Pinetti's Pyramid

This trick is similar to "Piles of Pinetti" but has a different revelation that uses a large layout of cards in the shape of a pyramid. Therefore, you can only perform this trick when you have a lot of table space.

The presentation is based on the flamboyant eighteenth-century Italian conjurer Professor Pinetti and the mysterious occultist and Freemason Count Cagliostro. For this reason, the presentation lends itself well to a storytelling style of delivery. Given the mysticism surrounding Cagliostro, even well over two hundred years after his death,  you could use this idea as the basis of an entertaining bizarre magick card act.

This trick is part of the ongoing Piquet Pack Series.

JUMP AHEAD

On This Page

Effect
Background & Credits
Requirements & Preparation
Method & Presentation
Performance Tips & Additional Ideas
Afterthoughts

Effect

You perform an incredible demonstration of cartomancy inspired by the legendary eighteenth-century conjurer, Professor Pinetti. Using a unique "Piquet pack" of playing cards—just like Pinetti himself—you perform an unforgettable reading for your audience.

Once the reading is complete, you bring proceedings to an impressive conclusion by performing an "Egyptian ritual" that Pinetti learned from the infamous Count Cagliostro. The cards are dealt to the table, forming a large pyramid design. You announce that the "all-seeing eye knows everything!" and slowly turn the top card of the pyramid face up to reveal the participant's mentally-selected card!

Background & Credits

This is a variation of "Piles of Pinetti", which, in turn, is based on The Twenty-One Card Trick, which is one of the oldest self-working card tricks in the world. The trick relies on the Redistribution Principle, which involves the systematic rearrangement of cards into various groups to accurately determine the location of a mental selection. The principle dates back to at least the seventeenth century.

Requirements & Preparation

To perform this trick, you'll need a special deck of thirty-three cards. First, remove all the high cards—the Nines, Tens, Jacks, Queens, and Kings—from the pack. This leaves you with only the Aces, Twos, Threes, Fours, Fives, Sixes, Sevens, and Eights in each suit. Then, add one Joker to complete your special "Piquet pack".

Now, I have to confess, this isn't a real Piquet pack. A genuine Piquet pack consists of thirty-two cards, not thirty-three, and is made up of the Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Ten, Nine, Eight, and Seven in each suit. However, this specific setup offers certain benefits when performing one of my favourite tricks in the Piquet Pack Series called "Pythagorean Prediction"—I'll be publishing this trick next month, hopefully.

If you want to use an authentic Piquet pack for this trick, you can certainly do so. However, it's important to note that a Piquet pack only contains thirty-two cards, whereas this trick requires a deck of thirty-three cards. Therefore, you will need to add a Joker to the pack to complete the setup.

Method & Presentation

To begin, lay out the Piquet pack face up on the table and introduce it to your audience by saying, "This is a unique pack of cards. It was used by the famous Italian conjurer Professor Pinetti in the late eighteenth century. Instead of having the usual fifty-two cards, it contains only thirty-two."

Next, provide some historical context by mentioning the French Revolution, which was taking place during this time. "It's important to note that Professor Pinetti was performing during a very tumultuous time in France. The French Revolution meant that individuals with affiliations to the monarchy, including Pinetti, who frequently entertained King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, faced grave problems. It was dangerous to show any sympathy to the ruling classes. Therefore, to avoid arousing the suspicion and scrutiny of the revolutionaries, Pinetti intentionally removed some prominent cards from his pack. As you may have noticed, the Kings, Queens, and Jacks are all missing from the deck—they've been axed, or should I say guillotined? This was a practical decision by Pinetti, who knew that in order to keep his own head, all the court cards had to go."

Finally, transition into your demonstration by highlighting Pinetti's expertise in cartomancy. "Despite the troubling times, Pinetti was able to captivate his audiences with his remarkable magic tricks and fortune-telling abilities. In particular, his talent as a skilled cartomancer allowed him to perform incredible feats of precognition with just thirty-two cards. It's worth noting that Pinetti was also friends with the adventurer and mystic Count Cagliostro, from whom he learned many of the secrets of the craft, gained from years of travel before Cagliostro's imprisonment in 1789. Now, would you like to witness Pinetti's long-forgotten system of cartomancy in action?"

Hand the pack to a spectator and ask them to shuffle the cards. Get them to deal the cards into three piles, as you would in a game (from left to right, one card at a time). Tell them to pick up one of the piles, look at the cards and chose one. 

Next, instruct your participant to shuffle the cards and then deal them into three piles.

To justify the repetitive dealing procedure of the trick, you're going to disguise it as a system of divination. As your participant deals the cards into three piles, tell them to think of a question about the past that they want an answer to. It must be a question that can be answered with a "yes", "no", or "maybe". To do this, say, "Pinetti only knew a few words of French, but he still managed to conduct fortune-telling readings in his private lodgings in Paris. Let me explain how his system of cartomancy works. If your chosen card appears in this pile, the answer to your question is 'Qui' or 'Yes'." As you deliver this line, point to the pile on your far right (we'll call this pile A from now on).

