This week on Scam School, a card
trick that will fool yourself
and your drunken friends.
Leave me alone.
I'm in hiding.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
This episode featuring
zero disintegrations
brought you by Carbonite.
I am here to do two things--
drink beer and perform
card tricks.
And I'm all out of beer.
Welcome to Scam School,
the only show dedicated
to social engineering at
the bar and on the street.
I'm your host, Brian Brushwood.
And this week we are back
with Diamond Jim Tyler,
who has an awesome
card trick miracle.
This thing totally fried me.
And the best part is
it uses a principle
we learned over 150 episodes.
Check it out.
True story.
Neuroscientist, rock star,
theoretical physicist,
and magician--
Diamond Jim Tyler.
Blow our minds.
Go sir.
All right.
And are you a shuffler?
Whoa.
Hold on.
That's a personal question.
I don't go intruding
into your personal life.
If you would, give them a mix.
Shuffle them up a
little bit, just
so you know I didn't
prearrange anything.
And now if you
would, Ted, I want
you to cut them into three
approximately equal stacks.
Awesome.
And I'd like each of you
to take a stack of cards.
Whichever one they want?
Yeah, it doesn't matter.
Oh, look at that.
And I'd like you to each
go through and pull out
a card at random.
But remember that card.
Remember the number and
the suit of that card.
I'm not going to look.
I'm going to hide my eyes.
I don't want to see it either.
But then I guess, what,
set it in front of you?
Set it right in front
of you on the table.
There you go.
Now remember your
card, and just place
the other cards on top of it.
Just so in case the
cards are marked,
there's no way I
can see the backs.
They're not.
You could borrow
that deck of cards--
Put them in a line right there.
Now you each probably have about
10 to 15 cards in your hand.
I don't know how many.
So I want you to
pick up your stack.
And you're each going to think
of a number between 10 and 15.
It's your own secret number.
So think of a number now.
You got one, Monica?
Yeah.
You got one, David?
You got one, Ted?
We're going to look away.
And each of you are going
to count that many cards
onto the table in just a
moment when I look away.
Now if you run out of cards
before you hi your number,
that's OK.
All right.
Here.
I'll hide my eyes
too, in case you
think I'm like a secret
conspirator for Diamond Jim
Tyler.
Now the cards that you
have left in your hand
just put those on
top of the others.
Excellent.
Done.
OK.
So let's see.
We're going to randomize this.
Here.
We'll let you take these.
And here, we'll do this.
You take those.
And do the same thing.
Whatever your secret number
is, pick up the cards,
and deal that secret
number onto the table.
Again, I'm not going to look.
I am going to look this time.
I'm a voyeur.
And people think you count.
There's no way you can count.
But when they finish, they have
to put the cards on top, right?
Put the other card right on top.
There you go.
Got it?
Let's see.
Let's do this just
one more time, just--
and do it one last time.
Count your secret number.
Now you guys remember
you shuffled the cards.
You each picked
a card at random.
You counted your
own secret number.
We mixed them up all random.
Nobody knows where those
cards are right now.
What was your card again?
King of clubs.
King of clubs.
Red heart ace.
Three of clubs.
Turn over the king of clubs.
[DING]
Shut up.
Turn over the red heart ace.
[DING]
Shut up.
And it was the three of?
Clubs.
Clubs.
Turn it over.
[DING]
Boom, boom, boom, seriously.
That's wizardry magic.
You guys want to learn this one?
Yeah.
All right.
Well then a frigging toast
to us-- to the sponsors.
Look, we're all guys here,
except for the ladies
who watch Scam School, who
are very ladylike guys,
in a weird kind of way.
The point is, we're all lazy.
We don't want to have
to do our own work.
We don't want to have to
earn our own beverages.
We just want to do tricks,
and amuse the happy people,
and drink for free.
You know who else
supports lazy people?
Carbonite.
Carbonite wants you to be lazy.
They don't want you to have
to think about backing up
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when your computer explodes.
Because it's going to explode.
It happens sooner or later.
All computers explode.
It's a law.
It's Newton's law of
exploding computers.
And the point is, when it
happens, you can be like,
whatevs.
I signed up for Carbonite.
And all my data was
magically backed up
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it will live forever.
That's why I'm busy
drinking at the bar.
And the best part is, you
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And if you sign up for a
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And you will be
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backing up your data.
Because that's
handled by Carbonite.
Now I love this.
Because there's
a lot of process.
But the process is distributed
over three different people.
So it's not overwhelming
for any one of you guys.
But all together it creates
this super complicated mishmash,
to where you think
there's no way.
We mixed them up all
eight ways, sideways,
and we got three
different secret numbers,
in three different secret cards.
And then at the end, when it
all matches, I loved this.
And explain to me how
the hell do we do it.
Well, it's based on Jim
Steinmeyer's [INAUDIBLE] card
trick.
Right, which we taught
as the spelling bee,
like over 150 episodes ago.
Yeah.
This is like it on steroids.
Yeah, totally.
And so it's really great.
So they use their own cards.
Doesn't have to be a full deck.
This is a great,
impromptu trick.
It just looks impossible.
And you want them to cut the
deck into about 3 equal stacks.
And then they go through.
And they choose
a card at random.
We've just placed
these cards on top.
So it's easy to follow.
