Forcing a card- method 5

1. Ask someone to shuffle the pack and hand it back to you.

2. Secretly take a peek at the bottom card. Let's call it the ace of spades.

3. Ask someone to choose a card from the pack and show everyone except for yourself.

4. Ask them to put the card on top of the pack and cut the pack a couple of times.

5. Fan the pack out in your hands. The chosen card will be the one below the ace of spades.

Forcing a card- method 4

This card trick needs to be done sitting behind a table. It can look very effective if done properly, but needs a lot of practice to stop it looking amateurish and obvious (like it does when I do it)!!

1. Fan the pack out face down and ask a volunteer to select a card and look at it.

2. Ask someone to shuffle the pack.

3. When the volunteer is looking at his card, take the remainder of the pack and turn the top and bottom cards over.

4. Turn the pack over so that the card with the back side up is on top.

5. Hold the pack closely together in front of you. The volunteer will see the back of a card on top of the pack, and the face of a card on the bottom of the pack. Ask her to replace the card in the pack.

6. Take the pack down to your lap again and pick out the chosen card. It will be the only one that is face down!

Forcing a card- method 3

This card trick is one of the more complicated methods of forcing a card, but also one of the most effective. You will need an opaque handkerchief (a duster works well if you don't have one!)

1. Get a member of the audience to shuffle the pack and steal a glance at the top card. If you like you can have the card you want to use on top of the pack to start with and then do a false shuffle yourself, making sure you keep the card on top. For this example, we'll call the card on top the ace of spades.

2. Using your handkerchief cover the pack which should be face down in your left hand.

3. As you cover the pack with the handkerchief, turn it over so the bottom card is facing up.

4. Ask someone to cut the pack to wherever they like under the handkerchief, and explain that the top card of the part of the pack they cut to will be their card, which they mustn't show to you.

5. As they take what they think is the top half of the pack off, turn the remainder back over in your hand. The card which you know at the top of the pile is now on top.

6. Take the handkerchief and it's contents from the volunteer and put it to one side.

7. Ask the volunteer to look at the top card without showing you. He thinks it is a random card which he has cut to, but it is of course the ace of spades.

8. You can now put both halves of the pack back together (be careful to take the other half out of the handkerchief the right way round) and get the volunteer to replace his card and shuffle the pack.

9. You can now use any mysterious way you like of going through the pack and finding the chosen card.

Forcing a card- Method 2

1. Fan the pack out in your hand with the cards facing downwards.

2. Ask a member of the audience to come and select a card. As they select it, open the pack up a little and look at the bottom card in the top half of the pack. Lets say for this example it is the ace of spades.

3. Ask the person to replace their card in the gap, close the pack, and get someone to cut it.

4. The chosen card will be the one below the ace of spades. You can go through the pack and find the card, chatting while you do so. To add mystery, spread the pack out on the table and say things like "I think it's black, yes, it's black...." to add mystery. It might sound quite sad, but it adds mystery and makes it harder to guess how you did this card trick!