Dunbury Delusion

[Guest]

I'm looking for referneces for impromptu versions of this classic. Any suggestions?

Thanks
Chris

[Guest]

LoL ... this makes me sound like an Ammar freak but i believe u can find Dunbury Delusion in volume 4 of Easy to Master Card Miracles

[Dave Shepherd]

I know it from Expert Card Technique. In the Dover reprint it is on page 319.

It certainly seems impromptu in that description. Done from a shuffled (borrowed?) deck in use and all--even an incomplete deck.

It doesn't seem EASY, however. You must do a series of second deals with some heat on the deck, and the control is more involved than an injog-shuffle. But impromptu it is indeed.

[fredm]

Check out "Danbury Delight" in Frank Garcia's Million Dollar Card Secrets.

Fred

[Guest]

You can replace the multiple second deals with a pass. In preparation for the flip-over move, thumb count four cards instead of three. Proceed per instructions (I've learned this from ECT). After the three cards are placed on the table, place the right-hand half of the deck on top, rather then underneath, the left-hand packet, and hold a break.

Deal to two less than the designated number, find some cover for the pass (e.g., feign some confusion over which number you've reached). Do the pass, deal the one indifferent card, build tension, and then -- with everyone burning your hands -- deal the final card, which is the selection.

When practicing the DD, you need to plan for contingencies. Let's say that the chosen card, which will be the first one you place on the table, is the four of clubs. If you've said that this card signifies suit and that the second card will signify denomination, you have to be ready for the possibility that the second card will be a four. You can proceed as you would normally, pretending to display unease sooner than you would have otherwise, but you're also at increased risk of having a spectator call your bluff then and there -- I won't enumerate the possible outs, but you need to be ready for them.

Similarly, if you're performing the trick as I've described, you need to be ready for the contingency that the third card, signifying position from the top, will be an uncomfortably small number. If it's a deuce, you're home free -- place the right-hand half below the left-hand half, forgo the pass, and deal normally. If it's an ace, do the same, but double-lift instead of dealing.

The Dunbury Delusion can be a killer trick, but you need to keep your wits about you.

[Guest]

I can't double check from work, but I believe I do the one from Bill Simon's book "Card Magic for Amateurs and Professionals." It's definately an impromptu version.

The first card will always be the color, since it's the spectator's card. Let's say the first (selected) card is the 4 of clubs. I say this represents the color of the card they chose. The second card is unknown to me so I can't say what it represents until I see it.

If the second card is a club, I'm in luck & say it represents the suit. If the second card is low, I'm still in luck since I say it represents that their card is a low card. If the second card is even I can use that also. In these cases the trick proceeds as written in the book.

However, let's say it's an odd high red card or a high odd spade. I can't use either of the above. Then I go into plan B.

Plan B: In the above example their card is the 4C. If I get a high odd red card (9H, 9D, JD, etc.) I say their card must be a high card. If I get a high spade I can say either their card is a spade or a high card. In either case I'm misrepresenting their card.

From here I proceed as normal (deal seconds to keep the spectator's card on top). When I get to the end I recap. I point to the first card and say "Your card was a black card correct?" (show enthusiasm & point to the second card) "And your card was also a spade/high card?" (show shock at the negative response) "Oh no, I must have messed it up." (show fear/disappointment/etc.)

I've gotten good reactions from this. Since the audience already thinks their card is the first face down card they believe that I have made a mistake. It reinforces that their card is lying in the first pile. You can end in many ways, one is "So your card isn't the" (look at the card in your hand which is their card & miscall it) "10 of spades then? Well then, I'll just have to use magic to turn this into your card." (magical gesture then show their card)

Hope this helps.

[Guest]

Jim Swain had a great handling of it using something he called the Cool-Out Move, I think, in a GENII a couple years ago. It must have been around Summer or Fall of 2000, but I don't have the exact reference or my index handy.

For the final count-down to locate the card, I use this wonderful diabolical idea I got from Allan Ackerman (I think I saw it somewhere on one of his Advanced Card Control videos, not necessarily in a Dunbury Delusion effect): simply count cards off the deck into the RH without reversing the order, impose some time misdirection, and then just take top card of the RH cards as you ask the name of the card. This is especially effective since spectator is convinced the card is on the table anyway, they couldn?t care less how you count.

--Ezra.

[Sam Kesler]

Fred, not to stray too far from the topic, but could you post your comments about Frank Garcia's "Million Dollar Card Sectets"? I see there's a copy available for $225. Perhaps a separate thread to discuss the contents of this book? Is it that good? Thanks in advance.

[jimmycards]

If you have access to old Marlo stuff, I believe there are several versions in Marlo's Magazines 1, 3, and 6.

