Quest

THE BLURB:
There have been many versions of the 'any selected card at
any number' over the years, some gimmicked, some sleight of
hand, some convincing, others not so... but all striving to
achieve the effect of having any card selected in the deck
to appear at any named number.

Welcome to the mix - The Quest
Some features of The Quest:

- No sleights, no switches, no needing to even touch the
cards as they are dealt... the spectators does the dealing.

- No difficult calculations to perform, or difficult
formulas to remember.

- Only ONE deck in use throughout, no switching or needing
to carry around multiple decks.

- No gaffed/gimmicked cards in use, so no specially printed
cards, no rough and smooth, no short cards, no sticky stuff
of any kind etc etc.

- It will not be the same card and or number every
performance, and no convoluted procedures to come to a
number or specific card... card is freely selected and the
number is freely named.

- No stooges instant or otherwise.

- No angle issues, and instantly resets.

- The cards before and after the selection can be shown to
be different.

As well as all of the above points, The Quest has to be one
of the easiest to accomplish, and is easily within the reach
of everyone, no matter there skill level.

MY COMMENTS:
This is a very practical, elegant, and easy approach to the Any Card at Any Number plot and definitely worth your while. The best way for me to continue this discussion is by comparing it to John Born's Meant To Be and Bob Farmer's Bammo Dekronomicon, two of the more recent high-profiled versions of the Any Card At Any Number plot. The Born version is indeed a true Any Card At Any Number, but it requires some gimmicking, some memorization, and lots of practice. But it is quite clean. Bob Farmer's version is also quite respectable, though it really is more of Card at Any Number plot, since the participant only has the illusion of choosing any card. The issue with Bob Farmer's version is that uses quite a bit of pocket space.

You can consider this as a one-deck version of Bob Farmer's solution or a technically easier Meant To Be. This is not to say that The Quest is a variation of either of these, because it isn't. I'm merely comparing key features. With The Quest, you use a single deck of cards and the spectator deals the cards. It is not a true Any Card at Any Number. However, like Bob Farmer's version, the participant is given a very fair selection and it will appear as though any card could have been freely selected. Once the number is revealed, and the number is an absolutely free choice, like Born's version, the cards are removed from the box in an apparently very straightforward manner and handed to the participant. This procedure is much easier than the Born version and, as said above, requires less memorization.

The package includes the special deck of cards and a 13 page instruction manual, which has photos and quite a few presentational ideas. You can also contact Frank Velasco if you'd just like to get the PDF instructions, however it will cost you about $25 worth of decks to make the deck yourself.