Piles of Pinetti

I recently wrote an in-depth article about Professor Pinetti for my Ruseletter. As I researched the flamboyant eighteenth-century Italian conjurer, I discovered a digital copy of the magic book he wrote called Physical Amusements and Diverting Experiments. This manuscript has been made available thanks to funding from the Wellcome Foundation. You can download a PDF version of the book for free. Even though the book is old, it is still worth a read. This particular version is the English translation that Pinetti sold when he performed in London in 1784.

The book is full of strange-sounding experiments, such as "To make a Calve's Head bellow as if alive, when dressed and served up." and "How to dispose two little Figures, so that one shall light a Candle, and the other put it out." However, it also includes more practical tricks using pen and paper and playing cards. Even though the book is well over two-hundred years old, some of the tricks included in its pages would still amaze audiences today.

Anyway, on page 26, Pinetti describes a card trick using a "pack of piquet cards". Unlike the modern fifty-two card deck, a Piquet pack contains thirty-two cards in total: the Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Ten, Nine, Eight, and Seven in each suit. During the eighteenth century, when Pinetti was active as a performer, the trick-taking game Piquet, pronounced "PK", was the most popular card game in France (it was also very popular in England, too). Even though the game of Piquet is no longer as popular as it once was, Piquet packs are still manufactured by Cartamundi and sold in Europe.

Reading about this trick using a Piquet pack gave me the idea of developing a whole series of card tricks designed to be performed with this reduced pack of playing cards. I also thought it would be fun if the included presentations were all inspired by Professor Pinetti, given that he was one of the world's first card conjurers. "Piles of Pinetti" is the first trick in what I'm calling the 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.

But that's not all! After the reading is complete and someone has chosen a card, you use Pinetti's own name to locate the thought-of selection!

Background & Credits

This is a version of The Twenty-One Card Trick, but using thirty-three cards. The Twenty-One Card Trick 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. Therefore, Pinetti may well have performed this trick or something similar using the same underlying principle.

Requirements & Preparation

To perform the first trick in the Piquet Pack Series, 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 either way.

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 turbulent times, Pinetti was still able to amaze and entertain his audience with his magic tricks and fortune-telling abilities. As a skilled cartomancer, he was able to perform incredible feats using just these thirty-two cards. Would you like to see a demonstration of his long-forgotten system of cartomancy?"

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 cartomancy reading has been completed, the mentally-selected card will be the seventeenth card down in the assembled pack.

To reveal the chosen card, say, "Pinetti was also a master magician. After reading a person's fortune, he would tell them the name of the card that they were simply thinking of. It was his greatest trick!"

"Let's see if we can invoke the spirit of Professor Pinetti to help us find your chosen card. To do this, you must spell his name, PROFESSOR PINETTI, dealing one card to the table for each letter in his name. P-R-O-F-E-S-S-O-R P-I-N-E-T-T-I." After your participant has spelt/dealt the name, reach over and take the next card (the top card of the remaining pack) from them and dramatically turn it face up to reveal the thought-of selection. 

Alternatively, you can spell "P-R-O-F-E-S-S-O-R" and then drop the remainder of the pack on top of the pile on the table. Pick everything up, and then spell "P-I-N-E-T-T-I" in the same way. Drop the pack on top of the pile. Ask your participant to name their thought-of card for the first time, then dramatically turn the top card of the pack over.

Performance Tips & Additional Ideas

I think that the trick is more impressive and more difficult to deconstruct if the cards are kept face down throughout. However, you can instruct your volunteer to deal three face-up piles if you prefer, as in the traditional method. This speeds things up because your participant can quickly see which pile contains their card and, thus, can more easily discover the answer to their question. Also, you can read your participant's mind by telling them the identity of their mentally-selected card before your volunteer performs the spelling revelation (this approach belongs to Justin High and is called the "Justified Twenty-One Card Trick").

You can encourage your participant to keep their three questions a secret or ask them to say them out loud. Either approach works, although if you're performing for a group of people, it is more interesting for everyone if they know what questions are being asked. You must commit to the cartomancy theme of the trick. This is what disguises the method by giving your participant a reason to deal the cards into three piles multiple times.

