Nuts !

Nuts !

The Performer takes a walnut, hammer, and a knife and carefully opens a walnut shell. He then takes a card, the seven of hearts for example, folds it and puts it inside the shell. The walnut shell is carefully glued back together to conceal any evidence of tampering. It might serve you well to make three or four of these gimmicked shells at one setting, using the same card if possible in all the shells.

During a performance the performer forces a seven of hearts to a spectator, using whatever his/her favorite card force may be. The performer cuts the deck as has the seven returned to the deck, catching a pinkie break above the seven. Bring the seven to the top and then riffle shuffle a couple of times while maintaining the position of the seven on top of the deck.

Holding the deck in the left hand, the performer places his right hand over the top of the deck while he tells the spectator that he is going to find his card in a very unusual way. Pushing the top card slightly forward with his middle three fingers, the performer presses down on the upper edge of this card causing the back of the card to rise upward into the palm. Now, with the top card in a palmed position, he hands the deck to the spectator with his left hand while quickly spiriting the palmed card to his pants or jacket pocked where he leaves the palmed card and produces a common inexpensive 'nut cracker'.

Laying the nut cracker on the table, the performer ask the spectator to look through the deck and find his card.

After a couple of passes through the deck, the spectator must admit that he/she cannot find their chosen card. The performer says that IF the spectator is quite sure the card is NOT in the deck, then its time to look elsewhere.

The performer points out a small paper cup, turned upside down, on the table and asks the spectator if he noticed the cup. Regardless, the performer asks the spectator to look under the cup since he (the performer) doesn't want to affect the outcome of the magic. After turning over the cup and finding a single walnut, the spectator is asked to take the nut cracker and open the nut - revealing the missing, chosen card. If the performer prepared several nuts, they can all be placed under a cup and the spectator can have his pick of any one of the nuts.

You can also use a two-way bag with prepared walnuts in one side and regular walnuts in the other side. After allowing the spectator to reach in a pick one of the prepared nuts, the performer can then empty the regular nuts onto the table and have several opened to show that only one walnut contained the chosen card..