I am working on Color Monte, and think my double-lift/double-push-off needs more work. Do you have any recommendations for where resources to help me with this?

I have Gary Ouellet's "Close-Up Illusions" on order and I understand this has discussions of many double-life techniques. Is this a good resource?

It does have many double-lift techniques, some a little more extravagant than others. I personally don't use the lifts described in this book, but it's still one of the best buys I ever made. Greg Wilson has a video "Double take" that is just on double lifts. That might tickle your fancy.

Cheers,
dchung

Thanks! I have just added 'Double Take' to my wishlist

I'll be interested to hear if others recommend it too....

copterchris,

In doing Color Monte you are working with so few cards that you might want to consider a buckle instead of any conventional double lift.

Give it a try.

Sid

Hi Sid,

Thanks for the tip - I have to confess that I'm only a beginner when it comes to cards so I'm not familiar with a buckle either!

One of the problems I'm having is that although I can get the cards off the pack as a pair they sometimes slide apart or rotate, revealing that there are two cards. I was looking to see if there are good ways to handle the cards to prevent this happening.

Gregory Wilson teaches the buckle on "Double Take". [as part of the "Jumping Gemini" routine]

Brother John Hammam teaches a good push off double lift from the entire deck, or just from a 5 card packet. It is in his book "Secrets of Brother John Hamman"

Kraft

Get Double Take right away, it's great! There is nothing better in a video format.

With just 3 cards as in Colour Monte. First turn over the top card on it's own. You'll probably find that you push it across with your thumb about halfway, then pick up the card with the right hand, slide it to the point where it resembles an open book, then flip/drop it down onto the other two like closing a book.

If this is how you naturally turn over a single card off of a stack of 3, then copy this as you turn over two, INCLUDING THE NATURAL DROP OF THE CARD(S) BACK ONTO THE STACK. The only difference is that you are pushing two rather than one at the start.

Like anything else, practice, practice , practice.

Cheers

Andy

There's a simulated (but effective) double lift push-off in one of the later Card College books by Giobbi.

If you are not familiar with a buckle, then I suggest you getting Double Take. It has loads of advice in it, and great routines, although they are somewhat difficult. Invest and your double will never be the same again. Personally I prefer the pinkie pulldown,

Chris:

Here is a tip I picked up from a Brad Burt video that really helped me when I was having the same problem with my double lift.

Get rid of all but two cards. Keep two cards with you at all times. Practice handling these two cards as one. In fact, I suggest not even picking up the rest of the deck for a week or two. Do nothing but practice your turnovers, twists, etc. with just these two cards. Pick the two cards up, put them down, hold them in your hands, turn them over, transfer them from one hand to the other. After a week or two, handling these two cards as a single card will be much, much easier. This really helped me in gaining confidence in handling the cards in a double lift.

-James

Hi everyone,

Thanks for taking the time to pass on your advice. I have noticed that my handling of the two cards has improved as I have practiced, and it sounds like it will continue to get better.

I will probably end-up checking-out 'Double Take' as well to hopefully point me at some of the finer points.

Another tip that may or not be of use to anyone learning the double lift (or similar).

At the point i thought I was okay, I set up my camcorder to video me doing the move and 'not doing the move' in a random sequence.

I then used to watch the video back of myself, and see if i could detect when I was doing the move.

I then only used the move in 'public' when I could video mydelf and could not detect my own use of the move.

At that point I assumed that if it was practically impossible for me to see myself doing the move, then it would also be the same for spectators.

Cheers

With all due respect, if you are having trouble with colour monte, i suggest that you forget about everything and start reading books. Which books? Every single magic book you can possibly get your hands on.

I know where you are coming from, Rodney, but it is ironic that I wanted to perform the Color Monte (and many other things) because all I ever DO is read magic books! I want to move from reading about it to doing it.

Im glad to here that you are reading a lot. Not enough" Magicians" even read anymore.
And speaking from19 years in magic- reading is the best bar- none. videos have their place as do other things. But books bwill always be number one.
it has been my experience that you will ick up the best double lift for you by simply reading a variety of basic texts. T%his is always better than studying a treatise on 100 different double lifts. Study the masters. Study the classics.

Thanks for your input, Rodney. I *love* reading books and, like you, don't think they can truly be replaced by any other medium.

I will try to get some of the standard card texts as further research.

Can anyone recommend a book which teaches the fine points on the double-lift, and perhaps multiple methods of the DL? The older texts don't have all the newer methods.

Mark Thomas

Daryl shows a nice dl on his ambitious card tape, but some cardmen don't like it. Either way, practice your double lifts, then watch Raphael Benetar's dl on his video, and start practicing a lot more.