Easy Does It #11: Number of the Brain-Rotten Beast

Turn poker's cursed hand into the daftest punchline in card magic. 🧠🧟👿

Welcome to yet another edition of Easy Does It, my regular Ruseletter column on semi-automatic magic you can learn to impress your friends and family with relative ease.

In this instalment, I’m sharing another card trick based on the “6-7” Internet meme. I published a card trick in November last year called “Brain Rot”, which provided an easy way to find all four Sixes and Sevens from an apparently shuffled deck (you can learn the trick on my blog). However, that trick used a seventeen-card setup, which made it a little impractical. This time the trick uses a smaller, much easier-to-remember pre-arrangement. It enables a spectator to apparently locate three Sevens using three face-up Sixes in an act of unbelievable coincidence.

Image Credit: Marty’s Magic Ruseletter.

This routine is a lot of fun to perform, especially for youngsters who still find the “6-7” meme funny (if it ever was, particularly after The Great Meme Reset of 2026). Incidentally, my three daughters still think shouting “six-seven” at their exhausted dad is hilarious. Sigh.

If you’ve somehow managed to inextricably escape the “6-7” meme, you can learn about it by reading a blog post I wrote last year:

Read Brain Rot (Marty’s Bag of Tricks) 👈

Alternatively, you can learn far more than you ever needed to know about it on Know Your Meme.

When I published the trick in late 2025, I thought it would have a very short shelf life due to the transient nature of Internet memes. However, we’re almost halfway through 2026, and “6-7” still seems to be going strong, in part because primary school children have embraced it as their own. Even the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, was caught doing it in the classroom for heaven’s sake!

Right, let’s take a look at my new brain-rot-inspired card trick.

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📋 Quick Reference

• Effect Type: Coincidence Effect

• Difficulty: ★★★☆☆ (Intermediate)

• Duration: 3–5 minutes

• Setup Time: Modest

• Reset Time: Less than a minute

• Props: A standard pack of cards

• Key Moves & Principles: Overhand shuffle retaining top and bottom stock, a false cut (Bobby Bernard’s False Swing Cut), Two-Card Catch, Double Undercut, Slip Shuffle, Edward Victor’s E-Y-E Count, and the “Gemini Twins” placement principle

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In essence, “Number of the Brain-Rotten Beast” combines Johann Nepomuk Hofzinser’s Two-Card Catch with a three-card handling of “Gemini Twins” by Karl Fulves. It also features a fun, poker-themed presentation that culminates in the silly “6-7” revelation. It also uses the “E-Y-E Count Elimination” idea that I first shared in my trick “Simplex Soulmates” (see Easy Does It #7).

If you like the Faustian feel of this trick, then you might also enjoy reading Tricks, Tricks & More Tricks #3: Satanic Sorcery, which is an exclusive perk of being a paid subscriber of the Ruseletter.

Once you’ve produced the three Sixes, the method is largely self-working. The “6-7” ending also gives your audience something to shout out, if they’re so inclined, adding a little interaction to the conclusion of the routine.

Image Credit: Marty’s Magic Ruseletter.

Alternative Presentations

If you don’t like discussing the Number of the Beast and the Devil, and if the “6-7” meme ever dies—and maybe it really should—the same “Gemini Triplets” handling can be applied to the number 42 to evoke the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything (a well-known reference to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams).¹

Another approach when using Fours and Twos is to forget the Number of the Beast and use angel numbers instead! 🪽 444 is widely regarded (by those who believe in this woo-woo) as a powerful spiritual message that you’re on the right path and that your guardian angels are protecting you. Angel numbers are complete nonsense, relying on confirmation bias and the frequency illusion. But this might be a memorable way to introduce the effect.

These two ideas (the angel numbers and the quote from Douglas Adams) could also be combined into a single presentation. I’ll leave that to you.

Incidentally, if I were to present the trick in this way, I wouldn’t use a skill-based production of the three Fours; instead, I’d use this simple force: with the three Fours on top of the deck, have a spectator say “stop” as you deal cards to the table. You then hand them the dealt pile and ask them to deal it into three separate piles. Simple! You can now frame the procedure as an “angel number reading”, ending with the revelation of three sets of 42. Apparently, this number encourages you to pursue your passion, seek balance, create space, and build solid foundations. As this is an overwhelmingly positive message, similar to those used in classic cold readings, it should do no real harm to those who truly believe in angel numbers.

Or, failing that, if you’re feeling a little fruity, you could use the number 69! 😉