Daley Dilemma: How Do We Fix the Four Weaknesses of Dr. Daley’s Last Trick?
Note: This is the first in a series of posts on the card trick known as Dr. Daley’s Last Trick. I’m currently writing a book called Developing Daley, a book solely dedicated to this trick. Once I’ve finished it, it will include over fifty variations of this classic card magic plot! Before publishing the book, I’ll be serialising some of the content here on Marty’s Bag of Tricks. If you want to receive updates about the book’s progress, please consider subscribing to my Ruseletter.
Like many magicians, “The Last Trick of Dr. Jacob Daley” is one of my favourite effects. For such a simple trick, there’s a lot to like. The magical plot is clear, easy to follow and surprising. It uses four regular playing cards, only takes a few seconds to perform, and, like The Incredible Hulk, packs one hell of a punch! Yet, the classic packet trick suffers from several inherent weaknesses. These deficiencies must be addressed if you want your performance to be more than mediocre.
When I perform magic for someone I have just met, I usually start with Dai Vernon’s “Twisting the Aces” and follow it up with a version of Dr. Daley’s Last Trick. I prefer these two effects because, although they’re well-known by magicians, they are very different from the usual “pick-a-card” tricks with which most people are familiar. For this reason, I’ve probably performed Daley’s transposition more than any other card trick, and, as a consequence, I’ve developed a keen appreciation of its strengths and weaknesses.
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| The four Aces from the Dapper Deck by Vanishing Inc. Magic. Photo Credit: Mark Williams via Unsplash. |
Dr. Jacob Daley also believed every magic trick had at least one weak spot and would try everything possible to eliminate it; I hope my attempt to do the same with his “last” trick would have met with his approval. I’ve identified four main weaknesses in the plot:
- The effect is too direct;
- The trick is poorly motivated;
- The effect is easily missed;
- The trick is over too soon.
Wait a minute! Maybe you’re unfamiliar with the original trick? Here’s the description from chapter twenty-one of The Dai Vernon Book of Magic:
“The four Aces are held face up in the left hand; the red Aces on top of the squared packet and the black Aces underneath. Each card is shown separately, then a black Ace is placed on top of the packet and the other black Ace underneath — the cards are spread and the red Aces are seen to be sandwiched in the centre. After turning the cards face down, the two outer (black) Aces are placed on the table, leaving the performer holding the two red Aces. A spectator is asked to indicate the position of the Ace of Spades which a moment previously he saw dealt on to the table. When he points to the card the performer turns it face up — it is a red Ace. The other card on the table is also a red Ace! Both black Aces are in the performer’s hand; an extraordinary transposition has taken place.” 1
Now, I know what you might be thinking. “The Last Trick of Dr. Jacob Daley” is considered a classic of card magic, and for good reason. Generally speaking, trying to improve on the classics is a bad idea. As Swiss card expert Roberto Giobbi once said in the pages of Genii Magazine:
“The person who claims to have improved upon Vernon or Daley is the equivalent of someone saying he’s improved on Beethoven or Mozart—he’s either a fool or a liar.” 2
I’ll admit that, by writing this article, there’s a good chance I may be both! However, I firmly believe that you should take action to address these shortcomings. So, how do you improve the performance of the piece without compromising the overall effect? This is the dilemma of Dr. Daley’s Last Trick!
In this blog post, I’ll dissect Daley’s most famous trick and discuss the four weaknesses in detail, along with some simple ways to eliminate them. However, I’ll only be focusing on alterations that don’t require significant changes to the method or presentation of the trick.
1: The Effect is Too Direct
This first issue is the one that presents the biggest problem. The effect is simply too direct. When a magician describes an effect as being “direct”, this is usually positive. This is because such effects move forward in a straight line; they don’t take detours and stay on the main road until they reach their destination. Al Baker’s effects are good examples of this “straight-line thinking” (a term coined by the late Eugene Burger). However, an effect can also be too direct, and I think Dr. Daley’s Last Trick falls into this category. The trick is a classic example of Rick Johnsson’s Too-Perfect Theory 3 in action; the transposition is so strong that it will lead some onlookers straight to the actual method.
