“Loner” is a blank deck effect by Cameron Francis.  It is his take on David Regal’s trick called “Alone” and “All Alone”.

In effect, the performer shows a deck of playing cards with blank faces.  He asks a spectator to name any one of the 52 cards in a deck of playing cards.  Assuming the spectator names the six of hearts.

He explains that the cards are blanks because their faces are invisible to everybody except to himself.  He proceeds to fan the cards and “looks” for the six of hearts.  He takes out one blank card which he claims is the six of hearts.  He replaces this blank card back in the centre of the deck.

Now he asks the spectator to imagine her six of hearts has reversed itself in the deck.  The performer spreads the deck face up and among the blank cards is a card reversed so that its back is showing.  He gathers up the deck, turns it over face down and spreads the deck.  One card is seen face up in the face down deck – it is the six of hearts!

There are many blank deck effects available.  Among the popular ones are Caleb Wiles’ “Holy Blank”, Meir Yedid’s “Fadeout”, and the famous Dean Dill’s “Blizzard”.

Many such effects use rough and smooth, sticky stuff or thin cards.  “Loner” does not use any of them.  It is easy to perform, no sleights to worry about.  The effect is almost self-working.  This is the hallmark of Caneron Francis.  His effects are always easy to perform and have maximum impact on the audience.

You receive the special deck and a link to a 24-minutes video tutorial conducted by Cameron Francis himself.  He shows you how to reset the deck in less than 4 minutes.  This makes it useful for walk-about performances.  The effect is suitable for performances for parlour or stage, and for zoom platform.

The spectator can name any one of the 52 different cards – there is no force.  The entire effect appears to be very straight forward and very clean.  (Rated 5/5 stars)