Dear Magicians,


I'm a beginner; I've been reading a lot about magic, especially card magic, and have been practicing some simple sleights,(e. g., the Braue Reversal, some false shuffles and cuts, and a couple of simple controls (double undercut, for instance).


I'm wondering if people can suggest some card switches that are technically simpler, and easier to learn, than the double lift. Mind you, I've been practicing the DL, but I've come to agree with those who say that it's a difficult move. Someday I hope to have one that's showable in performance, but in the meantime it would be great if I could learn one or two simpler card switches. I've seen at least one thread on the Café on the topic of avoiding the DL, but it quickly turned into an effort to convince the person who posted the topic that he should learn the DL. I don't need to be convinced.


The obvious candidate is the glide, but let's not talk about the glide. I know that there are some tricks that use it in a natural way, but, since my audience is limited (just my family at the moment), I think the glide would quickly begin to look suspect.


Could people suggest other switches, with, if possible, sources for learning them and tricks that use them?


Thanks so much for whatever you can offer.


Regards,



Bob

Bob, switching a card is a very context-sensitive thing. Depending on what trick you're using it for, and when you do the switch, all goes into figuring out the best alternative. If you can provide a little more detail about the trick you're using it in, I'm sure someone here would have a workable solution.

Thanks, Steven. I'm going to go back and look up some of the tricks that I wished I could do but figured I'd have to wait because they included a DL. I do remember one, so let's start with that: Chicago Opener. I realize that in some cases there won't be an alternative to the DL, but let me throw that one out as an interesting challenege for anyone who's interested: Devise some variation, suitable for someone at my level (as described in my original post), on Chicago Opener.


I'll post some other tricks soon.

As I think about this more, I it seems to me that the question as I originally put it is reasonable. I see your point, Steven, about the type of card switch one uses being context-sensitive, but I'm open to learning a variety of interesting tricks that use card switches. To give people a better idea of my level, let me tell people which tricks I'm working on now.


1. Jacks Be Nimble (in a book by Bob Longe; a slightly modified handling of a Harry Lorayne trick that uses some clever cuts to replace one sandwiched card by another);


2. Trost's 8-card brainwave;


3. Color Monte (this one is a challenge for me, but I'm enjoying working on it; it involves DL's, but the small packet DL seems a lot easier than the fulll deck ones).


I love color change (and colors in general). I'm working on the Erdnase change, but it will be some time before it's showable.


So perhaps we can work this from both ends? (1) I'll post more tricks that use the DL and which I wish I didn't have to wait to learn until I have a good DL, but (2) I'm still interested people's ideas about easy card switches with associated tricks.

Usually card switch is a harder move technically speaking. however a strike second deal with a relatively big brief and with neck-tieing your hands a bit can be easy and used as a switch.

To try and answer your question directly, here is one I like. As mentioned above they are really context dependent. I'm also not sure you could really get into this without a double lift but I'll still describe it. I have no idea where I learned it:

Hold the deck face up with a pinky break below the top 2 cards. Move the double so it is halfway sidejogged off the top to the right side of the face up deck. The deck is held in straddle grip with the index finger over the top short edge, the pinky under the bottom short edge, and the thumb laying across the face of the double. Now you turn the left hand palm down. As this is done the left thumb pulls the face card of the double back flush with the top of the deck by curling in. At the same time the left middle and third finger extend, pushing the bottom card of the double out to the right. As the left hand turns palm down and the left fingers extend, the single card is placed on the table where it is pinched against it and the middle and ring finger. This allows those fingers to extend and leave the card on the table. So the card left face down is actually the second card of the double.

A very simple effect would be to hold the deck face up, comment that you're going to do a trick while spreading the cards. Close the spread keeping a pinky break below top 2 cards. Loft at the break in biddle grip, turn deck face down with left hand, place the face up double sidejogged as per above. Do the switch into their hand so the card appears to be on top of their hand. Cut the deck. Snap your fingers and show the card in their hand changed. Ribbon spread the deck showing it appeared reversed in the deck.

Simon nails the issue, I think. There are plenty of alternatives to a DL, but none are really easier than a DL. Many of the alternatives are things seen in standard AC routines. Just a couple quick examples:

- LePaul Second Deal
- Neck-tie second deal (per James' description)
- Ellis-James loading move
- Merlin tip-over change

All of these I believe are more difficult than a DL. The problem is that Bob is correct that a DL is not an easy move, but I'm hard pressed to think of less dexterous alternatives. One of the reasons the DL is such a popular move is that it IS the easiest way to switch a card--but "easiest" doesn't make it "easy."

Two suggestions:

• There are many types of DL. Don't know which variation(s) you're working with, but if you're having trouble with it, switch to one of the easier, more sure-fire versions of DL.
  
