Chapter Three: Popular Handlings

Daley's Original Handling

If you’ve ever seen a performance of Dr Daley Last Trick, it is doubtful that you’ve actually seen Daley’s trick as he intended it to be performed. Unfortunately, very few people use his elegant handling, probably because they didn’t learn it from The Dai Vernon Book of Magic. To try and encourage more magicians to use his handling, I’ve included a write-up of his wonderful trick below, along with some additional handling suggestions and performance tips.

Setup

Arrange the cards in the following order from the bottom of the face-up packet: AC-AS-AD-AH (the Ace of Hearts is the face card of the packet).

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Method & Presentation

You will first perform a Biddle Count to display the face of every card in a natural manner. Hold the packet in your left hand in Dealer’s Grip. Bring your right hand over the packet and grasp it from above with your right second and third fingers on its short outer edge. The pad of your right thumb should contact the cards at their short inner edge (this is known as End Grip).

Holding the card from above with your right hand, move them to the right, holding back the top card, the Ace of Hearts, by extending your left thumb across the face of the packet. As the rest of the cards clear your left fingertips, allow the Ace of Hearts to fall into left-hand Dealer’s Grip. Call out the name of the card to bring attention to it.

Continue the count by placing the right-hand packet over the Ace of Hearts held in your left hand so that it momentarily covers the card. Then, place your left thumb over the face of the packet and draw the Ace of Diamonds on top of the Ace of Hearts. Establish a left little finger break between the two red Aces as this happens. As you do this, call out the name of the second Ace.

Bring the right-hand packet over the cards held in your left hand once more. As you do so, secretly steal back the Ace of Diamonds with your right fingers and thumb. You do this by adding the card to the right-hand packet as you drag the Ace of Spades into your left hand. Note: the little finger break held between the two red Aces facilitates this move. The Ace of Spades remains behind the Ace of Clubs as it is carried to the right (with the Ace of Diamonds hidden below it) and provides complete coverage for the steal. Call out the names of the two black Aces.

Situation Check: As far as your audience is concerned, there are three cards in your left hand—the Ace of Hearts, Diamonds and Spades—actually, there are only two, the Ace of Hearts and Spades. The Ace of Diamonds is hidden beneath the Ace of Clubs in your right hand.

Performed slowly and smoothly, it appears that you have fairly displayed the face of each card as they’re pulled from your right hand into your left.

Next, you need to place the two cards held (as one) in your right hand underneath the cards held in your left. Daley did this by sliding the right-hand cards underneath the right outer corner of the left-hand packet, leaving the double card protruding below it. I prefer not to do this. Instead, I temporarily place the double card on top of the left-hand cards, which is injogged by less than an inch. Doing this allows me to let go of the packet with my right hand and re-grip it with my thumb on top and fingers below. I can then carefully move the double from the top of the packet to the bottom, leaving it injogged as before. I prefer this situation because the edge of the double card is better hidden at the back of the packet than at the front.

Either way, if no trickery had taken place, the protruding card would be the Ace of Clubs alone. In reality, the Ace of Diamonds is hidden underneath it. For the purposes of this explanation, I’ll assume you have placed the double at the back of the packet rather than the front.

Next, reposition the entire packet so that it is held between its long edges by the tips of your left fingers and the pad of your left thumb. Now, slide the Ace of Spades forwards with your right fingertips to reveal a small portion of the Ace of Hearts. There is only one red Ace between the black Aces; there should be two, but if the cards were squared in this way, you’d only see one anyway. 

Note: If you prefer to place the double at the front of the packet, as per the original instructions, you need to slide the Ace of Spades backwards to display the Ace of Hearts.

Say, “Black Aces on top and bottom, red Aces in the middle.” as you slide the cards together and square up the packet.

