My daughter asked me to show her a funny card trick - this threw me a little because she has never willingly asked to see any magic and it is not something I would ever force on anybody.
I was on the spot so I did the following six card repeat which was a stand-by of mine, I usually did it just to amuse friends and colleagues but have occasionally used it during my act.
The six card repeat is a real classic and my only problem with it is that the majority of magicians do it with the traditional story - you know the one I mean, it goes..."I saw a magician the other night doing a trick with 1-2-3-4-5-6 cards he threw three away and was left with 1-2-3-4-5-6 cards....ad nauseam" oh! and it rarely has a real finish.
Perhaps the real strength of the trick is as an opening trick; conventional teaching is that the first trick should be short and snappy, but consider a very unruly noisy audience - they would probably miss the trick. The beauty about the six card repeat is the monotonous repetition, after a short time the repetition will get through to the audience and very slowly they will watch to find out what you are going on about. This is a technique used by street traders and pitch-men, you will see (and hear) them picking objects up and stacking them up while saying stuff like "you'll get not one, not two, not three, not four ..." and so on - sooner or later curiosity will make you wonder what its about.
Back to the routine:
You will need 12 or 15 cards whatever you are comfortable with and a passable buckle count or corner push off.
My patter would go something like this (15 cards);
"I'd had a bit to drink and was standing outside KFC with 1-2-3-4-5-6 (count from one hand to the other with a buckle move/push off on the count of 5) cards in my hand ....and wondering where these cards had come from, when suddenly a police car appeared from my right (thumb a card into the air on the right side) then stopped right in front of me (thumb a card into the air directly in front) and then sped off to the left (thumb a card into the air on the left side). It didn't bother me much, I was still wondering why I had 1-2-3-4-5-6 cards (buckle/push off count of 5).
Then would you believe it, an open-topped pink Cadillac driven by a member of parliament screeched in from my right (card thumbed off to right) stopped in front of me (card thumbed off to the front) then tore off to the left (card thumbed off to left). It didn't bother me much, I was still wondering why I had 1-2-3-4-5-6 cards (buckle count/push off again).
A cowboy rode in from the right (card thumbed off) stopped directly in front of me (card thumbed off) and started shooting in the air and just as quickly he was riding off into the sunset on my left (card thumbed off) maybe it wasn't a sunset it could have been pollution in the air but it it did look beautiful. I wasn't really interested though, I was still wondering why I had 1-2-3-4-5-6 cards (normal count from hand to hand).
Well next thing I knew there was a spaceship coming around the corner to my right (card thumbed off) it hovered in front of me (thumb card off) and I saw two of the most intense looking eyes watching me and before I had a chance to say anything it flew off to my left (thumb card off). I wasn't too interested because I was still wondering why I had 1-2-3...just a minute 1-2-3...At this point I would look down and do a little jump as I noticed the cards lying on the floor and I would say "must have dropped a few cards".
That's it, if you like it and use it let me know.