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A strange approach to solving the
problems of achieving a perfect
random shuffle.

EFFECT -- The Close-Up Kinda

Guy stops in the middle of his performance, stares at the deck in disgust, and
announces to his concerned audience that he can't go on until the reds and
blacks are more evenly distributed throughout the deck. He separates the
unsightly non-random clumps of reds and blacks from each other into four
neat face-up packets of segregated colors consisting of two red packets and
two black packets. The perfectionist carefully shuffles one black packet into
one red packet, and the other red packet into the other black packet. The two
halves are then spread to reveal that the two perfect shuffles "just missed." All
of the reds are back in one half while all of the blacks have unshuffled
themselves into the other half. The perfectionist looks up at his audience and
says, "Wow, what a bummer!"

TRANSPOSED PERFECTIONIST

The Close-Up Kinda Guy and part-time bummed-out perfectionist can't
believe that his perfect shuffle was so imperfect and spreads through his red
cards in the hopes of finding a few stray black cards. Boy oh boy is that guy
mad now, because all twenty-six red cards have suddenly turned black --
while the spectator who was going to help by searching through the original
black half for stray red cards finds nothing but red cards. (Yipes!) The
perfectionist looks up at his audience and says, "Wow, jumbo-bummer."

MIXED-UP PERFECTIONIST

The Close-Up Kinda Guy, having recently experienced an emotionally taxing
jumbo-bummer is about to end it all by shuffling the cards with his face, when
he has one last so-so inspiration that might possibly help him achieve his

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quasi-reasonable goal of obtaining a perfect random shuffle of reds and
blacks. How? (I'm glad you asked.) By using "Reverse Ygolohcysp." That's
psychology spelled backwards. (I just re-read this last thought and wanted to
let you know that I know there really is no excuse for this sort of childish
indulgence in a serious work of card tricks. And yet! The exclamation point is
unforgivable.)

True to his word Mr. Close-Up Kinda Guy divides the two spreads into four
packets of cards. Two reds and two blacks. Using reverse psychology he
shuffles the two red packets then shuffles the two black packets. He crosses
his finger, dots his eyes, then spreads the two halves face up. "Double Jumbo-
Bummer and then some. Nothing's happened! The reds are still with the reds
and the blacks are still with the blacks." But the Close-Up Kinda Guy's groans
of despair quickly turn into chortles of delight when, in a blinding flash of
Hearts, Clubs, Spades and Diamonds the 52 cards instantly interchange,
creating a perfect random shuffle of reds alternating with blacks! The Close-
Up Kinda Guy stares at the mix and announces that the randomness of the
reds and blacks is too random to be considered perfectly random.

The no-longer concerned audience looks down at the perfectionist, says
"Super Double Jumbo-Bummer," then wanders over to watch the nice man
making those cute little balloon doggies. The balloon-doggie kinda guy stops
in the middle of his performance, stares at his balloon doggie in disgust, and
announces that he can't go on until the air is more evenly distributed between
the tail and the nose. The audience tries to pop the balloon-doggie kinda guy.

THE PERFECTIONIST

STEP ONE -- Make sure that the first three cards at the pack's face alternate
colors (red, black, red or black, red, black). Whatever color is second from the
face will be the up-jogged color. Let's say the first three cards at the face of
your pack are black, red, black. Hold the deck face up in your left hand and
push the first three cards to the right so that the sandwiched red card is
casually concealed. Continue by openly up-jogging all of the other red cards
(FIG. 1). This should leave you with one red card secretly positioned second
from the face of the black cards.

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STEP TWO -- Cut the extended deck into two halves. This does not mean
"strip-out the jogged cards." It means that the right hand separates the upper
half of the extended deck from the left-hand portion's lower or "back" half
(FIG. 2). As the left-hand section is tabled face up, the right hand tilts the
backs of its cards up toward the audience. Transfer the extended right-hand
packet to the left hand. Use your right thumb to secretly slide the black card at
the packet's face square with the up-jogged red cards (FIGS. 3,4). This action
will leave you with the black packet in the left hand with a red card at its face
-- and the red packet in your right hand -- with a black card at its face.

Place these two disguised packets face up onto the table to the right of the
extended half. Openly disengage the genuine up-jogged red cards from the
black cards and position these two packets in red, black, red, black order from
left to right (FIG. 5).

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STEP THREE -- Riffle shuffle the two center packets together so that the
visible black card falls on top. Take card not to expose the hidden black cards.
Push the shuffled cards together at an angle so that the "reds" can be seen
going into the blacks (FIG. 6). Slide this unsquared half to the left above the
left-hand packet. Shuffle the two end packets together in the same way except
this time allow the red card to fall last.

STEP FOUR -- Position your right and left fingers over the two halves so that
the cards are boxed in from all four sides (FIG. 7).

Square the cards by sliding your thumbs across the inner side of the halves.
Spread both halves towards yourself at the same time (taking care not to
expose the odd-colored card second from the face of each half) revealing that
the reds from one half and the blacks from the other half have either vanished
or transposed -- depending on how you feel that day (FIG. 8).

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TRANSPOSED PERFECTIONIST

STEP ONE -- Use both hands to scoop up the two spreads. As the squared
cards are turned face down, your thumbs slide out the cards at the face of each
half (FIGS. 1,2). Flash the faces of these two cards (looking for stray colors)
and drop them face down onto their face-down halves.

Continue by cutting both halves about a third of the way down with both
hands, flash the faces of the cut-off portions, replace them. Pick up both

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packets, backs to the audience, and tap their sides against the table to square
them. Table the right-hand packet face up while the left-hand's packet is held
face up at the fingertips from below at the inner end.

NOTE -- In case you haven't noticed, you just executed the "P.H. fudge-o
packet switch."

