In Ron Bauer's booklet, "The Mechanical Deck," he goes in detail about the get-ready from "Expert Card Technique," and the Finley/Vernon Double lift. Bauer knew Vernon quite well, and the details he teaches are the real stuff. Other than an unpublished double from a guy in the midwest, nothing beats the Finley/Vernon lift/turnover. To answer the first posters question, there is no easy double lift, so you will have to practice to make it look real and natural.

While I am actually still working on my DL I got a good piece of advice from Tobias today. He reminded me to do a double ar any other move just as you would naturally do it with a single. If you have a style already find a DL method that fits it and learn that one. My .02

Andy

If you can, take a peek at the double-lift used by Daryl on his Ambitious card video..the snap get ready...

I like it because it only requires one hand to get ready, so no suspicious fumbling if you are trying to get a break, doesnt use the pinky etc. And depending on how you usually handle cards, it is very natural in appearance, at least for me it works.

Nope, Jim Steranko is a famous comic book artist..

I'd say the most natural double lift is a move by Ken Krenzel, called the "natural double lift". The name says it all really. The beauty of it is that you can turnover up to about half the deck in the same manner as you would turnover the top card. Very effective, simple to execute and no get ready.

Euan

First tip from me, Learn how you normally turn over a card. Then if you can find a DL that looks about the same, use that one. If not, make your own. That's what I have done.

Although I know numerous DL's, There are only a select few that I use. I use the strike alot, because that's about how I used to turn over cards. Now I am more into pinky counting, then just lifting those up. I never use the push over thing to get a break, it's big, showy, and needs alot of misdirection. Badically, a big pain in the butt. Take the time to learn the pinky count I say. It may take a while, but go for it, it will help in so many ways.

"Nope, Jim Steranko is a famous comic book artist.. "

Jim Steranko the comic book artist is the same guy that put out Steranko on cards. One of Jim's hobbies was magic. He published this book in 1960 (which was eventually republished during the mid 1970's).

Yep, and for a while, I understand Jim Steranko was quite the escapologist.

I think *but am not sure* that he invented the "Voodoo" card plot. Please correct me if I'm mistaken here.

Try going to http://www.danteking.com/home1.html he has some very good teaching vids that helped a lot with my learning the DL. All you have to do is take a little test to gain access. All info for the test can be found on the internet.

One thing I discovered when doing "Red Hot Moma" is since you already have a stranger card in the deck, why not trim the end of it and do a double like you would a double using a Svengali deck?

My favorite double is the strike double. But with the short card you have another option.

Russ

Davros,

Have a look at Chapter 1 Expert Card Technique Brau/Hugard.

Like you I found the DL technique in The Royal Road looked ugly and obvious when I did it. The Expert Card Technique is more subtle and worth practicing IMHO.

Good luck

Several good get readys have already been mentioned... that aside, just practice, practice, practice and in time it will become almost second nature.

I am just a self taught magician and I never read anything about the double lift, so I just figured out a way to do it on my own. I hold the deck in my left hand and hold the single top card in my right. I move the card away from the deck (still face down) and follow it with my eyes usually talking at the same time. While everyone watches where I am watching, my left hand pinky gets under the top card on the deck. I drop the single card from my right hand on the deck and make a gesture with my right hand and look at the people. Then, my right hand comes down to the corner where my left pinky is while I keep looking at the people and talking too. My left hand squares up the two cards above the pinky and my right thumb presses into the lower right corner and holds it still. The right hand index finger goes against the bottom edge, the right ring finger goes against the right edge and the right middle finger goes on the top and together the three fingers and thumb hold the two cards perfectly square. I can lift them straight up and flip them around very naturally. One thing I am very conscious of is where I am looking -- when I turn over a double, I don't even look down at it because the people look where I look. I look right at them and say something at the same time. They glance down at it for a split second and even if the cards weren't square they wouldn't notice.

Great advice, Rob!

The point is - while looking into those rabbit eyes.....do your thing! I love Sankey's method of asking them mathematical questions also for misdirection.....peoples' eyes roll up when they have to calculate!

lol

Peace and Happy Magic,

Bill

One key point I've noticed, and read about (perhaps on other threads here)...but it bears repeating:

We spend so much time trying to make our handling of the double look like the handling of a single. Try this...adapt your handling of a single to look like your handling of a double.

Audiences will grant us as magicians a certain leeway to handle the cards a bit differently. But they will pick up on inconsistencies.

I agree with some comments about the fact that the double lift is not an easy sleight to acquire.

Some professionals share the same opinion.

In “Secrets Draun from underground” there is the following observation

“A Double Turnover in an extraordinary difficult thing to do well, as difficult in its own way as any Pass or Second Deal. Attaining the guilt–free light-as-air quality [...] requires the mastery of difficult technique. It takes years of practice.”

Thereafter a technique is described that one is supposed to be able to master in one week! One may therefore question the validity of the forewarning comment.

Though I do believe that a double lift may be difficult to master, I would nuance my opening remark: confidence and misdirection are paramount in that kind of sleight, and these may be the major obstacles to overcome.

There are dozens ( hundreds? ) of ways of performing a DL. They may be categorised I suppose on many criteria: single/double handed, natural/flourishy, small pack/full pack and so on. I’ve learnt a few myself and there is no doubt that some are more difficult than others.

However, what I reckon is important is the context of a trick in which you do a DL. Choosing a DL that integrates well with the routine is a necessity. For example in a collector trick I use what I consider to be the easiest DL and it works very well. I can’t remember where I read the description but here it is in a nutshell:

Hold the pack in a dealing grip, the deck tilted slightly downwards, and start riffling the edge with the thumb of the holding hand and ask the spectator to say stop. Then take the top pack with the other hand put it on the table while silently riffling two more cards and keep a very fine break with the thumb. The other hand then comes back in bilddle grip, picks up the two cards and does a simple turnover to display the cards.

Within this trick it works perfectly because the DL happens only on the 3rd card selected while the two previous ones, though using the same procedure, are single lifted.

Well, this post is far longer than I intended but my point is that there is a multitude of DLs and choosing and practising one should be done within the context of an effect.

Buy a good card slights book. That's what I did and it taught me a few double lifts, shuffles, cuts, ect.

In the september (or was it august) issue of the cyber-magician (http://www.cyber-magicians.com) There is a good article about the double lift. Check it out!

The easiest DL that I have seen described is in Mark Wilson's Complete Course in magic.
He describes both a get-ready break and a simple lift, each in it's own step-by-step section. To me this one is much simpler and even more natural-looking than the one described in Royal Road.

My own DL is some kind of strange hybrid of the Royal Road DL, the Mark Wilson one, and the Dai Vernon DL. I do alter my handling as needed by different effects.

It has taken me half a year to be comfortable with doing DLs. The elmsley count and other slieghts have been much easier to master for me.

This thread of posts has been very illuminating for me! Thanks...

alleycat

Gotta plug the DD DL from Derek Dingle's Complete Works, though I find lifting w/ the right thumb preferable doing so w/ the third finger. Take a look if you want to do something very natural-looking.

I think this is similar to Krenzel's DL...

The DL I described in my previous post was first described in Edward Victor's Magic of the Hands. It's been used, among others, by Father Cyprian in a trick called 'Diabolical ace discovery' - or something like that, I only have a French version - in Frank Garcia's 'The Elegant Card Magic of Father Cyprian'.

Worth a look. Very easy DL and good effect.