Chapter Two: Daley Defects

WHEN I perform magic for someone I've just met, I nearly always start with Dai Vernon's "Twisting the Aces", closely followed by Dr Daley's Last Trick. For this reason, I've probably performed Daley's transposition more than any other card trick, and, as a consequence, I've developed a keen appreciation of its strengths and weaknesses. This chapter dissects Daley's trick and discusses these weaknesses, along with some simple ways to eliminate them (alterations that don't require significant changes to the method or presentation of the trick). I've identified four main weaknesses in the plot:

The effect is too direct;
The trick is poorly motivated;
The effect is easily missed;
The trick is too short.

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