@
___ CHAOS
(Mandelbrod’s Revenge
What in the beginning seems to be one of those notorious counting tricks with a mathematical basis,
ends in complete chaos: Talking about "keeping a precise mathematical system intact”, the perform-
er throws the cards around wildly on the table until the deck is hopelessly mixed. Pushing the big
lump of cards together however, he unerringly and instantly locates two freely chosen cards from out
of the mess.
In fact, the two selected cards have really been shuffled anywhere among the rest, the mathemagician
actually knows neither the cards nor their positions and until the very end, he never even sees the face
of a single card!
As a bonus you may be pleased to hear, that CHAOS” is completely self-working.
Mathematical card tricks usually suffer from two main problems: Mostly, their effect is not terribly
entertaining, and it is often obvious, that the method has something to do with mathematics, a fact
that reduces the trick to an intellectual problem (1)
There are several ways to overcome those difficulties, I think. First: come up with an interesting
presentation that has some emotional appeal and gives the trick a scene and meaning. This can bring
even a tedious counting trick or faro principle to life. There are many examples in print, perhaps most
notably by Alex Elmsley, Simon Aronson, Richard Vollmer, Max Maven and Juan Tamariz *. The
second problem concerns the fact that the method's mathematical nature is often obvious because of
strange handlings and extremely indirect procedures. [ think there are at least two main ways to deal
with this: first, you can add some technique to make the handling appear less “static” (false shuffles
and cuts immediately come to mind), second, you can use a presentational motivation for some
otherwise suspicious handlings like dealing the deck into several piles (a poker game?) or Faro
shuffles; (Making a double-fan to display the cards? Talking about this neurotic scientist who shuffled
cards in a strange way? Making people listen to the "magical sound” the cards make when you
cascade them together?)
® Of course, | can't give a detailed list of tricks, just check out books like the two fantastic volumes about Alex Elmsley, ("The Complete works.
of Alex Elmsley”, Stephen Minch, L&L Publishing 1994, p. 4231, Juan Tamariz’ presentation of his "Neithee Blind Nor Sily” ("Sonata
Bewitched musi.” Juan Tamariz, Editorial Frakson, p.211{1) and the publications by the authors mentioned in the text,Another way to cover the mathematics in a trick is: don't!
In fact, this is what "CHAOS" is all about. You openly admit that you are now going to perform
mathematical trick. But ay the routine proceeds, the spectators see you throwing the cards all ove
the place and slowly realize that you are joking. Of course, you are not joking, but because of th
ironic presentation no one is ever going to believe the truth you are telling them. People laugh anc
happily deceive themselves
At the same time, this constitutes a funny and hopefully captivating situation, so when vou ultimate
locate the selections without asking a single question, the audience will be entertained as well a
mystified (If the theory holds true that is
If it doesn't, it's just another boring, mathematical card wick ...@)
But enough theory ~ let's look at the ...
Req CORN aks rood
You only need a complete deck of 5.
sequence. The values of the c:
cards. The cards are arranged in a certain red/black (1/B)
rds are of no importance. The sequence runs like this (F
(fig. 8)
(B) rBrr BrBB ... rBrr BrBB rB (r)
This order becomes easy to understand and remember if you recognize the regularity it contains (and
of which only the first and last cards are exceptions). The regularity is simply described by the for-
mula
“pia
In other words. except for the first and last cards, the colors alternate in groups of: | card, | card, 2
cards, I card, 1 card, 2 cards, ete. (2)
Talk about now doing a “mathematical card tric!
and spread the arranged deck face-up from right
to left on the table, Ask two spectators to think about any card in the deck, telling one of them to think
of a red card, the other spectator to think about a black card "In order to prevent you from accidently
thinking about the same card.", as you say.