Although I think it is better for the performer not to touch the pack once it has been shuffled by the participant, you can decide to handle the cards yourself if your chosen spectator is finding it difficult to deal and cut the cards. I like the line about not being able to touch the cards because Tarot card readers often prevent other people from touching their cards between readings because it apparently changes the "energy" of the cards. It should be noted that some fortune tellers don't allow anyone to touch their cards, even the person who is receiving a reading from them. So you could use this as an excuse to handle the cards yourself if you prefer this way of doing things.

You might not like the fact that the thought-of card ends up as the next card in the pack rather than the last one dealt to the pile on the table. This is easy to fix with a subtle displacement. Once the card is seventeenth from the top of the pack, deal the top card face up to the table and say, "Your card isn't on top, is it?" Then turn the entire pack face up and say, "And it isn't on the bottom either, is it?" Then pick up the tabled card and replace it on the face of the pack. This subtlety displaces one card from the top of the pack to the bottom. Alternatively, you could establish a break below the top card of the pack and then double-cut it to the bottom. Either way, this repositions the chosen card so that it is sixteenth from the top of the pack. If you do this, make sure to remember to turn the last card dealt face up instead of the next one!

Yet another approach is to reassemble the pack so that the pile containing the chosen card ends up on top. This places the chosen card sixth from the top of the pack. Deal the top card face up to the table and say, "Your card isn't on top, is it?". Then turn the entire pack face up and say, "And it isn't on the bottom either, is it?" Deal the face card of the pack on top of the one already on the table, then drop the face-up pack on top of the pair of cards on the table. Pick up the pack, turn it face down, and then spell/deal "P-I-N-E-T-T-I" and turn the last card dealt face up to finish.

It is possible to perform the trick with twenty-one cards. In this case, the mental selection will end up eleventh from the top of the assembled packet. To make the revelation work, instruct your participant to spell/deal "P-R-O-F P-I-N-E-T-T-I" and turn over the last card dealt to the pile. As "Prof" is short for "Professor", this spelling is a perfectly logical alternative.

You can also perform the trick with fifteen cards. In this case, you only have to ask two questions. You then spell/dealt "P-I-N-E-T-T-I" to finish. You can also give your audience the option of including the word "Professor" in the spelling. Spell/deal "PROFESSOR", then drop the remainder on top and say, "Professor!" Then spell/deal "PINETTI", drop the remainder on top and say, "Pinetti!" Then, with a flourish, turn the top card of the pile face up to reveal the thought-of selection. It is worth noting that Pinetti went by many different names. As well as "Pinetti" and "Professor Pinetti", the following spellings will also work:

• Pinetti
• Professor Pinetti
• Chevalier Pinetti
• Giovanni*
• Giuseppe*
• Giovanni Giuseppe Pinetti
• Professor Giovanni Giuseppe Pinetti

*When spelling "Giovanni" or "Giuseppe", you must always turn over the last card dealt to the pile on the table. Otherwise, use the deal-and-drop procedure outlined above.

If you go to the trouble of printing these names on a piece of paper, you could hand the packet of fifteen cards to your participant and let them choose one of the seven spellings. Then guide them through the appropriate procedure to arrive at the mentally-select card. This adds an extra layer of mystery to the final revelation of the chosen card because the different number of letters in each name suggests an element of randomness that might result in the wrong card being located if another option was chosen.

You can circumvent the repetitive dealing by using this very direct selection procedure: hand the pack to a spectator and ask them to give the cards a thorough shuffle. Then tell them to deal the cards into two piles until there is only one card left in their hand. This last card is their "randomly chosen card". Ask them to remember it, and then drop it on top of either of the two piles on the table. Finally, instruct your helper to pick up the other pile, give it a shuffle and drop it on top of the combined pile. Even though this process feels fair and random, it positions the chosen card in the correct position for the spelling revelation. It is a good idea to walk your volunteer through the Jay Ose False Cut before revealing the selected card. Otherwise, they might correctly surmise that the selection process wasn't as fair or random as it first appeared.

Here's another alternative method that avoids repetitive dealing entirely but still has a similar revelation without the cartomancy reading phase. Instruct a spectator to shuffle the pack and then deal it into three face-down piles. Tell them to pick up one of the piles, cut it and look at and remember the card at the face of the cut-off portion. Next, tell them to drop the cut-off packet on top of one of the remaining two piles on the table. Pick up the other eleven-card packet and slap it on top of the larger pile. Finally, ask your participant to drop the cards remaining in their hand on top of all. While this selection process feels random, it isn't, thanks to Gene Finnell's Free Cut Principle. The selected card will always end up twenty-second from the top of the pack.

