Probably due to the Ammar ETM series, when I perform Twisting the Aces I almost always follow it up with Dr. Daley's Last Trick. I wanted to mention a couple of ideas that I've found helpful about doing the two routines.

First, Wayne Houchin published his handling and presentation for Twisting the Aces in the June 2009 Genii. While I don't perform the routine exactly like Wayne, when I incorporated some of his touches into the routine, the impact of a great trick seemed to go even higher.

Second, Stephen Hobbs' Technical Toolbox is still up right now. In Week 8, he has a great line in his trick "Aces Up." He asks a female spectator a certain question. I'm not going to give it away. But, I will say that this is the line I now use to get into the Daley trick after the aces have all twisted. I follow up the spectator's answer by either saying, "Oh, you must be a romantic at heart," or "Ah, a practical person." I'm sure you can figure out which statement goes with which answer if you know the Hobbs question.

Third, when I begin the Daley trick, the two red aces are on the bottom of the packet and I am drawing attention to them when I ask the Hobbs' question. So, how to go from there into the Daley trick? What I do is I turn the packet face-down. I then give the packet an Elmsley Count. Doing this displaces the red aces so that they are in the right position to go directly into the Daley trick. There is a discrepancy in this, but not a single layperson has seemed to notice.

And that's it. I know this isn't anything earth-shattering, but sometimes little tweaks can increase the impact of a routine. At least, that seems to be the case for me.

Jay

I rarely perform a straight twisting or Doc Daley's last trick, even though they are still VERY powerful. The biggest reason I don't do them much anymore is that in my regular repertoire I have effects that use those plots rather than just the originals. Example, one of my favorite packet tricks is Chris Kenner's Twister which is Twisting the Aces plus Reset. When I DO perform the traditional Twisting or DDLT, it's usually just a casual thing. I will do Twisting, DDLT and will often throw in Phil Goldstein's Overture. I think this goes well after those 2 because it is a combination of twising and DDLT at the same time, and that's the scripting I use. If you are intersted in packet tricks, pick up the book Focus. It has Overture and about 20 other packet tricks that are versions of classics and some new plots.

I don't do Twisting the Aces and DDLT that often. However, when people have seen me several times, or I'm just in the mood, I like being able to pull four random cards that happen to be the four aces out of the deck and go into the routine.

One of the reasons I was thinking about those tricks is that I did do them numerous times recently when I was hired to work at a nursing school's holiday party. I did a three trick routine beginning with Danny Archer's Eye Exam. Since I had four jacks in my hand at the end of Eye Exam, I then did Twisting the Aces (Jacks) and DDLT. The routine seemed to play really well with all the nursing instructors.

I used to own Focus until I loaned it to someone. The thing is, I'm not really that much into packet tricks. That's probably the main reason I haven't bought another copy.

Thanks for the suggestions for some routines to look up!

Jay

I forget where I saw someone do this, but for Dr. Daley's Last Trick, I have the spectator cross their arms. If your arms are crossed, you can't really turn over a card in your hand easily. After you place the two cards in their hands, then you uncross their arms. Sometimes this really does confuse people. They're really not 100% sure which is the heart or diamond.

Anyways, I prefer this method vs. having two cards in their one hand and asking which is on top or bottom.

The crossed arms idea is also good to use anytime you put two cards in someone's hands and you don't want them to turn the card over before they're supposed to.

As far as I know, the crossing of the arms is a John Bannon idea. See Interlude: Two Classics in Dear Mr. Fantasy, pp. 66-70.

Hello guys I loved this post!!!

Daley.s Last trick was one of my fauvorite tricks of all time xD that is why I developed a complete ROUTINE with 4 cards, 4 tricks, all linked with a patter wich I believe that enforce my version of the Last Trick (the complete routine was built upon trying make the last trick more intresting (TRYING. I believe that the original version is SUPERB though ) , mine is a version of the version of Greg wilson (Weighting the aces...Thank you GREG ), but with a different aproach some psicological touches and simplificated handling hope you like it PLEASE ENABLE SUBTITTLES to follow the patter

http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......orum=201

Wish you Merry Christmas

Nicolas Pierri

Hi Nicolas,

Thanks for bringing your routine to my attention!

Happy holidays!!!

Jay

HAPPY HOLLYDAYS FOR YOU TOO MI FRIEND

I think it's called Strasbourg Waltz from Card College. A Richard Vollmer trick if my memory serves me. It's a Killer version of Twisting and Dr Daley with a kicker. Great trick. If you do it with Dupes it's ending can be similar to Double Back. I do it with two black Jacks to end and use that cool bill Malone line. Anyone for black Jack or poker? It's from a shuffled deck. Great one to have up your sleeve so to speak.

I usually do Dr. Daley's Last Trick with a Gilligan's Island presentation. Two red queens are Ginger and Mary Ann and two black aces are the Skipper and Gilligan. May Ann and Ginger live in their hut and Gilligan and the Skipper are in a different hut, and they end up changing places.

I have always done DDLT the way Bill Malone does it. Always plays well.

I do a 3 trick routine at the moment. It starts off with "Topsy Turvy Aces" from The Card Magic of Nick Trost, which I present as a simple demonstration of skill. This gives me an excuse to pluck out the aces.

After this, I go into a pretty typical Twisting the Aces with a "more ink, thus heavier" presentation. Depending on the audience I either give this factoid a hard sell or I do it with a wink. I'm trying to remove false factoids from my presentations though, so I'm looking for a new presentation that is equally compelling. The whole thing is presented as something I understand and slight of hand.

The DDLT is done as "would you like to see something I don't understand?" I then do a simple performance and close out with, "but I have no idea how that works!"

This works pretty well for me, but it's also a presentation that fits my style and my audiences. YMMV!

Luke Dancy's For Daley...

In Jason England's At the Table lecture he follows Twisting with a great effect from Paul Harris. If you like classics, that lecture is worth it's weight in gold.

This is the best version of this trick I have seen!