The Key Card: Knowing the location of one specific card in a deck of cards is one of the most powerful secrets in card magic. This card is called the “key card.” You can use it as a crafty way of finding any card chosen by a spectator. Once you know how to use a key card, you can do dozens of card tricks with a borrowed deck of cards. The secret is to peek or catch a glimpse of the bottom card of the deck, the key card, and to remember it.
Basic card magic begins with the selection of a card by a spectator and ends with its discovery by the magician. The method of card selection is often unrelated to how the card is later found. In fact, much time and effort is taken by magicians to think up different and sometimes bizarre locations to reveal a spectator’s selected card.
Repeated use of the same method of card selection by the magician is boring for the audience. Following are five different methods of card selection:
– Fan the deck in your hands and have one card removed.
– Have the spectator cut the cards and remove the card he cut to.
– Have the spectator think of a number. Allow him to count to that number and take that card.
– Fan the cards behind your back and have one selected.
– Have a spectator think of red or black. Then have him think of a suit of that color and finally a card in that suit. Let him remove that card.
