Many magicians are very fond of Juan Tamariz’s brilliant routine “Neither Blind Nor Silly”, published in his wonderful book SONATA. I did it for a very long time and still use it as described for lay people. What an effect this trick has!
I sometimes do it differently for magicians and it has caused a lot of puzzled looks, especially when the card experts know the Tamariz routine. Sometimes it is quite easy to fool experts…
Basically, what I do is exactly the same routine as described in Juan’s book. BUT – there is a big difference in the setup. At the beginning of my version, I can show the deck as really shuffled (which it is). Absolutely no red/black shuffling!
The simple secret
Take a deck and remove the two Jokers. Shuffle the deck thoroughly. Using an Exacto knife or similar, mark the two indices of every other card with a small scratch. This is a very old, but rarely used and not too well known marking system. It is one of my favourite systems and can be a deadly weapon in a magician’s arsenal. This deck is actually shuffled, but still in “red/black” alternating order. Just replace red/black with marked/unmarked and you are ready to go!
Do Juan’s routine with it and you are sure to fool them. Another little thing to confuse the magicians: sometimes I use the same preparation on a deck that is in the order of Dani DaOrtiz’s brilliant stack. This is not yet very common in card circles. I apply the index mark of every other card to this stacked deck. The advantage is that I can do a few tricks with Dani’s stack that do not disturb the order of the deck (or tricks that restore the order of the deck as the routine progresses) and then go into “Neither Blind Nor Silly”.
Try it and enjoy the puzzled faces of the card experts. Keep this little secret to yourself. More fun that way!
If you are good at Lennart Green’s Angle Separation, you can have a spectator shuffle the deck. Then, under the pretext of looking for the jokers or during a previous trick, separate the cards into marked and unmarked cards. And then watch the card men’s brains crumble.