Completely different, but I remember some magician (maybe Penn & Teller) demonstrating a “audience member picks a card and has it in an impossible location that proves it was predicted in advance” trick… they pick a card, the card’s destroyed, the magician asks what card it was (or figures it out from some other method), and then… ta-da, reveals that it’s actually painted on the floor under the carpet they’re standing on.
The trick was, that EVERY card in the deck was hidden in some impossible location, and all the locations were memorized in advance. Once he knew what card it was, all he had to do was reveal THAT card in it’s impossible location… only the 2 of diamonds was under the carpet, for example, if it was the jack of clubs, it would be in his wallet, if it was the ten of spades, it would be temporary-tattooed on the magician’s arm, etc. (I think there was also a classification system so all the 2’s are in the same general hiding place, same for 3’s, etc, and the suit just determines which of such options to go with, so it was easier to remember).
