Revealed: David Blaine’s Impossible, Disappearing Card Trick on Jimmy Kimmel Live

David Blaine, Performance, Revealed, Tutorial

To promote his TV special, Real or Magic, David Blaine appeared on the Jimmy Kimmel show. There, he revealed why Harrison Ford kicked him out of his house and other tricks he performed on celebrities.

During his interview, he performed a card trick that astonished the audience and left Jimmy Kimmel speechless. If you view the comments, it actually made people believe that David Blaine has supernatural powers.

What was the trick?

David asks Jimmy to pick a card. After that, the card he picked is actually imprinted on the sharpie that he gave to him before the trick.

Jimmy then signs the card and David puts it in the middle of the deck. He asks the audience to name a suit other than the one on Jimmy’s selected card.

Immediately, as David squeezes down on the deck the deck starts to shrink. Cards disappear from the deck right before everybody’s eyes. David turns over the deck and every suit is now the one that the audience randomly called out and in the middle is Jimmy’s card.

Let’s watch the performance first.

So how did he do it?

This trick probably isn’t the best choice to do on live television since there is a lot of room for error.

Step 1: Forcing the Card

When David asks Jimmy to select a card, it was actually forced on him. You can see the pinky break he has on the deck before he spreads the cards for Jimmy to choose.

Jimmy was going to select the 7 of clubs no matter what.

Important

Don’t worry about forcing the card or having it show up on the sharpie. This is a separate move that David added in just for a better effect. You don’t need to force a card on them, and it doesn’t have to be on the sharpie.

They can choose whatever card they want. They can show you, or they can decide not to. It doesn’t matter. The effect of the trick is in removing the other suits, and having over half the deck disappear before the spectator’s eyes.

Step 2: Removing the other suits from the deck

This is the risky part. He has to switch the full deck he has now to one that has only hearts. The camera angle is not clear on David so it may be difficult to notice, but watch as David asks Jimmy to sign the card. He gets up slightly from his seat and switches the full deck with the prepared one.

How did he know the audience would choose hearts?

For those of you wondering, yes it was hearts all along. So, how did he know the girl would choose hearts? He didn’t.

Watch the video again and watch how he chooses his words when he tells her to name a suit. He doesn’t tell her to name a suit that the deck will change into. He says, “Name a suit, any suit… to ELIMINATE.”

Therefore, if the woman said something like diamonds, he could say, “Ok, now name another suit.”

So, yes it was very lucky that the girl picked hearts right away, so the effect of the trick was way greater.

Step 3: The Sleight of Hand Grip That Makes It Look Like a Full Deck

This move is what makes this trick what it is. It’s a sleight of hand that allows you to spread out the cards in the deck to make it look like a full deck, even if you only have about 13 out of the 52 cards in your hand.

It will take a lot practice before you can even attempt it in front of an audience.

Watch the tutorial below

Conclusion

I’ve read around many forums and discussion boards all discussing this single trick.

There’s one thing that makes this trick look so cool. It looks impossible and supernatural to the human eye. There’s no logical explanation they can come up with on how you did the trick.

People who watch this are convinced that David Blaine has supernatural powers. That’s how powerful this trick is.

It will take a long time to practice, yes, but it will definitely be worth it.

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