Royal Road to Card Magic The

has certain attributes:
It has a simple plot. It must not be confusing to the people who are watching.
The modus operandi is simple.
It is interesting.
It has a surprising denouement.
    The following tricks afford excellent practice in applying the different principles you have learned and will start your repertoire with some of the finest feats of card magic.
    Topsy-turvy Cards
    It is always a good rule to begin a series of card feats with a short, startling effect, one that will arouse the interest of the onlookers immediately and stimulate their interest in the marvels to follow. In this effect, one half of the pack is placed face to face with the other half, yet, on the word of command, the cards right themselves so that all of them face the same way.
    Whenever possible you should use a borrowed deck, and we shall suppose that one has been handed to you with the request, 'Show us some card tricks.'
    1. Take the pack and place it face down on your left hand. With your left thumb spread the cards by pushing them over to the right hand under pretence of examining the backs. 'These seem to be ordinary cards,' you say. 'Let's see the faces.' Close the deck into the left hand and square the cards, holding them in dealing position.
    2. Take hold of the outer end of the deck between the right thumb on top and the fingers on the bottom, lift it and turn it over inwards - that is to say, towards your body - and lay it in your left hand, face upwards. Spread the cards as before, showing the faces and remarking, 'Just ordinary cards, aren't they?' Close the pack into the left hand again and square it, but this time, in doing so, let the lowermost card slip off the tip of the right thumb and push the rest of the cards forwards about 25 mm (1 in) (figure 6).

    3. Grasp the outer end of the deck as before and turn it over inward on to the left hand and on to the face-up card. Square the pack and hold it in your left hand so that it slopes downward a little; thus no one can see the reversed card now on the bottom of the pack.
    4. Cut off about half the cards by grasping them between the right thumb and middle finger. Turn the right hand over with a little flourish to show the face card of this packet and look at that card yourself, saying, 'I turn one half of the cards face upward, so.' As you say this, quietly turn your left hand over bringing it back upwards, thus bringing the reversed card uppermost (figure 7).

    5. Still keeping your eyes fixed on the face card of the packet in your right hand, continue, 'I'll put this packet face upwards on the back of my left hand.' Do so (figure 8). The packet in the left hand, which the spectators think is face downwards, is really face upward with a single reversed card on top.

    6. Draw out the packet from your left hand, grasping it at the sides near the ends, as you say, 'These face-down cards I'll place on the face-up packet,' and you do so, being careful to slope the packet so that no glimpse can be had of its bottom card. Take the pack off the back of your left hand and replace it in that hand, which you turn palm upwards, between the tips of the thumb on one side and the fingers on the other. With the right hand turn the pack over sideways three times, each time taking it between the left thumb and fingers, as you say, 'You see half the pack faces one way, the other half the reverse way.' The third turn will bring the single reversed card to the bottom.
    7. 'I want to test these cards to see if I shall be able to do anything with them. I shall therefore order all the face-up cards to turn face downwards. Let me show you what I mean. I take one of the face-up cards, so.' Draw out the bottom card by the end towards your body, deliberately turn it face downwards on the top of the pack.
'Allez oop!'
you exclaim, and, with a flourish, you spread the whole pack on the table. All the cards are face downwards. 'Excellent! You have trained your cards well. I am sure we shall have a great success with them.'
    The most important thing for the beginner at card magic to bear in mind is this: a conjuring trick is just what the performer makes of it. It may be composed of the simplest elements, yet, given a plausible plot and dressed with appropriate patter, it can be transformed into an imposing illusion. In other words, it is not so much what you do as what you make the onlookers think you do.
    The preceding trick affords an example of this fact. Merely to take the cards and go through the