This weakness is further exacerbated when you deal the cards into a spectator’s hands and not onto a table as the original instructions dictated. I think the moment you put a face-down card into an intelligent person’s hand, they will start to question the card’s identity and, worse still, will be tempted to turn it over. The way to avoid this is to engage their brain with another thought, e.g., ask them a question, such as, “How heavy is that card?” This new thought acts as “mental misdirection” and knocks the previous one out of their mind. Bill Malone uses this approach when he performs the trick.
As Daley did, you can also deal with this issue by simply placing the cards on the table in front of you. In this situation, a person is much less likely to turn the cards over prematurely because they have to invade your personal space to do so. (Of course, you can only take this approach if you’re standing or seated at a table.) Applying these touches will improve the effect’s impact, but they won’t address the “too perfect” issue.
One way to handle this particular weakness is to introduce a mixing procedure. By delaying the revelation of the transposition, you raise the possibility that sophisticated sleight of hand was used to switch the cards after they were placed on the table. Such a delay needn’t be long. Simply switch the position of the two “black Aces” (?) a few times. Three times is usually enough. This manoeuvre makes locating the Ace of Spades more of a challenge, which strengthens the internal logic of the trick (that it is a short con like Three-Card Monte). More importantly, the mixing of the two tabled cards acts as a red herring, leading your audience away from the truth and moving the trick out of the “too perfect” category. The only possible downside of taking this approach is that you’re framing the trick as an exhibition of extreme skill, i.e., the ability to invisibly switch cards. Now, this isn’t necessarily a bad way to present the effect, but some performers might argue that it isn’t very magical, and it does heighten the “sucker” element already present in the trick.
However, this mixing procedure does present a slight complication; it must be done one-handed as your left hand is already occupied holding the two “red Aces” (?). To make this strange behaviour a little less suspicious, I explain that I’m only going to use one hand in an attempt to make the game easier to play and prevent myself from cheating (this absurd concept usually gets a laugh). Alternatively, you can free up your left hand before the mixing procedure begins by discarding the two “red Aces” (?) to one side. You can even place them face up on the table, and most people will not notice that they’re the wrong cards because everyone is focused on tracking the location of the Ace of Spades (I shall discuss how this idea can be expanded upon in a future article). This small touch adds some much-needed humour to the trick. People are unable to see how they missed the switch when they see the face-up Ace of Spades on the table, and their inattention blindness makes them laugh. It also helps to take the sting out of the sucker element of the trick, lessening any negative impact on your audience.
This solution works well because it transforms Dr. Daley’s Last Trick into a demonstration of an impossible-to-win street scam rather than a pointless guessing game. However, if you don’t have the luxury of a tabletop to perform on, you can use John Bannon’s extremely clever blocking of the routine, which can be found on his Bullets After Dark DVD under the title “Doctored Daley”.
| John Bannon performing “Doctored Daley”. Video Credit: Big Blind Media. |
The idea has seen print several times and can also be found in his excellent book Dear Mr. Fantasy. I recommend that you watch the performance of it on YouTube to see how John has solved this particular weakness. Although uncrossing your participant’s hands appears to be a lame joke, it provides enough misdirection, both mental and physical, to distract curious helpers and usually generates laughter. In addition, John’s clever approach reduces the likelihood of your participant questioning the identity of the two cards they hold and introduces a subtle red herring that enhances, rather than damages, the effect.
2: The Trick is Poorly Motivated
Like many magic tricks, “The Last Trick of Dr. Jacob Daley” suffers from poor motivation. Why do we use four Aces when only two are used in the guessing game? As magicians, we know that we need the red Aces to perform the transposition, but our audiences don’t. Unless we announce ahead of time what is going to happen, a person might wonder why we’re using the red Aces at all. And if we did tell everyone what was going to happen ahead of time, we would ruin the surprise element of the trick. No, we don’t want to do that.
