Magic Trick

Andrew, the son of Gordon and Rosie entertained the children, and then the adults, for some time with this trick. I watched it in Dutch, he did it with me in English and I sat for a while thinking, I will not be able to sleep until I know how that is done! Here's the trick.

"Pick any city in the world think of it. Do you have it?"

The subject nods. Andrew looks into her eyes and then writes something down on a piece of paper, folds it up and puts it in front of himself.

"Now write it on the piece of paper and show everyone. Mine is already there. I won't touch it."

The subject writes, "Madrid," shows it to the crowd, folds the paper up and puts it with the other one.

"Now think of a number between one and a hundred. Do you have a number?"

The subject nods. Andrew looks intently into her eyes for a moment and writes something down, folds the paper up and puts it with the others.

"Now write the number down and show everyone."

The subject writes down 27, shows it to the crowd and puts the paper with the others.

"Now colors. I'm not very good with colors. So I want you to pick either black or white. Do you have it?"

The subject nods, looks into Andrew's eyes. Andrew writes something down, folds the paper and puts it with the others.

"Now write down the color and show it everyone."

She does.

"Now open all the papers.

The subject opens the papers and sees two papers with "Madrid," two with "27" and two with "White."

I was absolutely amazed, as everyone was. It was spooky. Rose said, "That's what he's learning tending bar when he should be studying. Gordon started to tell me how it was done, but I was more confused after his explanation than before.

After I watched it several more times - it never got old and everyone wanted to try - I elbowed Gordon and said, "Okay. Now I get it."

Here's how it's done.

The trick is guessing whether the person will choose black or white. (He was actually wrong with me, but I thought, Two out of three is still really good.) When he asks the subject to think of a city, he's actually writing "black" or "white." Then when the subject shows everyone "Madrid," he sees it. So when he asks for a number, he actually writes "Madrid." Then when he asks for a color, he writes "27." All the papers look the same. He sees the answers before he writes them, except for black and white.

He was a really good salesman. Everyone trusted him, plus he was dealing with some very young children. And he's cute, so that doesn't hurt.