The ace, two, and
three of clubs.
Whatever cards they
choose, they put face down
on the table in front of them.
We're going to leave it
face up, so you can kind of
follow along for
the explanation.
And the motivation for
this is, I tell them,
I don't want to see
what the card is,
in case it's marked on the back.
Right.
So that's the reason they
bury it amongst the others.
And then they each think
of their own secret number.
And let's jut say--
and you tell them
to pick a number
between about 10 and 15.
About 10 to 20 will work.
But just to be safe,
10 to 15 is a good--
And the number does matter?
It can't be below 10.
Because the cards have to go
through a complete rotation
of cycle.
Right.
So let's just say
your number's 10.
Your number's 11.
And your number is 12.
So count down.
10.
You count down 11.
And you count down 12.
And then once they've
done that, you
tell them to place
the remaining cards
in their hand on
top of the stack.
Leave the cards on the table.
Oh, reverse.
There you go.
There you go.
And the cards that were
in your hand, these cards,
go right on top of those.
Perfect.
Now think of this
as pile A, B, and C.
Let's actually pull
this back right here,
so we can get a
good visual on this.
In fact, I think
of it in a line.
I think that's the best way, if
you think about it as a line,
with A, B, and C. You were
doing the advanced version,
where it's all spread
around the table.
But I think it's easier
to think of outside,
and inside, and
that kind of thing.
OK.
So now, think of
this as A, B, and C.
You switch piles A
and C. And then I
switch with the new
A pile and B pile.
And then you ask them to count
down to their secret number
again.
So do the same thing again.
So 10.
And then over here, 11, and 12.
And so now switch piles B and C.
All right.
And then piles B
and A. And then you
ask them to count down one
last time their secret number.
So literally, the third
time is the charm on this.
This is what makes
the magic happen.
It sits right on top.
Those go on top.
Sits right on top.
Sits right on top.
You ask them to name
their cards out loud.
And I think it is
important that they
say in advance what you want
to find out what the card is.
Because when you deal
with people at the bar,
those are the jerks who
are going to be like,
oh, that wasn't my card.
And then later, they're like,
well it totally was my card.
But I showed it to
that magician guy.
So you get them to say in
advance, in front of everyone.
And then you turn it over.
And you show that
it exactly matches.
Dude, how simple is that?
Do you guys remember the steps?
David, you think you have what
it takes to go through it,
and show it for us?
I can try.
All right.
David, go time.
What do I do?
All right.
From my understanding,
what you want to do
is cut the deck into thirds.
All right.
I'm going to shuffle them first,
just to be-- there you go.
Definitely.
All right.
Three equal piles.
One, two-- that's
not quite equal.
There we go.
Three equal piles.
Got it.
Now each of you take one.
Take a pack?
Got it.
Doesn't matter which one.
What should I do?
You want to pick out a card.
And don't tell me what it is.
Put it face down on
the table, like that.
And then put the
other cards on top.
Done.
Now I want you all to
pick secret numbers
between 10 and 15.
I got it.
Don't tell me what it is.
And I want you count out
that number onto the table.
And put the rest of
the cards on top.
Done.
Now we're going to switch
it up a little bit.
So you get this one.
And--
It's getting pretty mixed
up in this business.
Yeah.
Shuffle it up a little bit.
Now if that happens,
you want to make
sure to keep that
bottom card on bottom.
Right, yeah.
All right.
Now I want you guys to all
count out your secret number
once again.
You got it.
Boom.
And we're going to
shuffle it up once more.
Nicely done.
Man, this is some crazy
mixed up deck business.
And so--
I am unprepared for the
level of mixiness here.
What next?
So count it out once more.
And check that magic
card on the top.
Wait a minute.
Wait a minute.
Shouldn't you ask
us what our cards
are before we turn them over?
I should.
OK.
Ace of diamonds.
Ace of diamonds.
Ace of spades.
Ace of spades.
King of clubs.
King of clubs.
OK.
See what we got.
Shut up.
[DING]
Yes!
Well done, David.
That was fantastic.
Thank you so much Jim Tyler.
That was freaking rad.
I love the fact
that on the surface,
this scam looks so
overly complicated.
And yet each individual
piece is totally simple.
These guys had been
drinking all night,
and they were able
to pull it off.
I want to hear about your
success stories with this scam.
So post them at the
boards at scamschool.tv.
Plus don't forget
that all of these
are written up in Diamond Jim
Tyler's books, Bamboozlers 1
and 2, plus the app
available right now.
Speaking of buying
stuff, you've got
to head over to
scamschoolbook.com.
The first volume of the
Scam School book is out.
We are talking about distilled,
concentrated scam school
goodness, with links to
all the episodes, over
80 effects, 40-plus
videos, hundreds of photos,
audio track commentaries.
It is absolutely amazing.
I've never been more proud
of anything we've created.
And you can have it on
your iPhone, your iPad,
any mobile device you guys want.
It's amazing.
Seriously, get on
out there, guys.
And by the way, are you
doing that Google+ thing?
Because I'm on the Google+.
Just head on over
to gplus.to/shwood.
Next week on Scam
School, we're going
to be learning the
difference between alligators
and crocodiles.
It turns out
alligators like beer.
Crocodiles do whisky straight.
Pretty sure that's the cops
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Oh my God.