Poor motivation is usually a sign that the internal logic of the trick is faulty. I touched on this weakness when I mentioned a way to improve Daley’s trick by mixing the position of the two black Aces before the reveal. Making the location of the Ace of Spades more challenging improves the internal logic of the trick and justifies the seemingly silly question, “Where is the Ace of Spades?” This approach strengthens the presentation but still doesn’t help explain why the two red Aces are being used.
We can justify why we’re only using the black Aces by further developing this “Chase the Ace” presentation. Simply explain that you’re using two Aces, to begin with, to make the game “easier to play.” After all, your participant has never played this game before, so using all four Aces would be unfair—problem solved!
By making a few small changes to the presentation of the trick, we’ve justified the use of all four Aces and managed not to spoil the surprise ending. You could even develop a second phase to Daley’s Last Trick, which involved all four Aces to add credence to this premise (something we’ll look at in a later blog post).
So, that’s another weakness dealt with. Onto the next!
3: The Effect is Easily Missed
This problem is one of clarity of effect and how it applies to the Doctor’s impossible two-by-two transposition. It is straightforward for a person to forget which Aces are on the table and which are still in your hand, especially if you’re working for an audience that isn’t particularly attentive (or under the influence of alcohol). No effect will be perceived if this happens, and the trick will fail to impress your audience.
Therefore, it is imperative that we find a way to emphasise the relative location of the Aces before the transposition takes place. This must be done subtly. Otherwise, people might wonder, quite rightly, why you’re pointing out the obvious and anticipate the surprise outcome of the trick. Such a realisation would make the trick a lot less magical and make it easier to reverse engineer the method. So, how do we make the magic clear without spoiling the surprise ending?
The simplest way to do this is to introduce some kind of visual reminder; a single black casino chip would work well. Give the chip to a member of your audience and instruct him to place it on top of the card he believes to be the Ace of Spades. The idea here is that the black chip acts as a subtle memory cue that the black Aces are on the table. This prop also makes the trick more compelling because the cash value of a black chip is one hundred dollars, a big bet by most people’s standards!
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| A pile of black casino chips next to the two black Aces. Photo Credit: Ylloh via Pixabay. |
Darwin Ortiz took this approach with his powerhouse-of-a-routine called “The Color of Money” 4. (This is possibly the best version of the Follow the Leader plot in print.) In it, he uses two casino chips, a red (five-dollar) one and a black (hundred-dollar) one, to act as colour indicators. The same approach can be used for Dr. Daley’s Last Trick. In fact, you could suggest that the red Aces are attracted to the red chip, and the black Aces are attracted to the black one. This way, the casino chips become “magical talismans” that cause the magic to happen.
Daley Mail
An interesting idea to help people remember the relative location of the red and black Aces is to use one or two coloured envelopes. First, deal the red Aces onto the table. Then, slide the black Aces into a black envelope, seal it shut, and tap the two cards on the table with the envelope. Finally, turn over the two red Aces to show they’re actually the two black Aces. Open the sealed envelope to reveal the two red Aces inside.
You can take this idea even further by putting the red and black Aces in envelopes that reflect their respective colours. Then, you can request a member of your audience to address the envelopes and drop them into a nearby post box. After a few days, when they receive the envelopes in the mail, they will be surprised to find that the cards have swapped places!
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| A red Royal Mail post box. Photo Credit: Reuben Rohard via Unsplash. |
This trick would be perfect for a street performer who has a pitch near a post box similar to the one pictured above. The concept is fascinating as it delays the revelation by a few days, and you won’t even need to be present when the audience finally experiences the effect! This trick will also extend your audience’s experience of wonder beyond the confines of your allotted performance time.
Seated Switch
You can also use verbal memory cues to help your audience remember which Aces are where. For example, if a chair is nearby, try dealing the two “black Aces” (?) to the chair and get a member of your audience to sit on the cards. Tell them that “the black cards are under your bottom.” As you deliver this line, emphasise the alliteration (the repetition of the “b” sound in “black” and “bottom”). This repetitive sound helps clarify the relative location of the Aces. Using a chair in this way is a fun way to stage the trick, as the situation has built-in humour and makes the transposition much more impossible. My only reservation with this idea is that we might be back in too-perfect territory.
