UV Camera

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The effect

  • The viewer picks a card at random and replaces it anywhere in the deck.
  • The magician shuffles the cards, replaces them in their box and puts them in their pocket.
  • He then produces a blank card and asks the viewer "is this your card?"
  • The viewer says no, at which the magician explains it's printed with special UV ink, and takes out his Nokia, claiming "it’s got a built-in UV camera".
  • The magician gets the viewer to hold up the blank card, snaps a picture of them, and the screen shows the viewer holding the chosen card!

How to do it

First you'll need to learn what magicians call a 'card force'. This means that the viewer believes they're picking a card at random, when in fact the magician knows in advance exactly which card will be chosen.

Here’s a simple force you can do with a regular deck.

Card Force

  1. First have a sneaky peek at the bottom card.
  2. Holding the deck face down, pull this bottom card slightly back towards you.
  3. Tell the viewer to say stop when they like, and start dealing the cards from the bottom of the deck face up on the table (or into their hands). Make sure you leave the bottom card in place each time.
  4. When the viewer says stop, deal the bottom card and hold it up so only they can see it.
  5. They can replace this wherever they like in the deck, but you’ll know the card they’ve chosen.

Now shuffle the cards and replace them in their box.

Produce the blank card from another pocket. When the viewer says it’s not their card, explain it's printed with UV ink which can be detected by your mobile camera.

Here's where your Nokia comes in. Thanks to this specially created application, you can pre-select the card you’re going to 'force' on the viewer before you begin.

  • Click the MENU key and navigate to the APPLICATIONS folder.
  • Open the MY OWN folder using the CENTRE BUTTON of the main SCROLL PAD.
  • Select the UV CAMERA trick using the CENTRE BUTTON.
  • Click the * KEY to select the card you’re going to force.
  • Scroll through the card number and suit options using your SCROLL PAD, and make your choice with the CENTRE BUTTON.
  • Click the RIGHT SELECT ‘OK’ BUTTON and you’ll b returned to the holding screen.
  • Force the card on your viewer, then give them the “UV card” to hold up at shoulder height in their left hand.
  • Click the CENTRE BUTTON to get the camera viewfinder.
  • Line up the card so that the LEFT and TOP extremities of the card sit within the guidelines on the BOTTOM and RIGHT corner of the viewfinder
  • Click the CENTRE BUTTON to take the photo.
  • The screen shows your viewer holding the chosen card! – Click the CENTRE BUTTON then key in the viewer’s phone number, if you want to send them the photo via MMS.
  • Click the LEFT SELECT key to send the photo, or click RIGHT SELECT to exit.

Hey presto, you're a magician - take a bow!

* Buy your own blank card (and stuff your sleeves with loads of amazing magic tricks) at International Magic. Or make your own from a piece of white card ;)

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UV Camera

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