@ ___ CHAOS (Mandelbrod’s Revenge What in the beginning seems to be one of those notorious counting tricks with a mathematical basis, ends in complete chaos: Talking about "keeping a precise mathematical system intact”, the perform- er throws the cards around wildly on the table until the deck is hopelessly mixed. Pushing the big lump of cards together however, he unerringly and instantly locates two freely chosen cards from out of the mess. In fact, the two selected cards have really been shuffled anywhere among the rest, the mathemagician actually knows neither the cards nor their positions and until the very end, he never even sees the face of a single card! As a bonus you may be pleased to hear, that CHAOS” is completely self-working. Mathematical card tricks usually suffer from two main problems: Mostly, their effect is not terribly entertaining, and it is often obvious, that the method has something to do with mathematics, a fact that reduces the trick to an intellectual problem (1) There are several ways to overcome those difficulties, I think. First: come up with an interesting presentation that has some emotional appeal and gives the trick a scene and meaning. This can bring even a tedious counting trick or faro principle to life. There are many examples in print, perhaps most notably by Alex Elmsley, Simon Aronson, Richard Vollmer, Max Maven and Juan Tamariz *. The second problem concerns the fact that the method's mathematical nature is often obvious because of strange handlings and extremely indirect procedures. [ think there are at least two main ways to deal with this: first, you can add some technique to make the handling appear less “static” (false shuffles and cuts immediately come to mind), second, you can use a presentational motivation for some otherwise suspicious handlings like dealing the deck into several piles (a poker game?) or Faro shuffles; (Making a double-fan to display the cards? Talking about this neurotic scientist who shuffled cards in a strange way? Making people listen to the "magical sound” the cards make when you cascade them together?) ® Of course, | can't give a detailed list of tricks, just check out books like the two fantastic volumes about Alex Elmsley, ("The Complete works. of Alex Elmsley”, Stephen Minch, L&L Publishing 1994, p. 4231, Juan Tamariz’ presentation of his "Neithee Blind Nor Sily” ("Sonata Bewitched musi.” Juan Tamariz, Editorial Frakson, p.211{1) and the publications by the authors mentioned in the text,Another way to cover the mathematics in a trick is: don't! In fact, this is what "CHAOS" is all about. You openly admit that you are now going to perform mathematical trick. But ay the routine proceeds, the spectators see you throwing the cards all ove the place and slowly realize that you are joking. Of course, you are not joking, but because of th ironic presentation no one is ever going to believe the truth you are telling them. People laugh anc happily deceive themselves At the same time, this constitutes a funny and hopefully captivating situation, so when vou ultimate locate the selections without asking a single question, the audience will be entertained as well a mystified (If the theory holds true that is If it doesn't, it's just another boring, mathematical card wick ...@) But enough theory ~ let's look at the ... Req CORN aks rood You only need a complete deck of 5. sequence. The values of the c: cards. The cards are arranged in a certain red/black (1/B) rds are of no importance. The sequence runs like this (F (fig. 8) (B) rBrr BrBB ... rBrr BrBB rB (r) This order becomes easy to understand and remember if you recognize the regularity it contains (and of which only the first and last cards are exceptions). The regularity is simply described by the for- mula “pia In other words. except for the first and last cards, the colors alternate in groups of: | card, | card, 2 cards, I card, 1 card, 2 cards, ete. (2) Talk about now doing a “mathematical card tric! and spread the arranged deck face-up from right to left on the table, Ask two spectators to think about any card in the deck, telling one of them to think of a red card, the other spectator to think about a black card "In order to prevent you from accidently thinking about the same card.", as you say. You now turn your back, asking the two spectators to exchange their cards in the spread. Both of them take out their card and replace it at the other card’s position. (To make things easier and to avoid errors, you have spread the deck from right to left. This way, the indices are nicely visible to your spectators, helping them to put the cards back at the correct positions). The spect and turn it face-down, before you face your audience again. ators square the deckFirst, Double Undercut three cards from top to bottom (don’t forget this step!). Then you deal the ig.9): deck into eight piles ig. 9) Start by dealing two rounds of eight cards, dealing them in regular rotation: 12345678- 12345678. (3) Then you increase your speed and start dealing the cards more and more irregularily. In fact, you continue to deal four cards into the top row, before dealing the next four cards into the bottom row, but you have certain freedom for variation: The third card of each row always goes onto the third pile in the row, but you can deal the other three cards on to the remaining three piles in the row in any order you like. To make this clear, con- sider figure 10. (fig. 10) 1234 5678 1432 5876 2134 6578 2431 6875 4132 8576 4231 8675 Those tables are not meant to be memorized, of course, They simply visualize the way you can deal the cards. If you do all this (including the cutting of three cards from top to bottom before the deal) face-up, the working of "CHAOS" will quickly become apparent: the dealing separates the red cards from the blacks (4) Continue to deal the cards in this manner until you have only four cards left. Take two cards in each hand, taking the first and third card into the right hand, the second and fourth card in the left hand (fig. 11). The right hand drops its cards onto pile #4, the left hand onto pile #3I only have to start the mathema rict pattern... Every card has its own precise position... Everything ‘al system. To do this, | deal the gall that dealing you sa cards onto the table following a is exactly planned... You must never ever deal the cards just as you like... This would immediately destroy the system and therefore render the trick completely impossible” To the words: “For example, you must never exchange piles...". you do just that, exchanging piles #3 and #7. Except for the two thought-of cards, all the red cards are now in one row and the black cards the other. “No — every card has its position. Saying this, you push the bottom row together with both hands, forming one big lump of cards (fig. 12). Because of the sharp contrast between your words and this is the funniest and at