NUMBER ONE

THE HOLLYWOOD DOUBLE LIFT

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The Real Work Teach-In Series isa collection of manuscripts being

published in electronic formfor on-line distribution.

The Hollywood Double Lift is©1999 Gary Ouellet

www.ouelletshows.com

THE HOLLYWOOD DOUBLE LIFT

GARY OUELLET

A phrase is born into the world bothgood and bad at the same time. The

secret lies in a slight, an almost invisibletwist. The lever should rest in your hand,

getting warm, and you can only turn itonce, not twice.

-Guy de Maupassant

The double lift, a sleight of recent ori-

gins if you consider that magic is the old-est of the performing arts, has been hailedas the most useful move in all of card con-juring. It can stand the scrutiny of repeat-ed use, if properly executed. There havebeen, of course, hundreds of variationspublished over the years, from the groundbreaking natural approach by Dai Vernonin the original Stars of Magic Series, tomore daring and baffling applications bythe late Arturo Ascanio, a true master inthe handling of double cards.

If only to perform Ambitious Card, one ofthe most amazing tricks in all of magic nomatter the routine employed, it is worthmastering a double lift. I have published anumber of lifts in Close Up Illusions, andin Finger on the Card, but I think that theversion described here surpasses them indeception.

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What follows is a handling that has devel-oped, literally, over a decade of research.I have been enamored by the double liftsince childhood, especially handlingswhich seemed "loose": where the doublewas not gripped in a death-lock hold bywhite-knuckled fingers, all of whichemphasized the single-ness (or singularity)of the card(s).

The move itself takes but a few seconds,but getting there will take some time.Indeed, it will take 30 photographs! It maytake you a while to build up the musclememory needed to make any sleightsmooth cruising, so I suggest you take it astep at a time. I have never taught themove to anyone, so this is it’s premiererelease!

CAVEAT

This explanation offers no uses for thesleight, no routine, no trick. There aremany thousands of published card trickswhich rely on the double-lift and it isassumed the reader has a use for thesleight. If you are truly new to card magic,here is its most basic application. Themagician turns over the top card of thedeck (say, the Ace of Spades), and turns itback face down. He takes it, inserts itcleanly into the middle of the deck, snapshis fingers, and amazingly, the card hasjumped back to the top. The secret: whenthe magician apparently turned over thetop card, he really turned over two cards.So when he turned them back face downand took the top card and buried it in thedeck, it was not the Ace of Spades which,conveniently, is now the true top card of

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the deck, and can be shown to have mag-ically risen. This is, of course, the basicpremise of a classic trick called “TheAmbitious Card” where this scenario isrepeated over and over again, with varia-tions and mounting challenge conditions.

My personal favorite routine for this leg-endary trick can be found at my website,w w w. o u e l l e t s h o w s . c o m. Go to theMagicians Only page and you will find itin the tip sheets. You can bypass the magictest by using the password, “jamary”.

THE ELEMENTS OF A GOOD DOUBLE LIFT

A good double lift looks natural, and con-tains elements which suggest that therecan only be one card, the mind of theonlookers unconsciously computing thatmore than one card would be visible, orthey would separate, and so forth. What iswrong with many double lifts being per-formed by magicians is the obvious fearthat the cards will separate, or move out ofalignment, and consequently they pinchthe card(s) tightly, in a death grip. A cardis a delicate object, a piece of thick paper,and there is no logical explanation forgripping a single card tightly, or unnatu-rally.

GETTING READY

Although there is a school of thought thatbelieves the correct way to get into themove is simply to reach over to the cra-dled deck and lift up two cards with theright forefinger - a method described byDr. Jacob Daley in the Stars of Magicseries - I have found that this approach is

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risky. Depending on the condition of thedeck, and your familiarity with the deck inquestion (someone may have handed youtheir deck with instructions to do a trick)the majority of double lifts require thatyou first get a small break (small being theoperative word here) under the top twocards. The act of counting up two cardswith the right thumb is usually a deadgive-a-way to onlooking magicians, and, Isuspect, a suspicious moment in whatshould be an otherwise clean handlingperformance.

As much as possible, the deck should beheld in an "ungripped" position, as exem-plified by the master Juan Tamariz: Photo1.

The excuse for the right hand to comeover and get the break should be to squareup a slightly unkempt deck, and thereforeI always precede the break-getting actionby dribbling the cards: Photo 2.

Now you have a reason (cleaning up thesmall mess) to bring the right hand overthe deck: Photo 3.

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What follows is the traditional handling ofusing the pad of the right thumb to lift uptwo cards at the back - BUT, and this is abig but, instead of lifting up, you in factshould lower the back of the deck: Photos4 and 5. This keeps the "curvature" ofthese cards as they are being counted outof view. Immediately (and this can takeonly a fraction of a second) release thetwo cards onto the left pinky finger whichpresses ever so lightly against the rightside of the deck, and then bring the deckback to a level position: Photo 6.

Do not take the right hand away becauseapparently you are going to continuestraightening the deck, and add a finessethat is a throw-off to those watching likehawks.

THE WAVE FINESSE

Apparently, in your squaring up action,you will bevel the deck back and forth,which visually conveys an impression of"loose" handling, but which will retain thesecretly obtained break under the top twocards.

