“There’s no way four aces will actually turn up,” I told the pompadoured man in front of me, half dismissively and half out of curiosity.
We were at Institute Illusions, a new magic school and theatre at Orchard Towers offering live shows and magic lessons. I was there for the latter – albeit an extremely condensed version.
Moments earlier, the man – award-winning magician and Institute Illusions founder Tommillusions – had laid out two sets of faced-down cards, split from a deck I had randomly cut.
We then divided our respective sets into four piles in front of us, eight piles in total, each of us free to decide how many cards to place in each pile.
Completely random.
When he was done, Tommillusions flipped over the top card of each of his four piles.
Four kings.
It was a feat that had already left me impressed. But then came the finisher.
“Would you like to make a bet? Do you think your cards can beat mine?” asked Tommillusions.
Now, I’ve watched enough episodes of Criss Angel Mindfreak to know that, yes, my cards will somehow end up beating his.
But still, I didn’t want to take that bet because, logically, there was no way I would pull four aces. Again, every move up to that point had been completely random.
And yet, the top cards on all four of my piles were aces.
Like magic.
“Now let’s teach you how to do that,” said Tommillusions, with the warmth of Dumbledore and the charm of the Horsemen from Now You See Me.
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