Mastermind by Christopher Kenworthey

Chris Kenworthey's Mastermind (Any Card at Any Number) has been featured by Kreskin on both "The David Letterman Show" and "Live with Regis and Kathy Lee." Many top performers such as Wayne Houchin, Kreskin, etc. have stunned audiences using this powerful weapon in their daily work. Mastermind is now finally available in Bicycle Playing Cards produced by the US Playing Card Company.

Let's look at just a few of the many possibilities...

Here is the crowning achievement in test conditions mentalism! If you were permitted to perform only one effect before your town's local newspaper editor, before a Magic Castle membership audition, or for Grand Prix Competition at FISM, this would be it. Special thanks go to Hiro Hirata for releasing this peerless mind teaser to the magic fraternity.

Every mentalist or magician has the desire to foretell destiny, to look into the future. What follows is an eyewitness account of the extraordinary phenomenon now possible with Mastermind!

Imagine... A registered and notarized envelope is mailed to the mayor of your town seven days before your show is to take place. Inside this single, ungimmicked envelope is a single, ungimmicked playing card with a blue back. The mayor is instructed to keep the envelope in his possession and not let anyone tamper with it. (In fact, no one ever does, and there is never any switching of envelopes or cards ever throughout the entire routine.)

On the night of your show, a red-backed deck of cards is freely shown. Each of the cards is absolutely different, and the deck is honestly shuffled and fairly cut. (Note, there are no long or short cards, no roughed cards, no stacked arrangements, no marked cards, no stripped cards, no crimps, no false counts, and no sleight of hand involved whatsoever!) The deck, quite honestly, appears ordinary in every respect. It is openly ribbon-spread face-up on the table, offering a bird's-eye view that each card is in fact different.

Once the mayor is satisfied that the cards are thoroughly mixed, they are then ribbon-spread face down, allowing for an uninhibited, free choice of any card. The selection here is immaculately clean. To repeat, any card may be selected! The card the mayor himself slides out of the deck is immediately turned face-up. Let's say it is the three of hearts. The mayor himself opens the prediction envelope that is still in his possession, and inside is the one card-a matching three of hearts! The "impossible" has just occurred!

Now for the unprecedented test conditions of Mastermind:

1. No forcing procedure of any kind is ever employed! This includes psychological, mathematical, spelling, timing or classic. Just fair, free, and clean.
2. No roughed cards.
3. No duplicate cards relied on.
4. No stacked arrangements.
5. No Himber Wallets or switching of envelopes or cards ever!
6. The prediction card is actually in the envelope for the entire week. It is the same card removed from the envelope by the mayor!
7. Even if the prediction is tampered with, the outcome of the trick will remain unaltered. (This is a first in prediction effects!)
8. Can be done as a test in telepathy between two cities over the telephone.
9. Absolutely no sleight of hand required!
10. No long or short cards employed.

Imagine many other exciting possibilities with Mastermind....

An exceedingly clean selection process as described above is done to the host of your local radio station. Once the card has been selected in the fairest manner as described above, you ask the host to look in the classified ads of the local paper. There is the ad thanking the radio station, giving your contact details, and finishing with the name of the selected card. You have just done a prediction that is captured for all to see, all to remember for years to come.