The magician then hands the spectator a sealed envelope. The spectator opens the envelope and inside is a prediction naming the selected card.

The Whamo Deck allows any spectator to name any card and at the same time lets the magician produce a prediction that matches the selected card. The prediction can be inside a Card To Wallet wallet, an envelope or anywhere else the magician wants it to be.

How self-working a miracle this is depends very much on how adept you are at card to wallet type sleights, specifically palming a card off the top of the deck. The deck itself sets you up, but from that point on the handling is of your own choosing.

Props

The deck can be made up with either type of prediction card: blank faced with prediction written on it or indifferent card with prediction written on back.

The Whamo Deck is actually two decks of cards, although only one deck is shown to the audience depending on the color of the suit selected.

Each deck consists of 26 cards from a normal deck and 26 prediction cards. The prediction cards can be either blank faced playing cards with a prediction written on the face or regular cards with the prediction written on the back.

The decks are set up as follows. Separate the 26 black cards and 26 red cards from a normal deck into two piles. Mix each pile thoroughly so the cards are in random order.

Add a prediction card behind each card. This prediction card, be it a blank faced card or indifferent card from another pack, has a prediction written on it using a black marker. This reads something like "I think you thought of (name of card which the prediction card is behind). "

After writing out the 52 predictions, you will now have two full decks of cards. One deck will contain the 26 red cards interleaved with 26 prediction cards. The other deck is setup the same with 26 black cards and 26 matching prediction cards.

Place each Whamo Deck in a card case. Then put one deck in your left pocket and one deck in your right pocket, remember which is red and which is black.

Handling

Routine

Ask a spectator to choose either red or black. When the color is announced take out the deck which contains the 26 cards of that color.

As the deck becomes visible and is taken out of its case, ask the spectator to choose, depending on the color named, either Hearts or Diamonds, or Clubs or Spades.

Now ask the spectator to think of any card of that suit and when he has thought of it to name it out loud.

Fan the deck, remove that card and hand it to the spectator.

How the deck is handled in removing the thought of card depends on whether the prediction is on the face or back of the cards. If it is on the face, just fan the deck toward yourself, find the chosen card and remove it from the deck. If it is on the back, fan the deck toward the spectators, find the chosen card and remove it.

Cut the deck at the point where the selected card was removed and complete the cut.

The prediction card is now the top card of the deck. At this point the need for a sleight arrives. The cleanest although not necessarily easiest sleight is to palm the top card and go straight into your jacket to load it into a wallet or envelope.

Performance Notes

There are advantages to both types of prediction cards. In the case of the blank faced prediction card, the card can be shown back toward the audience, as you comment that you have a card that matches the spectator's, then turned over to display prediction. With the prediction written on the back of an indifferent card, the face can be shown as if it was your prediction giving the spectators the impression that it is incorrect until you turn it over so they can read the prediction written on the back.

The Whamo Deck is based on various trick decks. It is vaguely a variation of the Svengali Deck with all long cards. The written message might be traced back to Ken Brooke's 'Fido,' and speaking of that effect, for a special presentation making up 52 predictions that include a predetermined spectator's name is worth the trouble. The idea of asking the spectator for a color first to eliminate half the cards I'd credit to Hen Fetsch although it probably has been around forever.

One really strong way to use the deck is as a kicker to the Card In Wallet effect. The traditional routine is presented. As an afterthought the performer asks for another card to be named. Again the wallet is removed to reveal that it contains the prediction.
By Richard Robinson
Photographs by Ellen Lebowitz
source : www.allmagic.com