Jim Molinari

[jimmycards]

Sam,

There would have to be something awfully special about that copy. I have the book and although it has some nice stuff, $225 seems a bit too much. I understand that copies can be good, excellent and 'mint' conditions, but still it seems high.

Jim Molinari

[mike cookman]

Jon Racherbaumer's Make Mine Dunbury Well, in Cardmagic is really good.

[Pete Biro]

Charlie's Dunberry Delusion, named after the Dumbarton Bridge across the southern part of San Francisco Bay, is one great trick.

I decided not to do the 2nd deals, and worked out the following.

Just count the cards onto the table (the real selected was first so is on the bottom of the dealt cards) and when done, pick up the cards (they think you have blown it as they "saw" their card set down earlier) and holding them in Biddle type grip with right hand, just pull the cards to the right retaining the bottom, selected, card in left hand.

Reveal and take the money!

:D

Oh, I showed this the Charlie Miller Charlie Miller and he approved of me doing it this way, as my 2nd was not up to his.

[Guest]

Eddie Fechter - Thats it!

[Gerald Deutsch]

Just some thoughts on this effect:

1 There's always the possibility that the spectator will think he took the mate of the selected card when you "make a mistake" and show the selected card. For that reason I always force the Ace of Spades so there can't be that confusion.

2 To avoid the second dealing I do the following:

* I have a 3 fourth from the top and AS on top

* I force the AS

* Holding the deck in overhand shuffle position, I pull out the top half of the deck in my left hand and have the selected card put back on top.

* I overhand shuffle as follows:

** Injog and shuffle off

** Cut at injog, run six, injog and shuffle off

** Cut at injog and throw to top

** Run top 5 cards to to left hand, toss right hand cards on top but hold break over 5 cards on bottom with right thumb

* Swivel about half the deck with your right index finger to left hand

* Push off the top card of left hand packet (the selected card) and turn it face up by using the right hand packet underneath the pushed off card saying this will tell us the color

* Turn it face down the same way and as you do drop the cards under the break on top

* Deal the top card (they think the AS) to the table.

* Flip over the next card the same way (an indifferent card) saying this will tell us if it's a picture card or spot card. Flip it over the same way.

* Flip over the next card (the 3) and say this will tell us how many cards down. Flip it face down and deal it to the table

* Count 3 cards and show the selected card

3 Also note the Fingerprint Card Trick from My Best and Volume 1 of the Vernon Chronicles.

[Guest]

I use Gary Oullet's finger on the card quite often. The description is a little over hyped, but I love the effect. Great magic

-DJM

[Guest]

Roy Johnson' s version it's one of my favourites.
Don't forget for a very personal version the one by Racherbaumer's in Card magic book by Kaufman.
For commercial use Jim Ryan's it's difficult to beat.

[Guest]

Originally posted by Pete Biro:
I decided not to do the 2nd deals, and worked out the following....

Pete, your solution is certainly more elegant and less prone to detection than mine; thanks!

[Pete Biro]

Yer welkum... Charlie liked it too.

[David Acer]

Originally posted by Dan Millstein:
I use Gary Oullet's finger on the card quite often. The description is a little over hyped, but I love the effect. Great magic

-DJM

I agree with Dan - Gary Ouellet's FINGER ON THE CARD (Volume 1, #1 in The Camirand Academy's Masters of Magic Series) offers both an excellent effect and overhyped adcopy (possibly an attempt to compensate for the fact that the trick reads a little dull from a magician's stand-point). The revised edition (which came out in the mid-eighties - the First Edition was published in 1979) also offers some of Gary's more advanced work on the theme in a special addendum called Finger on the Card Revisited. All in all, a worthwhile investment for ten bucks.

[Paul Cummins]

For whomever might be interested, I had a version that I've been using for awhile published in Precurser recently. If there's interest, I'd happily post it here.

Paul

[Ryan Matney]

I'd like to read it Paul! :D

[Guest]

That would be real nice of you, Paul

Chris

[Dave Shepherd]

Yes, me too. I'd love to see it.

[Paul Cummins]

Sure. Here you go (edited for this forum very slightly from what was in Precursor):

The Trick That NEVER Fails

Tell your audience that you are going to show them the trick that NEVER fails. Take a shuffled deck in use and begin to spread it as you ask the spectator to say stop. Manage the spreading and the spectator in such a way that they stop you about a third of the way from the top of the deck. Perform whatever style of Convincing Control that you prefer, ending up with the selection on the bottom of the deck and the apparent selection outjogged from the deck about a third from the top.

As you push about half of the deck from your left hand into your right, say, Here, you take these cards and give them a shuffle. Use the left-hand cards to square the outjogged card and give the right-hand packet to the spectator for shuffling. Table the remainder of the deck in front of you, long edge parallel to the table edge. While the spectator is shuffling, you patter: Going on the theory that I cannot have any control over what I am not holding, you must agree that I cannot have any idea where your card is in the packet you are shuffling. The spectator must agree.

