Bill Nagler - ACAAN
Bill Nagler - ACAAN
Bill Nagler - ACAAN
I used to think Any Card At Any Number was just for magicians.
Boy was I wrong. Presented properly, the Berglas Effect causes
screams of delight and is an absolute miracle. Take the time to
set it up. Tell as much of the totally true story as you can.
Pat Page has seen Berglas do the effect 4 times. Each time, the
deck is out at the top. Berglas never touches the deck. The
spectator names a card. The spectator names a number. The
spectator uncases. The spectator counts. The card is there.
Any Card At Any Number – The Work
Three decks allow you to choose which cards to use, and to repeat
the effect with different cards. Equivoque is aggressively used
to give the illusion of no equivoque. For magicians, keep saying
“there is no equivoque.” For humans, keep saying “whatever you
choose, we use.”
Hiding the Index - Half the time, the display of the card is
perfect, just cover the wrong index with your fingertip. The
other half, you have to cover a miss-indexed body. You have five
options. (1) Cover the wrong index with your finger tip, flash
the card, snap the corner, keep it moving. (2) Leave the deck on
the table, and stick the selection face up, half way in the deck.
(3) Flip over the selection with the joker, and display the joker
and selection in a fan on the table, covering the wrong index and
body of the selection with the joker. (4) Use your fingers to
cover the wrong index and bottom third or side of the card. (5)
Know where the good cards are in the run of 26, and equivoque a
good card number. 8/10 has either an 8 body or a 10 body. 7/9
has either a 7 body or a 9 body. Arrange the run so 1-13 are 8
bodies and 7 bodies, and 14-26 are 10 bodies and 9 bodies. I use
option (1) and occasionally (4).
Court Deck - Presentation
Put the Court Deck in the case, face down on the table, bicycle
back against the table.
Remove the deck from the face down case, or turn over the case and
remove the deck. Discard the face up joker.
Put the deck in the case and put it away. Turn over the card.
Red Deck - Presentation
Put the Red Deck in the case, face down on the table, bicycle back
against the table.
Remove the deck from the face down case, or turn over the case and
remove the deck. Discard the face up joker.
Put the deck in the case and put it away. Turn over the card.
Black Deck - Presentation
Put the Black Deck in the case, face down on the table, bicycle
back against the table.
Remove the deck from the face down case, or turn over the case and
remove the deck. Discard the face up joker.
Put the deck in the case and put it away. Turn over the card.
Any Card At Any Number – In a Nutshell, Berglas
Deck Switch – I don’t see a deck switch working for Any Card At
Any Number. The heat is too high when you need to switch. That
said, Martin Sanderson fooled me with his Bill in Kiwi Crossing
the Gaze switch when the heat was on, so there might be a way.
That said, Tamariz did not fool me with his Crossing the Gaze card
silk switch. I’ve always wanted to build a Lazy Susan into a
tabletop and lever the correct deck up into a deck shell.
Born, Waters, Richardson – I have not seen Born do his card case
cut-dump, but I fear too much futzing is necessary to get the
break, and the dump telegraphs method. Water’s thin-card double-
deck also bothers me for the same reason. I don’t think
Richardson’s deck turnover would get by me, but that said, Del
Ray’s turnover in his poker and blackjack deals fooled me. Stooge
solutions are of no interest. Trick That Can’t Be Explained
varying the effect is of less than no interest. Martin Breese is
5 years younger than David Berglas. Berglas may not be able to
take it with him.
Thanks to Gene Anderson, Martin Breese, Tony Chaudhuri, Bob Farmer, Bruce Florek, Ken
Krenzel, Marv Long, Dennis Loomis, Geno Munari and Tommy Wonder. I got the idea for the
equivoque from Ingenuities. Krenzel suggested the face down card case and displaying the card in
the deck. Loomis told me about the alternating stack in the Aronson Approach. The double
indexers, 3 decks and aggressive equivoque are mine. See Goldstein’s book for more information
on equivoque if you need it.
Picture of the sort of gimmicked card used. This is a error cut card.