"A really powerful spell-to-your-card effect. The title says it all, it is Bannon's "Dead
Reckoning" except on steroids." - Tommaso Guglielmi
"For a long time I've been performing "Dead Reckoning" by John Bannon. It's one of my
go-to effects in my repertoire. But that changed today. "Dead Reckoning: On Steroids"
is a marvelous improvement on the original. It is unbelievably deceptive and impossible
to reverse engineer, and it replaces "Dead Reckoning" in my repertoire. Thanks
Unnamed Magician for this splendid creation." - Brian Draven
"The main effect is good but the first bonus effect is beyond good." - Deven Chodas
"Wow, just wow! He's done it again. I just cannot believe how many quality effects the
Unnamed Magician has put out and he keeps coming back with more and more. This
trick is another amazing publication. It takes a classic trick that we all know about and
genuinely makes it better. Allowing the spectator to shuffle their pile after making a
selection is a massive step forward." - Tony Bianco
"Just incredible! At last someone has discovered the grail of this card plot..." - Ryan
Quinton
"This is easily the best spelling trick I have ever seen. No question about it. I'm not one
for spelling tricks in general but I will definitely try this one on my audiences. The two
bonus tricks are also super strong!" - Peter Lee
Have you ever wanted to perform
John Bannon's "Dead Reckoning" in a way where you
could actually allow the spectator to shuffle (not just cut) their pile in order to truly lose
their selected card? If so, then look no further.
Dead Reckoning: On Steroids provides a
solution to achieve just that. What once may have been a dream is now a reality. Read
on. (There is a full performance video attached above as well.)
Imagine: The magician introduces a deck of cards and hands it over to the spectator.
He then turns his back.
With his back turned, the magician instructs the spectator to give the deck as many
complete cuts as they like in order to eliminate the possibility of any key cards. Then,
he asks them to cut off about a third of the deck and to look at the bottom card of the
cut-off portion as their selection (which is clearly a random card). The magician then
asks them to thoroughly shuffle the portion in order to lose their card. The spectator
can even look through the portion in order to make sure their card is truly lost within it.
Next, the magician instructs the spectator to place the remainder of the deck on top of
their portion, thereby burying it and reassembling the deck. Once the deck is
reassembled, the magician turns back around and says, "I don't know what your card is
or where it is in the deck. But I do know it's somewhere in the bottom third of the deck
- though I don't know exactly whereas you shuffled your portion. But let's shuffle the
entire deck as well so that your card could end up anywhere in the deck." The magician
takes the deck and gives it a quick shuffle (without looking at the faces). He then hands
the deck back to the spectator.
The magician says, "You shuffled your portion to lose your card. I also just shuffled the
entire deck. Your card could literally be anywhere in the deck now. Let's see if a miracle
occurred. Spell the following sentence 'My card is the [insert name of card]', dealing
one card for every letter. Let's spell the 'My card is the' part of the sentence out loud."
The spectator deals one card face-up for every letter in the phrase 'My card is the'.
After that, they deal one card face-up for every letter in the name of their selected card
(this part they do mentally). The magician yells stop at some point, which coincidentally
happens to be exactly at the point where the spectator concluded their mental count.
The spectator then names their selected card for the first time and turns over the next
card in the deck (from the point where the deal concluded) ... and it is the selected
card. An inexplicable coincidence - they spelled to their own card!
Some important conditions of note:
- The magician's back is turned during the entire selection and return procedure.
He only turns back around after the deck is reassembled.
- After selecting a card, the spectator thoroughly shuffles their portion in order to
lose their card. They can even check the portion to make sure their card is truly
lost within it.
- At the end, when the spectator performs the spelling deal, they deal the cards
face-up.
- There is no peek and there is no force - the magician has no clue what the
spectator's card is.
- Almost self-working - so very easy to perform.
Note: Using the same core method as the routine above, there are two bonus routines
taught as well. They are very different routines compared to the routine above - the
routine above is a spelling coincidence effect, whereas the bonus routines involve a
completely different kind of coincidence (they use two spectators and two decks to
achieve a startling coincidence). So, there is plenty more taught beyond just the
aforementioned spelling effect.
The main spelling effect is taught both in the form of video instructions and written
instructions (PDF), whereas the bonus routines are only taught in the PDF.
