My Version of J.C.'s Super Closer

J.C.'s Super Closer - My Version

Effect

The four Aces are magically produced from a deck that has been shuffled by a spectator.

Each Ace is now freely cut, face up, into a separate part of the face down deck by the spectator. The Aces are now found by spelling the name of each from the top of the deck.

Next, four different cards (Ten, Jack, Queen and King) are produced by spelling their suits.

In dealing for the Aces, four piles of cards have been made. Three of these piles are turned face up to display that the entire deck has been magically separated into the four suits; the fourth pile is dealt to show that, not only does the pile consist of one suit, but that all of the cards are also in order.

Set-Up

A regular deck of playing cards should be set up in the following sequence, from the top of the deck to the face:

Queen of Clubs (on top) to the Three of Clubs (in order)
Ace of Clubs
Ace of Hearts
Two of Hearts to the King of Hearts, except the Queen of Hearts, in random sequence
Two of Spades to the King of Spades, except the Jack of Spades, in random sequence
Jack of Spades
Queen of Hearts
King of Clubs
Ten of Diamonds
Two of Clubs
Three of Diamonds to the King of Diamonds, except the Ten of Diamonds, in random sequence
Two of Diamonds
Ace of Diamonds
Ace of Spades (on the face).

In addition, the Queen of Clubs should be marked on its back so that it can easily be recognised later.

If you want, you can trim the Three of Clubs and Two of Diamonds to make them short cards. This will facilitate the removal of the Aces which will be above them during the routine.

Routine

Patter Action

A comment you hear a lot when you are a magician is, "I wouldn’t like to play cards with you!"
I therefore thought that it might be fun to show you a few reasons why you should never play cards with a magician.
Remove the stacked deck from its case and give it a couple of false shuffles and/or false cuts.

Hold the deck face up in the left hand dealing position and being to spread through it with the faces towards you, ensuring that nobody else sees the faces.

Separate the deck between the Jack of Spades and the remaining Spades, and place this packet face down on the table to your right. This packet will contain, in order from the face, the Ace of Spades, Ace of Diamonds, the Two of Diamonds to the King of Diamonds excluding the Ten of Diamonds, the Two of Clubs, the Ten of Diamonds, the King of Clubs, the Queen of Hearts and the Jack of Spades.

Place the rest of the Spades in a face down packet to the left of the first packet.

Place all of the remaining Hearts except for the Ace in a face down packet to the left of the second packet.

Place all of the remaining cards in a face down packet to the left of the first three packets.

Each of these packets needs shuffling, ... Pick up the left hand packet.

... so if you would shuffle these ... Give the spectator the second packet from the left to shuffle, but make sure that he/she shuffles the cards face down, otherwise the fact that all of the cards will be Hearts will be revealed.

... whilst I shuffle these. Shuffle your packet by running each of the 12 cards singly, to reverse their order.

Replace the two "shuffled" packets in their original positions.

And if you could shuffle these ... Give the spectator the second packet from the right to shuffle, but make sure that he/she shuffles the cards face down, otherwise the fact that all of the cards will be Spades will be revealed.

... whilst I shuffle these. Pick up the left hand packet and shuffle them by running each of the 18 cards singly, to reverse their order.

Replace the two "shuffled" packets in their original positions.

All we need are the top cards from these two piles ... Take the top card of the two outer packets and place the two Aces (Hearts on the left and Spades on the right) face down in front of the two inner packets.

... and the top two cards from these two piles. Place the outer packets on top of the inner packets; immediately slide the two packets back to the outside; and finally take the top card of the two combined packets and place the face down Aces (Clubs on the left and Diamonds on the right) in front of the two packets.

Do you play poker? Wait for any response.

If the spectator replies "Yes", then say ...

Then you will know how difficult it is, after all that cutting and shuffling, to get a hand containing the four Aces!

... otherwise say ...

Then you should, because you would do very well if, after all that cutting and shuffling, you can get a hand of four Aces!

... as you turn over each of the four Aces.

Pause for applause.

But there are other ways of finding the four Aces.

You see, the Aces are very popular with card players. So much so, in fact, that they have learned to answer to their own names!

So, we shall try to lose the Aces in the deck.

