Mastermind

by

2 of Clubs

29.95

2 of Diamonds

29.95

3 of Spades

29.95

3 of Hearts

29.95

Any Available

29.95

The Blurb

Chris Kenworthey’s Mastermind (Any Card at Any Number) has
been featured by Kreskin on both “The David Letterman Show”
and “Live with Regis and Kathy Lee.” Many top performers
such as Wayne Houchin, Kreskin, etc. have stunned audiences
using this powerful weapon in their daily work. Mastermind
is now finally available in Bicycle Playing Cards produced
by the US Playing Card Company.

Let’s look at just a few of the many possibilities…

Here is the crowning achievement in test conditions
mentalism! If you were permitted to perform only one effect
before your town’s local newspaper editor, before a Magic
Castle membership audition, or for Grand Prix Competition at
FISM, this would be it. Special thanks go to Hiro Hirata for
releasing this peerless mind teaser to the magic fraternity.

Every mentalist or magician has the desire to foretell
destiny, to look into the future. What follows is an
eyewitness account of the extraordinary phenomenon now
possible with Mastermind!

Imagine… A registered and notarized envelope is mailed to
the mayor of your town seven days before your show is to
take place. Inside this single, ungimmicked envelope is a
single, ungimmicked playing card with a blue back. The mayor
is instructed to keep the envelope in his possession and not
let anyone tamper with it. (In fact, no one ever does, and
there is never any switching of envelopes or cards ever
throughout the entire routine.)

On the night of your show, a red-backed deck of cards is
freely shown. Each of the cards is absolutely different, and
the deck is honestly shuffled and fairly cut. (Note, there
are no long or short cards, no roughed cards, no stacked
arrangements, no marked cards, no stripped cards, no crimps,
no false counts, and no sleight of hand involved
whatsoever!) The deck, quite honestly, appears ordinary in
every respect. It is openly ribbon-spread face-up on the
table, offering a bird’s-eye view that each card is in fact
different.

Once the mayor is satisfied that the cards are thoroughly
mixed, they are then ribbon-spread face down, allowing for
an uninhibited, free choice of any card. The selection here
is immaculately clean. To repeat, any card may be selected!
The card the mayor himself slides out of the deck is
immediately turned face-up. Let’s say it is the three of
hearts. The mayor himself opens the prediction envelope that
is still in his possession, and inside is the one card-a
matching three of hearts! The “impossible” has just
occurred!

Now for the unprecedented test conditions of Mastermind:

1. No forcing procedure of any kind is ever employed! This
includes psychological, mathematical, spelling, timing or
classic. Just fair, free, and clean.
2. No roughed cards.
3. No duplicate cards relied on.
4. No stacked arrangements.
5. No Himber Wallets or switching of envelopes or cards
ever!
6. The prediction card is actually in the envelope for the
entire week. It is the same card removed from the envelope
by the mayor!
7. Even if the prediction is tampered with, the outcome of
the trick will remain unaltered. (This is a first in
prediction effects!)
8. Can be done as a test in telepathy between two cities
over the telephone.
9. Absolutely no sleight of hand required!
10. No long or short cards employed.

Imagine many other exciting possibilities with
Mastermind….

An exceedingly clean selection process as described above is
done to the host of your local radio station. Once the card
has been selected in the fairest manner as described above,
you ask the host to look in the classified ads of the local
paper. There is the ad thanking the radio station, giving
your contact details, and finishing with the name of the
selected card. You have just done a prediction that is
captured for all to see, all to remember for years to come.

Use Mastermind with other popular effects such as Branded. A
card is very fairly selected from a deck in the cleanest
manner possible. The performer takes a lighter, ignites it,
and pinches the flame burning his fingers. Upon displaying
the finger and thumb the number and pip of the selected card
have been burned into the flesh in the form of a blister.
This is THE way to have the card selected for Branded – as
clean and fair as it gets.

These are just a few of the many incredible effects possible
with Chris Kenworthey’s brilliant Mastermind. Now better
than ever before… now in Bicycle Playing Cards.

Note: Available in RED Bicycle backs only.

My Comments

With the current "Any Card at Any Number" craze, it's no surprise that someone has re-released this deck emphasizing that you can perform this effect with this special deck.  In truth, this deck is utilitarian deck and one can do so much more with it.  It's just as valuable as a one-way forcing deck, Svengali deck, or stripper deck.  And I'm very glad that it was released in Bicycle cards (which means it may not be always available to stock up).

Unfortunately, I can't detail what this deck actually does, but I can say that this is a type of forcing deck and it is essentially a Monte Cristo deck.  The deck concept is not original with Chris Kenworthey, nor is the routine.  And, as you might have guessed, it's not credited in the instruction sheet.  The instruction sheet is one double-sided, 8.5" x 11" paper.  Two effects are described, Mastermind and Any Card at Any Number and the descriptions aren't as thorough as they could be.  There is no description about how the deck works, but in working through the routine that should be obvious.

There are four different versions of the deck available: 2 of Clubs, 2 of Diamonds, 3 of Spades, and 3 of Hearts. If it doesn't make any difference to you which one you get, then order the "Any Available" option and I'll send you whatever I have in stock.  Unless you're one that has an aversion to using playing cards or special decks, this is one deck that should be in your arsenal and should inspire you to come up with many, many different routines.