To reveal the card, spell/deal "PROFESSOR JOSEPH PINETTI" or "CHEVALIER JOSEPH PINETTI", which both happen to spell with twenty-two letters. Turn over the last card dealt to reveal the thought-of selection. Professor Pinetti went by several grandiose-sounding names and Chevalier Joseph Pinetti was how he was known in France. You can also spell/deal "SIGNOR GIUSEPPE PINETTI", then turn over the next card (or drop the pack on top of the dealt pile after each word is spelt/dealt). This is Pinetti's name as it appears on the title page of his book Physical Amusements and Diverting Experiments. Believe it or not, some historians believe his actual name was "GIOVANNI GIUSEPPE PINETTI"! As this spells with twenty-three letters, not twenty-two, you'll need to use the subtle displacement mentioned above to move a card from the bottom to the top of the pack if you want to use this name.

If you want to use these longer spellings with the Redistribution Principle handling, then you can by using another subtle displacement after the pack is reassembled for the final time and the chosen card is seventeenth from the top. First, demonstrate a "deal or switch shuffle" by dealing three cards, one at a time, into a pile on the table. Then switch the position of the top two cards before dropping them, as a pair, onto the pile on the table. Drop the remainder of the pack on top of the pile. As well as demonstrating Paul Curry's Swindle Switch Shuffle, this action displaces five cards from the top to the bottom of the pack, thus positioning the thought-of selection twelfth from the top of the pack. Finally, perform a "deal or switch" shuffle on the entire pack, allowing your participant to direct your actions by shouting "deal" or "switch" at you. This reverses the order of the cards and puts the chosen card twenty-second from the top.

You could even give your audience the choice of any one of the following names to use and then use the appropriate handling to position the card in the correct location:

• Pinetti (7 letters)
• Giuseppe Pinetti (15 letters)
• Professor Pinetti (16 letters)
• Chevalier Pinetti (16 letters)
• Professor Joseph Pinetti (22 letters)
• Chevalier Joseph Pinetti (22 letters)
• Signor Giuseppe Pinetti (22 letters)
• Giovanni Giuseppe Pinetti (23 letters)

Believe it or not, on the title page of his book, his full name is printed as Signor Giuseppe Pinetti de Wildalle, which has a total of thirty-one letters! Using this extra-long name would require most of the pack if you wanted to use it to spell/deal to the chosen card! 

If you really want to use this spelling, the easiest way to do it is to reassemble the three piles so that the one including the chosen card ends up on the bottom of the pack. Deal three cards from the top of the pack face up to the table, and say, "Your card isn't on top, is it?" Then turn the entire pack face up and say, "And it isn't on the bottom either, is it?" Deal three cards from the face of the pack on top of the three already on the table, then drop the face-up pack on top of the pile of cards on the table. Pick up the pack, turn it face down, and then spell/deal "SIGNOR GIUSEPPE PINETTI DE WILDALLE".

And finally, you don't have to use a spelling revelation at all. Once the cartomancy reading is over, the chosen card will be dead centre in the pack. Deal the cards into three piles one last time and say, "Once Pinetti had finished telling a person's fortune, he'd use his magical powers to locate their thought-of playing card like this..." Move your hands over the piles as if you're receiving some kind of magical energy from them. Then say, "Your card is not in the 'Yes' pile." Deal the cards in pile A into a face-up pile on the table. Your participant will confirm that it does not contain their chosen card. Again, move your hands over the remaining two piles and exclaim, "Your card is not in the 'Maybe' pile!" Deal the cards from pile C face up on top of the ones from pile A. Again, your volunteer will agree that the 'Maybe' pile does not contain their selection. Finally, say, "So your card must be in the 'No' pile." To finish, tell your audience that Pinetti used a "mystical deal" to find the card. Perform a Down-Under deal on the packet to eliminate every card apart from one: the thought-of selection.

Afterthoughts

I really like the idea of disguising the method by presenting the trick as a cartomancy reading. Although this lengthens the time it takes you to perform it, I think this presentation does a good job of obscuring the method, even from those people in your audience that might be familiar with the traditional twenty-one card version of the trick.