Obscurum per obscurius


«BILL DATES»: You predict the bill and the date that a spectator you just met, will take out of his wallet.

«THE JANUS FORCE»: A business card is fairly selected among five, by throwing a dice, only once (or by freely naming a digit 1 to 6). The result on the back of the card was predicted in advance of course. Furthermore, you can show that the odds should have been AGAINST this result, as there were more cards with the opposite outcome. This system can be used to force any choice between two possibilities ( for instance : RED or BLACK , HEADS or TAILS , etc.) even though the other choice had more chances to be drawn.

«OBSCURUM»: With this new kind of decks and concept, you can basically predict any card selected by a spectator in a shuffled and borrowed deck that you don't even touch! It can open new possibilities, not only new cards effects, but also for mentalism with business cards. Some of the principles in use were briefly explained in «TRUST», and «THINK OF ANYTHING IN THE WORLD». Here you get another layer of deception, that allows new effects:
- Twins coincidence:
The performer takes a card out of a blue deck of cards and places it face down on the table, in full view (The deck can be examined). The spectator must now try to retrieve the same card, without knowing it, from a face up regular red deck (borrowed and shuffled by the spectator)!
- Mates coincidence: Same effect but with card mates. (for instance 8 of Hearts and 8 of Diamonds)
- Obscure Prediction:
A variation where the selected card is previously written on a business card.
- Total coincidence:
A spectator selects a card from a face down deck. Another spectator selects a card from another deck (face up). A witness can even swear that both cards are indeed the same.
- Secret ACAAN:
This is an original ACAAN and most of the criteria are met:
Shuffled deck by the spectator; After the shuffle, the deck is not touched by the performer; The card and number are freely named by the spectator; The counted card is always at the exact number (not the one before or after).
Drawbacks:
The deck is not examinable, The cards are counted face down, The final card is not shown to the audience but the spectator can swear it is the card.

«I PUT A SPELL ON YOU»: This principle allows to force some digits in some languages (for instance: ENGLISH, SPANISH, GERMAN, SWEDISH, ITALIAN, BULGARIAN, CZECH, AFRIKAANS, CREOLE). If you are an international performer, or if you want to present something «different», this can be interesting for you. It is a safe procedure, even if the spectator cannot spell or count correctly! Two examples are provided:
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A hands off ACAAN, with a thought card and thought number.
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Multilingual: You show a list of many languages from all around the world, and ask if some people in the audience speak some of them. You write a prediction for each spectator. They think of any number and determine a «lucky number» by associating words in their own language, to numbers. You individually predicted their lucky number.
You can use this also to force some words in a list that form a short sentence at the end, a slogan with the company name if you performing for a corporate event, or you predict the title of an international hit song, and you end your routine with flourish and in music!