Continue to explain how the system works by saying, "And if you're chosen card is in this pile, the answer to your question is 'Non' or 'No'." Indicate the middle pile (we'll call this pile B) as to say this. 

"Likewise, if your chosen card is in this pile, the answer to your question is 'Peut-être' or 'Maybe'." As you say this, point at the pile on your left (pile C). "It's a bit like an eighteenth-century version of the magic eight ball!"

Instruct your participant to look through each pile, in turn, to discover the answer to their question by saying, "I can't touch the cards during the reading. It will disrupt the flow of energy from your unconscious mind to the cards. Please look through each pile to locate your chosen card. Don't let me see the faces of the cards either."

Once the selected card has been located, tell your participant to drop the pile on either of the remaining two on the table. Finally, tell them to pick up the last remaining eleven-card pile and drop it on top of the larger pile. While this gives your participant a choice to make, the end result is always the same. The pile containing the chosen card always ends up in between the other two piles.

You now need to guide your participant through the whole process two more times. Encourage them to ask one question about the present and another about the future. This structure—past, present and future—is important because it clearly justifies why three rounds of dealing are required: to represent the three time periods of a person's life. Incorporating a cartomancy presentation adds a much-needed layer of camouflage to the mathematical method. It keeps the participant focused on the personal significance of the questions rather than the mechanics of the trick.

In between asking each question, help your volunteer perform a Jay Ose False Cut on the pack. Don't let them shuffle the cards because this will stop the Redistribution Principle from working.

Once the last question about the future has been answered by the cards, pick up the pile containing the chosen card. Then pick up one of the other piles and drop it on top of the cards in your hand. Finally, pick up the last remaining pile and drop it on top of all. This places the pile containing the thought-of on the bottom of the pack and not in the middle as usual. This is important because you need the chosen card to be twenty-eighth from the top of the pack for the revelation to work correctly.

To reveal the chosen card, say, "Some people believe that Pinetti was a Freemason, and that is how he met Count Cagliostro. After reading a person's fortune, Pinetti would use a mystic ritual of Egyptian origin devised by Cagliostro."

To create the pyramid layout, deal seven cards in a row closest to your participant so you have enough space to build the pyramid. Instead of dealing the cards to the table in the usual manner, place each card sideways (in landscape orientation) so that the seven cards resemble a row of bricks. Add another layer of six bricks on top of the existing row. However, offset the first card by half the width of a card's length. Next, add a layer of five cards in the same way. Then a layer of four, three and two cards. Finally, complete the pyramid by placing a single card on top of the layout (this, thanks to the Redistribution Principle, is the chosen card).

Note: The base of the pyramid should be closest to your participant, and the top closest to you. If you build it the other way around, the layout will be upside down from the perspective of your audience and won't look like a pyramid.

When the layout is finished, you'll be left holding five cards. Ignore these cards, as they're not important.

To reveal the thought-of selection, say, "The all-seeing eye knows everything! For the first time, please announce the card that you are merely thinking of!" After a dramatic pause, turn the single card at the top of the pyramid face up, returning it to the layout so that its short bottom edge is floating an inch or so above the row of two cards.

The final layout should be reminiscent of the Eye of Providence, which appears on the Great Seal of the United States, famously depicted on the American one-dollar bill (see image below).

The Eye of Providence, as seen on the US one-dollar bill. Image Credit: Pixabay.

Performance Tips & Additional Ideas

In popular culture, the Eye of Providence is often associated with Freemasonry, first appearing as part of the standard Freemason iconography in 1797. This provides a connection to Count Cagliostro, who opened many masonic lodges across Europe. He was eventually accused of trying to open a lodge in Rome, where he was caught by two spies for the Inquisition and jailed.

You could omit Pinetti from your presentation entirely and focus solely on Count Cagliostro if you prefer. I, however, prefer the fictional story of the two men meeting and sharing secrets with each other. I should point out that there is no evidence that Pinetti ever met Cagliostro. However, such a meeting, or even a friendship between the two men, is possible given that they lived during the same time period and moved in the same social circles.

If you don't want to include information about Pinetti and Cagliostro in your presentation, you could talk about the apocryphal Illuminati instead. The Eye of Providence has strong connections to the myths, legends and conspiracy theories related to the Illuminati, which makes a very compelling theme for a trick like this one.

Afterthoughts

Card tricks using large table layouts always seem to impress audiences. Because the core method is self-working, you can concentrate on the storytelling element of the trick. If I don't have a lot of table space, I'll revert to the spelling revelation described in "Piles of Pinetti".