Jason, I just watched the first, magic, half of your lecture. Very nice.

I have a couple of questions:

In the fingerprint card trick, at one point, you had all the cards above the break on the table and the selection was on top. You then did a double lift with out any apparent get-ready. You may go over this later in the gambling section of the lecture, but do you have a get-ready for a double lift or do you do some sort of strike lift?

In the original fingerprint trick, the cards that are discarded, the pile where the spectator erroneously believes his card is, are left on the table so that when the selection is revealed, the spectator(s) dive for the cards where they are positive they saw their card go. On the Bruce Cervon three-video set of tapes where he performs Vernon's tricks from the "Chronicles,"* that is how it is done and the spectators do grab at the cards, although it might have been a bit staged because Mike Maxwell was in the audience. Is there any reason you eliminated this and instead return the cards to the deck before revealing the selection?

*The first videos released by L&L were three tapes of Cervon doing tricks from the "Chronicles," which had discussions of each trick with James Patton. Wonderful tapes. For some strange and mysterious reason, these tapes have never been converted to DVDs and many people know nothing about them. If you know Lou Falanga, maybe you could nudge him to release them. I say "strange and mysterious" because I have been unable to get an answer, no matter who I ask, as to why they were never converted.

Ray,

First question first - I almost never do a "no-getready double", so I probably just got a pinky count or a microscopic double-pushoff past you. I'd have to watch the video again to be sure, but that's my guess.

As for why I put the cards away first - I've been accused of somehow "switching" the actual selection for one of the cards in the discard pile in the past. While it's nice that they think I can do that - I wanted to eliminate that as a possibility, so I put the discards away first in both the Fingerprint Card Trick and Dunbury's Delusion. It also allows for a cleaner "stage" when you just have a squared deck and single selection on the table at the end, as opposed to a 4/5ths of a squared deck, a loose pile and a selection on the table at the end.

Jason

PS: Those Chronicles tapes have some great stuff on them. No idea why they haven't been converted either.

They have been on L&L's web page as downloads for quite a while.
You can find them here:

http://llepub.com/index.php?main_page=pr......s_id=561

Gary Plants

Jason, I'm not arguing with you, but the cards being on the table is part of the effect because the spectators are sure they saw the card go there, so when they find that it is not, that is an additional surprise. It also eliminates the possibility that you used a duplicate card. I understand your desire to have things end up as neat as possible, but I think the effect is stronger with the cards left on the table. You can make sure that the cards never go near each other, so you can't be accused of switching cards. Anyway, that's my (and I believe Vernon's) point of view, stated in the "Chronicles."

I believe your method of doing Triumph is definitely an improvement while keeping the same basic effect, so it's not that I think that Vernon can't be improved on.

Gary, I've had the videos since they first came out in 1993. It's the fact that they haven't been transferred to DVDs that concerns me. Everything else they put out on videos was transferred to DVDs. I no longer have a VCR; many people don't, and they are missing out on these great tapes. It would be one thing if Lou Falanga said he wasn't putting these out as DVDs for this or that reason. But he won't even say why. It's maddening.

Thanks for the responses guys. I'm looking forward to watching the second half of your lecture, Jason, because, while I'm not very skilled with cards (I can't do second deals), I do admire expert card workers.

Ray,

I've done it both ways (remember, I got accused of switching cards back when I was leaving the discard pile on the table) and I found that only some of the audiences dove for the discard pile. I think my performing persona is such that many of spectators intuitively realize that if they start digging through the discards they won't find anything (and they're correct).

Typically when I do Dunbury's Delusion or the Fingerprint Card Trick, it's after I've already established myself as a magician/card expert. By this time, thoughts of duplicates have already bubbled to the surface and were dismissed by all of the other strong material they've already seen. Although they genuinely think I've made a mistake, by the time they realize I haven't it's too late. I've already laid the groundwork for my audiences to instinctively realize the futility of grabbing the discard pile.

My guess is that if I were to open with either of these tricks (or do them sooner in my sets), then leaving the discard pile on the table as you (and Vernon) suggest would play stronger.

Jason