Welcome to the third edition of Vernonesque, a regular Ruseletter column exploring Dai Vernon’s unique style and influential approach to magic. In this instalment, I’m sharing one of my favourite versions of Dr. Daley’s Last Trick, a card plot that Vernon propelled into the limelight when he included it in his book The Dai Vernon Book of Magic as a posthumous tribute to his close friend, Dr. Jacob Daley.

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As you may know, I’m currently writing a book called Developing Daley, a book series solely dedicated to this particular trick. Once I’ve finished it, it will include over fifty variations of this classic card magic plot! You can read some of the content that will eventually end up in the books on my blog, Marty’s Bag of Tricks (you’ll also find some of the tricks that will feature in Developing Daley in other regular Ruseletter columns, such as Packet Trick Paradise #3: The Jaybird Jump).

I designed this particular variation to lengthen the transposition of the red and black Aces without deviating from the general theme of the plot (the Aces magically changing places). The structure of the final piece is very satisfying because each phase sets you up for the next one, and the magic becomes increasingly more visual and impressive as the routine progresses.

The trick only involves the four Aces, and I’ve put together a presentation that shares a little of the rich and quirky history of playing cards with your audience.

The Man, the Myth

Dr. Jacob Daley (1897-1954) was a Russian-born plastic surgeon who founded the American Otolaryngologic Society for Plastic Surgery. Despite being an amateur magician, he became one of the world’s greatest sleight-of-hand artists, with his work featured in the renowned Stars of Magic series. 🌟

Contrary to popular belief, “The Last Trick of Dr. Jacob Daley” wasn’t actually Dr. Jacob Daley’s final performance before his death. This enduring myth has fooled magicians for decades, even well-respected performers such as Michael Ammar!

On February 17th, 1954, Dr. Daley collapsed after performing at the Art Directors Club in New York and died from a pre-existing heart condition. His actual last trick was likely “The Cavorting Aces” or his version of “The Travellers”. The confusion stems from Dai Vernon, who named the trick in tribute to his friend after his death. It was the last effect Daley developed before dying, but it was not the one he performed. Vernon’s well-intentioned naming created the legend that persists to this very day.

This story perfectly illustrates Vernon’s deep respect for his fellow magicians and his role as one of magic’s greatest chroniclers and preservationists.

Learn Three Times Daley

I’ve written up the trick and published it to a hidden page on my blog, so that you can learn it today. If you already know how to perform multiple turnovers and an Elmsley Count, you’ll pick this one up in no time at all.

What makes “Three Times Daley” so special is its escalating structure—true to Vernon’s philosophy that each phase of a routine should build upon the last. The first phase establishes the premise with a simple switch of the two black Aces, the second phase amplifies the impact by showing one of the cards face-up throughout, and the final phase delivers maximum impact with a completely impossible transposition that happens right under the nose of the spectator.

The routine also embodies Vernon’s preference for naturalness over flashy displays—every move serves the magic, nothing is wasted, and the method remains completely invisible when performed correctly.

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In the previous edition of Vernonesque, we explored a minimalist Ambitious Card routine inspired by The Professor called “Underambitious”. In this article, I’ll be tackling one of his most famous creations: “Twisting the Aces”.

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This classic packet trick with the four Aces holds a special place in my heart because it was the first card trick I ever learned that involved serious sleight of hand. It presents a remarkable display of card control, offering a refreshing alternative to the typical “pick-a-card” routine. Here’s a decent performance of it by professional magician and magic product reviewer Steve Faulkner:

You can also watch a classic performance of the trick by Michael Ammar, taken from his popular instructional video series Easy to Master Card Miracles (Volume 2). Michael performs a more faithful rendition of the trick, using the fingertip-to-fingertip count described in More Inner Secrets of Card Magic by Lewis Ganson (1960).

