Shamrock Shuffle by Lynn Miner
Effect: This three-phased jumbo card effect is an Irish-Themed Sidewalk Shuffle using ungimmicked cards. The spectator attempts to follow the Black Shamrock (Ace of Clubs) as it never appears in the chosen location.
Props: Three jumbo Aces of Clubs and one blank face card. The backs must match.
Set-Up: In this version, the Black Shamrock is the Ace of Clubs. From top to bottom, position the jumbo cards as follows: Put a little dot on the upper right and lower left corners of the back of the blank jumbo card to facilitate keeping track of it. Throughout this effect, you will reverse fan the cards; that is, spread the bottom card of a face down fan to the far left and the others are partially spread above the bottom card and fan them to the right. Understanding how you fan the cards lies at the heart of this effect. Typically, when magicians fan a packet of cards, the bottom card extends to the right and the top card to the left with the others spread in between. Since this effect relies on a reverse face, the bottom card extends to the left and the top card to the right with the others spread in between. The reverse fan is the main sleight used in this effect, although a modified Flustration Count is used in Phase Three and explained there.
Patter: The story involves some improbable happenings on St. Patrick’s Day. It was first performed (LM) on St. Patrick’s Day, which served as the motivation for developing this version of the Shamrock Shuffle. If St. Patrick’s Day is not nearby on the calendar, you could introduce the effect by saying “Are you Irish? Well, my Uncle Shawn O’Sullivan is 100% Irish and here’s the story he told me about the time he was in Dublin on St. Paddy’s Day.” The Action column below shows each step involved in presenting Shamrock Shuffle. The Patter column indicates what you would say at each step in the routine. A few cells will be blank; this simply means you keep moving along in your presentation. The ellipses indicate places where you should pause, All action steps are written for right-handed individuals.
| Action | Scripting |
| Introduction to Establish Theme | |
| Happy St. Patrick’s Day. And, happy… it supposed to be, but I must tell you a sad, sad tale about Liam Leprechaun. | |
| He was madder than a mosquito in a mannequin factory… Liam was flat broke. | |
| He’d just lost $100 betting on the Irish Derby Horserace. | |
| Then…to make matters worse…he lost another $100 on its television replay… He didn’t even have enough to buy a stout of Guinness. | |
| So, he decided to play a con game to win back the money he lost. It went like this: | |
| Phase OneThe Swindle of Jeremiah O’Jameson | |
| From your inner jacket pocket, remove the packet of jumbo four cards, backs facing the audience. Reverse fan the four cards, holding them face down in your left hand. Status Check: the Ace of Clubs (henceforth AC) is on the bottom of the packet. With the reverse fan, the top three cards appear to be blank.With your right hand, remove the bottom AC, keeping the others down (parallel to the floor) and not exposing the faces. | He wandered into Shawn O’Sullivan’s Irish Pub where he saw three old blokes: Jeremiah O’Jameson, Gilbert O’Guinness, and Michael O’Murphy |
| Wave the AC in your right hand so the audience can see it, and say… | Hey, Jeremiah, bet you can’t keep track of my black shamrock. |
| Lift up the reversed fan of three cards in your left hand so the audience can see “blank” cards. | Watch this card…and don’t pay attention to these. |
| Place AC face up on the table with the right hand and gesture with cards in the left hand | |
| Square up fanned packet in left hand and place top card (AC) in your left-hand packet on the table face down without exposing its face as you pick up the tabled AC and slide it partially the way down sandwiched between the two remaining cards in the left hand. Hold the left hand up, so the audience is looking at the bottom blank card and the partially exposed AC. | I’ll make it easier for you and put one of these aside |
| With your right index finger, push the exposed AC down to square up the packet. Hold the packet with the left thumb on top and the fingers on the bottom, all gripped at the left center edge of the face down cards. | Keep your eye on the black shamrock as it slides out of sight and does a …simple…shamrock… shuffle |
| Execute the “Simple Shamrock Shuffle” as follows. Let the left thumb push off the top two cards as one into the right hand and place on the bottom of the packet as you say “Simple.” Next, push off the single top card (blank) and place it on the bottom as you say “Shamrock.” Finally, push off the single top card (AC) with your left thumb and place it on the bottom of the packet, saying “Shuffle.” Status Check: at this point, the blank card is sandwiched in the middle with an AC above and below the blank card. | |
| Jeremiah, my friend, I’ll bet you a pint of Guinness you can’t find my black shamrock. Is it in the top, middle or bottom? | |
| Jeremiah chose the middle card which is blank. Reveal this by removing the middle (blank) card from the face down reversed fan, showing it blank and then repositioning it on the bottom of the fan | The middle? No, these cards are all blank. |
| Show the reversed fanned blank cards in the left hand and pick up the AC on the table with your right hand. | The Black Shamrock is on the table…You owe me a pint. |
| Phase TwoThe Swindle of Gilbert O’Guinness | |
| Status Check: the AC is face up in your right hand, and you have reverse fanned the three cards in your left hand so they appear to be blank. . | |
| Wave the AC in your right hand | Hey, Gilbert, it’s your turn. Bet you can’t keep track of my black shamrock…Watch this card… |
| Lift up the reversed fan of three cards in your left hand so the audience can see “blank” cards. | …and don’t pay attention to these. |