Other than the left pinky applying a lightpressure and maintaining the break, theleft hand cradles the deck very loosely.The right hand is over the deck, first fingercurled over it, and other fingers extendedtoward the front, with the thumb looselyon the back: Photo 7. The right hand gripis also very loose. Note that the extendedfingers do not grip the deck but extend for-ward.

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The second finger of the right hand nowbevels the front of the deck backward:Photo 8, and then the thumb pushes for-ward, straightening the deck once again:Photo 9. But despite the loose grips, thebreak under the top two cards, just ridesalong: Photos 10 and 11 are an exposedview from the right with the right handpartially raised.

It is just a little squaring action, bevelingthe deck back and forth, but this finessewill throw off magicians, who do not thinkyou have a break, and if expecting a dou-ble lift, will later wonder when you got itat all.

Okay: you’ve got a break under two cardsand are ready to execute the lift itself. Butbefore I explain the lift, I need to outline amove called the Crook, first explained inClose Up Illusions, and repeated here sothat this description will be complete.Again, this is a little utility move that manyowners of Close Up Illusions passed by. Itwas developed by Gilles Couture foranother use, but over the years I havefound countless ways to use this gem,some of which I have explained in videosproduced by Videonics and now distrib-uted by Louis Falanga.

THE CROOK MOVE

Step away from the double lift explanationfor a moment. We are going to pause justto explain the mechanics of this move,then resume the double lift from where wejust left off. The right hand has beenremoved for clarity, and it is not used inthe Crook mechanics.

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Here is the Crook Move. The left handholds the deck, and the left pinky is hold-ing a break below two cards.

The left forefinger comes up to the far rightcorner, as the left thumb relaxes its pres-sure on the top, allowing the break to existall along the right side of the deck: Photo12.

The pad of the left forefinger comes direct-ly onto the far right corner of the double:Photo 13.

The left forefinger pulls this corner downand to the left, which pivots the doublecounterclockwise against the crook of theleft thumb: Photo 14.

Note that the cards move in perfect align-ment.

Practice this (easy) move a bit before con-tinuing. We are now ready to resume thedescription of the double lift.

THE PICK-UP AND DISPLAY

Recall that the deck was now squared inthe left hand, the left pinky was holding abreak, and the right hand was over thedeck. Two actions will occur simultane-ously. The left finger carries out the Crookmove as the extended right thumb andsecond finger grasp the left corners of thedouble card: Photo 15.

As you can now see, the Crook move isused to secretly enable the right hand gripof the extreme left corners of the double

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without fumbling. Both actions take placeat once, and the idea is to convey theimpression that the right hand simplypicked up the top card at the left front andback corners.

Once the right hand has gripped the dou-ble, lift it up off the deck, flexing it down-ward slightly and curling in the right thirdfinger, bringing the nail of that fingeragainst the back of the card: Photo 16.

Now, extend the third finger, which pivotsthe card(s) into a face up position, rotatingon the axis provided by the right handhold at the left corners: Photo 17. Thepick-up and rotation is carried out more orless simultaneously.

Place the double onto the top of the deck,stepped forward and to the right as shownin Photo 18. The right hand releases thecard, and the card is held there by the leftthumb.

I want to take a moment to discuss thisdisplay position. The hands can gesture -Photo 19 - as you talk about this card.Again, this is a very subtle finesse. Thecard(s) looks single, the handling appearsnonchalant and unstudied, and it is nor-mal to call attention to the identity of thecard.

When you are ready, resume the action.

THE PINCH PICK-UP

You are now going to pick up the doubleagain with the right hand.

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The thumb and second finger come upagainst the far and left edges of the dou-ble: Photo 20.

By squeezing together, they push the innerleft corner up against the base of the leftthumb: Photo 21. Note that this actionkeeps the double in alignment.

Now, by exerting upward pressure withthe right thumb, and downward pressurewith the left second finger - Photo 22 - thedouble is pivoted face down: Photo 23. Ifyou wish, this action can be made into asnapping move.

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Now, you lower the left edge of the dou-ble onto the left fingers, aligning this edgewith the right edge of the deck - Photo 24- and softly allow the left edge of the dou-ble to fall against the pad of the leftthumb: Photo 25.

Now comes another interesting displaymove. For this to work smoothly, keep thetip of the left third finger tucked downonto the deck.

With the left thumb pushing slightly, keep-ing the opposite (right) end of the doublefirmly against the second pad of the leftsecond finger, pivot the back end of thedouble counterclockwise - Photo 26 - andback to the previous position:Photo 27).

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The right hand, fingers below and thumbon top, grabs the inner right corner of thedouble - Photo 28 . . .and flips it face down onto the deck:Photo 29. Note that it has been flippeddown so that it lands extended about 3/4"rear-jogged.

Immediately tilt the front of the deckdown, and to your amazement, I hope,the double will glide forward, perfectlyaligned, until it moves squarely onto thedeck: Photo 30.

This flipping over to a rear-jogged positionthen tilting it forward is a continuousaction, and is a a final subtle but convinc-ing argument for singularity. The finessewas first published in my book, Finger onthe Card.

And that’s it. It may take a while to get allthis down pat, but let me assure you thatthe handling is natural. It does not sufferfrom being too over-flourishy. From thePinch-pickup to the final alignment facedown onto the deck, the action is contin-uous. The overall impression created isthat of fairly showing and handling a sin-gle card, without saying so overtly.

Don't look back... something might be gaining

-SatchelPaige

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PHOTO 30