The Missing Card Stunt

In case I haven’t previously mentioned this, I am a big fan of mnemonics, and have been using these memory training techniques since I was about eight years old. (I swapped some Penny Arrows – a British confection that dates me considerably, I guess – for a small book by the legendary magician and origami expert, Robert Harbin, on memory.)

In later life, I made great use of mnemonics in the sort of magic I performed, and also enjoyed practising (but rarely performing) memory demonstrations.

One of the first demonstrations that I ever learned is called the “Missing Card Stunt“.

What basically happens is that a full deck of cards is thoroughly shuffled, and then an unknown number of cards are removed, faces unseen.

The rest of the cards are shown, face up, one at a time for just a few seconds each, and after all of these remaining cards have been displayed, your task is to name the ones that were removed at the beginning of the demonstration.

Well, I hadn’t performed this particular memory demonstration (and that’s what it is – there’s no trick to it) for many years. In fact, I’ve not even done any magic or magic-related activities since moving to the USA a few years ago.

The net effect of this is that I am a bit rusty on all things magical, especially when it comes to some of the mnemonic stuff that I (literally) used to do with my eyes shut.

So, the other day, I thought I’d try doing the Missing Card Stunt, just to see how I fared. (We were also in the middle of yet another power cut, so there was little else to occupy me at the time.)

I got out the only pack of cards I could find (which was odd, as I must have brought dozens of them with me), gave them several really good shuffles (Faro shuffles – one technique that I’ve managed not to completely let slip), and then removed five cards.

I know, it’s meant to be an unknown number, but I was giving myself a slight bit of help, given that I’ve not attempted this stunt since some time in the early 1990s.

I then dealt all of the remaining cards, one by one (and face up, of course, otherwise it becomes a whole different experiment), and although it took me a little bit longer than it used to, I was pleased overall with the speed.

The moment of truth came … was I able to name the missing five cards?

Rattling through the pack in my mind, I identified what I believed to be the missing cards in very little time, but was I correct?

I removed the five cards I’d hidden earlier, and turned them over, one by one, to find that I was 100% correct!

To say that I was pleased would be an understatement.

I know, it’s not exactly Nobel prize-winning stuff, but for my mind to have retained the necessary information and skills to achieve this after over ten, or maybe 15, years, was impressive, I thought.

You see, the thing with mnemonics is that, at first, you do need to practise frequently, otherwise the “memory hooks” that you create fade away.

To be fair, I used to practise card-related memory work once a week, for many years, albeit not this particular stunt.

And it appears as though, however much practice I put into this arguably useless skill all that time ago, the skills are still there, dormant, but capable of being reanimated.

If you’re interesting in learning some useful memory training techniques, then the book I really learned from, other than the Robert Harbin one (which was called “Instant Memory“) that got me started all those years ago, was co-written by world-famous magician and memory expert, Harry Lorayne, and Jerry Lucas (a basketball player).

It’s simply called “The Memory Book“, and it contains everything you need to know to apply several memory training techniques that not only allow you to perform bizarre demonstrations such as the Missing Card Stunt, but also provide useful tools for day-to-day life.

BELIEVE IT OR NOT:


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