Card to Cell Phone

- Effect -
The spectator selects a card, replaces it in the deck, and shuffles the cards. Suddenly, he receives a text message on his phone. He opens the message, and discovers his card.

- Presentation -
First, you need to borrow a spectator’s cell phone. Comment on how much you like the phone, and, as you pretend to just be examining it, you need to send your own phone, which should be on silent, a text message. The key is to send the message as quickly as possible, so you don’t arouse suspicion. You might need to familiarize yourself with several types of phones in order to be able to do this step quickly. As soon as you’ve sent yourself a text message, clear the screen, and hand them back their phone, and get out your own. Comment on how your phone isn’t as nice as theirs, and how you’re thinking about getting a different one. As soon as you get your phone out, you should have received their text message. What you need to do is, as you’re talking to them and providing verbal misdirection, hit reply on your phone, and quickly type in the name of a card you want to force. It helps to abbreviate the card’s name, such as 7c, for the seven of clubs. Now, put your phone back into your pocket, but without sending the message yet. You need to know where the send button is on your phone without having to get it out and look at it, and you need to be just one screen away from sending the message. Now, pull out your
cards, and use your favorite method to force the card you input into your phone earlier. Have them put their card back in the deck, and give them the cards to shuffle. Take this moment of misdirection to quickly hit the send button on your phone. Take your hands as far away from your phone as you can, and look them in the eyes. Tell them to concentrate on their card. It
will take a few seconds from them to receive the message, which is perfect. It should seem like their sheer concentration on their card has caused it to appear on their phone. If you and your spectator both have a camera phone, you could even do this with a picture of the card, instead of just the name of it. Also, good patter to go along with this is by explaining how “thoughts are simply electrical signals, which could sometimes be picked up by other electrical devices.”