• Work on other tricks that don't require a DL or card switch. There are thousands of tricks that don't require the move, so don't spend so much time in one technique that you overlook other areas that may provide just as much fun to perform.
  

Thanks to all of you for your thoughtful ideas.


Steve, I see what you're saying about the DL being the easiest switch but not easy. I think that what got me interested in the question about switches was that I love tricks in which cards end up in unexpected places where they have no right to be -- e. g., transpositions. But, come to think about it, the Harry Lorayne trick that I mentioned does exactly that -- a transposition -- with a couple of cuts and no DL! So yes, your point about not spending too much time on the DL at this point when there are lots of great tricks that don't use it is well taken.



As for your question about which DL's I'm trying... there are so many that it's pretty confusing. I've been having some success with a Dai Vernon move from Stars of Magic (though I learned it from a youtube) that's a simulated double pushover. I'm also doing a sort of hit DL in which I bevel the deck slightly clockwise and feel for the top two cards at the outer right corner.. I sort of made this one up -- though no doubt it's original but not new! In both cases I have two problems. First, I have trouble reliably counting the correct number of cards. I often get the desired two, but sometimes I get one, three, or even five.


Second, I'm having trouble with the get-ready. I can do a fairly decent pinky count but often it takes longer than I'd like to get the second card to pop up.


I'm beginning to be able to push over one card to the right and then slide it back to the left to get a break under a single card. I tend to get a large break with what Giobbi calls a "ski lift" - a curving up of the card near the inner right corner.


I've also tried the "right thumb comes behind the deck and counts off two cards under the guise of toying with or squaring the deck," but am not finding it easy. I also feel self-conscious about it because it seems so obvious what one is doing.


Catching an effortless break, whether under one card or two, is an issue for me which extends beyond the DL. The Lorayne trick that I mentioned, the Braue Reversal, and zilliions of other tricks seem to use it, so I'd be grateful for any advice about that. Of course, that's off the original topic, but that's okay with me if it's okay with you folks.


Finally, Steve and others, can you suggest one or two "easier, more sure-fire DL's" for me to try?


Thanks, everybody!

Rather than a lengthy back-and-forth in discussing where the problem may lie, I think I can clear things up with a quick Skype session. If you want to go that route, shoot me a PM and we'll set something up.

Have you tried thumb count? it's not the best get-ready technique, but I used it for a very long time before I nailed the pinky-count, and it worked quite good. just pm'ed you a video of it.
about pinky count, since you can already get the action going. Giving it a week of intense practice will most likely get it done. It took me only two weeks of intense practice to master it from completely not being able to do it.

Bob g: in my opinion, a strike double lift offers the best compromise between ease of difficulty and deceptiveness. No pinky count is needed nor any other break. (Still work on the PC though because push off DLs are even more deceptive)

Thanks, SimonCard, both for the video and for the suggestion about intensive practice with the pinky count.


James, do you have a suggestion as to a strike double that would be good to start with? I know there's lots of them.

You might want to check out my Evolution Of A Sleight and Scoop Change in the Reputation-Makers section of LORAYNE: THE CLASSIC COLLECTION, Volume 2. And check out my Illogical Double Lift that I've taught in a number of my books.

Oh, and of course, my Ultra Move - but doubt if you'd consider that "easy."

Bob: I'm not sure where I learned it so I really can't say. Maybe someone can say where it's from. Dumbed down to it's simplest mechanics, all you do is bevel the cards to the right and grip the cards with the tips of the right fingers, feel for 2 cards, and flip over.

Bob, I'm going to be "that" person, so here goes...

All substitute sleights are more difficult and less utilitarian than the DL. So just learn the DL. Do 1,000 of them a day. It's not that hard. You go through the deck 40 times (26 DLs per deck) and you've done more than 1,000 DLs. It takes a little over 2 minutes to go through the deck once. So, 80 minutes' practice per day, for five days, will give you over 5,000 repetitions of the DL, which is plenty to learn to do it well.

Practice while you're watching TV, an riding in the car, and waiting for your food at a restaurant, and standing in line, and all other times when your hands are not occupied, and you'll get through a day's practicing without any real effort. It will be a breeze. And at the end of a week, you'll have a reliable, invisible DL.

So why waste time and effort learning harder sleights that are less useful?

^ agreed.
that's basically how I tackled pinky count.

Go Dana.

That's the post you should pay attention to.

Thanks Dana -- I like the way you think! I'm going to try that. It may be more like 20 minutes practice for 20 days, but that's still a very good deal. Meanwhile, as you saw, Steven Keyl kindly offered to check my technique on Skye, so that way I'll be sure that I'm not practicing something that isn't correct.


Bob