Don’t Touch by Dani DaOrtiz (Force Project Chapter 11 ) (English and Spanish)

The Force Project is a year-long course and a deep study of the way we have spectators select cards. Taught by Dani DaOrtiz, you’ll learn a new selection procedure each month and a baffling trick to practice it with. Chapter 11 features one of the craziest double-ambitious card effects you’ll ever see. It’s even more puzzling because Dani never touches the deck!

The What
The deck is handed over to a spectator, who then gives a handful of cards to another spectator. This person counts and remembers how many cards they have, while the first spectator remembers the top card. The two packets are combined, and the deck is then shuffled. The second spectator shows the first spectator the cards one by one, who then remembers the identity of the card at the number of the card they looked at. The deck is then given to the first spectator, who does the same thing with the second spectator. Both people are now remembering the identity of a playing card. The deck is divided in half, and cards are randomly passed from top to bottom, then the packets are shuffled. The spectators then take turns putting groups of cards on the table effectively mixing the deck again. The spectators then name the cards they are only thinking of. The top two cards are turned over, and impossibly, both of the selected cards have risen to the top of the deck. Even more impossible, the entire procedure happens behind Dani’s back, with him never once touching the cards.

The How
As soon as you have seen the effect performed, Dani will teach you the basic explanation of how the trick works so you can start practicing right away. Here we will once again visit Dani’s special sequence that gives him a phenomenal amount of information about what the spectators know, entirely determined by the spectator’s actions. This allows you to secretly control your audience’s actions, even with a shuffled deck.

The Why
Once you have learned the basic explanation, Dani will take you through his award-winning theories and philosophy, which make this trick truly baffling. You will learn how to disguise procedural magic with chaotic instructions. You will also learn how to divide the chaos so that it feels like everyone is constantly shuffling the cards, but you are maintaining control over thought of cards even though you don’t know what they are and you don’t touch the deck. This is more than just an impossible trick; it’s a masterclass in audience management.

Chapter 11 of The Force Project takes many of the principles you have learned in previous lessons and combines them into a tour-de-force performance of a truly impossible trick. This will change the way you view The Ambitious Card forever. You’re going to love performing this ambitious card effect, and your instructor is one of the finest card magicians the world has ever known.