Twisting Climax

by Joseph Dymit

(Joseph was kind enough to allow me to publish his addition to “Twisting the Aces.” It was inspired by “Royal Burial” in Card Stories.)

This handling assumes the use of a working surface.

1. At the conclusion of any “Twisting the Aces” routine, lay the Aces on the table in a face-up fan towards your right.

2. Pick up the deck and ribbon spread face up, from left to right. With the right hand, gracefully gesture along the spread and say: ‘Face up.’

3. Do a standard domino-style turnover of the spread; again gesture with the right hand and say: ‘Face down.’

4. Gather the spread and square up with the right hand above and left below (the deck is face down). Begin the action of setting the deck down in a forward-left position on the table with the right hand. While doing this, two other things occur simultaneously.

5. The right hand one-hand-top-palms (Hugard) the top face-down card from the deck. This action is shaded by the left hand, which reaches over to the right, picks up the Ace fan and displays it to the audience. You say: ‘Face up.’ By this time the deck has been tabled and the right hand is retreating with its palmed card.

6. The face-up fan is closed and squared with the right hand above and left below. The face-down palmed card is secretely added to the face-up packet under cover of the right hand.

7. The left hand performs the Carlyle Turnover and displays the supposedly face down packet. You say ‘Face down.’

It is important, at this point especially, not to rush or act guilty in any way. Work in slow motion.

8. Take the packet with the right hand, pinching it in the middle of the right, long side with the thumb on top and forefinger below, freeing the left hand which reaches over to the deck and lifts off the top half. Lay the packet on top of the remaining lower half, then replace the top half. Square up with a corner-squeeze motion, emphasizing the fairness of the handling.

9. Pick up the deck and do the Vernon twisting motion with the whole deck (or substitute whatever magical incantation you used to cause the reversals in the previous Twisting routine).

10. Ribbon spread the deck to reveal the wondrous results of your virtuosity.

This climax is effective here because it stays within the logic of the Twisting concept. It avoids the incongruity of color-changing backs or other similar absurdities. It can also be done in the spectator’s hands if there is no working surface. And it can be done with or without patter. It is powerful, indetectable, elegant and easy all at the same time. I like it a lot.

Joe