David Blaine

Jimmy Kimmel Trick

Revealed

In his appearance on Jimmy Kimmel's show, David Blaine performs some outstanding magic for Jimmy Kimmel. Blaine first hands Kimmel a sharpie, not specifying what exactly he is going to do with it. He the spreads the deck in front of Jimmy and asks him to pick a card out of it. Kimmel picks seven of Spades and shows it to the audience. Blaine then tells him to look at the sharpie he's given to him beforehand. There is writing on the sharpie. It says: the seven of Spades!

But the trick isn't over jet. Blaine asks Jimmy to sign his card and insert it back into the deck. He then asks a lady in the audience to name any suit. She picks 'Heart'. Blaine then starts to collapse the deck in his hand, and cards appear to disappear out of the deck. In the end, the only cards left in the deck are all Hearts!

See the performance, then read our explanation below.

Explanation:

How does David Blaine do this?

The first part of the trick is pretty simple. The sharpie is just an ordinary sharpie and the words 'seven of Spades' are on it from the beginning. Blaine then forces the seven of spades to Jimmy. Even though it might look like a free choice, this is just an illusion. Blaine knew which card he wants Kimmel to pick, and he forces it to him. Then, all he has to do is reveal that is says 'seven of Spades' on the sharpie he has given to Jimmy earlier and suggest that this somehow influenced his choice of the card.

How about the second part of the trick? Here Blaine uses the »multiple outs« technique. He has many different tricks ready, and decides which one to perform based on what suit the lady in the audience picks. When she picks Hearts, he does the trick for Hearts. Remember, with the Spades out, there are only three other options left so he only needs three different tricks prepared in advance.

So, how does he disappear all the cards except Hearts? He doesn't. Somewhere in between, he changes the original deck for the one with only Hearts. He hold them in a way which makes it look like a full deck – it's a visual illusion. He just creates more space between the cards. At the end of the trick, he just collapses them back together, creating the illusion of cards disappearing from the deck.