| Place AC face up on the table with the right hand and gesture with cards in the left hand | |
| Square up fanned packet in left hand and place top card (AC) in your left-hand packet on the table face down without exposing its face as you pick up the tabled AC and slide it partially the way down sandwiched between the two remaining cards in the left hand. Hold the left hand up so the audience is looking at the bottom blank card and the partially exposed AC. | I’ll make it easier for you and put one of these aside |
| With your right index finger, push the exposed AC down to square up the packet. Hold the packet with the left thumb on top and the fingers on the bottom, all gripped at the left center edge of the face down cards. | Keep your eye on the black shamrock as it slides out of sight and does a …simple…shamrock… shuffle |
| Execute the “Simple Shamrock Shuffle” as follows. Let the left thumb push off the top two cards as one into the right hand and place on the bottom of the packet as you say “Simple.” Next, push off the single top card (blank) and place it on the bottom as you say “Shamrock.” Finally, push off the single top card (AC) with your left thumb and place it on the bottom of the packet, saying “Shuffle.” Status Check: at this point, the blank card is sandwiched in the middle with an AC above and below the blank card. | |
| Gilbert, my friend, I’ll bet you a one hundred Euros, you can’t find my black shamrock. Is it in the top, middle or bottom? | |
| Gilbert chose the middle card which is blank. Reveal this by removing the middle (blank) card from the face down reversed fan, showing it blank and then repositioning it on the bottom of the fan | The middle? No, these cards are all blank. |
| Show the reversed fanned blank cards in the left hand and pick up the AC on the table with your right hand. | The Black Shamrock is on the table…You owe me 100 Euros. |
| Phase ThreeThe Swindling of Michael O’Murphy | |
| Status Check: The left-hand cards are reversed fanned with the blank card on the bottom, and the two above cards are ACs. The right-hand holds the Black Shamrock (AC). | Hey, Michael, now it’s your turn. Use your eagle eyes and watch carefully. |
| Place the right-hand AC on the table, face up | Don’t pay attention to this card, this card, or this card. In fact, I’ll put this blank card on the table. |
| You are now going to execute a Flustration Count with the three jumbo cards in your left hand | |
| Step One: with the left-hand packet squared up, lift up the packet by holding the packet in the lower right corner with the right hand, thereby exposing the bottom blank card. | …this card… |
| Step Two: holding the three card packet parallel to the floor, use the left thumb and fingers to slide off the top card, and the right thumb and finger lift both cards, thereby exposing the bottom blank card again, although the spectators think it is a second blank card. | …this card… |
| Step Three: bring the two cards in the right-hand packet down on top of the left-hand card and then have the right-hand slide out the bottom (blank) card and the right-hand raises and shows the blank card again, although the spectators think it is a third blank card. | …or this card. |
| After apparently having show all three cards as blank, place the top card, which is blank on the table, as you pick up the tabled AC and sandwich it between the two AC cards in the left hand without exposing their faces. | One last time… |
| With your right index finger, push the AC into the packet without exposing any faces of the cards. Hold the packet with the left thumb on top and the fingers on the bottom, all gripped at the left center edge of the face down cards. | …I will do… |
| Execute the “Simple Shamrock Shuffle” as follows. Let the left thumb push off the top two cards as one into the right hand and place on the bottom of the packet as you say “Simple.” Next, push off the single top card (blank) and place it on the bottom as you say “Shamrock.” Finally, push off the single top card (AC) with your left thumb and place it on the bottom of the packet, saying “Shuffle.” Status Check: at this point, the blank card is sandwiched in the middle with an AC above and below the blank card. | The … Simple…Shamrock…Shuffle. |
| Now, Michael, put your thinking cap on… | |
| …where is the… | |
| …blank card… I’ll bet you 100 Euros you can’t find it. | |
| Michael said, “You can’t-fool me. It’s never in the middle. I think it’s on the bottom. | |
| Remove and show bottom AC. | Liam, said “Nope, not on the bottom. It’s a Black Shamrock.” |
| Put right-hand AC on the table. | You owe me 100 Euros. |
| Display one AC in each hand. | In case you were wondering about these two cards, they are also Black Shamrocks. |
| Place right-hand AC in the left hand and pick up the tabled blank card with the right hand | The blank card is here. |
| Hey, I’m a triple winner. Thanks for the drinks and the $200 bucks.. I gotta go now, but anytime you want, you can all …kiss…my…shamrocks. |
.
Concluding Comments. In developing this story, we wanted something a little different than the typical wild west 1800s gambler theme. We also wanted a presentation that included a bit more humor. Finally, we wanted to personify the participants; instead of referring to the gambler and bettors, we wanted to give them names, even down to the name of the bar.
If the Irish patter theme doesn’t fit your needs, consider other options that you might do with four blank jumbo cards. On three of them, you could put Santa stickers and have a Christmas story. Hearts for a Valentine Day’s story. Fourth of July Flags. Halloween Pumpkins. Thanksgiving Turkeys. Birthday Cakes for a birthday party. You might even choose to use Shamrocks instead of symbolizing the AC as a “Black Shamrock.” This ungimmicked version of Sidewalk Shuffle lends itself to a wide range of presentations.
