DALEY’S DELIGHT SWITCH (DDS)
“Daley’s Delight” (as Bruce Elliott termed it) is one of the most beautifully subtle switches in all card magic. It was invented by Dr. Jacob Daley and first appeared in Phoenix #220.
The original description, and the accompanying single illustration, in
Phoenix #220 were ambiguous and did not make it clear which arm
needs to cross over. Later Bruce Elliott reprinted the move in his 100 New
Card Tricks, with three illustrations that carefully showed all stages of the
move. Unfortunately the illustrations showed how to do the move wrong. It isn’t clear whether this was a misunderstanding on Elliott’s part, the illustrator’s, or perhaps Daley had not yet realized that there was a “jump” if done the way shown. Perhaps because of these incorrect illustrations, most magicians either overlook Daley’s Delight as not convincing, or do it as illustrated in a less than convincing manner.
a) Assume that you have two cards face-down on the table, one on the left and one on the right. Pick up the card on the left between left first finger and thumb, the right card between right first and second fingers (Fig.1a). The hands come together and deliberately switch cards; that is, the right hand takes the left hand’s card between its thumb and first finger, while the left hand takes the right hand’s card between first and second fingers (Fig.1b).
b) The natural movement is then to reverse directions, since you’ve just switched cards. Instead, without pausing, your right arm continues its movement to the left, crossing over the left arm, as your left arm passes under the right arm, and moves to the right (Fig.1c). Both hands lay their cards down. You have actually switched the cards twice, once openly and once by crossing your arms. This leaves them back where they started.
Note that this can be done exactly opposite, with the right card picked up between first finger and thumb, left between first and second finger. In this case, the left arm has to cross over the right. The rule is that the hand that takes the upper card crosses over. This makes the movement continuous; if the hand taking the upper card crosses under, there is a suspicious “jump” in the movement.
Either of the two ways of doing this will look correct, as long as the hand taking the upper card crosses over. But it is important to settle on one of the two correct methods, and be consistent in using it. That way, it becomes “muscle memory” and doesn’t require any thought.
HOTEL DALEY
A transposition between three Kings and two Queens based on Ed Marlo’s classic “Hotel Mystery” (Let’s See the Deck, 1942).
“The Hotel Mystery” is usually (mis)credited to Henry Christ. In fact it is apparent that Henry Christ had nothing to do with the plot at all. The plot is Ed Marlo’s. He gave it the story and he also gave it the name “The Hotel Mystery.” This is a story trick. Without the story it is not “The Hotel Mystery,” but merely a standard transposition. Even Christ himself says in the very first sentence of his original trick (The Jinx, January 1940, page 496); “From the days of Jordan this effect has been more or less
standard.” Here he is referring to the idea of two sets of cards
transposing, because that’s all Christ had. Nothing more.
WORKING
1. Run through the deck and remove the two red Queens and also three Kings (two blacks and a red). Place the rest of the deck aside as it is no longer required.
2. Place the two Queens face-up in your hand, saying, “Two red ladies.” Then place the Kings face-up on top with the odd color (red) in the middle, saying, “Three young guys.” Spread the cards and turn the red King face-down at its position (Fig.1), saying “The red King is the
leader of this trio.”
into the same hotel - the three guys shared one room, and the two girls shared another.”
As you say the above line, take the packet - still face-up - into a right hand Biddle grip. Count the first King into your left hand. Count the second King (face-down) onto the first but retain a break below it. As you count the third King steal back the face-down card below the remaining two Queens. Immediately turn your left hand palm down and deposit the Kings face-down on the table to your left, saying, “That leaves the two
red ladies,” thus drawing attention away from the cards on the table.
Count the top Queen into your left hand then place the remaining double on top. Turn the packet face-down and place it on the table to your right. 3. Pick up both piles in position for Daley’s Delight, as you say, “During
the night the three guys decided to sneak along to the girls’ room. However, at the same time, the two girls decided to sneak along to the boys’ room. And so, they passed each other like ships in the night.”
As you say the final sentence, do Daley’s Delight, apparently swapping the piles over.
Then immediately spread both packets (Fig.2). Everything appears as it
should - the three Kings appear to be on the right now (the face-up King makes the positions clear) and the Queens, therefore, must be on the left.
4. Say, “After they both found empty rooms, the leader of the guys
realised what had happened, so he decided to sneak over to the other room and have the ladies all to himself...”
Remove the face-up King and insert it between the apparent Queens. Pause for moment, then continue, saying, “...and there was much
laughter from the ladies...but not from that room....in fact they were back in their own room again!” At this, flip over the two right hand cards
revealing the two Queens.
Finally flip over the two cards surrounding the face-up King revealing all three guys, as you say, “In fact it was all a dream!”