Pick up the left hand packet, fan the cards with the faces towards you and put all of the Hearts in a face down pile beneath the face up Ace of Spades.

Place the remaining cards in your hand, the Clubs, face down underneath the Ace of Hearts.

Pick up the right hand packet, fan the cards with the faces towards you and put all of the Spades, except for the Jack, in a face down pile beneath the face up Ace of Diamonds.

Put the Jack of Spades, Queen of Hearts, King of Clubs and Ten of Diamonds, in a face down pile beneath the face up Ace of Clubs, but don’t let the audience see that this packet contains only four cards.

Keep the remaining cards, the Diamonds and the Two of Clubs, in your hand.

Place the face up Ace of Clubs on top of the face down packet behind it.

Would you please cut some of these cards on top of the Ace of Clubs? Indicate that the spectator should place some cards from the second face down pile on top of the face up Ace of Clubs.

Place the face up Ace of Hearts on top of the face down packet behind it.

Would you please cut some of these cards on top of the Ace of Hearts? Indicate that the spectator should place some cards from the third face down pile on top of the face up Ace of Hearts.

Place the face up Ace of Spades on top of the face down packet behind it.

Would you please cut some of these cards on top of the Ace of Spades? Indicate that the spectator should place some cards from the fourth face down pile on top of the face up Ace of Spades.

Place the face up Ace of Diamonds on top of the face down packet behind it.

And the rest of the cards are placed on top of the Ace of Diamonds. Place the remaining cards from your hand, the Diamonds, on top of the face up Ace of Diamonds and pick up the entire deck.

Place the right hand packet on top of the packet to its left; then place this combined packet on top of the packet to its left; finally, place this combined packet on top of the left hand packet.

There’s no way that you or I or anybody else could know how many cards you have cut on top of each Ace, is there? Pause for a response.

But the Aces know!

Flex your fingers and riffle the cards.

For example, if I were to spell the name of the Ace of Diamonds ... Deal one card, in a face down pile, for each letter of "Ace of Diamonds", ensuring that each card is overlapped with the previous card, in a vertical row moving away from you. The face up Ace of Diamonds will appear on the last letter; this card should be placed face up in front of, but not overlapping, the last card dealt. Don’t forget to spell "Ace of Diamonds" out loud.

... then the Ace of Diamonds finds itself.

To prove that that wasn’t beginners’ luck, I’ll try again with the Ace of Spades. Deal one card, in a face down pile to the left of the first pile, for each letter of "Ace of Spades", ensuring that each card is overlapped with the previous card, in a vertical row moving away from you. The face up Ace of Spades will appear after the last letter; this card should be placed face up in front of, but not overlapping, the last card dealt. Don’t forget to spell "Ace of Spades" out loud.

Two down and two to go.

Let’s push our luck and try for the Ace of Hearts. Deal one card, in a face down pile to the left of the second pile, for each letter of "Ace of Hearts", ensuring that each card is overlapped with the previous card, in a vertical row moving away from you. The face up Ace of Hearts will appear after the last letter; this card should be placed face up in front of, but not overlapping, the last card dealt. Don’t forget to spell "Ace of Hearts" out loud.

Finally, to complete the set, is the Ace of Clubs. Deal one card, in a face down pile to the left of the third pile, for each letter of "Ace of Clubs", ensuring that each card is overlapped with the previous card, in a vertical row moving away from you. However, when you see the mark indicating that the face down Queen of Clubs is being dealt, leave a larger gap than usual before the next card, which should be the face down Three of Clubs, is dealt. The face up Ace of Clubs will appear after the last letter; this card should be placed face up in front of, but not overlapping, the last card dealt. Don’t forget to spell "Ace of Clubs" out loud.

You should have four cards left in your hand: the Ten of Diamonds, King of Clubs, Queen of Hearts and Jack of Spades. The Jack of Spades should be the face card.

Wait for applause.

But suppose you weren’t playing poker. Suppose you were playing Pontoon instead. In Pontoon, the aim is to make a total of 21, so let’s see if we can make each of these Aces, which can count as either one or eleven, into a good Pontoon hand, starting with Clubs. Move one card from the top to the bottom of the face down packet of four cards left in the hand for each letter of the word Clubs.

