I really believe the trick to this is in the force. Though on his other audiences he can do an easier force, but penn is the one that shuffled, so unless there is a marked card or gimmick in the original deck i have no clue how he could have forced it. I looked and he had both palms face up when penn handed back the deck after shuffling so a duped palmed card wasnt used. Unless it was sleeved and pushed out during the intial fanning, but no way that wouldnt have been spotted.

If i were to do this i would have used a palmed card with a gravity force, but penn takes the card from the deck himself and isnt handed the card... Much much trickier hmmm,

I have studied this trick for a while now and i have some theories. Mostly from looking at three showings of this trick. First off shawn has a thing for svengali decks and gimmicks, and i wouldnt put it past him to have connections at some basic manufacturing of cards given his stature to have proper sleeves made.. Though i doubt this is his method.

1. He legitametly reseals the cellophane. I have done this to my local stores and will senak a sealed pack into the store with the gimmick card added. It takes time but new cellophase is easy to un adhesive with light heat and very careful opening.

2. I dont believe a slit was made. I do believe the flaps are opened completely on the bottom. In one of his videos he doesnt like someone investigating the box. The cards arent a problem. If you look at the ellen shows video you will see for a split second a view of the cards as they are coming out. There is no shadow at the inside of the box, there for i dont think any insert remains in the box.

I have tried to see if the box size is ordinary. hard to tell...

Though i made a gimmick where you can put a card in a box and reseal it, but mine has a thin paper wrapped around two halves of the deck, where 1 card can fit in between. It wraps around the bottom of the cards and part way up their backside. When you dump the cards out the inside box insert doesnt come out with the cards as it is glued to the inside of the box.

. The trick is straight forward once you can get the force down. A random selection is tough. All of his tricks have a signature card forced so i am ruling out complete randomness. Statistically there has to be a force.Anyways, if you look closely you will see a dark line, the card is legitamately reinserted. New cards have a uniformity to their color when squared up.

3. His switch is under two seconds, so there must be a card guider for the insert. The resealing of the flap can be done when pushing the card in. He takes a half second too long for simply sliding a card into place and quickly reaches back once he does. My guess is removing a thin insert.

4. I have seen him do many many tricks where his forces are ungodly. And i do mean completely blind. The method of picking a card was to plop a finger on a card. This is a force setup.

5. He always pockets the box immediately in every performance.

6. I thought about a method of having several decks inside the pockets one for each card possibly chosen. Ie... 6-7 gimmick decks marked all with the bottom of the deck facing up. He does stress i can see the card i have seen this trick before many times. So i wouldnt disregard multiple decks for multiple choices.