There’s a good old clip of Aaron Fisher teaching the cross-cut force on YouTube. The method of forcing a playing card is simply the easiest and is often favoured by big-name magicians like Penn & Teller.
It can be referred to as the crisscross force, as well as the cross-cut force and the crossing-the-cut force. The bottom line is that the spectator cuts the deck, and you ‘mark where they cut’ by placing the remaining packet on top of the cut section at an angle.
With the correct amount of timing misdirection, the magician can later lift the top section to reveal the card the spectator cut to—either the bottom card in the top packet or the top card of the packet on the table.
It’s a brilliant, brilliant method for forcing a card with a regular deck of cards. In fact, I would go so far as to say it’s the best method for forcing with an ordinary deck of cards. Why? It’s so goddamn simple and easy.
You can ditch the sleight of hand and focus on the shit that really matters—like your performance. Move monkeys do not like it when I say this, but if the aim of your sleight of hand is for it to be invisible, and there’s an easier option that requires no sleights—take the easy option.
I’ve written and produced television magic for ten years now. You learn quickly to always choose the easy option. It saves time on the shoot day, relieves pressure on the talent, reduces the risk of failure and ultimately makes you as the writer/consultant/producer look good (and get more work).
