Chapter Three: Popular Handlings

Glide-Turnover Combo Handling

This handling, which uses the much-maligned Glide, is favoured by many top-flight magicians, including Bill Malone. The moves involved are straightforward, making this an excellent alternative to Dr Daley’s routine if you have difficulty learning it.

Setup

Arrange the four Aces in the following order from the bottom of the face-up packet: AH-AC-AD-AS. The Ace of Spades is the face card of the packet.

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Method

Briefly fan the cards to display the faces of the four Aces. Then, keeping the cards face up, square up the packet and hold it in Dealer’s Grip in your left hand. 

Name the face card of the packet (Ace of Spades), then turn the packet face down and perform a Glide. As you turn your left hand palm down, use your left third and fourth fingers to draw back the bottom card of the packet, giving you access to the card second from the face (the Ace of Diamonds). Next, use your right fingers to pull the Ace of Diamonds free from the packet, being careful not to flash the face of the card as you do so. Finally, place this card face down on the table.

Keeping your left hand palm down, grasp the packet with the fingers and thumb of your right hand, thumb on top and fingers below. Let go of the cards with your left hand and reposition your hand below the packet, replacing the cards into left hand Dealer’s Grip.

Perform a Pinky Pull Down to establish a little finger break above the bottom card of the packet. Next, perform a Double Turnover to display the face of the Ace of Clubs to your audience. Repeat the turnover, then deal the top card of the packet—apparently the Ace of Clubs, but actually the Ace of Hearts—on top of the card already on the table. (The fact that you’re dealing with a three-card packet makes this sequence much easier to perform.) Your audience should believe that the black Aces are on the table and the red Aces are in your hand when, in fact, the opposite is the case. Reveal the transposition.

Afterthoughts

A similar handling appears in the Tarbell Course of Magic under “Christopher’s Red and Black Aces” and is credited to Milbourne Christopher. However, in this version of the trick, the Glide is performed after a Double Lift. It is better to perform the Glide first because this makes the Double Lift (or Turnover) much easier to perform. It also adds some time misdirection before displaying the second black Ace, making it unlikely that anyone will notice the discrepancy (the top card should be red, not black). 

Bill Malone efficiently handles the get-ready for the turnover by leaving the Ace of Clubs injogged after the Glide. He then transfers the cards into Dealer’s Grip, and an automatic Double Lift is performed by grasping the cards by their short outer edge and turning the double face up, end for end. A break is maintained below the two cards as the turnover is completed. Finally, the two cards are turned over as one, and the top card is dealt on top of the card already on the table.

Background & Credits

R. W. Hull was the first magician to publish a transposition of the red and Black Aces using a Double Lift and a Glide, albeit in the context of another trick (the Jack of Spades, previously lost in the pack, ends up sandwiched between two of the Aces). See “Diamond Thieves and Blackmailers” in More Eye-Openers (1933, p. 5).

“Christopher's Red and Black Aces” can be found in the Tarbell Course in Magic, Vol. 5 (1948, p. 129).