You now turn your back, asking the two spectators to exchange their cards in the spread. Both of them
take out their card and replace it at the other card’s position. (To make things easier and to avoid
errors, you have spread the deck from right to left. This way, the indices are nicely visible to your
spectators, helping them to put the cards back at the correct positions). The spect
and turn it face-down, before you face your audience again.
ators square the deckFirst, Double Undercut three cards from top to bottom (don’t forget this step!). Then you deal the
ig.9):
deck into eight piles
ig. 9)
Start by dealing two rounds of eight cards, dealing them in regular rotation:
12345678- 12345678. (3) Then you increase your speed and start dealing the cards more
and more irregularily. In fact, you continue to deal four cards into the top row, before dealing the next
four cards into the bottom row, but you have certain freedom for variation:
The third card of each row always goes onto the third pile in the row, but you can deal the other
three cards on to the remaining three piles in the row in any order you like. To make this clear, con-
sider figure 10.
(fig. 10)
1234 5678
1432 5876
2134 6578
2431 6875
4132 8576
4231 8675
Those tables are not meant to be memorized, of course, They simply visualize the way you can deal
the cards.
If you do all this (including the cutting of three cards from top to bottom before the deal) face-up,
the working of "CHAOS" will quickly become apparent: the dealing separates the red cards from the
blacks (4)
Continue to deal the cards in this manner until you have only four cards left. Take two cards in each
hand, taking the first and third card into the right hand, the second and fourth card in the left hand
(fig. 11). The right hand drops its cards onto pile #4, the left hand onto pile #3I only have to start the mathema
rict pattern... Every card has its own precise position... Everything
‘al system. To do this, | deal the
gall that dealing you sa
cards onto the table following a
is exactly planned... You must never ever deal the cards just as you like... This would immediately
destroy the system and therefore render the trick completely impossible”
To the words: “For example, you must never exchange piles...". you do just that, exchanging piles #3
and #7.
Except for the two thought-of cards, all the red cards are now in one row and the black cards
the other.
“No — every card has its position. Saying this, you push the bottom row together with both hands,
forming one big lump of cards (fig. 12). Because of the sharp contrast between your words and
this is the funniest and at the same time most deceptive moment of the routine; make the most
of it. Push the other row together as well and throw those cards onto the other pile in small groups
(fig. 13), Rounding things off, you give the deck a red / black shuffle, that keeps the colors separated
(5). Put down the deck and pause for a while.
action:
(fig. 13)
By now, your spectators should be convinced, that everything was just a b
of mathematical packet-tricks. This makes it all the more surprising, when you now make a pressure
fan and decisively remove the two thought-of cards (6). This can be done very quickly because the
two cards stand out clearly in the “wrong*-colored halves of the deck. The spectators name their cards
for the first time and you show, that even in “CHAOS*, mathematics finds its way.
joke: perhaps a parodyPITSTIPS:
(1) This is not to s
y that those intellectually stimulating curiosities do not have their place or th
wouldn't like them. In fact, as a hobby, | am sort of addicted to what Max Maven once cal
‘aesthetics of method. So whenever | find a trick in which the means employed are simy
elegant and in a deeper sense of the word beautiful (ahh c
would even go as far as to say, that in this area, a trick, routine, principle, puzzle, curiousity
whatever you want to call the idea in question does not necessarily need an effect. It’s like mat
matics with imaginary numbers: no application in the real world (of performing), but a strar
appeal of universal truth. Not bad for card tricks. huh?
I don’t really care about the et
One does not have to force those “univet audien
I truths without effect on a defenseless lay
of course (Well, o.k - sometimes I can’t resist... )
In that sense, “CHAOS* is also a way to communicate my love fo
ciples to an audience, that does not cons
fascinating mathematical pr
st of grey code-experts and Faro-maniacs.
Here are two possible ways to reach the necessary color-arrangement for “CHAOS:
a) As the Faro shufflers among you will. probably have realized, you just have to give a red’/bk
separated deck three Faro shuffles, and the “1 12" color sequence is reached. (The shuffles can
“In** or “Out® shuffles or any combination of those.)
