MASTER MOVE

[Philippe Billot]

If someone owns the original "Master Move" sold by Ovette, I have a question for him.

[Reinhard Mueller]

Phillipe,

Is the following helpful? --> THE NEW JINX # 7 (Nov 1962) p. 27 where Stewart James told that he purchased in 1927 the Master Move from Joe Ovette, and, as he wrote further, an explanation appears on page 184 of Tarbell Volume Three where it is called Bottom Placement.

[Philippe Billot]

Yes I would like to know if the Kelly Bottom Placement is identical but I can't find the original Master Move.
I know that everybody say that it is the same sleight but which proof we have if nobody have the original explanation.
I have try to look for in Conjuring Arts Research but can't find it.

[Richard Kaufman]

Yes, the Kelly Bottom Placement (first published in Tarbell) is identical to Joe Ovette's Master Move, published many years earlier. No one has been able to explain this, other than probable independent reinvention, or Tarbell simply crediting the person he saw do a sleight rather than the originator.

[Reinhard Mueller]

... and I think if Stewart James wrote that the Move is described in Tarbell, and he know the original(!) move, then this can be seen as a proof.

[Philippe Billot]

I agree but why we can't find the original description ?
Actually, there is a lot of old books, not necessary interesting, which are reproduced and The Master Move, which is an important one, historically speaking, is not available. Why ?

[Richard Kaufman]

I believe The Master Move is a small booklet.

[Reinhard Mueller]

35 Master Move hints are given in INDEX Stewart James in Print & The James File!

[Reinhard Mueller]

I just began to look for some the Master Move hints:
Stewart James In Print page 395 gives important information, for example:
"...You will find the instructions WORDED EXACTLY (big letters done by me) as I received them from Joe, under the title The Master Move in "Tops" for April 1944, in Joe 'Ration Day Magic' series. It had appeared before then in "Tarbell III" (1943) - it was not in the original course - as Kelley Bottom Placement,..."

[Reinhard Mueller]

And here is the text of TOPS April 1944:

Ration Days Magic
By Joe Ovette

The Master Move
The purpose of this simple move is to cause
a selected card to appear either at the bottom
of the pack or in the center. The effect is
baffling as there is nothing to see, the move being
perfectly covered.
Secret: It is advisable that these moves be
followed with a pack in hand, so that you may
fully understand and appreciate the beauty
of it.
Hold the pack in left hand as for shuffling.
The right hand now cuts off half the deck and
carries it away. The bottom card of the cutoff
pack is the spectator's selection we shall
say.
The right hand grasps this top pack as
follows: The first finger is pointing out straight
in a direct line over the left top corner of the
pack, the other three fingers curled over the
top end of pack and the third finger is pressing
against the selected card at that end. The
thumb rests on the lower left hand corner and
is pressing slightly, concaving the packet. The
hand is held downward so that the back is
toward the spectator in other words, your
right side is slightly to the spectator.
The right third finger continues pressing on
the bottom card and pulls slightly downward
and slides the card ever so little to the right.
At the same time the right thumb presses a
little more on the corner concaving the pack.
This move, you will find, releases the card at
the end where the thumb is and remains
pivoted by the third finger in other words,
at the end of the packet where the thumb is,
there is a space of an inch between the
selected card and the pack.
The left hand holds its pack with thumb on
top and fingers slightly curled underneath.
The right hand moves toward the left hand
for the ostensible reason of placing the right
hand packet on the left. As the packets near
and close one on the other, the selected card
goes under the bottom of the left hand packet,
the remainder of the right hand packet going
on top of the left hand packet. To the spectator
it appears you have simply placed the
packets together and so it appears to the close
observer. The move is perfect, as it positively
cannot be seen there is nothing to see, the
right hand covering the entire move.
In demonstrating it, riffle the pack, asking
the spectator to tell you when to stop. You
cut off the pack, show the bottom card of the
cut-off pack and apparently place them together
with the selected card lost in the center
of the deck, but really it goes to the bottom
when packs are placed together. Demonstrated
as a move alone it has fooled some of the
cleverest Magicians.

[Reinhard Mueller]

And in "Stewart James In Print" page 395 Stewart James gives reasons that Ovette does not originate the Move!
And it was not, as Richard wrote above, a booklet, but a mimeographed instruction, "which was not typical of his usual garbled style"...

Please read that chapter 26 on p. 395....

[Jonathan Townsend]

Originally posted by Reinhard Mueller:
And in "Stewart James In Print" page 395 Stewart James gives reasons that Ovette does not originate the Move!...

To whom and in what publication does Stewart James direct the student to the origins of this sleight?

