Rudy Hunter - Total Control with Cards
Category
🦄
CreativityTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 Hi, I'm Rudy Hunter.
00:12 I'm going to teach you something amazing with cards.
00:14 It's based on a concept that's been around for decades.
00:17 I've used it myself for about the last 20 years.
00:20 Total Control is a single gimmicked card.
00:23 And in this pack of cards, we've gimmicked up the Queen of Clubs.
00:27 The gimmick is pretty amazing.
00:29 It uses regulation brand invisible tape.
00:34 You need two pieces of invisible tape, roughly an inch or an inch and a half
00:37 long.
00:38 The first piece is wrapped around on the front of this edge of the queen
00:43 and onto the back.
00:45 And then a second piece of tape is put on top to thicken it.
00:49 When you put your piece of tape on, you
00:51 want to make sure that things are not entirely flush.
00:54 This is what makes Total Control so powerful.
00:57 If there's a little bit of an extra edge here,
00:59 that's a perfect application for Total Control.
01:02 What you've done with the tape is you've artificially
01:07 widened a portion of the card.
01:10 And it should be done on this edge.
01:13 For those of you who like crimp work and are a little nervous about it
01:16 or unsure about working with crimps, Total Control
01:19 solves every single problem.
01:21 This is a locator card and a crimp that will never drop out.
01:26 So if you're in a strange environment or you're
01:29 using a pack of cards that isn't ideal, an old pack of cards, for example,
01:34 or if your hands get sweaty or if there's too much humidity,
01:37 this tape is pretty much indestructible.
01:40 You'll always be able to locate this card.
01:42 And you'll be able to locate it two ways, one by feel and one by sight.
01:47 Makes it even more powerful than a regulation crimp.
01:49 This is why I've used it for so long.
01:51 So I'm going to teach you some really interesting applications.
01:54 You can combine and mix these all together.
01:56 The freedom that it allows you, as you'll soon see, is pretty remarkable.
02:00 We'll start with a basic control.
02:02 [MUSIC PLAYING]
02:07 A basic control of a card starts with the Total Control gimmick
02:12 somewhere in the center of the pack.
02:14 It doesn't matter where.
02:15 We're going to be controlling the nine of clubs in our example.
02:19 And you hold the deck up on edge, ready as if you're going to do a one-handed
02:22 cut, so that your forefinger lets go so the lower half of the deck
02:27 can lever down.
02:28 What's curious about this is that when your thumb is
02:31 on top of the Total Control gimmick, this
02:34 is the only place you can actually let the cards fall.
02:37 So it's automatic and completely foolproof.
02:41 So you open up at this point in the pack, which
02:44 is our queen of clubs, our locator, Total Control card.
02:47 The selected card, in our example, the nine of clubs, is plopped inside.
02:51 The deck is allowed to drop flush.
02:54 You push the card in freely, and I dribble the cards onto the table.
02:58 That looks as fair as you can possibly get, because in reality, it is fair.
03:04 You don't exactly know where it is.
03:06 You only know that it's under the Total Control card.
03:09 You swing the deck around, and you're going to separate the cards
03:12 to do a tabled riffle shuffle.
03:14 And funnily enough, the only place you can conveniently cut the cards by feel
03:19 is by lifting up on the Total Control gimmick.
03:22 Actually, it's difficult to cut anywhere else,
03:24 so it's even better than automatic.
03:27 You lift up.
03:27 The top goes to your right-hand side.
03:29 The selected card is now here.
03:32 You shuffle the cards, letting the card on the left fall last.
03:36 Square them up, and you've successfully controlled the card to the top.
03:39 That's a basic control using Total Control.
03:41 [MUSIC PLAYING]
03:46 We're going to up the ante a little and use the fact
03:49 that this is a visible gimmick aside from a gimmick that's controlled by feel.
03:54 We'll use both applications here.
03:56 So we'll cut the deck, putting our Total Control gimmick somewhere
04:00 around the middle, give or take.
