knave n.
1. the jack; lowest of the court cards. 2. a dishonest man.
THE FOUR JACKS
A trick, while the office is built.
You will need
A pack of cards. Nothing else, and no skill worth mentioning.
The set-up, in private
Take the four jacks and three ordinary cards. Square the three ordinary cards and hide them behind the last jack, then fan the jacks towards your audience. They see four jacks. They do not see the three cards sitting quietly behind.
The performance
- “Four jacks decide to rob a bank.” Square the fan, turn it face down, and set it on top of the pack. The pack is the bank. The top is the roof, where they land.
- “The first goes down to the ground floor.” Take the top card — face down, show no one — and slide it into the pack near the bottom.
- “The second takes the vaults.” The next card goes into the lower middle.
- “The third works the offices.” The next card goes in above the middle.
- “The fourth stays on the roof, keeping watch.” Tap the top card once. Let it be seen that you touch nothing else.
- “Then — an alarm. Everyone to the roof.” Knock twice on the pack. Deal the top four cards face up, one by one.
- All four jacks. Back together, on the roof, as if they never left.
The secret
They never left. When you turned the fan face down, the three ordinary cards ended up on top — so those were the cards you buried in the bank, one floor at a time, while the jacks sat on the roof from beginning to end.
Your audience watched the wrong cards the whole way through. Most people do.