[Reinhard Mueller]

Here is clip from p. 395:

"The other reason I call it The Master Move is that, although I do not believe Ovette originated this move, I first received it from him, and under that name. Milt Kort wrote me that Frank Kelly had been in Detroit for a few weeks in the early 1940s, and had said he was doing the move before Joe. That is possible, since I recall that at Piff Paff Poof in 1932, I did a trick for Joe in which I used it, and told him what a wonderful move I considered it to be. He asked me what I was talking about. I demonstrated the action, and he said he had never heard of it, and certainly had never sold it, but I've no doubt I did buy it from him at least five years earlier. I am reasonably sure that Joe did not devise it, and he most certainly didn't write the instructions. It was written in an understandable manner, which was not typical of his usual garbled style. A further curiosity is that it was mimeographed, not one of the badly typed explanations typically peddled by him.
Ed Marlo was trying to trace it at one time. I recall that, based on Joe's catalogue description, Ed suspected Ovette had been selling the Jean Irving control...."

[Jonathan Townsend]

Thanks - looks like the waters get murky when looking earlier than that "master move" sheet. Perhaps there was some commentary about it when it came out back in the 1920s?

[Philippe Billot]

Reinhard

Thank you very much for all these informations.

I have tried to find an Add in The Linking Ring regarding The Master Move but with no success, even in the chronicles of Sid Lorraine entitled News from Canada.

[Reinhard Mueller]

Here is Ovette's catalogue (1927) description:
"The Master Move. A master card principle conceived after years of experimenting in card work. A feat that will enable you to VERY, VERY SLOWLY, before a magi's eyes, bring any selected card to any position in the deck. Impossible to detect as the slower you do it the less he sees. A conception that can be used in a thousand ways. A PERFECT MOVE - done with any deck. No apparatus. Dead easy. A boon to all manipulators."

[Philippe Billot]

One more, thanks a lot for this complete and precise retrospective.

As usual, some sleights are sleeping, waiting to be discovered.

[George Olson]

Here's something from a few years ago that Dennis Loomis put together:

Dennis Loomis
unregistered


posted May 23, 2003 08:36 PM
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I've just begun to put together a Bibliography. It's far from complete, I havn't pulled together all of the page numbers, etc., but for what it's worth, here are a few places to read about or view the Kelly Bottom Placement/Ovette Master move:

Tarbell III Page 184, Frank Kelly

Dai Vernons Handling of the move is described in Ultimate Secrets of Card Magic on Page 107. In the same book, the original is described well with illustrations in conjunction with Francis Haxtons Last Word Four Aces on page 143.

Lewis Ganson's Routined Manipulation Finale

The "get-ready" for the Kelly Bottom Placement uses a "get-ready" that is similar that used in the "Tip-over Change" (see page 86 in Expert Card Technique by Hugard & Braue).

Paul Harris describes a variation of the move in Art of Astonishment. (Face Lift)

Daryl's Video: Encyclopedia of Card Sleights Vol.4

It is often referenced in older texts as the Ovette Master Move and dates back to 1927. Frank Kelly either reinvented it or forgot the source.

The move is shown by Johnny Thompson on Volume 3 of The Commercial Classics Videos in conjunction with the Malini Card Stab.

Allan Ackermans version is taught on his A-1 Video Tape: Every Move a Move.

Gene Maze has a variation of the move in Apocalypse Vol. 20 No. 12 December 1997, on page 2878. (The Final Issue!)

Ron Bauer discussed his handling of the move in December 1982. Volume 46, No. 12. Genii Magazine. (Santa on the cover.) It was in Charlie Miller's Magicana Column.

In an issue of MAGIC there's a palm based on the Kelly Move, and if memory serves, it's called the "Kelly Kop."

Dennis Loomis
www.loomismagic.com

[Jim Martin]

Thanks George.

In my copy of 'Ultimate Secrets' the move is described in Chapter 22 (p. 145) and 'Last Word Four Aces- Haxton' begins on p. 186.

[Jonathan Townsend]

Okay - dumb question here - has that sleight been applied to a force? I mean if you do the move while ostensibly putting a card at the face of the pack and then tip the pack up toward the audience you've got them looking at the card which was there before.

[Philippe Billot]

I have no reference for a Force by Marlo used this sleight in connection with a Dribble Control.
See Marlo's Magazine, Vol. 5, page 313.

[Jonathan Townsend]

Thanks Philippe - my intent is to apparently take a freely touched or stopped at card to the bottom of the packet in hand - and then raise that packet up so the audience can see the face of the bottom card (having done the move as a reverse glide during the placement) seemingly all fair...

;)