Then a King and an Ace make a perfect hand, totalling 21. After the last card is moved, turn the new top card face up, which should be the King of Clubs. Place it on top of the Ace of Clubs.

Let’s move over to Diamonds. Move one card from the top to the bottom of the face down packet of three cards left in the hand for each letter of the word Diamonds.

A Ten isn’t usually as good as a King, but in Pontoon it’s only the total that counts, so this makes another perfect hand. After the last card is moved, turn the new top card face up, which should be the Ten of Diamonds. Place it on top of the Ace of Diamonds.

Let’s try the Hearts. Move one card from the top to the bottom of the face down packet of two cards left in the hand for each letter of the word Hearts.

Again, the Queen makes the total 21. After the last card is moved, turn the new top card face up, which should be the Queen of Hearts. Place it on top of the Ace of Hearts.

Which leaves us with the black Jack, which is the name used for Pontoon by the Americans. Turn the final card in your hand, the Jack of Spades, face up and place it on top of the Ace of Spades.

Wait for applause.

But suppose we weren’t playing Pontoon, or Blackjack, either. Suppose we were playing Bridge, where the suits of the cards are important.

Then you could do a lot worse than a hand containing nothing but Diamonds ... Pick up the last face down card in the pile underneath the Ace and Ten of Diamonds, which should be the Two of Clubs, and, keeping it face down, use it to turn the rest of the pile face up to reveal the remaining Diamonds.

... or a hand containing nothing but Spades ... Use the face down Two of Clubs to turn the pile underneath the Ace and Jack of Spades face up to reveal the remaining Spades.

... or a hand containing nothing but Hearts ... Use the face down Two of Clubs to turn the pile underneath the Ace and Queen of Hearts face up to reveal the remaining Hearts.

... which means, of course, that this last pile must, by definition, contain all of the Clubs. Place the face down Two of Clubs in the gap you left earlier between the face down Queen and Three of Clubs, then pick up the entire pile. Square the packet, turn it face up and spread it briefly, separating the packet into two, between the Two of Clubs and the Queen of Clubs, one packet into each hand. Replace the two packets the opposite way round, and turn the combined packet face down again.

Wait for applause.

But it goes further than that. If you are too lazy to sort the cards into numerical order, then a quick click of the fingers will put that right. Deal the face up cards in your hand face up on to the table, one at a time, to reveal the Two to Queen of Clubs, in order.

And that’s why you shouldn’t play cards with a magician! Wait for applause.

Acknowledgements

This effect is essentially a routine called "J.C.’s Super Closer", which may be found in "The Commercial Magic Of J.C. Wagner" by Mike Maxwell.

My alterations and additions are threefold:

The use of a slightly different stack, which was partly done to ensure consistency in the initial shuffles; in J.C. Wagner’s routine, one of the packets that you shuffle is shuffled twice, whilst the other one is only shuffled once.
The production of the Ten, Jack, Queen and King instead of the four Kings, because this was more in keeping with my patter theme.
The production of the final pile of cards in order. I felt that, although the original routine was already excellent, by the time the final pile of cards was turned up, the audience already knew that it would contain all of the remaining cards from the one remaining suit. By producing this final suit in order, there was scope for an additional and unexpected climax.

I should also like to thank Thomas Henry for a minor but important handling tip.

