TOP CHANGE

T

here is no other sleight in all conjuring with cards which will give you so much pleasure as this. More than any other sleight, it lends itself to improvisation, the delightful ad-libbing with a pack of cards which causes so much laughter and more nearly approaches a battle of wits with your audiences than any other conjuring maneuver. To exchange one card for another boldly and under the very noses of those who watch, without being detected, is a sweet triumph! It is also good entertainment; indeed, Robert-Houdin, the father of modern magic, observed

Fig. 110

almost a century ago, "I know of nothing more surprising than the effect of a card neatly 'changed'." The words are as true as though written yesterday.

Let us say that you are going to exchange secretly a card held in the right hand for the one at the top of the pack, which is held in the left hand, as for dealing, but with the index finger resting at the outer end.

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