Pseudo-Hand Mucking
Another solution is to use different cards that are easier to remember. Bill Duncan has an excellent idea along these lines in his book Tubthumping, which involves presenting Dr. Daley’s Last Trick as a demonstration of hand mucking. His script is called “Deadman’s Last Hand”. Here’s an excerpt from Bill’s brilliant book, which is, unfortunately, out of print and difficult to obtain:
The problem with transposition effects is that you must ensure that the audience knows where the cards are at the start so that when they change places an effect is perceived. This is complicated by the fact that when you make a big deal of the supposed location of a card the audience, if it is half awake, is likely to become suspicious of why you are pointing out the obvious. Since ideally the change of positions should be both surprising and magical it would be best if we could derail that train of thought or, better still, prevent it from leaving the station, before anyone gets hurt. The script you are about to read doesnt completely fulfill both goals but it does weave an engaging enough story to cause a spectator to miss the all aboard call.
In order to ensure the audience members know what cards are where I thought of changing the red aces for another pair of cards of insignificant value and talking about how a gambler would switch a pair of useless cards for a more valuable pair. That works pretty well. And a gambling theme can always be counted on to generate a small degree of interest among the laity. Then it occurred to me that I should tuck the aces into my sleeve during the presentation (an idea that probably had its genesis in an illustration found in Life, Death & Other Card Tricks by Robert E. Neale). This bit of business serves two purposes:
- Audience members cant easily grab the cards to check their values during the performance.
- The audience will have an easy time remembering what cards are where because everyone already knows that gamblers hide aces in their sleeves.
Now that I had a reason for the audience to pay attention (a gambling expose) and a method of ensuring that the audience could remember where the aces were located I was ready to write the script.
I think this is an excellent idea because not only does it add clarity, but it also justifies the use of four cards and the use of pairs. In addition, it dramatically improves the internal logic of the trick and also guards against grabby spectators.
You may have noticed I’ve already addressed three of the four weaknesses, and I haven’t mentioned changing the method much. This was done to demonstrate what is possible when you start thinking more carefully about how you present your magic. If your presentation is engaging and entertaining, your audience is more likely to pay attention to the proceedings and less likely to forget which cards are in your hand and which are on the table.
4: The Trick is Over Too Soon
By now, you’ve probably guessed I’m a big fan of Dr. Daley’s Last Trick! However, I’ve always thought that the routine is too short. When performed as a stand-alone trick, the effect is almost over before it has begun. In some situations, this is desirable, especially when time is limited, but the abrupt ending often makes the trick feel incomplete or unfinished.
Additionally, the transposition of the red and black Aces is so strong that most people will want to see more magic. So, how can we lengthen the effect without tarnishing its purity?
There are two possible solutions to this problem:
- Develop a short card act that includes Dr. Daley’s Last Trick
- Modify the trick so that it has multiple phases
Create a Short Card Act Including the Transposition of the Red and Black Aces
Developing a short card act that includes Dr. Daley’s Last Trick is, arguably, the easiest of the two approaches. For example, begin by performing a bare-handed four Ace production, such as Cliff Green’s “Phoenix Aces” or Lee Asher’s “Thunderbird” production. Follow this with Dai Vernon’s “Twisting the Aces”, and finish your act with a performance of Dr. Daley’s Last Trick. This makes for a very effective three-card set.
I’ve developed several short close-up sets around the Doctor’s trick, similar to the one I’ve outlined above. More often than not, I use Dr. Daley’s Last Trick as my closer because the transposition never fails to garner a great reaction. However, it also works well as an opener because it establishes that you’re only using four cards (this often makes any subsequent magic you perform much more impressive in the eyes of your audience). The magic also happens fast, and the trick leaves a lasting impression, all good attributes for an opening effect.
