• Card Trick
• Self Executing

The Right on Time card trick is appropriately named because it will only work at certain times of the day.  It is a self-executing card trick, which means that there is no skill involved in the trick; the skill lies in the presentation of the trick.

For this trick you will need one ordinary deck of cards and there is no preparation required for the deck. The following steps may help you to understand the trick and its presentation.

Step 1
Explain to the audience that this trick relies upon the turning of universe and time itself.  You can use any story line that is related to time.  You could relate it to the White Rabbit, Alice and being late, or to any other topical story.  The aim is to attract your audiences’ attention and get them into in fantasy state of mind.

Step 2
Ask a volunteer to select four cards from anywhere in the deck.  You can expand the number of participants up to four, depending on the audience.  Without letting you see the cards, ask the participant to concentrate hard on each card in turn and then to select one card that they like best.

Step 3
Whilst this going on, you must split the remaining deck into two equal parts.  The simplest way is deal the cards out into the two piles.

Step 4
Ask the participant which of the two piles they like the least, and then get them to place the three ‘un-liked’ cards on top of this pile. Place the chosen card on top of the ‘liked’ pile.

Step 5
Take the ‘un-liked’ pile and place it on top of the ‘liked’ pile.  This means that the chosen card is now in the middle of the deck.

Step 6
Look at your watch and announce the time, for instance 19 minutes past 9. Ask to audience to add minutes and hours together making 28 and then count down the cards in the pack to reveal that 28th card is indeed the chosen card.

How does it Work?
The answer is mathematical.  Taking the 4 cards away from the original deck leaves 48 cards.   These were split into two equal piles of 24 cards.  The 3 discarded cards were placed on the top pile making a total of 27 cards, to be turned over, before reaching the top of the second pile and the chosen card.
 
Obviously the trick only works when the hours and minutes add up to 28!  You will have to execute the trick within a couple of minutes of the required time but it is your watch, and it could always be a little fast or slow!
If you want to involve more audience members then the trick will work equally well with any number of even cards being selected by the audience.  This makes it a good trick for children’s parties where everyone wants to feel involved.

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