Stephen Fry Amazed By Card Trick - Trick of the Mind

Performing the magic for me is not about convincing anyone I have amazing abilities. It's about providing a journey, which comes to a place where the brain starts spinning. And of course the best brains spin the most. So I understand you are a bit of a magic fan, and that you are or were something of an amateur magician? Yes, when I was a boy I used to get all those wonderful books. All those books on card magic in particular. Card and coin magic. I've never been a great one for displaying cabinet magic for large lacquered boxes and disappearing women. Oh, do light up by the way. Thank you, I'd love to. It's interesting that magic does seem to appeal to creative and often quite isolated teenage and kids, a young mentality, yourself if that's okay to say that. Woody Allen of course used to be a magician. Absolutely. I mean there's a theory that it's the revenge of the nerd, that it's the rather kind of ignored and hopeless child who's not good on the games field, who can kind of fool his co-evils, and in that sense a bit like comedy. You can get one over on the big chaps because you can actually fool them, and you can make them go, bloody hell, how do you do that? How can you do it? What? Come on, you know. And they're the ones who otherwise would beat you up. There's some element to that. Well perhaps on that note I should show you a trick, a card trick no less, but my very favourite. I'm going to spread the cards out on the table and ask you merely to look down and remember one card, and to really burn the image of that card in your mind. So for example it was the three of hearts, then you see a big three and a big heart, and burn that into your head. Please don't now, go for the three of hearts, but any card you like. Are you ready? Yep. I'll look the other way as you do it so I don't sort of catch a glimpse of where you might be looking. Got one? Yes. Yes, marvellous, thank you so much. Right, thank you. Now if you look at me, and in your mind, not out loud obviously, just repeat that card to yourself over and over again. Just over and over again, like king of diamonds, king of diamonds, king of diamonds. Shut up! Is that it? Fuck off! Thank you so much. Bloody hell. Sorry, that was a rather extreme reaction, but that is extraordinary. That was a charming reaction. That's quite brilliant. Thank you. Actually a little more difficult than I thought, do you know why? Why is that? Well there is no king of diamonds in there. No there was. There was a, I'm trying to remember, where was it, in the middle somewhere? Yeah. About a third of the, no, there was a king of hearts I believe. King of hearts. Oh for God's sake! Excuse me, your card there, the king of diamonds. Thank you Stephen. Oh brilliant, brilliant. Absolutely superb. Unpleasant souvenir for you. Oh my lord, that is just extraordinary. It's almost like a bad shock. You kind of think, no, no, your mind wants to say, no this is not happening. It's not real, it's not true. I reject it, I reject everything about it. Fantastic, quite brilliant.