A Forced Thought by Steven Himmel is as good as the instructional video is short. At 6 minutes this download is direct, clear and impressively concise ��“ and that is a good thing so you can get going sooner.
In A Forced Thought, the performer asks the spectator to pick a card from a deck being fanned face-up. The performer stops before a card is chosen (and after several cards are displayed) and says that he should fan the deck face-down so the cards can’t be seen as one is chosen. As the performer is fanning the cards face-down, and before the spectator chooses one, the performer again stops the spectator and proposes a different way to pick a card. This time, the performer holds the deck facing the spectator and tells the spectator to pick a card that he sees as the deck is being riffled quickly. The deck is then Faro shuffled and the spectator deals the cards down one at a time and stops anywhere he wants to stop. And, amazingly, it turns out that the card the spectator dealt down is the card he named.
The DVD starts out with a minute-and-a-half live demonstration by Himmel which is well-presented and accurately demonstrates the impressive effect, which fries his spectator. The remaining four-and-a-half minutes consists of Himmel’s instructional video. He clearly and articulately explains the method and how to prepare for the trick. There is a one-time set-up which will require you to get more than just a regular deck, which any magician should already have in their possession. I could easily see this trick being sold with a pre-made gimmicked deck instead of just a video.
Although this trick is not guaranteed to work every time, something that Himmel acknowledges, the chances are very high that it will — and it has not yet failed me in my first few performances. In the event that the reveal is not the thought of card, you should probably have a back-up or repeat the selection phase.
Once performed, this trick can be reset in about 10 seconds, but should not be performed to the same audience. If you cannot perform the Faro, Himmel teaches an easy alternative. The deck cannot be examined by your spectator.
The ad copy and the promotional video are accurate, but a customer may be a bit put off when they realize that this cannot be performed with a regular deck since there is no indication that A Forced Thought is not an out-of-the-box trick.
This is an excellent trick that is worth downloading.