Читать книгу Expert Card Technique - Jean Hugard - Страница 76

It is more than passing strange that, with all the thought expended by card manipulators, both amateur and professional, for so many generations, no really practical method of interchanging the top card with the second, without removing it from the pack, has been evolved. The need for such a sleight has been apparent, and yet the only two methods of producing this effect cannot be termed secret sleights since both necessitate an open manipulation, which, if the sleight is to be used as a secret subterfuge in the course of a trick, immediately precludes their use.

The earliest textbooks give the following method: With the pack held as for dealing, the left thumb pushes the top card off the pack an inch to the right where it is supported by the tips of the fingers. The thumb moves back, drops upon the exposed surface of the second card and draws it back an inch towards the left, tipping it up at its right side. The top card is then slid back underneath by the left fingers and the cards are again squared. As stated this method has no practical value except perhaps as a little flourish, Fig. 1.

The second method, A New Top Change, was first published in 1935.{3} It is an excellent sleight, but since the top card must be faced to effect the change, it cannot be used in those tricks in which the exchange must be an entirely secret one, and in which the face of neither card must be seen.

The method given here fulfills these requirements:

1. Hold the pack in the left hand as for dealing, place the right hand over the pack and make a light squaring motion of the ends with the thumb and fingers.

2. Push the top card to the right an inch with the left thumb, immediately gripping it between the first joint of the right little finger and the flesh at the base of the thumb.

3. Drop the left thumb upon the exposed surface of the second card and draw it to the left until it clears the top card, lifting the right side of the second card a quarter of an inch in the action, Fig. 2.

4. Continue the squaring action by moving the right hand to the left, sliding the left side of the top card under the right side of the second card.

5. Immediately square both cards upon the pack as both hands continue the squaring movements.

The sleight is done in a second under cover of a small and slow motion of the hands to the left, the top card being concealed at all times by the back of the right hand. The uses to which it can be put are many; one will be cited here. Let us assume that in the Ambitious Card trick, a card has apparently been placed in the center of the pack and magically caused to rise to the top. It is replaced at the top and, by means of this sleight, it is secretly placed under the second card. The operator is now in a position to repeat the double-lifting process. It should be noted that as the top card slides under the second card, the left little finger can be pressed up against its face, making a break at the inner left corner and thus eliminating any further get-set move for the subsequent double lift.