04:02 If you fan the cards out now in your hand and spread them slightly,
04:06 you can visually see-- if you look carefully
04:09 and you know what you're looking for, of course--
04:11 our little extra edge of double-scotch tape right there.
04:17 You take your selected card-- in our example, the nine of clubs--
04:20 and as freely as is possible, you jab it into the deck.
04:24 And because it's done in such a relaxed manner,
04:28 it looks like you haven't planned where it's going.
04:31 Same thing.
04:32 You square up the deck, push the card flush.
04:34 You can dribble it on the table, which I always like to do.
04:37 That proves to card professionals and other performers
04:40 that you're not holding breaks with your fingers or doing anything fishy.
04:44 Same way out here.
04:45 You cut for a riffle shuffle.
04:47 Left hand falls last.
04:49 And once again, you've got total control over your card, the nine of clubs.
04:53 [MUSIC PLAYING]
04:58 So let's up the ante a little bit more.
05:01 We'll get a little bit fancier without getting too much more complicated.
05:04 This time, we're going to plunk our nine of clubs, the Total Control gimmick,
05:08 not in the center, but somewhere about in the top quarter.
05:13 So in the deck, it's about roughly a quarter of the deck down.
05:17 You position the deck as if you were going to do a tabled riffle shuffle,
05:20 and you're now going to start cutting small packets.
05:24 You start with your first one, and again, you reach down.
05:27 It's almost impossible to cut anywhere else.
05:30 Heaving your first packet off to the side puts your Total Control
05:33 gimmick under here.
05:34 You continue to cut small packets until the spectator
05:37 wants you to call out-- wants to stop.
05:40 They get a choice at this point.
05:42 They can either have this card or this card, and it's their choice.
05:45 If they pick this card, the five of hearts, you have them look at it,
05:50 return it to the top, and then cut this packet in,
05:54 and then toss these into the cut open left hand packet, which
06:00 looks incredibly fair because for most of this control,
06:03 your hands are nowhere near the deck.
06:05 You can square up, cut the cards for table riffle shuffle,
06:09 which you're already familiar with, left hand falling last, and boom,
06:13 there you have it.
06:16 Now what about the other options?
06:18 Let's place our Total Control gimmick again about a quarter of the way
06:21 down from the top of the deck.
06:23 We'll start our packet cutting as we just did.
06:26 Spectator says stop.
06:27 Instead of this packet, they choose the top card of this one.
06:31 It's a very easy matter.
06:33 You flash the card to them.
06:34 This is the one that is their selection, the queen of spades.
06:37 And instead of replacing it here, you put it on the other packet
06:39 as we just did, cut these very sloppily in half, open this up,
06:46 throw them in, square it up.
06:48 That's about as clean as you can possibly get.
06:51 You still have Total Control as you cut the gimmick to the side
06:54 as you're familiar with, shuffle in, and boom, there's your selected card.
07:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
07:05 So that's all well and good.
07:06 Maybe you don't like to cut small packets.
07:09 Maybe you don't like fans.
07:10 But there is nothing more fair in a spectator's mind
07:13 than a full, open spread of cards on the table
07:17 because your hands are not even touching it.
07:21 Your hands are removed from around the edges of the deck.
07:24 It's very convincing.
07:25 So here we go.
07:28 Spectator reaches down and touches a card that they like.
07:31 Let's say it's this one here.
07:33 You move all the cards that they didn't touch slightly out of the way.
07:37 And what I do for extra oomph is as I tip their card up
07:40 so they can have a look at it, the two of diamonds in this instance,
07:44 I turn my head to the side to convince them
07:47 that I don't need to know what the card is.
07:50 Plunk it back down.
07:52 And as sloppily as humanly possible, you grab the edge of the ribbon spread.
07:57 Remember, our total control gimmick is on the bottom.
08:01 You reach over, cut them in half, and toss them on top.
