I have not tried this out on my intended magician friend yet, but I've been practicing on many laymen and it's worked well. It's easy to do, and it's all sales! The method is one of the oldest in magic, but the "spin" I put on it I hope will fool my magic friends (and yours)!

Someone is doing card tricks for you, and you've seen enough (ehem) and decide to have a little fun with them. So you say to everyone "well it's easy to do that, those are marked cards. I can see the markings from here!"

Your magician friend protests, so you quickly shuffle the the cards and then ask your friend to cut the deck into 3 piles of any size mentioning that you will try to see the markings.

You then look at the first pile and say "by the back of this card I know this is an Ace" and you pick up the card. You look at the next pile and name another card, then the next pile.

You then ask everyone, "now what were the three cards I just read from the back?"

The cards are repeated and you lay them out one at a time, each having been correctly guessed from the back without ever having seen the face!

No preparation is needed and the effect is self working. All that is required is that you know the value of the top card.

Begin by watching your friend shuffle. Nine times out of ten you can learn the top or bottom card just by watching the shuffle. If you have seen what card he/she has on top, then you won't even have to touch the cards before you do the trick! If you did not catch the top card, take the cards, peek at the bottom card while you give them a quick shuffle moving this card to the top.

Now have your friend cut the cards into 3 piles. (You can have as many piles as you want, but people have trouble remembering more than 3.) Keep track of what pile the card you know is in. This will be the card you "guess" last.

Let's say you know the top card is the 7 of diamonds, and you know the pile it's in. Reach out to a DIFFERENT pile and say "this looks like the 7 of diamonds" and pick it up. Do not show the card to the audience, but look at it yourself and nod. Now, let's say the card you picked up is the 8 of clubs, you now look to the next pile and say "this looks like the 8 of clubs" and pick up the top card again. Again you do not show this to the audience, but nod. Let's say it is the King of Hearts, you simply look to the last pile and say "this last pile is the King of Hearts" and pick up the last card.

You have now named all three cards successfully!

Set the cards face down on the table, and chit chat a moment so that no one remembers the order the cards were picked up in. Then ask who remembers the cards you named, and as they are named, turn them over one at a time to show you were right!