Sleightless Four

What ?
This is a four of a kind production, yes, the world need another
four of a kind production. I always been fond of four of a kind
production, this is a named four of a kind production from a
shuffled deck, the spectator could name any four of a kind, the
spectator cut the deck into four piles, and the card was shown
that there is indifferent card on top of each piles, however a
second later, the named four of a kind are materialized on top of
each piles.

A Bit Story
This four of a kind production is inspired by the venerable
Jennings revelation, which I believe appear in the classic magic
of Larry Jennings, however it is a very difficult routine which
need a technical mastery of certain sleight, it involves palming,
and this is a bluff Jennings revelation, not exactly the same but I
believe it would have (almost) the same effect in the mind of the
spectator.
Another inspiration is from the new book from Pit Hartling, In
Order to Amaze, in which he described a routine where any
named four of a kind are suddenly appear on top of four
randomly cut packets, involves a memorized deck of course, in
this routine I offer my impromptu solution.

Method Overview

Sleight needed : None

You need to be able to cull 4 of a kind to the top of the deck
invisibly, I use a sleightless cull procedure by John Bannon,
slightly modified, I will explain later.

The Routine
Start with the deck on the table (Roberto Giobbi always said that
the best place for a deck of cards in on the table). Ask the
spectator to name his favorite number from 1 to 13, I use the
very clever gambit by Dani da Ortiz, in which he said I want
you to name your favorite number from 1 to 13, for example? .
As Dani said, this for example ruse is very important, it makes
spectator think that the question is not important, however you
now get the required information, you know the spectator
selected number, now you proceed to cull the four of a kind.
Downjog Cull
To cull the four of a kind you will do the downjog (in jog) cull, the
description of this sleight is in Roberto Giobbi Card College
volume 4, this is a sleightless way to cull 4 of a kind, I believe
this is one of the best (in my opinion) and the easiest, I have done
this cull for a long time, although I can also do Kostya Kimlat
roadrunner cull very well, I still use the downjog cull a lot in my
performances.
John Bannon also utilize this cull procedure in his routine, I read
about this cull in his book Dear Mr Fantasy, he called it Cull The
Stack, in his routine he use this culling procedure to cull and
stack the royal flush needed for a routine ending which he called
Beyond Fabulous

Now, the mechanic, basically hold the deck facing toward

yourself, and spread through the deck until you see the first 4 of
a kind card (target card we use aces for example), now you
take all the card from the face until the first target card, the ace,
and injog all of them, now you continue spreading until you see
the next card, the second ace, injog it also, continue spreading,
injog the third card, and continue spreading until you see the last
card, and injog the last card.
So the cards that are injogged should be spread of indifferent
card 1st Ace 2nd Ace 3rd Ace and 4th Ace. Now the deck is
divided into two portion, the upjogged portion (the top portion)
containing no target cards (no Aces) and the bottom portion
containing the target cards (Aces), now strip out the upjogged
portion (the top portion) and place it onto the face of the packet
your holding, now automatically the Aces are positioned on top of
the deck. You have successfully culled four of a kinds to the top
of the deck sleightlessly.

Now you have the four of a kind on top of deck, continue by

giving the spectator another chance of shuffle, I usually patter
about the destiny of a deck of card, you know, the destiny of
human rely on mystery, however, the destiny of this deck of card
rely on your hand entirely, you decide the fate of this 52 printed
pasteboards, etc etc, Now give the deck to the spectator and
ask him to shuffle the deck, but you will do the Remote Rosetta
Shuffle by John Bannon, I read it from his amazing book
Destination Zero.
Remote Rosetta Shuffle
To be explained briefly, this shuffle was originated from Lennart
Green famous rosetta shuffle where the deck is divided into 2
packets and both packets is arranged in a spiral configuration

and then pushed together, it resembled the form of a riffle

shuffle.
Bannon use this shuffle in his book to control slug of cards on top
of the deck, by cutting the top portion of the deck to the right
bigger than the bottom portion, arranged the packet in a spiral
configuration by spinning the center of the packet, then ask the
spectator to push both packet together. Because the top porting
(the right packet) is bigger than the bottom portion, when the
packet pushed together the slug on the top of the deck which in
this case the any named four of a kind will stay on top of the
deck, So we manage to give the illusion that the spectator may
freely shuffle the deck but still controlling the position of the four
of a kind.

Cutting to Any Named 4 of a Kind

Now the situation is perfect, you have 4 of a kind controlled on
top and you have asked the spectator to further shuffle and
mixing the deck by using the rosetta shuffle, now you are ready
to cut the deck into four random packets. To do the first two cuts
I use the cut used by Aldo Colombini in one of his tapes The
Essentials of Aldo Colombini by LnL publishing volume 1, in his
routine Grand Prix, in which he produced 4 aces to start the
routine.
The mechanic is like this, you riffle of the top two cards with your
thumb, maintain a thumb break (yes this is semi automatic card
tricks but I guess you could hold a thumb break dont you?), now
cut the deck in half and put the top half on the table,
immediately take back the two top cards above your thumb
break, and add it to the remaining portion in your hand, now
table the bottom portion in your hand and position it diagonally
to the left and behind the top half portion. Now you have two

packets on the table, the top half, and the bottom half diagonally
to the left behind the top half packet.
Now you will ask the spectator to cut the packet into two piles.
Ask the spectator to cut the top half into two packets, and place
the cut portion to the left. For the bottom portion, ask the same
thing but place the cut portion to the right. Now you left with 4
packets on the table.

Checkpoint :

Now you should have two aces on top of packet A, and two other
aces on top of packet D, on top of packet B and C are indifferent
cards. The next step is reminding the spectator about their
favorite number, the shuffling and cutting procedure acted as a
time misdirection, now the spectator should feel as they are told
you the number for the first time, here is how I asked the

spectator mmm wait a second, what was your favorite number

from 1 to 13? (as if you didnt heard the first time, this is a thing
from Dani da Ortiz, he used it in one of his routine called the
imaginary dice), wait for the spectator to answer.
Now we proceed to showing 4 indifferent cards on top of each
pile, I usually say something like this If were lucky enough
maybe we have something special on top of each pile , to
reveal 4 indiferrent cards with your right hand take the top card
of pile B and with your left hand take the top card of pile C , now
bring those two card slightly higher to your face to reveal its
identity, this also provide misdirection for misplacing the card a
second later, now put the card back, but put the card in your left
hand on top of packet A and put the right hand card on top of
packet D. Now continue revealing the top card of packet B and C,
with your right hand reach and take the top card of packet B and
with your left hand reach and take the top card of packet C,
reveal it and bring it slightly higher to your face and place them
on top of their respective packet. Now you have successfully
shown 4 indiferrent cards on top of each packet.
Ask the spectator, can you see something special within this
four cards?, the spectator will say no, and you also look
disappointed as apparently the trick isnt working, pause and act
accordingly, now you will put back the card into facedown
position, however you will misplace the card as follow. This
should be done casually and in offbeat as spectator think that
this trick doesnt go as you planned. Basically youll just do the
same gesture in reverse, but slightly different. Take the card in
pile B with your left hand and take the card in pile C with you
right hand, and put back the left hand card in pile C and put
back the right hand card in pile B, so the card is placed facedown
but the position is crossed from pile B to pile C vice versa (this is
done to enhance the optical illusion and provide misdirection).
Continue by taking the card in pile A with your right hand and

the card in pile D with your left hand, now bring the card slightly
higher to your face, turn the face down, and then place the right
hand card on top of pile B and the left hand card on top of pile C.