A possible procedure that nicely “breaks up” the three shuffles looks like this:
Secretly separate the red cards from the blacks. Give the deck a Faro, spread it face-up on the ta
from right to left, and ask a spectator to think of any card. Give the deck the second Faro a
spread it again, asking a second spectator to think of a card (of the opposite color, as
performance”), Execute a last Faro, spread the deck and turn your back, The spectators exchan
their cards, and you continue as described.
b) Here is another method to reach the set-up that avoids the Faro: it is the one I mostly use:
It uses a principle I call “Drop Stack” and which works like this:
Hold a well shuffled deck in your left hand in face-up dealing position. As you mentally recite
sequence “ 1, (Exception - first card), 112, 112, 112... with your right hand drops the cards or
the table in corresponding colour-groups, forming a face-up pile. Some cards are held back te
porarily, some cards are dropped down until you eventually reach the last cards, ending your int
nal patter with “112, 112, 111 (exception - last card)". During this secret, yet hal -open arrang
ment, tWo spectators are asked to think of a card, one concentrating on a red, the other on a bla
card as described.
This cannot really be d
escribed much better, because in the shuffled deck the cards lie differen
cach time, of course. If you just give this “Drop Stack" a try, however, you will notice how quic
ly you can arrange the deck, and it even feels nice in the head. You can use this concept to rea
other complex arrangements, of course, provided that it fits your style to carelessly throw lum
of cards onto the table.1
1
@
(3) Itis not strictly necessary to start the dealing with two rounds in regular rotation, but it may caus
some spectators to think along the following lines:
Dh no, not one of those boring counting tricks
I know those - now I have to tell him which pile my card is in and so on..." As the trick proceed:
those spec
tors will find out, that everything is drastically different from what they were led t
expect. This gives the trick a nice built-in
false solution *.
(4) Here, the basie principle of *CHAOS* becomes apparent. (If someone should ever ask you abou
the contents of these lecture notes, simply tell them that besides card tricks, the basic principles o
Chaos are explained in detail and reduced to the simple formula “1 1
) Seriously, the prin
ciple used in this trick is nothing but the well-known “divided deck™. In the usual applications 0
this principle, the deck is seeretely separated into reds and blacks, a card is freely chosen from on
half and replaced anywhere in the other half, where it can easily be located.
In “CHAOS* the color-separation is
‘ort of “coded™ by three Faro shuffles (see (2) a)). Later it i
“decoded by performing three Faros backwards, as dealing the deck into eight piles and pickin;
them up in a certain order constitutes a Triple Antifaro *, Note that by using this principle o
‘od
set-up is not yet reached. no special order is visible at first glance (as would be with a norma
redibblack separation), It may also be worth pointing out that although the
in “decodin
incorporate the concept into your routine:
and decoding set-ups* you can often arrange the cards more or |
not only do they not get mixed, (as with any false
arranged. Of course. there are several tr
which is mostly “decode
ss openly: as the actua
cards appear to get mixe
shuffle), but they even ge
s in print which use this kind of camouflaged set-up
by Faro shuffles (just the other way round): perhaps you ca
(5) One of the easiest and at the same time most convincing red/black shuffles is the one by Lauri
Ireland: Execute a regular overhand shuffle until you get to the center of the deck. Then run singl
cards until you are sure to have passed the center: Shutile off normally again. The deck is still sep
arated into reds and blacks.
(6) If you don’t whish to make use of the final red/black separation after performing “CHAOS”, cithe
as an additional effect or as a secret method, you ce
in finish by removing only the first selectior
from the fan, at the same time secretly remembering the second selection, As you pretend t
alculate™ the second card, you absent-mindedly give the deck a riffle shuffle. You can then mak
another pressure fan, and, in removing the second selection, lower the cards, in order to le
spectators see that the deck is mixed
You'll have to decide whether this is “overproving" or not. On one hand “don’t run if no one i
chasing you.", but on the other hand, some jogging is said to be healthy from time to time.
Juan Tay
* Juan Tamatiz
The Theory of false sol
opt. p 9087
ions and the
ne Anta
Lltorial Frakson, Madrid 1988,