A close-up routine for the people in your audience who'd rather be fishing.
(Psst! I don't want to say this is self-working, but…)
The effect: Sixteen fish cards are dealt face down in a 4×4 grid, and your helper is asked to choose a number from 1 to 4 so you can eliminate that fishing spot. Remove all the cards from the chosen column and row, and show a few of the faces to display what trophy fish were not caught.
Ask them to eliminate another fishing spot by choosing from the rows/columns that are left and remove those cards, again showing some of the world-class fish that weren't caught.
Do this one more time, and when the cards in that row and column have been taken up, one card will remain face down – that's where they'll be casting their line.
Have them turn over the last card to find an old boot, their catch of the day!
Cool Features
- Uses cards, but it's not just another card trick.
- No sleight-of-hand required. (Nothing against sleight-of-hand, of course!)
- No gimmicks, so there's nothing to break.
- Easy pocket trick that's quick to reset.
- Cards are marked on the back. Why? Why not! Come up with a use for the marks or just ignore them — your call.
- Use the technique with a stack of business cards, playing cards, poker chips, or whatever else you can find 16 of.
But wait, there's more. This first came to life as Addicted to Love, where the effect is discovering what someone's hidden addiction is. We find out it's not cat videos, manicures, or mimes, because when there's only one card left, we see they're addicted to love! (And right there is where you'd press play on a device with that Robert Palmer song cued up.)
For some reason, I thought the whole addiction theme was too odd, so I switched to the fish — only, every once in a while, I use the Addicted to Love cards, and people really like it. So, I'm including both sets of cards — the technique is the same, so you can just use whichever one feels right for the people you're performing for.
The PDF of Layne's Nightmare includes a "Print Your Own Props" section so you can get started right away – both the fish cards and the humorous addiction cards.