Develop a Multi-Phase Version of Dr. Daley’s Last Trick
Alternatively, you can modify the trick so that it has multiple phases. “Weighted Aces” by Gregory Wilson and John Carney’s “Sanverted” are good examples of this approach. Or, as Darwin Ortiz did in “The Color of Money,” you can use Daley’s trick as the finale for a longer, multi-phase routine with a similar magical plot.
I’ve developed several multi-phase approaches to the plot, some of which I’ll be sharing on this blog and via my Ruseletter, alongside some more detailed and robust presentational strategies.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, this article has shown that, by making intelligent presentational choices, all four weaknesses can be fixed without making major changes to the method for Daley’s last trick.
In future blog posts, I will explore different variations that address these weaknesses by incorporating extra props, alternative playing cards, such as Jokers, Jacks, Queens or Kings, or additional phases to the routine. I’ll also be sharing some of my full performance scripts for the plot.
Why is the plot known as Dr. Daley’s “Last” Trick
Do you know why the Doctor’s impossible transposition is often called his “last” trick? Many magicians believe that “The Last Trick of Dr. Jacobs Daley”, as the name suggests, was the very last effect he performed before he died, but that’s not true! This story has been propagated by ill-informed magicians for years and is nothing more than an urban myth. Even Michael Ammar gets it wrong!
On February 17th, 1954, Dr. Jacob Daley was performing at the Art Directors Club in New York, alongside other famous magicians such as Roy Benson. After his act ended and the audience applauded, Dr. Daley suddenly collapsed. Despite receiving immediate medical attention, he passed away on the spot due to a heart condition he had been suffering from for several years.
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| Photograph of Dr. Jacob Daley taken before he died. Photo Credit: John Skidmore (initially published in Genii, Vol. 18 #7). |
So what was the last trick that Dr. Jacob Daley performed? The last trick he performed before he died was “The Cavorting Aces” or a personal version of Dai Vernon’s “The Travellers” plot. Nobody seems to be sure which of these was his last, but I would hazard a guess that it was The Travellers, because it seems a more logical way to end a performance (the production of the four Aces from your pockets). So why all the confusion?
Daley developed a new magic trick during the last months of his life that we now identify as his “last”. He showed it to Dai Vernon, his close friend and confidant, who included it in his book The Dai Vernon Book of Magic as a posthumous tribute to his friend. He called it “The Last Trick of Dr. Jacob Daley” because it was the last trick Dr. Jacob Daley developed before he died. So, this mass misunderstanding is all Vernon’s fault! But hey, I’m glad he named the trick as he did. I’m sure it wouldn’t be as popular today if it wasn’t for the associated legend!
Who was Dr. Jacob Daley?
Jacob Daley was born on the 26th of March, 1897, in Russia. His family emigrated to America when he was three years old. Daley was not a professional magician; he made his living as a plastic surgeon and founded the American Otolaryngologic Society for Plastic Surgery.
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| Stars of Magic. Image Credit: Meir Yedid Magic. |
By the time of his death, he was not only a well-regarded surgeon but also considered one of the world’s greatest proponents of sleight of hand. Some of his best magic can be found in the Stars of Magic series.
Footnotes
Lewis Ganson, “The Last Trick of Dr. Jacob Daley,” The Dai Vernon Book of Magic (Bideford: L&L Publishing, 1994), 210-213.
Roberto Giobbi, “The Genii Session: The Best Card Trick for Laymen,” Genii Magazine (September 2005): 16.
Rick Johnsson’s Too-Perfect Theory was first published by Jon Racherbaumer in his journal The Hierophant in 1970. The original essay was re-printed in the 2001 August edition of Genii Magazine (Vol. 64, No. 8), along with a collection of reflective articles on the controversial theory by several well-known exponents of magic. If you want to learn more about the Too-Perfect Theory, I strongly recommend reading this article collection.
Darwin Ortiz, “The Color of Money,” Scams & Fantasies With Cards (A-1 MagicalMedia, 2002), 180-189.
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