A card force is one of the greatest tools available to a magician, and they are a crucial component of hundreds (probably thousands) of effects. Once you’ve learnt a great card force, you’ll be able to astonish ANYONE using ANY deck of cards.
For that reason, it’s vital you choose a GOOD force to use. But which force is best?
That’s where we come in. In this blog post, we’re going to go through the top 5 forces that you can learn today. We’ll also tell you exactly where to go if you want to learn them.
- Pick No.3: The dribble force/The waterfall force
- Pick No.2: One way force deck
- Pick No.1: The Classic Force
Pick No.3: The dribble force/The waterfall force
This one is a firm favorite of many magicians. It looks very fair, but allows you to easily force any card you like.
The waterfall force (or dribble force) looks like this:
You take the cards in one hand and dribble them into the other hand (hence the ‘waterfall force’ name), instructing your spectator to tell you ‘stop’ at any time.
When they do, you stop and they take a look at the card they stopped at. To them, it seems a perfectly fair choice, but you’ve actually just forced your card of choice on them.
To learn the waterfall force/the dribble force, watch this:
Pick No.2: One way force deck
This is the best way to go when you absolutely CANNOT afford to miss. If you’re performing your first stage show for example, you might be nervous about getting every part of your act right. So to help yourself feel less stressed, you could opt for the ‘one way force deck’ in order to make sure your force card ALWAYS hits.
There’s obviously drawbacks to this method, which we’ll talk about in just a moment.
But first, let’s talk about what the one way force deck actually IS.
The one way force deck is a regular deck of cards, except for one very important fact. ALL the cards are the same card. For example, every single one of the 52 cards in your deck might be the King of Hearts.
Of course, this makes it VERY easy to force the card you want; all you do is offer your spectator the option to choose a card as usual. You can make this feel like a real free choice (because in a way, it IS a free choice – a free choice of card, except all the cards are the same) but at the end of the day your spectator has the card that you wanted to force on them.
I’ve seen the one way force deck used in many different tricks and presentations, to varying degrees of success. For example, using the one way force deck as part of a ‘ACAAN’ (any card at any number) routine is often done well.
Now, let’s talk about the drawbacks to the one way force deck.
Here’s the big one: your audience can’t look at the deck. This should go without saying, but whatever you do, DON’T let your audience see that all the cards are the same. Unfortunately, this means you won’t be able to hand the deck out for examination at the end of the trick, or show the audience that it’s a regular deck at the beginning of the trick.
However, there is actually a simple solution to this…
A deck switch.
A deck switch is exactly what it sounds like – when you swap one deck for another. Doing a deck switch means you can perform the one way force using the one way deck, and then the minute the card you want has been selected, switch the decks so you have a regular deck. Using THIS deck, you can hand stuff out for examination and let your audience inspect every card in the deck – you no longer have anything to hide! There are many different methods for a deck switch, but the best place to start is definitely this book:
The Art of Switching Decks
https://store.conjuror.community/product/the-art-of-switching-decks-by-roberto-giobbi-and-hermetic-press/
Pick No.1: The Classic Force
In my personal opinion, this is THE best force you’ll ever find for a number of reasons.
First, you can do it using ANY deck. Secondly, it looks EXACTLY like a regular selection. Your audience should never suspect they have chosen a force card.
But first, what is the classic force?
The classic force is a force where you allow the spectator to choose a card as they usually would. You spread through the cards, and they remove the card they want (or think they want – in reality, it’s the card you wanted to force them.)
One of the problems with a lot of forces is that they require the magician to use a selection procedure that seems a little weird. Why get the spectator to pick a card when you dribble through the cards unless you’re doing something funny? These are the kind of questions that your audience will subconsciously pick up on.
But the classic force is incredible because your audience won’t be able to tell between when they pick a card for real, and when you force a card on them.
I like to practice this force even when I don’t need to. If I’m doing a trick where my spectator needs to pick a card, even if I don’t need to use the classic force, I try anyway! If I miss, it doesn’t matter because I didn’t need to force a card anyway. But if I get it right, then I get vital practice and experience with successfully performing the classic force.
How do you learn the classic force?
First of all, you need a good teacher. Aaron Fisher is one of the finest card magicians in the world, and an expert on the classic force. In the training below, he shows you exactly how to do the classic force, step by step.
Check it out:
https://club.conjuror.community/clips/aaron-fisher-classic-force/
This training is only available to CC Members. Not a CC Member yet? Join us!
Final Word: Find the force that works best for you
In truth, the best force for you is the one that feels best and you can perform the most confidently. If a force works well for you, use it! It doesn’t matter if it’s not the ‘ideal’ one – if it works for you, then it IS the ideal force.
But where do you find all of these many forces to choose from?
After all, we’ve only just scratched the surface with the forces listed in this post. There are many more forces that you can explore.
But where do you find them all?
Luckily for you, we have the perfect resource.
The training plan down below is a ‘deep dive’ into the many forces and ways to force things. Watching this will unlock many more forces, allowing you to find the one that works best for YOU.
Check it out:
https://club.conjuror.community/use-the-force/
This training is only available to CC Members. Not a CC Member yet? Join us today!
We hope you found this post on the best card forces useful! If you have any suggestions for other forces you believe belong on this list, don’t hesitate to tell us in the comment section. If you found this article useful, share it with your friends!