The assignment
Iris’s agenda for a video call has three items and no any-other-business. Fill the frame. Let them hold the number. End before someone shares their screen. She is a fictional character and has never been on mute by accident, which she considers her only supernatural ability.
Set up the frame
Put the camera at chest height and light yourself from the front, so your hands are not silhouettes. Do a test recording first: some apps show you a mirrored preview, and the side you think you are hiding may not be the side the audience sees.
Keep your hands in the middle of the frame for the opener. For the number cards, either screen-share the cards from the guide page or send a link to the page before the call — the spectator can print or screenshot the six cards and keep them to hand.
Read the room
The start of a social call, an end-of-week team call, or a family call where someone needs a distraction. Not a meeting with an agenda that does not include you.
For the closer, ask one person to be the spectator and have everyone else watch their camera. If nobody on the call has a deck, skip it and end on the pencil; you can send them the nine-card guide afterwards.
If something goes wrong
The number cards only fail if the spectator misreads a card — confirm they said yes or no to each of the six, not just the ones their number appears on. If the total comes out wrong, run through the six yes/no answers together and recompute; one missed card is usually the culprit.
The nine-card trick only fails if the spelling rules slip. Values are spelled as words, the suit is plural, and the rest of the packet always goes on top of the dealt pile. If it misses, walk through the first spell together with them, then have them try again. Video lag is a reasonable excuse for anything else.