The late, great illusionist, Harry Blackstone, Sr., was always ready with
a quick trick whenever someone asked to see something. The card mystery
that follows was one of his favorites. The subtlety makes it a real fooler!

Double Enigma
(Harry Blackstone)

The effect
After shuffling and cutting the deck, you ribbon spread the cards and let two spectators each remove a card from different parts of the spread. After each person looks at his card, you have them exchange cards - so each helper will also know the card chosen by the other one. Both helpers now push the card they are holding back into the spread, cut the deck and return it to you. You pick up the deck and with the faces toward you, you begin running through the cards. After a few moments, you remove a card and silently place it face down in front of one spectator. You then resume running through the deck, until you remove a second card; which is placed faced down in front of the other spectator. You ask the spectators to name their cards and then, turn up the card in front of them. In each case, it's the exact card they chose!

How it works
What makes this effect especially baffling, to lay audiences and even magicians, is the fact that other than shuffling the cards; you don't handle the cards. Add to this, the fact that the cards are ribbon spread on the table; so you are unable to control either the point of selection, or return, and the possible explanations to this card mystery become even more elusive.

So how does it work? Very simple really, but then you suspected that. Didn't you? Before your performance, the deck is divided into odd and even halves. You must simply make sure that one spectator takes a card from the odd half and one takes a card from the even half. This is easily accomplished by directing each spectator toward their respective section. In other words, the one closest to where they are standing or sitting. A little gesture with each hand as you ask them to each choose a card is all that's needed; since their natural inclination will be to take a card from their immediate area and not reach across the other spectator.

After each spectator looks at his card, you have them exchange cards, supposedly "so each will also know the other spectator's card." The spectators are then asked to push the card they are holding - actually the other person's card, back into the spread in front of them. Thus, the odd card is replaced in the even section and vice versa. Have one of the spectators make one or two complete cuts and return the deck to you. All that remains is to scan the cards for the "out of place card" in each section and to place it in front of the spectator who chose it.

Final thoughts
Since you only have to keep the two halves separate, you can overhand shuffle the entire pack at the beginning of the effect. Simply make sure to "run the cards singly" near the middle. You can also add in a false cut for good measure, if you like. Finally, you'll need to make a mental note of which half has the odd cards and which has the even. If you lose track, you can always glimpse the bottom card.