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Through carefully crafted language, ambiguous phrasing, and quick thinking, the performer ensures no matter what choice the spectator makes, it aligns with the magician’s intended result. The Equivoque method relies on exploiting the spectator’s lack of knowledge about the trick’s structure and the performer’s skill in making the participant believe each answer always results in the same outcome.
In practice, equivoque involves presenting choices that seem open-ended but are subtly manipulated through verbal cues or recontextualization of outcomes. For example, if a magician places two cards on a table and needs the card on the right to be selected, the performer might casually say, “Hand one card to me.” If the spectator hand the magician the correct card, the magician smiles as if he’s proud of the spectator, he holds the card up high and proceeds as if the spectator understood this was an important decision.

If the spectator hand the magician the wrong card, at this point many unskilled performers draw attention to the wrong card by saying, “We’ll set this one aside,” or “That eliminates this one.” According to mentalist Jon Finch, it is more deceptive to put all focus onto the correct card, “That’s fine. Keep the card you chose, hold it close.”