What would you get if you took the “Any Card at Any Number” plot, and a calendar with a different word written in for every day of the year, put them in a blender and mix them up? Well, you would get Spellendar by Phill Smith. Spellendar is an offbeat, somewhat procedural and impossible to re-engineer magic trick that takes the coincidence plot to a new level.
The mentalist places a deck of cards in a closed case on the table. He then hands a spectator a calendar that has a word written in for every day of the year. They think of a month and choose a word from one of the days. The performer then takes out a second deck and shuffle cards into three piles. The top cards are shown to another spectator and they mentally choose one. After both decisions are made, the original untouched deck is opened and the mentalist spells out the value and suit for the chosen card, then counts to the month chosen and counts more to the day chosen. The last card not only has the word that was originally chosen from the calendar but also matches the suit and value of the chosen card.
The effect is a great coincidence effect and it took Phill Smith eons to figure this all out. Obviously, there is a method. The choice of words is actually limited and the choice of cards are as well. Practically self-working it does require the performer to have the ability to do a slip cut force, which is very basic. The second deck in play is an ordinary deck so you may want to close with this one. The trick is not cheap, in the box you get a pre-printed calendar and a pre-printed deck of cards as well as a video link for instructions. You provide the second deck. Although it is very well thought out, the gimmicked deck provided is a dollar store type quality. It would have been nice to have matching decks of contrasting color. Also, although nicely printed, I would get a real day planner and hand write the words in. The pre-printed diary although convenient, screams magic trick. If you are looking for an ACAAN trick and did not want to bother with memorized decks, counting and moving cards, etc., consider Spellendar by Phill Smith.
To watch a trailer on Spellendar click here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwLsopUDhqQ