Top Change

There 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 manoeuvre. 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 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.

1. Hold the card in the right hand, at its inner right corner, between the outermost phalanges of the middle finger and the thumb. Place the index finger lightly alongside the middle finger, but do not hold the card with it. The other fingers are free (Fig. 110).

2. Move the right hand to the left hand and slide its card under the left thumb flush on to the pack. The left index finger at the outer end prevents the card from overlapping. Do not draw it on to the pack with the left thumb.

3. Simultaneously with the preceding action, and as the right hand approaches, push the top card of the pack over its side to the right for about an inch, then lift the thumb a little so that the right hand can slide its card under it. Do not push off the top card before the right hand begins its swing to the left.

Although we have described the actions in steps Nos. 2 and 3 as separate processes, we have done this only for clarity. Actually the left thumb pushes the top card to the right as the right hand approaches and slides its card under the thumb and onto the pack.

4. Grasp the inner right corner of the card pushed off the pack between the right index finger and thumb (Fig. 111). Hold the right hand motionless with the card, and move the left hand and the pack away to the left. The right hand must not move away to the right.

The hands should be held well away from the body, and the action should be easy and natural and should be explained by a subsequent action. For instance, you show the card held by the right hand and lower it so that it is about a foot away from the left hand and the pack, but on the same level. Glance to the left, at a table or a chair; look back at your audience, saying, "I will put the card on the chair."

Turn your body to the left toward the chair and as you do this move the right hand toward the left a little faster than the left hand moves. The two hands meet at the middle of the turn and exchange the cards without the least hesitation. Move the left hand with the pack backwards and away, perhaps grasping the rail of the chair, as you face left and drop the card the right hand now holds on the chair seat.

Again, you may hold the hands a foot apart and speak to someone on your right, turning a little toward him. "I shall ask this gentleman on my left to blow upon the card," you say, at the same time turning toward your left, executing the change as the hands meet. Hold the right hand motionless, and move the left hand with the pack outwards to the left, gesturing to the person to whom you refer.

Still again, when you are doing close-up card magic, you may show a card in your right hand, then lower it so that it is horizontal. Say to someone, "Will you hold your hand palm upwards?" and, when he raises his right hand, move the right hand to it as though to place the card on his palm. Apparently change your mind, saying, "We'd better use your other hand," and at this moment glance up to meet his gaze. Bring the right hand to the left, exchange the cards, and move the left hand away a little. A moment later, when you place the changed card on the spectator's palm, he is unaware that it is not the card you showed a moment before.

The entire process of the top change is a smooth and natural blending of actions, and we need not tell you that to look at your hands would be fatal. You must look at the audience or at the object on which you will place the card.