Spelling Bee may refer to one of several card tricks that revolve around the spelling of card types, audience member names, or words suggested by the audience. Many make use of decks prepared in advance in order to provide the illusion of spelling card names in a particular sequence. Jean Hugard's '' Encyclopedia of Card Tricks'' lists a number of such spelling-based tricks, many of which are considered to be self-working.

Pre-arranged deck

In the first style of Spelling Bee trick, the

magician Magician or The Magician may refer to: Performers * A practitioner of magic (supernatural) * A practitioner of magic (illusion) * Magician (fantasy), a character in a fictional fantasy context Entertainment Books * ''The Magician'', an 18th-ce ...

shuffles Shuffling is a procedure used to randomize a deck of playing cards to provide an element of chance in card games. Shuffling is often followed by a cut, to help ensure that the shuffler has not manipulated the outcome. __TOC__ Techniques Overha ...

a deck of playing cards and removes a stack of thirteen cards from the top. Holding these cards face down, they state they will be able to spell the name of each card using only that stack. They will draw cards one at a time from the stack. For each card drawn, they spell one letter from the intended card's name, then place the card on the bottom of the deck. After the card's whole name is spelled, the next card drawn will be the intended card. For example, if the magician wishes to spell out "

ace An ace is a playing card, Dice, die or domino with a single Pip (counting), pip. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit (cards), suit symbol (a heart, diamond, spade, or club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large a ...

", they will draw three cards, saying the letters "a", "c", and "e" as they go. Then they will draw a fourth card, which will be an ace. The ace is removed from the deck. The magician can then continue through the deck, repeating the process for "two", "three", and so on, up to "

queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

", until the magician is holding only one card, which will be a

king King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

John Scarne John Scarne (; March 4, 1903 – July 7, 1985) was an American magician and author who was particularly adept at playing card manipulation. He became known as an expert on cards and other games, and authored a number of popular books on cards, g ...

's variation on the trick includes some intentional misspellings as a performance element. This trick requires some preparation on the part of the magician, who arranges the cards in order before beginning the performance. When spelling from ace to king, the order is 3-8-7-A-Q-6-4-2-J-K-10-9-5. For two to ace, the deck is arranged J-4-9-2-K-8-A-5-7-3-Q-10-6. At the beginning of the trick, the magician performs a false shuffle that does not disturb the arrangement of the top stack. The trick can also be performed without the false shuffle, making it accessible to the unskilled performer. The ''Encyclopedia of Card Tricks'' presents a more complex variation of this trick, called the Shuffled Spelling Bee. This version uses the entire deck, with the black suits, the

spades SPAdes (St. Petersburg genome assembler) is a genome assembly algorithm which was designed for single cell and multi-cells bacterial data sets. Therefore, it might not be suitable for large genomes projects. SPAdes works with Ion Torrent, PacBio ...

and

clubs Club may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Club'' (magazine) * Club, a ''Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character * Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards * Club music * "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album ''kelsea'' Brands and enterprises ...

, arranged in advance. An audience participant is given a

magician's choice In stage magic, a force is a method of controlling a choice made by a spectator during a trick. Some forces are performed physically using sleight of hand, such as a trick where a spectator appears to select a random card from a deck but is inste ...

that results in the unwanted red suits, the hearts and

diamonds Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, b ...

, being removed. The spades are provided to the audience member, and the magician then spells out card names using the clubs. A further variation on this trick by Stuart Lee uses all four suits.

Audience-selected cards

The second style of "Spelling Bee" tricks involves one or more audience members selecting and memorizing a card. It is replaced it in the deck, which is then apparently shuffled. The magician reveals the selected card after drawing cards to spell out a word provided by audience members, often the name of the selected card. The magician either controls the placement of the selected card in the deck, knows its location with the help of a key card, or uses

sleight of hand Sleight of hand (also known as prestidigitation or ''legerdemain'' ()) refers to fine motor skills when used by performing artists in different art forms to entertain or manipulate. It is closely associated with close-up magic, card magic, card ...

to force it out at the appropriate time. In either case, this creates the illusion that the magician was able to predict the appearance of the card with magic. For example, the magician may force the selected card to be the fifth from the top of the deck, then select a volunteer with a four-letter name to deal one card for each letter in their name - four in total. The magician then instructs the volunteer to deal the next card, which will be the selected card.

Nine cards in three piles

A third variation uses nine cards, selected at random. They are divided into three piles of three cards. A participant looks at the bottom card of one pile and memorizes it. That pile is then placed on top of the other two piles, such that the memorized card will be the third card from the top. The magician then begins dealing cards onto the table one at a time from the nine-card stack, one for each letter in a set of words according to a formula. At the end of every step except the last, the remaining cards are placed on top of the dealt cards; this becomes the stack for the next step. The formula is specific and must be followed exactly for the trick to work. In order, the magician spells out the face value of the selected card, the word "of", the suit of the card (always in the plural form), and any five-letter word of their choice. The top card on the final stack of five dealt cards will always be the original selected card.

References

{{Magic and Illusion Card tricks