Companies have been marketing their decks with the phrase "Traditional Cut" which arguably make the cards easier to shuffle and faro. Is that true though?
The Elmsley Count was created by Alex Elmsley(originally known as the Ghost Count) in 1959, it is one of the most well-known card sleights in the world. There is a span of variations created by magicians since it was first published (Notable variations such as OPEC Count by Ed Marlo, Underground Elmsley Count by Phil Goldstein, my personal favourite - Discrepancy City Display by John Bannon)
It is safe to say 99% of the magicians know and use this sleight at least once in their life. However, not all of them understand the true motive behind this sleight and most importantly, the CORRECT way to do the sleight (Not mechanically speaking)
The Elmsley Count is the name of this move but it is not necessarily a “Count” but also a “Display”:
“Here I have 4 Aces” – A magician SHOWS 4 Aces while talking. Note that I used the word “Show” rather than “Count”
“Here I have 4 red cards’ again, a magician SHOWS 4 red cards while talking.
“Here I have 4 black cards” – you get the point!
Of course you could argue in a routine where the quantity of cards is the primary concerned (whether you are hiding the less of it or the more it), then in that case, the Elmsley Count is primarily considered as a “Count” (See Greg Wilson’s Leather Fours from his DVD Pyrotechnic Pasteboards & David Williamson’s The 3 Card Trick)
In this blog however, I want to discuss about the “Display” of the The Elmsley Count. There are 3 types of “Display” for the Count:
- The Count is done face down to hide card or cards (Either to hide a face up card(s) or an odd back card(s) ) –this is probably the most basic form for the Count. You need not to care about the “Display” here; the most critical parts would be the mechanic and the naturalness of the performer. (See Video)
- The Count is done face up to hide either the identity of a face up card(s) or to hide a face down card(s). Here we need to concern the mechanic and naturalness but we have another advantage when you hide the identity of a face up card using a Bebel’s subtlety (See Video). If you are counting a 4 of a kind and hide one odd card (For example: you want to show 4 kings but in reality you only have 3 kings and one indifferent card) NOTE on the colours of the kings – you don’t want to accidentally count 3 red kings or 3 black kings; keen observers would notice something is off.
- This is in my opinion the most critical and many magicians (even the experienced ones) do it wrong – Counting 4 Aces. The mistakes here are: the Ace of Spades is shown twice or there is no Ace of Spades at all (colour issue is mentioned above so I won’t say it again) – the ONLY way to Count the Aces is to have a red Ace on top (See Picture), follow by a black ace, the card you wish to hide and lastly another black Ace. With this set up you will display 2 reds and 2 blacks cards as per normal.
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Credit:
Alex Elmsley
Bebel
John Bannon
Dai Vernon
Ed Marlo
Kenneth Yeo
Check out Big Blind Media’s The Elmsley Count Project for one of the most elaborated tutorial and study on this sleight.
Further Reading / Research:
Dai Vernon’s Twisting the Aces
Alex Elmsley – The Four Card Trick
Bill Goodwin’s Twisting the Kings combine 5 Counts in one routine and is one of the most elegant contructed packet trick ever
David Williamson ‘s The 3 Card Trick
thẻ: elmsley count, count, elmsley, magic, tut