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Patter	Action
A comment you hear a lot when you are a magician is, "I wouldn’t like to play cards with you!" I therefore thought that it might be fun to show you a few reasons why you should never* play cards with a magician.*	Remove the stacked deck from its case and give it a couple of false shuffles and/or false cuts.
	Hold the deck face up in the left hand dealing position and being to spread through it with the faces towards you, ensuring that nobody else sees the faces.
	Separate the deck between the Jack of Spades and the remaining Spades, and place this packet face down on the table to your right. This packet will contain, in order from the face, the Ace of Spades, Ace of Diamonds, the Two of Diamonds to the King of Diamonds excluding the Ten of Diamonds, the Two of Clubs, the Ten of Diamonds, the King of Clubs, the Queen of Hearts and the Jack of Spades.
	Place the rest of the Spades in a face down packet to the left of the first packet.
	Place all of the remaining Hearts except for the Ace in a face down packet to the left of the second packet.
	Place all of the remaining cards in a face down packet to the left of the first three packets.
Each of these packets needs shuffling, ...	Pick up the left hand packet.
... so if you would shuffle these ...	Give the spectator the second packet from the left to shuffle, but make sure that he/she shuffles the cards face down, otherwise the fact that all of the cards will be Hearts will be revealed.
... whilst I shuffle these.	Shuffle your packet by running each of the 12 cards singly, to reverse their order.
	Replace the two "shuffled" packets in their original positions.
And if you could shuffle these ...	Give the spectator the second packet from the right to shuffle, but make sure that he/she shuffles the cards face down, otherwise the fact that all of the cards will be Spades will be revealed.
... whilst I shuffle these.	Pick up the left hand packet and shuffle them by running each of the 18 cards singly, to reverse their order.
	Replace the two "shuffled" packets in their original positions.
All we need are the top cards from these two piles ...	Take the top card of the two outer packets and place the two Aces (Hearts on the left and Spades on the right) face down in front of the two inner packets.
... and the top two cards from these two piles.	Place the outer packets on top of the inner packets; immediately slide the two packets back to the outside; and finally take the top card of the two combined packets and place the face down Aces (Clubs on the left and Diamonds on the right) in front of the two packets.
Do you play poker?	Wait for any response.
	If the spectator replies "Yes", then say ...
Then you will know how difficult it is, after all* that cutting and shuffling, to get a hand containing the four Aces!*
	... otherwise say ...
Then you should, because you would do very well if, after all* that cutting and shuffling, you can get a hand of four Aces!*
	... as you turn over each of the four Aces.
	Pause for applause.
But there are other ways of finding the four Aces.
You see, the Aces are very popular with card players. So much so, in fact, that they have learned to answer to their own names!
So, we shall try to lose the Aces in the deck.
	Pick up the left hand packet, fan the cards with the faces towards you and put all of the Hearts in a face down pile beneath the face up Ace of Spades.
	Place the remaining cards in your hand, the Clubs, face down underneath the Ace of Hearts.
	Pick up the right hand packet, fan the cards with the faces towards you and put all of the Spades, except for the Jack, in a face down pile beneath the face up Ace of Diamonds.
	Put the Jack of Spades, Queen of Hearts, King of Clubs and Ten of Diamonds, in a face down pile beneath the face up Ace of Clubs, but don’t let the audience see that this packet contains only four cards.
	Keep the remaining cards, the Diamonds and the Two of Clubs, in your hand.
	Place the face up Ace of Clubs on top of the face down packet behind it.
Would you please cut some of these cards on top of the Ace of Clubs?	Indicate that the spectator should place some cards from the second face down pile on top of the face up Ace of Clubs.
	Place the face up Ace of Hearts on top of the face down packet behind it.
Would you please cut some of these cards on top of the Ace of Hearts?	Indicate that the spectator should place some cards from the third face down pile on top of the face up Ace of Hearts.
	Place the face up Ace of Spades on top of the face down packet behind it.
Would you please cut some of these cards on top of the Ace of Spades?	Indicate that the spectator should place some cards from the fourth face down pile on top of the face up Ace of Spades.
	Place the face up Ace of Diamonds on top of the face down packet behind it.
And the rest of the cards are placed on top of the Ace of Diamonds.	Place the remaining cards from your hand, the Diamonds, on top of the face up Ace of Diamonds and pick up the entire deck.
	Place the right hand packet on top of the packet to its left; then place this combined packet on top of the packet to its left; finally, place this combined packet on top of the left hand packet.
There’s no way that you or I or anybody else could know how many cards you have cut on top of each Ace, is there?	Pause for a response.
But the Aces know!
	Flex your fingers and riffle the cards.