Turn the packet face down, end-for-end, and then deal the top card to the table. (The reason I turn the packet face down in this way is to make sure that the Ace of Spades is the right way up when I display it in a few moments.) As you do this, say, “Black card.” Next, you apparently draw out the bottom card of the packet, show it to be the other black Ace (the Spade), and deal it on top of the Club (?) already on the table (actually a red Ace). In truth, you perform a Double Lift from the bottom of the packet in the following manner.

As your right thumb and forefinger go to the outer top edge of the packet to slide out the bottom card, push the top card of the packet diagonally to the right with your left thumb. Only a very slight movement is necessary, just sufficient to expose enough of the middle card for your right thumb to contact the very edge of the back of it. Draw out both the middle and bottom cards together, keeping them perfectly aligned so that they appear to be a single card. To cover this small get-ready, tilt your left hand upwards a little. Lift your right hand and turn it at the wrist, then draw it back towards your body to reveal the face of the Ace of Spades. The free short edge should be allowed to rest momentarily on the back of the face-down card in your left hand, keeping the cards aligned as one. Now bring your right hand forward again so that the double tilts forward, the free short edge sliding back across the left-hand card until it aligns with its short inner edge. Release your right hand’s grip on the two cards, and square up the packet.

Over the years, I’ve modified this Double Lift as follows: Once I’ve drawn the cards out from underneath the packet, I continue to tilt the double backwards, eventually dropping it face up on top of the left-hand card, flush with the other card. Doing this gives me a little more time to display the face of the card to my audience, free of the worry that someone might notice that I’m holding two cards as one. To complete the turnover, I perform a Pinky Pull Down to establish a break below the top two cards of the packet. It is then a simple matter of turning the top two cards over as one.

Deal the top card of the packet on top of the card on the table—this top card has just been shown as the Ace of Spades (the other black Ace); actually, it is the Ace of Hearts. Both red Aces are now face down on the table. However, due to the subtle moves that have been performed, your audience believes them to be the black Aces.

Turn to a spectator and say, “Where’s the Ace of Spades? On the top or bottom?” As she has just been shown its face and seen it dealt from the packet in hand, she will, most likely, say that it is the top card of the two on the table. Turn over the card and show it to be a red Ace, then turn over the second card on the table, another red Ace! Finally, flip the cards in your left hand face up to show that you hold the black Aces—the extraordinary transposition is complete!

Afterthoughts

Most other variations of Dr Daley’s Last Trick dispense with the initial display of the cards. Doing so often muddies the handling because it introduces a visual discrepancy, e.g., a red Ace is seen at the rear of the face-up packet. When it is turned face down, and the top two cards are turned over as one, the card displayed is black when it should really be red. Although there are ways to hide this inconsistency, Daley has already found an excellent way to avoid this problem altogether: the Biddle Count. The display of the cards also makes the “initial state” of the trick crystal clear; your audience knows what cards you hold and their order. This clarity helps increase the impact of the transposition while also making it less likely that someone will forget which Aces are supposed to be on the table. Unlike other handlings, Daley’s construction only requires a single Double Lift, giving the trick an economy of motion not present in more recent interpretations of the plot.

However, there is a way to eliminate the Biddle Count without introducing another Double Lift or a discrepant display. Arrange the cards in the usual order: AH-AD-AC-AS. Spread the cards and display them to your audience, with black Aces in your left hand and red Aces in your right. Next, square up the cards without changing their order. Establish a little finger break above the bottom card (I use a Pinky Pull Down). Remove the three cards above the break as a block in right-hand End Grip. As you move the three cards to the right, pull the Ace of Spades back onto the card held in your left hand (the Ace of Hearts) with your left thumb, retaining the other two cards, held as one, in your right hand. To your audience, these actions look innocent; you have switched the position of the two black Aces. But, unbeknown to them, you’ve also stolen the Ace of Diamonds below the Ace of Clubs. Temporarily injog the double on top of the packet so that you can re-grip it and then position it below the cards in your left hand, still injogged. You are now in a position to continue with the routine.