Sleight · Adept
The Double Lift
Show two cards as one to hide a card's true position.
The purpose
Lift and display two cards squared as a single card, so the audience believes they have seen the top card when they have actually seen the second. The engine behind countless 'ambitious card' and transformation effects.
Handling, step by step
- 1
Get a tiny break beneath the top two cards as you square the pack.
- 2
Turn both cards as one, keeping them perfectly aligned.
- 3
Show, then turn them down and deal the genuine top card — which is not the one they saw.
Drills
Clean turn
Turn the double face-up and down 20 times keeping the two cards as one.
Success: No daylight between the two cards at any point.
Watch for these tells
- Two cards splitting at the corner.
- A thicker 'card' than the rest.
Tricks that use The Double Lift
The Sagacious Joker No.1
Four spectators pocket unseen cards, yet you name every one by touching a Joker to their pockets.
Tucker's Version
A spectator cuts, peeks, and buries their card with endless cuts, yet you produce it from the deck, your hand, or your pocket.
The Nelson Downs Original
A spectator cuts near centre and remembers a card, and you produce it from the deck, your hand, or your pocket.
Cut in Detection
A spectator cuts, returns a card to the centre, and you reveal it, sometimes found reversed in the heart of the deck.
Peculiarities of the Pasteboards
Three spectators pick cards, and one by one each card answers its name, appears on top, then turns over by itself.
The Whispering Speller
The top card seems to whisper another card's name to you, and you spell straight to that card.