction is not switched
• Fast reset
• No sleight of hand necessary – an incredible gimmick does all the work, so you can fully concentrate on the presentation