THE SHIFTY KING
A spectator signs the back of an Ace and a second spectator signs the back of a Two. You tap each card with a King and the signatures on the backs of the cards transpose. Only the three cards are used.
This is a no-deck version of the Peter Kane “Signature Transposition” plot that appeared in Jerry Mentzer’s Card Cavalcade, Vol.1.
WORKING
1. You need two spectators to assist you whom we will refer to as A and B. Remove the Ace of Hearts, Two of Hearts and the King of Spades. Discard the rest of the deck. Hold the three cards face-up in a fan with the Ace at the face, followed by the Two, and the King at the back, as you say, “Here we have a one, a two and a King.”
2. Square the cards, keeping them face-up in dealing position. Turn your hand and Glide back the face card then slide out the Two spot and place it face-down in front of spectator A, saying, “You’ll be number one...” Then slide out the bottom card (apparently the Two) face-down in front of spectator B, saying, “...and you’ll be number two.” Finally snap the King face-up, saying, “...and I get the ‘shifty’ King.”
Alternatively:
Hold the cards in the opposite order, with the King on the face with the right hand. Your left hand comes over, palm-down, and grips the Ace and the Deuce, with fingers on the face and thumb on the back. Your right hand grips the King with thumb on the face (Fig.1). Both hands turn over at the same time, the right palm down and the left
palm up. As the left turns, the thumb pushes to the right and the fingers pull to the left (Fig.2). This reverses the position of the Ace and Two. Both hand come together again so that the three cards are now fanned face-down.
Table the leftmost card face-down on the left. The next card goes in the middle. Finally snap the King face-up.
Note: This Monte Switch was popularized by Trevor Lewis and published as “Monte Plus” in his book ESOLC (Trevor Lewis and Phil Willmarth, 1981).
3. Give each spectator a pen and have them sign the back of the card in front of them. Place the King on the table for a moment.
4. Pick up the signed cards, one in each hand, saying, “Let’s swap them over.” Here you do Daley’s Delight, but as you make the switch you turn both hands inwards so the cards finish face-up (Fig.3). The Two is in front of spectator A, and the Ace in front of spectator B. All appears as it would, had you really exchanged the cards.
5. “Now please sign the face of the other
card. Who says we can’t all get along.” Each spectator signs the face of
the card in front of him.
6. Pick up the King, saying, “You may remember I called him the ‘shifty’
King. Well that’s because he’s very good at shifting things. Watch.”
Drop the King face-down on the Ace, then place the Two on top of all. Pick up the packet and turn it face-down. Slowly reverse count the cards back into the left hand, then deal the top card in front of the spectator A, the Shifty King in the middle and the final card in front of spectator B.
“Those are your signatures on the back, aren’t they?” They’ll agree that
they are.
Tap card one, then tap card two. Now tap card two followed by card one, then say, “He’s done a bit of shifting. Can you guess what he’s shifted?” Ask spectator A to turn over the card in front of him—the Two spot— revealing that it now bears his signature on its face as well. Spectator B now does likewise to complete the surprise.
REPELLING AND ATTRACTING
A three phase routine in which pairs of same color Queens keep repelling Aces of the same colors.
As you openly remove the four Queens and two opposite colored Aces, cull the other two Aces to the top of the deck. Remember the color of the top Ace; we'll say it's black.
PHASE 1a - The Kosky Switch.
1. Pick up the two red Queens and turn them face-down in the left hand, then place the red Ace face-down on top, getting a break below it. Now place the black Queens face-down on top of these cards, followed by the black Ace on top of all. As you do this, say, “Red Queens and red Ace on
the bottom….black Queens and black Ace on top.”
2. Turn the black Ace face-up and deal it on the table. Flip the black Queens face-up, then pick up the red Ace underneath. Use the Kosky Switch (vol. 2, chapter 15) as you appear to sandwich the black Ace from the table face-down between the two face-up Queens (i.e., outjog the top black Queen as you peel it onto the packet – add the tabled Ace face- down square with packet – place the remaining double on top of all, injogged. Now proceed with the switch. As you remove the sandwich, fan it to show the face-down card in the middle, then lay the cards on the table to your right.
The right hand takes the top face-down card and uses it to flip the bottom two red Queens face-up. Put the face-down Ace between them and lay these cards on the table to the left.
“But same colors repel.” Make a magic gesture and turn each packet over
to show the Aces have been repelled to the opposite packet.
PHASE 1b - Pure Gall.
3. Drop either pile on the other. The Aces are face-up, the Queens face- down. Fan the cards in the right hand and pull out the two face-up Aces with your left hand. Use your fingers and thumbs to flip both packets over: Aces face-down in your left hand, Queens face-up in your right.
"We have to reverse them again." Of course, this is two reversals, so
there is no change in position.
Put the top face-down Ace between the top two face-up Queens, the remaining face-down Ace between the other two face-up Queens. Put the top Queen packet on your right, the other one on your left.
