Marucci's Bizarre Bazaar

King of Lies, Lord of the Flies
by Peter Marucci

“When we do something we shouldn’t, we often – jokingly – say, ‘The devil made me do it.’

“But free will is free will and nobody makes you tread the primrose path!

“However, sometimes, no matter what you may do, you still fall into the clutches of the Ruler of the Dark Side.

“As an example, I would like you to take this sealed deck of cards.” (Give the cards to a spectator.)

“I want you to be aware that, whatever happens, it will be entirely your doing; I will not touch the cards again until our demonstration is finished.

“And it is proven to you that you are pre-ordained to fall into the clutches of the Ruler of the Dark Side.”

You can do this with a spectator in the same room or with a volunteer over the phone. It is one of the few magic tricks that will work at “long distance.”

Tell the spectator:

1: Open the sealed pack, remove the jokers, and shuffle the remaining 52 cards until he or she is satisfied that they are mixed.

2: Deal three cards face down, in a row, left to right.

3: Now deal another card on each of the first set.

4: And deal a card on each of the previous two, so that you now have three sets of three, from left to right.

5: Set the rest of the deck aside; we are done with it.

6: Pick up any one of the three piles and look at, and remember, the bottom card.

7: Place that pile onto one of the other two piles.

8: Take the last pile and put it on top of the other two.

9: Pick up the whole packet of nine cards. You are now going to spell the name of your card.

10: Spell the word "THE", dealing one card to the table for each letter. Keep the dealt cards in a single pile.

11: Put the rest of the cards onto the dealt cards and pick up the packet.

12: Now spell the value of your card by dealing one card for each letter, to the table. If it’s a 4, spell F_O_U_R; if it’s a king, spell K_I_N_G. Now – and this is VERY important – you may lie or tell the truth. For example, if your card is a 2, you may spell TWO or you may spell QUEEN – or any other card.

13: Place the cards still in your hand on top of the dealt pile.

14: Pick up the whole packet and spell O_F, again placing the balance of the cards on top of the two that you dealt to the table.

15: Pick up the pile. You may now spell the suit of your card – hearts, clubs, diamonds, or spades. And again you can lie OR tell the truth. For example, if your card was a club, you can spell DIAMONDS – or any other suit. Or you may choose to tell the truth and spell CLUBS.

16: When you have dealt those cards to the table, place the rest of the packet on top.

17: Pick up the whole packet and dealt the cards, one at a time, from left to right into three piles of three cards, as you had when you started.

18: Since I don’t know if you lied or told the truth, I couldn’t know what or where your card is.

19: Eliminate the pile on the left; your card isn’t there. And eliminate the pile on the right; your card isn’t there, either.

20: Pick up the remaining pile and deal those cards into a row from left to right.

21: Eliminate the card on the left; eliminate the card on the right. That leaves you with just one, face-down card in front of you.

22: For the first time, name the card that you freely selected at the beginning. Now turn over the last card that is in front of you!

The cards, of course, will match.

“You now see that, no matter what you do, no matter how hard you try to change the outcome, the end is pre-ordained.

“Bow before the Prince of Darkness!”

Second Thoughts: As I said earlier, this is perfect for a radio interview; have any of the listeners, whose card they discovered themselves, call the station. (The switchboards will be overloaded!)

The title is from William Goldings’ book (and later a movie) Lord of the Flies. Along with King of Lies, it is another term for the devil.

This routine is so powerful, it should probably only be used as a closer.

After all, how better can you get than to have everything happen in the spectator’s hands?

Peter Marucci