the same time most deceptive moment of the routine; make the most of it. Push the other row together as well and throw those cards onto the other pile in small groups (fig. 13), Rounding things off, you give the deck a red / black shuffle, that keeps the colors separated (5). Put down the deck and pause for a while. action: (fig. 13) By now, your spectators should be convinced, that everything was just a b of mathematical packet-tricks. This makes it all the more surprising, when you now make a pressure fan and decisively remove the two thought-of cards (6). This can be done very quickly because the two cards stand out clearly in the “wrong*-colored halves of the deck. The spectators name their cards for the first time and you show, that even in “CHAOS*, mathematics finds its way. joke: perhaps a parodyPITSTIPS: (1) This is not to s y that those intellectually stimulating curiosities do not have their place or th wouldn't like them. In fact, as a hobby, | am sort of addicted to what Max Maven once cal ‘aesthetics of method. So whenever | find a trick in which the means employed are simy elegant and in a deeper sense of the word beautiful (ahh c would even go as far as to say, that in this area, a trick, routine, principle, puzzle, curiousity whatever you want to call the idea in question does not necessarily need an effect. It’s like mat matics with imaginary numbers: no application in the real world (of performing), but a strar appeal of universal truth. Not bad for card tricks. huh? I don’t really care about the et One does not have to force those “univet audien I truths without effect on a defenseless lay of course (Well, o.k - sometimes I can’t resist... ) In that sense, “CHAOS* is also a way to communicate my love fo ciples to an audience, that does not cons fascinating mathematical pr st of grey code-experts and Faro-maniacs. Here are two possible ways to reach the necessary color-arrangement for “CHAOS: a) As the Faro shufflers among you will. probably have realized, you just have to give a red’/bk separated deck three Faro shuffles, and the “1 12" color sequence is reached. (The shuffles can “In** or “Out® shuffles or any combination of those.) A possible procedure that nicely “breaks up” the three shuffles looks like this: Secretly separate the red cards from the blacks. Give the deck a Faro, spread it face-up on the ta from right to left, and ask a spectator to think of any card. Give the deck the second Faro a spread it again, asking a second spectator to think of a card (of the opposite color, as performance”), Execute a last Faro, spread the deck and turn your back, The spectators exchan their cards, and you continue as described. b) Here is another method to reach the set-up that avoids the Faro: it is the one I mostly use: It uses a principle I call “Drop Stack” and which works like this: Hold a well shuffled deck in your left hand in face-up dealing position. As you mentally recite sequence “ 1, (Exception - first card), 112, 112, 112... with your right hand drops the cards or the table in corresponding colour-groups, forming a face-up pile. Some cards are held back te porarily, some cards are dropped down until you eventually reach the last cards, ending your int nal patter with “112, 112, 111 (exception - last card)". During this secret, yet hal -open arrang ment, tWo spectators are asked to think of a card, one concentrating on a red, the other on a bla card as described. This cannot really be d escribed much better, because in the shuffled deck the cards lie differen cach time, of course. If you just give this “Drop Stack" a try, however, you will notice how quic ly you can arrange the deck, and it even feels nice in the head. You can use this concept to rea other complex arrangements, of course, provided that it fits your style to carelessly throw lum of cards onto the table.1 1 @ (3) Itis not strictly necessary to start the dealing with two rounds in regular rotation, but it may caus some spectators to think along the following lines: Dh no, not one of those boring counting tricks I know those - now I have to tell him which pile my card is in and so on..." As the trick proceed: those spec tors will find out, that everything is drastically different from what they were led t expect. This gives the trick a nice built-in false solution *. (4) Here, the basie principle of *CHAOS* becomes apparent. (If someone should ever ask you abou the contents of these lecture notes, simply tell them that besides card tricks, the basic principles o Chaos are explained in detail and reduced to the simple formula “1 1 ) Seriously, the prin ciple used in this trick is nothing but the well-known “divided deck™. In the usual applications 0 this principle, the deck is seeretely separated into reds and blacks, a card is freely chosen from on half and replaced anywhere in the other half, where it can easily be located. In “CHAOS* the color-separation is ‘ort of “coded™ by three Faro shuffles (see (2) a)). Later it i “decoded by performing three Faros backwards, as dealing the deck into eight piles and pickin; them up in a certain order constitutes a Triple Antifaro *, Note that by using this principle o ‘od set-up is not yet reached. no special order is visible at first glance (as would be with a norma redibblack separation), It may also be worth pointing out that although the in “decodin incorporate the concept into your routine: and decoding set-ups* you can often arrange the cards more or | not only do they not get mixed, (as with any false arranged. Of course. there are several tr which is mostly “decode ss openly: as the actua cards appear to get mixe shuffle), but they even ge s in print which use this kind of camouflaged set-up by Faro shuffles (just the other way round): perhaps you ca (5) One of the easiest and at the same time most convincing red/black shuffles is the one by Lauri Ireland: Execute a regular overhand shuffle until you get to the center of the deck. Then run singl cards until you are sure to have passed the center: Shutile off normally again. The deck is still sep arated into reds and blacks. (6) If you don’t whish to make use of the final red/black separation after performing “CHAOS”, cithe as an additional effect or as a secret method, you ce in finish by removing only the first selectior from the fan, at the same time secretly remembering the second selection, As you pretend t alculate™ the second card, you absent-mindedly give the deck a riffle shuffle. You can then mak another pressure fan, and, in removing the second selection, lower the cards, in order to le spectators see that the deck is mixed You'll have to decide whether this is “overproving" or not. On one hand “don’t run if no one i chasing you.", but on the other hand, some jogging is said to be healthy from time to time. Juan Tay * Juan Tamatiz The Theory of false sol opt. p 9087 ions and the ne Anta Lltorial Frakson, Madrid 1988,