Take the spectator-shuffled packet and place it onto the table to the right of the previously tabled packet. Riffle shuffle these two packets together (let the bottom card of the left-hand packet, the selection, fall first) and patter as follows. But I dont know your history you may have been a card shark in another life, so Im going to shuffle your pack into my pack so that you must agree that neither of us can possibly know the location of your card. The spectator will usually react to the comment that she may be a card shark, but certainly shell agree that neither of you may know the location of the selection. In fact, as long as the Convincing Control was convincing, then the spectator will have an extremely high degree of conviction that her card is truly lost because she will feel that she actually shuffled it into the half-deck that she was holding. This is a terrific control sequence that is applicable to any routine in which the card must be controlled to the bottom of the deck.

Pick up the tabled deck and hold it in left-hand dealing position. Pull down on the bottom card and acquire a pinky break below it. Take the deck from above in your right hand, the right thumb taking over the break above the bottom card. Swing cut half the deck into your left hand, and complete the cut, your left pinky taking over the break above the selection as the right-hand cards are placed onto the left-hand cards. The selection is below the pinky break.

Ive got the easy part, you say, and youve got the hard part. First, Ill flip over a couple of cards that will help to identify the card you chose. Spread through the deck and up to the break. Split the spread at the break so that the selection is the top card of the left-hand packet. Use the right-hand packet to flip this card face up and then face down, executing the Torino/Kardyro One Card Drop Supreme and tabling an indifferent card. Theres a six, so I know your card must have been a six, is the simple descriptive patter (assume the spectators card is the six of spades).

Bring your hands together, culling the selection under the spread as you continue to spread further down into the deck. Stop at any random point and flip over another card, using the right-hand spread for consistencys sake. And since this is a red card, it tells me that yours must be black, you say. Of course, if you flip up a black card youd say, And since this one is black, that tells me that your card is black. Flip the card face down (using the right-hand spread) and thumb it onto the previously tabled card. Reassemble the deck, allowing the culled selection to run to the bottom of the deck.

That was the easy part, you continue, now comes the hard part your part. I was able to determine that your card was a black card and a six; you must determine its exact location. But dont worry, this trick NEVER fails. Spread the deck into your right hand, spreading at least half the cards on the first push and ask the spectator to say stop. When she does, you are sure to beholding less than half of the cards in your left hand. Flip the top card of the left-hand group face up using the right-hand spread. Square and table the right-hand cards. Ah, a four, you say, that means if you stopped me at the exact right spot, then we count down four cards from this very spot to find your card. Take the face-up card (in our example the four) and turn it face down onto the two previously tabled cards. Of course, your spectator is thinking that performer is in big trouble right about now, and that the performer is not aware of that trouble. They think the selection is at the bottom of the three-card tabled packet.

Begin dealing cards onto the tabled half-deck, counting them as you deal. In the case of this example, youd count three cards onto the tabled half-deck and then bottom deal (very easy with less than half the deck) the fourth card onto the table in front of the spectator, sailing it toward her. Ask her, What was your card? When she names it, nod at the card on the table in front of her. As soon as she turns it face up say, See? This trick NEVER fails!

References, Credits, and Comments

This routine was directly inspired by Bob Kings routine Bobs Delusion from Bill Miesels Precursor magazine (Number 83, July 2002, page 18). Bobs routine is terrific, and much simpler from a technical standpoint. The above routine is not meant as an improvement to Bobs routine, merely a technical rehandling that suits me a bit better.

Both routines are among the many inspired by Dunbury Delusion attributed to Charlie Miller in Expert Card Technique, Hugard and Braue, Wehman Bros. Publishers Third Edition, 1966, p. 319.

Ed Marlos Convincing Control may be found in Hierophant 3, Jon Racherbaumer, March, 1970, p. 133 135. Particularly the Third Variation on page 135 in which the selection is apparently outjogged from the spread deck.

The fabulous secret card exchange used in this routine was attributed to Henry Christ by Bob King in the Precursor magazine referenced above. I am not aware of a published record of this exchange being credited to Mr. Christ, though I do not doubt Bobs veracity in the slightest. I learned the exchange from Kardyos Kard Konjuring some 20 years ago and have loved its simplicity and wicked deceptiveness ever since. See the One Card Flip-Over Switch also referred to as the One Card Drop Supreme in Kardyros Kard Konjuring by Senor Torino (a.k.a. Tony Kardyro), undated, p. 8-9. I give a detailed description of the move in one of the sequences used in my multiple selection routine in FUSILLADE, A Treatise on the Multiple Selection Routine, Cummins & Eason, 2000, p. 39.