“But same colors repel.” Magic gesture and the Aces have repelled to the
PHASE 1c: Daley's Delight.
4. Push the face-up Aces in front of their packets, then turn the Queens face-up as well, so it's clear the Aces don't match the Queens. Now you're going to do a variation of the Daley's Delight Switch.
Each hand simultaneously picks up a face-up Ace, thumb on top, first finger below. The second fingers come to the thumb side, then the thumbs release, allowing the Aces to pivot face-down between the first and second fingers (Fig.1a-b-c). Your left hand immediately shifts the first finger onto the face of the card so the Ace is between thumb and first finger.
Then do Daley's Delight and lay the Aces on the Queens. This results in two reversals, so the Aces are back where they started. Put the Aces between the Queens.
“But same colors repel.” Make a magic gesture and show the Aces have
once more repelled to the opposite packet.
PHASE 2: Marty Kane’s Version.
Assemble the cards face-up so they read from face to rear: red Queens, black Queens, red Ace, black Ace. The red Queens are at the face. Say,
“Let’s keep a closer eye on the Aces this time.”
5. Hold the packet from above in right hand Biddle grip. Name all the cards by color and value as they are displayed. The left thumb pulls off the first red Queen into its hand. The second red Queen is pulled off and a left pinkie break is taken beneath it. As the first black Queen is pulled off, the broken red Queen is stolen beneath the right hand packet. The second black Queen is pulled off. The final three cards are placed onto the
packet. The left thumb pushes the face card to the right, displaying the Aces. Square the packet and turn it face-down.
6. Acquire a left pinkie break above the second card from the bottom. Flip the top card face-up onto the packet, displaying a red Queen. The right hand grips the right side of the Queen and lifts it from the packet. The right hand returns to the packet, its fingers underneath the Queen flipping over all the cards above the break, while maintaining the break (Fig.2).
This displays the other red Queen. Place the first red Queen onto the packet, sidejogged an inch to the right. Flip all the cards above the break face-down onto the packet as the break is lost. Deal the top two cards into a spread on the table to your right.
7. Turn the left hand palm down so that the packet is brought face-up. The right hand slides off the red ace at the face and slides it face-up between the tabled cards. The left hand turns palm up and spreads its cards. Openly remove the bottom card, turn it face-up and insert it between the spread pair in the hand. Use this spread to tap the tabled spread. Finally reveal that the Queens have repelled away this time.
PHASE 3: Queens Gather Aces.
8. Casually put the black Ace face-down between black face-up Queens and the red Ace face-down between red face-up Queens, but make sure the Queen on top in each case matches the suit of the Ace. Pick up the deck and get break under top card (a black Ace, remember). Drop the black Queen packet on top and Double Cut to the break. Drop the red Queen packet on top and imitate a Double Cut, actually cutting first a quarter of the deck from bottom to top, then another quarter.
"The Queens act a little differently when they're in the full deck." (Yeah,
seen. Push the sandwiched Aces and Queens plus the card underneath the last Queen onto the table.
9. Take the top two cards off and lay them on the right of the spread, then the next two to the left. Lay the next two in front and last two at the bottom, forming a diamond (Fig.3).
Say, “In the full deck,
each Queen finds its matching Ace." Turn the
face-down cards face-up in place to show that this is just what has happened.
Notes: The inspiration for this effect was Marty Kane’s “Ms. Matches”,
which was in turn an elaboration of Peter Duffie’s “Bold Widow” from
Abacus, October 1996. Peter’s effect was inspired by Alan Brown’s [Karl
Fulves’] “Black Widow” from Pallbearer’s Review, May 1969.
DOUBLE ROUGE ET NOIR
In Dr. Jacob Daley’s “Rouge et Noir” (Phoenix #287), a spectator mixes five red cards with five black cards, then successfully separates them with the cards face-down. Here, appropriately enough, his Daley’s Delight switch is used to accomplish this effect with two spectators.
There is no preparation needed, other than a deck of cards and two willing spectators.
WORKING
1. Turn the deck face-up and deal the first ten red cards one-at-a-time onto the hand of a spectator on your left, whom we’ll call Bob. Then deal ten black cards onto the other spectator’s hand, whom we’ll call Bill. Note that you will have automatically separated approximately ten blacks in the process of removing the reds, so this goes quickly. Set the deck aside - it won’t be used further in this trick.
2. Hold your left hand out and ask the first spectator to turn his red cards face-down, mix them, then deal five onto your left hand. Then turn to the other spectator and have him deal five blacks onto your right hand. Then have them lay their remaining five cards down in front of them on the table. So you've got five cards resting on each palm and there are two five card packets on the table (fig.1).
3. Use Daley’s Delight Switch as you appear to exchange packets and put five opposite colored cards next to