08:06 Cut your right hand bunch in half, chuck these ones in, and this guy on top.
08:11 Now, no one in their right mind would accuse you of holding a break
08:13 or doing anything sneaky.
08:16 Squaring them up, we shuffle once again, left hand falling last.
08:21 And there's your total control in a ribbon spread.
08:25 [MUSIC PLAYING]
08:28 Now, there are numerous, numerous tricks out in the world
08:36 where a card has to be controlled to the top or the bottom.
08:40 In fact, there's probably more of those than people on the face of the Earth.
08:44 I'm going to show you one application that
08:46 is very convincing to people who play a lot of cards.
08:49 When I do this for poker players or bridge players,
08:52 I gain a great deal of respect because of the fairness of this handling.
08:58 And it's only just a little bit more complicated than our very basic control
09:02 that we've already learned.
09:04 So to start with, our gimmick's on the bottom.
09:07 We cut the deck, and that puts our total control gimmick
09:11 centered somewhere in the pack.
09:14 We set up for a one-handed cut.
09:15 We let the lowermost portion fall open.
09:18 Our special lady is here with her tape.
09:23 You grab the four aces.
09:25 You plunk them in together as a unit and let the top half fall.
09:28 And as fairly as possible, squeeze them down inside.
09:32 I make sure I do a dribble here because that really
09:34 proves that I'm not holding breaks or doing anything else sneaky.
09:39 You might laugh at how impressive this is going to be.
09:44 You're just going to do the same thing over and over and over again.
09:48 But because the aces are involved and your hands are constantly
09:50 leaving the pack, you get credit for far more skill
09:53 than you might actually have.
09:55 Here's our first one.
09:57 You warm up those sensitive fingers.
09:58 You give them a rub or you blow on them.
10:01 You open up the total control gimmick.
10:05 There's your first card, the ace of hearts.
10:07 That is the cleanest ace cut you'll ever see.
10:10 Next, you do it once again.
10:14 It's almost impossible not to cut there.
10:17 So for a little break in the action, I give the deck now a tabled riffle
10:22 shuffle to up the ante.
10:24 You cut at the total control gimmick.
10:27 Shuffle the cards so that the right hand bottom card falls first.
10:30 That's your gimmick.
10:32 Cards, cards, cards, cards, cards.
10:33 And the last two from the left hand side fall last, squaring up.
10:39 If you'll think about it, almost nothing has happened.
10:42 The total control gimmick's on the bottom.
10:44 Your two aces remain on top.
10:47 I give the deck a full and complete tabled cut, which always throws off poker players.
10:52 And then I say, let's try again.
10:53 We'll rewarm up the fingers, open it up.
10:57 There's our third ace.
10:59 And our fourth and final one, just as easily.
11:02 That's the easiest ace cutting you'll ever see and one that will get you great credentials
11:07 in the card world.
11:08 Have fun with total control.
11:09 You'll be amazed at how impressive it is.
11:11 So, I want to give you some tips for working with total control to make your life really
11:23 easy.
11:24 I recommend Scotch Invisible Tape above any other kind of tape.
11:27 If you use regular old tape, it will tend to yellow, get brittle, and it doesn't give
11:31 the same feel as the invisible tape does.
11:34 So, that's my suggestion.
11:36 Now, in our demonstration, we've used the Queen of Clubs, which is a card that I frequently
11:41 use as a key card.
11:42 However, you want to be able to remove the gimmick from the deck with some kind of reason
11:48 for being.
11:49 So, the sanest way to do this is to make your total control gimmick on the side of a joker.
11:53 So, once you're done with your controls or whatever trick you're working on, before you
11:58 hand the deck out to be shuffled, because it shouldn't be shuffled by a spectator with
12:02 it in the deck, you can notice by accident that the joker is still left in and just casually
12:08 remove it and pocket it.
12:10 It gives you a clean, sensible reason for removing the gimmick instead of having to
12:16 palm it out or do any other slights.
