The Quick Change Card

In this easy magic card trick, you quickly change one playing card - the wrong playing card - into the spectator's selected card. It’s a fun card revelation trick.
This one is rather artsy-crafty as you will have to create a gimmicked card that changes from one card to another. As with all of the tricks on this site, this one is easy to learn and perform and only requires simple sleight of hand.


Effect: You have a card selected and mixed back into the deck. You bring out a prediction card from your pocket and the spectator tells you that it's the wrong one. But in a flash, the wrong playing card changes into the right playing card - the spectator's selected card.

Secret: The change of the playing card is accomplished through a gimmicked card.

In this explanation, we'll first show you how to make the gimmicked card and then walk you through the steps of performing the trick.

Materials: A deck of playing cards

For the gimmicked card: Three playing cards. Note that you will be altering the three playing cards so that they can't be used again. Glue - a glue stick will work well

Here’s how to turn the three playing cards into the gimmick.

Bend two of the playing cards in half, as shown in the picture. One bent playing card will represent the "starting" card and the other the "end" card. In this case, the gimmicked card can start as the “jack of spades” and then turn into the “king of diamonds.” Or, vice versa (the gimmick can be reversed).

Apply glue to the backs of the two bent cards. Glue the two bent cards together with the third card as shown in the picture.

Once the glue has dried, you'll end up with the gimmicked card as shown in the picture. Here’s another look at the gimmicked playing card. Note that it pretty much looks normal from the back, however, you don’t have to necessarily show the back of the card. The third card pretty much just acts as a support for the gaffed card.

You'll notice that when the hinged piece is positioned one way the gimmick represents one card, and when it's the other way, it represents a second card. By sweeping your hand across the card and moving with it the hinged piece, one playing card will apparently turn into another one.

Preparation:
Place the gimmicked card into your pocket. For purposes of this explanation, we'll call the first card that the gimmick displays as "card A" and the second card that the gimmick displays as "card B." Place the gimmick into your pocket with "card A" showing. Take the deck of cards and place the matching card to "Card B" in position to force it. The type of force that you use will dictate where you place the “force” card.

For this trick, I recommend using a Hindu Force (you'll find instructions here). If you use the Hindu Force, place the card that matches "Card B" on the bottom of the deck.

Force the matching card in the deck ("Card B").

Mix the selected card back into the deck.

Bring out the gimmicked card from your pocket and tell the spectator that it's your prediction, a card that matches the selected card. Hold it in your hand as shown in the picture. When the spectator tells you that you're “wrong,” sweep your hand across the gimmicked card - downwards to catch the flap and position it the other way - to change the card into the spectator's card.