ACAAP Meets the Passport Diary Trick

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Paul Gordon’s Diary Trick from Gold Dust always had me curious. It’s a solid premise, but there’s one big problem—there's nothing natural [about me] carrying around a calendar diary. (You can currently find a performance video of Gordon's Diary Trick in Greg Gleason's "Magic books, favorite routines!" Facebook group.)

But you know what does make sense? I travel a lot for work, and I love playing cards. So, a passport and a deck of playing cards. That fits.

Meet: A Country at Any Page meets the Diary Trick—well, not exactly, but they were the original inspirations.

[Don't worry—later, we'll cover what to do if you don't have a passport or the required stamps/visa for this trick. It's arguably a better presentation.]

A few months ago, I started experimenting with this idea, but life got busy, and it ended up buried in my notebooks. It’s half-cooked and still needs a little work, but it’s got legs. There are a lot of people smarter than me in the DDC, so hopefully, you guys can take this to completion with any necessary improvements. I don't have the time.

The Setup

• The top and bottom cards of the deck match the page number (from your passport) for a country you're going to force with DFB (or any other method you prefer). For example, page 23 of my passport has China, so I put any 2-spot and any 3-spot card on top and bottom (suits don't matter).
• The second card from the top of the deck and the second from the bottom make a two-card blackjack hand.
• DFB has a list of countries. The force country lines up with the page number dictated by the cards. [Your DFB list should only be as long as the amount of page numbers in your passport.]
• Write this on a blank billet: "[BLANK SPACE] will be off by 2."

Setup (as previously described) -

Performance

[Before you begin, quickly flip through the pages of your passport—just like you'd go flipping through your calendar diary with Paul Gordon's Diary Trick, showing stamps and visas—then set it aside.]

1. Set the Mark
   • Hand someone a random face-down X card, ask them to insert the card somewhere in the middle of the pack, hit them with Bill Simon’s Prophecy Force as you flip the X card face-up, and leave the card face-up to mark the spot. [Position Check: You have a face-up X card face-up in the middle of the deck with a face-down 2-digit page number sandwiching the card and a face-down blackjack hand sandwiching that.]
   • Mention their intuition.
   • Set the deck aside for now.
2. Frame the Story
   • Start talking about your past travels.
   • Mention that China (or whichever country appears on a two-digit page number in your passport) is your favorite country. Share that you visited a casino while vacationing there and kept hitting blackjack, making it a particularly fond memory.
   • Say you have a list of countries in your [DFB] notepad, but before we mess with that, say you wanna see whose intuition matches your own.
   • Before moving forward, write one of their names in the [BLANK SPACE] on your prediction. Don't reveal it. Don't make a big deal out of it. Just place it face-down on the table as a prediction.
3. Force the Country
   • Everyone picks a number.
   • With DFB, force the country two numbers away from the person’s name you wrote down on your prediction.
   • Have everyone look through the list to figure out who named the number that's closest to your favorite country.
   • Don’t tip the “off by 2” prediction yet. Just say that person will help you with the rest of the performance.
4. Drop the First Hit
   • Spread the deck and slowly remove all the cards above and below your five-card stack in the center (formed by the Prophecy Force). This leaves you with 2 face-down cards, the face-up X card, and 2-facedown cards below that.
   • Flip the 2 cards that are sandwiching the face-up card—the 3 and 2 spot.
   • Open the passport to page 32—in my passport, I know there's nothing on page 32 (which is the reason I'd use China on page 23). So I'd say: “Alright, page 32 is empty, so let’s go to page 23 instead if that's okay with you guys?” (This small subtlety is a personal preference.)
   • The heat is on now. Ask the person who named the number that was closest to your favorite country to help you flip to the force page, checking to make sure every passport page is different. Boom—visa stamp for the forced country. It should feel like a mindfuck if done right. [And by "done right," I mean with the same presentation you'd use when counting down to a number during ACAAN—building suspense along the way.]
5. The Blackjack Connection
   • Two face-down are cards still sitting on the table. That’s your blackjack hand.
   • Remind them: “Like I said, in China, I kept hitting blackjack.”
   • Flip them face-up—solid hit.
6. The Kill Shot
   • Now comes the final reveal. Show the prediction: “Sarah will be off by 2.”

Tightening the Screws

The final kill shot could hit much harder if you're familiar with Ted Karmilovich's work on the Target Number. It's stronger to have the prediction pre-written—not with a name, but with a description of what the target is wearing. Then, when you hit them with, “The person wearing [description] will have the intuition closest to mine and will be off by 2,” it lands with way more impact. It feels less like a forced trick and more like an authentic prediction. Of course, this means you need to select a target before writing your prediction.

Replacing the Prophecy Force

Instead of using the Prophecy Force, you could use something like Bannon's Final Verdict.

Setup: Sandwich your two page-number cards between a two-card blackjack hand, then place this four-card stack on top of the deck.

Execution: Perform the overhand shuffle setup sequence Bannon teaches in Dear Mr. Fantasy. Have the spectator cut each pack to the left of the previous one (assuming they’re sitting directly across from you). This allows you to first reveal the page number (in order), followed by the remaining blackjack hand.

Further Thoughts

As I said, this needs some work, but it has potential.

Reintroducing the DFB list after the final kill shot isn’t a great idea. It’s better to initially write down everyone’s number and also write down the forced number. This way, you don't need to reintroduce DFB. I generally dislike when a prediction has something directly from DFB. However, I think the "[PERSON!] off by 2", time misdirection, ACAAP (A Country at Any Page), and the blackjack hand makes it far better.

Never performed it, so I can't be certain.

Also, be ready for the question: “But what would’ve happened if I placed the [X CARD] between a Queen and a King?!” Seems like a great opportunity to joke about a royal family.

Missing the Necessary Passport?

You have options. Use an expired passport, a trendy tourist stamp, or even a fake passport with blank pages from Amazon. Or keep it simple—use a numbered notebook, write a country on each page, and make it work. Get creative.

*Credit goes to Drew Backenstoss for sharing the idea of using DFB like this back in January of 2018 in the DFB Facebook group.

Go have fun with it. If you think it's garbage with no merit, let us know at DirtyDeckClub@gmail.com. If you see potential or have ideas to improve it, let us know that too. We'd love to share any insights you have with the rest of the DDC!