12:23 So if you're familiar with crimped cards, you know that you're very much at the mercy
12:27 of weather conditions, how moist or how dry your hands are, and sometimes for no particular
12:32 reason a good crimped card, the crimple will just drop out and it will mess you up.
12:37 That's impossible with total control.
12:39 One of the things that disproves the use of crimps to sharp card players is you can't
12:43 do this and retain any kind of crimp of any value.
12:48 Of course, because this is tape, it goes in, goes out, stays firm, and it's always the
12:54 card that you can cut to, easy as pie.
12:57 That's how good total control can be.
13:06 Now I want to show you an ace routine that is pretty baffling.
13:10 The reason it's baffling is because the spectator is involved, especially if the spectator is
13:14 a card player or a bridge or a euchre player, and there's the impression, even though you
13:19 do the impressive work of cutting to the ace, that the spectator somehow has cut them as
13:23 well.
13:24 It's also impossibly difficult to reconstruct.
13:29 So our total control gimmick starts in the center.
13:32 We do our basic control with four aces, up for a one-handed false cut position, let it
13:38 plop, aces go in together, cleanly as possible, and dribble down onto the table.
13:45 Here's the wonderful part.
13:47 You and the spectator are going to take turns cutting the cards.
13:52 I'll cut first.
13:54 When I cut, I cut to an ace.
13:58 Now if the spectator will give the deck just a clean, complete cut, what this does, and
14:03 if you'll complete it for me, is proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that not only am I not
14:07 controlling the cards, but the whole order of the deck has been changed by the spectator.
14:12 Let's see if my sensitive fingertips can pick it up.
14:16 There we go.
14:17 And sir, if you'd do the honors again for me, nice, clean cut.
14:21 You do that very well.
14:22 Great.
14:23 Let's see if we can find it.
14:24 It gets harder and harder because there are fewer aces.
14:27 Here's our number three.
14:28 And sir, if you'll cut them one last time, we'll go for the gold.
14:33 Let's see if it's doable.
14:35 Oh, you know what?
14:36 Let's give him a shuffle before we finish.
14:40 Do me a favor, if you would.
14:41 Cut it one more time.
14:42 We want to up the ante as much as is possible.
14:45 Here we go.
14:51 That's the one.
14:52 Sir, you did nicely.
14:55 So this is so easy, it's almost embarrassing.
14:59 Your four aces are controlled, as we talked about, directly beneath the total control
15:06 gimmick.
15:09 Any time the total control gimmick is in the center of the deck, it's my turn to cut.
15:15 Any time the total control gimmick is on the bottom of the deck, the spectator can safely
15:20 cut because they're not going to feel anything unusual or screw up your effect.
15:24 So it's now in the center of the deck above the aces.
15:27 I cut the deck cleanly and complete the cut.
15:29 The aces are on top.
15:31 Here's my first revelation.
15:33 The fellow helps me by cutting the deck again.
15:36 He can't feel anything, but what he's done is he's just reset me to cut to the center
15:41 to an ace.
15:43 I do a complete cut.
15:45 There's my second ace.
15:46 It's just over and over and over again.
15:49 He cuts.
15:50 He can't feel anything unusual, and he sets it up for me.
15:54 I cut.
15:55 I get number three.
15:57 He cuts again, and then we change the pace slightly.
16:01 As we've done previously, you cut at the gimmick, give a riffle shuffle, gimmick down first,
16:06 ace down last.
16:09 He cuts them again, resets it up for me.
16:11 High drama and suspense.
16:13 I cut one final time, and there it is.
16:15 That's one of the best four-ace cuttings that'll get you talked about with total control.
16:23 I hope you've enjoyed Total Control.
16:25 Look for more of my products from Magic Makers, and I'm Rudy Hunter.
16:27 Magic Makers.
16:28 I'm Rudy Hunter.
16:28 [music]
16:38 [silence]
16:48 [BLANK_AUDIO]