The bottom deal used in this routine is a simple one as usually far less than half of the deck is held when the bottom deal is executed. In fact, as I place the third indicator card onto the two previously tabled indicator cards is when I set the bottom card for a bottom deal. Then, when the bottom deal actually happens, there is literally no left-hand finger movement. For a terrific descriptions of a bottom deal, see Gene Maze and the Art of the Bottom Deal, Stephen Hobbs, Kaufman & Greenberg, 1994, beginning on p. 2; or Ed Marlos Seconds, Centers, Bottoms, undated, p. 9.

That's it - I've been having fun with it. If anyone is unfamiliar with the One Card Drop Supreme move, I can also post the description from Fusillade here if you like.

Paul

[Jeff Eline]

Very nice! Thank you for the effect! :)

[Steve Hook]

Thank you, Gerald and Paul, for taking the time to write up your routines. I'll try them both.

(Paul: I love the Convincing Control ruse. And I also love FUSILLADE!)

Steve H

[Paul Cummins]

Thanks, Steve. And, glad to hear that you're enjoying Fusillade.

Paul

[Guest]

Thanks Paul,
I've been using ideas from Fusillade for a long time now with great results. I'm looking forward to trying out your version of Dunbury Delusion the first chance I get.

Thanks again
Chris

[Guest]

Although it's not quite the same effect as Dunbury Delusion, Harry Lorayne's Revelation from Close Up Card Magic served me well for many years. I do it differently now. The selection is still controlled to the bottom and the deck cut into three piles. The bottom cards of the three packets are placed face down on the table, but the selection is switched out with the glide. At this point I deviate from the Lorayne presentation. I total the spot values of the three tabled cards and have the spectator cut off about half of the reassembled deck. I then count down that number of cards from the bottom half, and do a bottom deal on the last card. The bottom card is the selection, and having the spectator cut the cards makes the bottom deal easier. Now you have the spectator name the selection, which he thinks is on the table, but is really in your hand.

[Pete Biro]

ecphora... I really like that idea... will test it out. :rolleyes: :p :rolleyes:

[Guest]

Thank you Paul for posting a very nicely thought out routine. Barry

[Guest]

What a post Paul, and who would have expected any less from you? It reminds me to spend some more time with FASDIU and FASDIU II again.

Looking forward to the next time you come to sunny Frostbite Falls (Minnesota). It's only 15 below zero today. My store furnace could only maintain about 45 degrees maximum today at full throttle.

Dunbury Delusion is my #1 favorite opener trick, and I sometimes use some boris wild cards so the initial 'error revelation' which I do on the second card is just a bit more powerful.

[Guest]

How did Charlie Miller come up with the name "Dunbury Delusion"?

[Pete Biro]

Charlie named it Dunbury after (only he knows why 'cuz the spelling is different) the Dumbarton Bridge that crosses San Francisco Bay on the lower section. It is a seven mile long bridge. :eek:

[Philippe Billot]

Charlie named it Dunbury after (only he knows why 'cuz the spelling is different) the Dumbarton Bridge that crosses San Francisco Bay on the lower section. It is a seven mile long bridge. :eek:

Anyone can explain to a Froggy french why, starting with "Dumbarton Bridge", we end with "dunbury".
Thanks in advance

[Pete Biro]

You don't need a 2nd or a pass or any move. I showed my finish the Charlie Miller and he loved it.

Reveal card on top of deck. Count dtne necessary number of cards onto you open opposite hand. (This puts selection at bottom of packet). Stop, lift up rear of top card as to peek at it. Kind of a biddle grip, thumb at rear.

Name card.

On the off beat just take all the cards above the bottom (selection) card and toss aside leaving chosen card in hand.

They think their card is on the table so there is no heat.

[T Baxter]

I have a version of my own that goes over very well.

It's a "think-of-a-card" effect, wherein the thought-of card appears under the participant's hand, in place of an apparently mistaken one.

I call it: DELUSIONAL, as a nod to Charlie Miller's effect, from which mine was inspired.

It was published in my e-book, A CARD MERELY THOUGHT OF... and in Antimony magazine.

T. Baxter

[El Mystico]

One of the strong side benefits of the original is that it is a great way to build confidence with your second deal, because the heat is off you.

but if you dont have any sort of second deal, Charlie Miller has a very nice alternative handling in one of the Alton Sharpe books - expert Card Chicanery from memory.

There is an alternative for those who don't second deal which must have been explored somewhere, but if it has, I've not seen it - and that is doing a adding five cards when you turn the selection face down and using Harry Lorayne's idea that any card will spell with four or five cards.

[Duce]

If anyone is unfamiliar with the One Card Drop Supreme move, I can also post the description from Fusillade here if you like.

Paul

plz..Thanks in advance