The NON Faro

By R. Paul Wilson

I have been fascinated by false Faro shuffles for many years. Homer Liwag’s is one of the
best solutions and Marlo has one in his Revolutionary Card Techniques series that bears a
striking resemblance to a Dr. Sawa idea.

This is based on the Sawa move. It solves many problems and adds a nice subtlety that really
convinces. Essentially, Sawa and Marlo simply performed Tilt with the whole deck. This
caused an opening in the front of the deck as the move was completed and just didn’t feel
right. I basically do Tilt in reverse with a powerful little addition that really sells.

I have done this for many well-respected card men as they burned the deck. When told it was
a completely false shuffle they always asked me to repeat it. It had gone right by them.

This is extremely simple and will retain the entire deck order. While it works well for the laity,
its real power is for other magicians or people familiar with the Faro shuffle. If you do any kind
of memorised deck work, this will really confuse fast company.

Let’s imagine you have a stacked deck with two jokers on top of the deck (I will explain how to
do this without the jokers at the end).

This move should be viewed from the front. A little mirror practice will show that this is actually
an easy move to cover, even for a large group.

Perform a slip cut around the middle of the deck, drawing the top card onto the lower half and
stepping the upper half forward for half the deck’s length.

Hold the stepped deck at the left fingertips and withdraw the lower half with the right hand
(Fig. 1 – Jokers are face up for clarity).

Press the ends of the two packets together as for a Faro shuffle (Fig. 2). Note the right first
finger on top of both inner corners. This pressure from the right finger aids the Faro.
Fig. 2

The right hand packet must be set to Faro IN to the left. This means that the top card of the
right cards will Faro UNDER the top card of the left.

In fact only the top card of the right packet will Faro – the rest of this packet will go directly
under the left packet!

To do this, perform the Faro. At the instant the top card of the right half goes into the left
packet (under the top card), the right hand lowers all of the other cards until they clear the
edge of the left packet (Fig 3.). You may need to unweave a card or two under the right top
card but, from the front, this action looks exactly as if you were completing the Faro
legitimately!

Fig. 3

Once the single card is set, and the rest of the packet is under the left hand cards, apparently
push the right hand cards deeper into the left until the right hand cards are gripped at the
base of the left thumb and middle phalanx of the third finger (Fig. 4).
Fig. 4

The right hand then releases its cards and comes over the deck, thumb at the inner end of the
inner packet (actually a single card), fingers at the outer end of the whole deck (Fig. 4 again).

The right hand will now push everything square. As it does, the outer end of the deck is
allowed to angle to the right slightly so that the outer left corner of the single card protrudes
slightly from the left long edge of the deck as it is being squared (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5

This means that the audience will see this corner slide along the edge of the outer packet,
under the top card of the deck. This simple subtlety is so convincing you’ll laugh out loud
when you watch it in a mirror.

Complete by squaring the left long edge with the left thumb.

The most important element in this move is acting. You must act like you’re performing a Faro
shuffle and squaring it neatly in an act of fairness. You must act as if the cards bind when you
push the packets together and square the deck.

Following the above instructions, the two jokers return to the top and the deck remains
completely intact. The two jokers will switch places, however.

To do this without the jokers, simply reverse the top two cards of your stack. When you do the
Non Faro these will return to their usual order. You can also simply do the non Faro twice but
I think it’s best done once.

If you have the December 2002 issue of Genii (with Aaron Fisher on the cover) you will find
Aaron’s covered slip cut. If you use this instead of a normal slip cut all the cards will remain in
the same order.
If you wish, you can show the side of the deck as the Faro begins then lower the deck as you
lever the right cards under the left. The audience sees the Faro begin but do not see it
complete. Again, five minutes with a mirror will show you the angles.

Finally, I decided not to use a fake waterfall cascade to end the shuffle as the slow push-
together looks way better. To cascade the right hand buckles the upper packet and springs it
onto the lower one. The right thumb must first move the single card to the right so it can
contact the inner left corner of the upper packet. The upper cards are bent and sprung off the
right thumb, onto the lower packet. I feel this is an inferior handling but you may wish to toy
with it.