For example, if I were to spell the name of the Ace of Diamonds ...	Deal one card, in a face down pile, for each letter of "Ace of Diamonds", ensuring that each card is overlapped with the previous card, in a vertical row moving away from you. The face up Ace of Diamonds will appear on the last letter; this card should be placed face up in front of, but not overlapping, the last card dealt. Don’t forget to spell "Ace of Diamonds" out loud.
... then the Ace of Diamonds finds itself.
To prove that that wasn’t beginners’ luck, I’ll try again with the Ace of Spades.	Deal one card, in a face down pile to the left of the first pile, for each letter of "Ace of Spades", ensuring that each card is overlapped with the previous card, in a vertical row moving away from you. The face up Ace of Spades will appear after the last letter; this card should be placed face up in front of, but not overlapping, the last card dealt. Don’t forget to spell "Ace of Spades" out loud.
Two down and two to go.
Let’s push our luck and try for the Ace of Hearts.	Deal one card, in a face down pile to the left of the second pile, for each letter of "Ace of Hearts", ensuring that each card is overlapped with the previous card, in a vertical row moving away from you. The face up Ace of Hearts will appear after the last letter; this card should be placed face up in front of, but not overlapping, the last card dealt. Don’t forget to spell "Ace of Hearts" out loud.
Finally, to complete the set, is the Ace of Clubs.	Deal one card, in a face down pile to the left of the third pile, for each letter of "Ace of Clubs", ensuring that each card is overlapped with the previous card, in a vertical row moving away from you. However, when you see the mark indicating that the face down Queen of Clubs is being dealt, leave a larger gap than usual before the next card, which should be the face down Three of Clubs, is dealt. The face up Ace of Clubs will appear after the last letter; this card should be placed face up in front of, but not overlapping, the last card dealt. Don’t forget to spell "Ace of Clubs" out loud.
	You should have four cards left in your hand: the Ten of Diamonds, King of Clubs, Queen of Hearts and Jack of Spades. The Jack of Spades should be the face card.
	Wait for applause.
But suppose you weren’t playing poker. Suppose you were playing Pontoon instead. In Pontoon, the aim is to make a total of 21, so let’s see if we can make each of these Aces, which can count as either one or eleven, into a good Pontoon hand, starting with Clubs.	Move one card from the top to the bottom of the face down packet of four cards left in the hand for each letter of the word Clubs.
Then a King and an Ace make a perfect hand, totalling 21.	After the last card is moved, turn the new top card face up, which should be the King of Clubs. Place it on top of the Ace of Clubs.
Let’s move over to Diamonds.	Move one card from the top to the bottom of the face down packet of three cards left in the hand for each letter of the word Diamonds.
A Ten isn’t usually as good as a King, but in Pontoon it’s only the total that counts, so this makes another perfect hand.	After the last card is moved, turn the new top card face up, which should be the Ten of Diamonds. Place it on top of the Ace of Diamonds.
Let’s try the Hearts.	Move one card from the top to the bottom of the face down packet of two cards left in the hand for each letter of the word Hearts.
Again, the Queen makes the total 21.	After the last card is moved, turn the new top card face up, which should be the Queen of Hearts. Place it on top of the Ace of Hearts.
Which leaves us with the black Jack, which is the name used for Pontoon by the Americans.	Turn the final card in your hand, the Jack of Spades, face up and place it on top of the Ace of Spades.
	Wait for applause.
But suppose we weren’t playing Pontoon, or Blackjack, either. Suppose we were playing Bridge, where the suits of the cards are important.
Then you could do a lot worse than a hand containing nothing but Diamonds ...	Pick up the last face down card in the pile underneath the Ace and Ten of Diamonds, which should be the Two of Clubs, and, keeping it face down, use it to turn the rest of the pile face up to reveal the remaining Diamonds.
... or a hand containing nothing but Spades ...	Use the face down Two of Clubs to turn the pile underneath the Ace and Jack of Spades face up to reveal the remaining Spades.
... or a hand containing nothing but Hearts ...	Use the face down Two of Clubs to turn the pile underneath the Ace and Queen of Hearts face up to reveal the remaining Hearts.
... which means, of course, that this last pile must, by definition, contain all of the Clubs.	Place the face down Two of Clubs in the gap you left earlier between the face down Queen and Three of Clubs, then pick up the entire pile. Square the packet, turn it face up and spread it briefly, separating the packet into two, between the Two of Clubs and the Queen of Clubs, one packet into each hand. Replace the two packets the opposite way round, and turn the combined packet face down again.
	Wait for applause.
But it goes further than that. If you are too lazy to sort the cards into numerical order, then a quick click of the fingers will put that right.	Deal the face up cards in your hand face up on to the table, one at a time, to reveal the Two to Queen of Clubs, in order.
And that’s why you shouldn’t play cards with a magician!	Wait for applause.