The black packet is actually a red packet disguised by a black card, while the
red packet is actually a black packet disguised by a red card. The initial
cutting of the tabled halves shows that the colors are where they're supposed
to be. The audience doesn't care. When you square the packets with their
backs to the audience, you've parlayed their not caring into not remembering.
When you then turn both halves face up, your not-caring, not-remembering
audience will be unaffected by the not-announced position change of the
colors.

STEP TWO -- Direct a spectator to hold out one hand palm up. At this
moment the card at the face of the left hand is palmed off with the right hand
as follows: Place the first joints of your fingers against the outer end of the
card (FIG. 3). Press down and forward with your right fingers causing the face
card to slide over the end of the deck -- then lever into the right palm (FIG. 4).

In a continuing action, the left hand turns the deck face down where the right
fingers then grasp the right end of the cards from above (FIG. 5). In actual
practice, the right fingers touch the face of the packet for just an instant on its
way to grasping the right end of the deck. The palm should be executed in
action as your hands move toward the spectator to deposit the cards face down
on her waiting hand. (Note: You may find the palm easier if the card is pushed
a little bit over the end of the packet first.)

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STEP THREE -- Position your right palm directly above the tabled "black"
packet. As you drop the palmed red card onto the face of the packet,
immediately box the packet from all sides with your right fingers (FIG. 6).
Pause for a second, then spread the cards to reveal their flash transformation
into red cards (taking care not to expose the single black card second from the
face (FIG. 7). The spectator will need no prompting to examine her packet of
no-longer-red cards.

MIXED-UP PERFECTIONIST

STEP ONE -- Scoop up the red spread off the table and casually slip the
bottom card into the packet as the cards are tabled face down. Take the black
cards from the spectator and place them face down to the right of the other
packet. Both hands simultaneously cut each packet in half -- moving the two
cut-off top sections to the left of the bottoms as in FIG. 1. (Note that the right-
hand packet is placed to the left of the original left packet.) From right to left
you should now have: a black packet, a red packet with a black packet at its
face, a black packet, and a red packet.

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STEP TWO -- Turn the two packets on the right face up (apparently two black
packets) and

riffle shuffle them together (without squaring them) so that the back right-
hand card falls first and the top right-hand card falls last. Note that one-third
of the shuffled left-hand packet remains in view. When shuffling, try to make
the shuffle as "complete" as possible. If you can faro the cards together from a
tabled position (it doesn't have to be perfect) so much the better. Position the
unsquared packet so that the end with the shuffled-in portion is toward
yourself (FIG. 2).

Now gently ribbon-spread this packet toward yourself (start by lightly
pressing down at the center of the unsquared packet) to display all black cards
(FIG. 3). The red cards remain hidden behind the black cards due to the nature
of the unsquared shuffle. A little practice will give you the proper soft, even
touch. If your spread clumps up in areas because your touch was too light
(which is safest), then simply "tap" these areas with your fingertips to thin
them out -- exposing more of the black spread.

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STEP THREE -- Grasp the right face-down packet from above by its sides
with your right fingers. Pick up this packet, decide that it's a few cards light,
then add a card or two by holding it over the other face-down packet, using
your right fingers to pick a card off the top of the tabled pack -- adding it to
the face of the right-hand packet. Turn both packets face up and riffle shuffle
(or table faro) the two "red" packets together. The left-hand cards fall first and
last, leaving the unsquared right-hand packet extending for about a third its
length. Position the unsquared red cards so that the extended one-third is
toward yourself in the same fashion as the black spread to display all red
cards.

STEP FOUR -- Use both hands to scoop up and square the two spreads -- then
re-spread both packets to reveal the instant intermingling of the reds and
blacks.

PERFECTIONIST NOTES

I originally devised and performed these three sequences as individual effects.
Here's the handling if you want to do a solo.

PERFECTIONIST -- At the end simply scoop the spreads up and shuffle them
back together. If you need to end up with two "clean" spreads, then continue
to the point where the two spreads are turned down and the face cards are
slipped to the top. Pick up one of the halves from above by its sides with your
left fingers and obtain a left little-finger break above the bottom card. Add this
card to the top of the other half as the left hand picks it up -- adding the tabled
half onto the face of the other first half. The left little finger still retains a
break. Turn your left hand palm-up and grasp the cards above the break from
above by their ends with your right fingers. Drag the face card onto the lower
left-hand half as the right hand slides the half above the break away to the
right.

TRANSPOSED PERFECTIONIST -- Separate the reds and blacks in the
same fashion as in the "Perfectionist" except don't split the deck into two
halves before the switch. Just do it with the entire deck. You can now go
directly into the transposition effect by palming off the card at the face of one
of the halves. If you need clean colors at the end, hold the tainted packet face

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up and double-undercut the two face cards to the back. Drop this packet face
up onto the other face-up cards and you're set.

MIXED-UP PERFECTIONIST -- Open the same as Transposed Perfectionist
with the Up-Jog Packet Switch. After dividing the cards into four face-down
packets, pause a moment to let the discrepancy heal up, then turn the two
center packets face up. They'll both appear to be the same color. Shuffle so
that the top card of the left-hand packet falls last. Spread to show one color,
then turn the two end packets face up for shuffling. They'll already be "set" to
show the same colors. Shuffle so that the left-hand packet falls last. Spread to
show one color and complete the effect.

PHOOTNOTE -- I hadn't thought about this sequence for about ten years
when someone showed me an astonishing series of red/black transpositions. I
begged him to tell me the source. It was from "Close-Up Kinda Guy." I
couldn't hold out any longer. I had no choice but to read the book.

"The Perfectionist" copyright© 1996 by Paul Harris and Michael Maxwell

The Little Egypt Gazette copyright© 1997 by Steve Bryant

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