Stapled!

The Stapled! routine in AoA1 is a great routine, but I wanted to make a version where the Jokers never come in contact with the deck, and the result was this one, which I think has a very nice surprise at the end.

Pre-work: Rip the tabs off the mouth of your card box. Put a staple in a Joker and then remove it. Put another normal joker from another deck (to be clear: neither one should have a guarantee) on top of the deck and the pre-stapled joker on top of that. Put the deck in the box so that it faces the side of the box with the half-moon cut-out on it. When you start your routine, pull out all cards except the two jokers and replace the box on the table with the half-moon down and away from you. If you're right-handed, set it to your right. Do a few tricks before coming back to this one.

1) Spread out the deck and have a card selected. Signed on the face if you like, although this is far from necessary. Have it replaced and control to the top however you like. May I suggest my Dribble Cover Pass or the Thumb Slide? Immediately top palm as you mention that you need the Jokers from the box.

2) Ask to have the deck shuffled by the spec and hand it to him. Immediately, yet deliberately, put your palming hand on the box, palm down (obviously), pick it up, turn it over, and grab it from above with your other hand, letting the fingers and thumb hold the card in place. Use the now free hand to flick the flap out of the box and fold it back slightly. You may recognize this sequence from Wilson's "Joke In The Box."

3) Pull the two jokers a half in. and then keep pulling the top one all the way out. Turn this card face down, and stick it back in the box half-way as if to pull out the other joker, but let the fingers go all the way under the box, receive the spectator's card which you now drop onto them, and pull it up past the bump in the flap.

4) Now, holding the top joker with your thumb and the spec's card with your finger flip the card box over and onto the table so that the box arrives on the table flap up and toward you and the boxed joker arrives at the bottom of the box at the same time.

5) Spread the two cards you're left holding, showing the now face-up guarantee joker. Put them both in the other hand, and pick up the stapler. Put a staple in the middle of the cards in exactly the same place the boxed joker was stapled.

6) Use the thumb of the hand holding the cards to fold down the bottom card to prove they are genuinely stapled. Do that fake turnover move where you rotate your hand and flip out the cards with your thumb at the same time to place them in the other hand rotated 180 degrees but not actually flipped. Pull back the corner with the thumb of the opposite hand, but don't mention why this time. . .that would be over-proving. Drop them as-is on the table.

7) If you like, casually show your empty hand and then use it to push the flap back in the box. Don't point out that you're doing this: ask whether the deck is thoroughly shuffled instead. Pick up the box and drop it on the stapled cards. Have the spec put the deck on top of the box and his hand on top of that. Ask him to steadily but not too firmly apply pressure to the deck (if he presses too hard, he will crush the box, duh). Tell him his card will pass through the deck through the box and in between the cards that are stapled together.

8) Pull off the hand, deck, and box, and act surprised that there are only two cards on the staple. Show that the bottom card is still a joker, and turn it over and again act surprised that the other card isn't. Ask if it's the spec's card (it is, duh). Spread out the deck face up and try to find the missing joker. You also give suspicious folk a chance to check for dupes if you didn't have the card signed.

9) When you don't find the joker, let the spec open the box to find the other joker with staple holes still in it. Tell them they must have pushed too hard.