Origins of Miscalling a card

Discuss your favorite close-up tricks and methods.
SebT
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Joined: November 4th, 2015, 12:35 pm

Origins of Miscalling a card

Postby SebT » February 7th, 2019, 7:38 pm

I'm trying to track down the origins of the old ruse of miscalling a card. If anyone can guide me towards a possible source, it would be appreciated! Thank you!

Joe Lyons
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Re: Origins of Miscalling a card

Postby Joe Lyons » February 7th, 2019, 9:22 pm

Origins, who knows. It looks like it goes back to The Vanishing Pair in Four Full Hands by Charles Jordan 1921. Which is also in Hugard's Encyclopedia of Card Tricks and other books.

Jonathan Townsend
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Re: Origins of Miscalling a card

Postby Jonathan Townsend » February 7th, 2019, 9:39 pm

The kids in school use to play a game called "i doubt it" - (or BS) which involved miscalling cards and cheating using multiple lifts. ;)
Mundus vult decipi -per Caleb Carr's story Killing Time

SebT
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Joined: November 4th, 2015, 12:35 pm

Re: Origins of Miscalling a card

Postby SebT » February 7th, 2019, 10:35 pm

Joe Lyons wrote:Origins, who knows. It looks like it goes back to The Vanishing Pair in Four Full Hands by Charles Jordan 1921. Which is also in Hugard's Encyclopedia of Card Tricks and other books.

Great Thanks Ill check it out!

SebT
Posts: 12
Joined: November 4th, 2015, 12:35 pm

Re: Origins of Miscalling a card

Postby SebT » February 7th, 2019, 10:36 pm

Jonathan Townsend wrote:The kids in school use to play a game called "i doubt it" - (or BS) which involved miscalling cards and cheating using multiple lifts. ;)

;)

webbmaster
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Re: Origins of Miscalling a card

Postby webbmaster » October 9th, 2019, 12:42 pm

I'm thinking Francis Carlisle (sp). That's where I learned of it as ana actual technique in a trick (I think it is from Stars of Magic).

Philippe Billot
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Re: Origins of Miscalling a card

Postby Philippe Billot » October 9th, 2019, 12:55 pm

In Greater Magic (1938), William McCaffrey used this subtlety in his trick Card to Pocket II, page 256.

Philippe Billot
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Re: Origins of Miscalling a card

Postby Philippe Billot » October 9th, 2019, 12:58 pm

Here is the conclusion of the trick :

Concluding Observations: This ingenious subtlety of miscalling a card, without showing its face, is a valuable artifice and can be made the basis of many other surprising effects.

Bill Mullins
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Re: Origins of Miscalling a card

Postby Bill Mullins » October 9th, 2019, 1:16 pm

"A Card in the Case" by Gerald Kesky, Sphinx Jun 1930, uses a miscalled card as part of its method.

But The Handbook of Poker (1892) by William James Florence refers to one player miscalling his hand as something higher than it really is, and the player with what would be the winning hand throwing his cards in. Even if the first player's "error" is discovered, the 2nd player cannot recover his hand because it is already mixed in with the other players' cards.

And even further back, in Animal Magnetism; or Psycodunamy (1846) by Theodore Leger, the author tells of miscalling a card in a game of Piquet to deceive his opponent.

So I suppose this is one of those things that comes from the gaming table.

Philippe Billot
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Re: Origins of Miscalling a card

Postby Philippe Billot » October 9th, 2019, 3:04 pm

Thanks Bill for this reference.

This trick remember me The Card in the Case by Walter Gibson described in Popular Card Tricks published in 1928.


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