In my opinion, “Twisting the Aces” also works best as a transition piece between two longer pieces of magic, such as a Four Ace Production and an Ace Assembly. In his 2005 book Dear Mr. Fantasy, the well-respected Chicago magician John Bannon shares a multi-trick routine involving the four Aces (see Chapter Two: Secrets and Mysteries of the Four Aces). In the description of the routine, he states that “Twisting the Aces” is his candidate for the greatest card trick ever invented! He goes on to say:

“If I had to choose only one card trick to do for the rest of my life, this is it. No question about it.”1

Pop Haydn, another magician I admire, also holds “Twisting the Aces” in high regard, as demonstrated in the following quote:

Twisting the Aces, performed exactly Vernon's way, is in my opinion one of the most deceptive and entertaining tricks one can do with cards. Most of the so-called improvements are impairments.2

While I’m not sure I agree entirely with John Bannon’s definitive assessment, “Twisting the Aces” does have a lot of obvious advantages:

• It’s completely impromptu;

• It’s angle-proof, so it can be performed surrounded;

• It doesn’t require a tabletop, so it can be performed standing;

• And you end squeaky clean.

Vernon’s ingenious routine benefits from another significant advantage: As Bannon highlights in Dear Mr. Fantasy, audiences don’t anticipate the possibility of counting four cards as four while secretly hiding one. The concept doesn’t occur to them. They might suspect sleight of hand, even extra cards or gimmicks, but the Elmsley Count remains an unknown quantity (unless the person has studied card magic). This is the trick’s greatest strength. However, it also comes with a caveat: impeccable technique is paramount; a sloppy Elmsley Count will shatter the illusion, making mastery of the technique crucial for a successful performance. You can use misdirection to get away with a poor Top Change, but a poor Elmsley Count will be apparent to everyone watching and ruin the effect.

While I also hold “Twisting the Aces” in high regard, I’ve always felt a slight reservation about the triple turnover. During this part of the routine, the audience’s attention naturally focuses on the changing orientations of the cards. This creates a window of opportunity where someone with a keen eye might suspect more than one card is being flipped over (when the Ace of Clubs is flipped face down). For this reason, I’ve developed a couple of ways of avoiding the triple turnover. I’ll admit that it is unlikely that the turnover will be detected unless your block pushoff technique is subpar. However, it still seems like the weakest point of the routine from a construction point of view. But please, feel free to disagree with me! 😉

Another aspect of the trick that I dislike is the ending. The revelation of the final face-up card, the Ace of Spades, has always felt somewhat anticlimactic (in my hands, at least). In “Tongue Twister”, I’ve added an original colour change called the “Tongue Change”3, which gives the impression that the Ace of Spades flips face up as it is pushed through the packet (similar to the effect experienced during a performance of Roy Walton’s “Cardwarp”). This gives the trick a much more impressive ending without overcomplicating things with a more involved kicker ending. (I often perform Dr. Daley’s Last Trick directly after “Twisting the Aces”. In this way, it effectively functions as a kicker ending to Vernon’s routine.)

You can learn my personal handling of Dai Vernon’s “Twisting the Aces” on my blog:

Learn Tongue Twister

If you’re a fan of “Twisting the Aces”, you may also enjoy a blog post I wrote a while back on different ways to present the Professor’s classic packet trick:

Read Twisting the Aces Three Ways

This won’t be the last article on “Twisting the Aces” that you’ll see in the Ruseletter or on Marty’s Bag of Tricks. I have a similar handling to “Tongue Twister” called “Twisting the Numbers” that uses the Ace, Two, Three and Four of Diamonds to add clarity to the effect. The four cards eventually transform into four duplicate Ace of Diamonds, then into the Ace of Spades, Hearts, Clubs and Diamonds to finish. I designed this version so that I could start by performing Underambitious, which uses the Ace, Two, Three and Four of Diamonds, and then perform a version of Twisting the Aces with the same set of cards. The transformation into four unique Aces enables me to finish with “Three Times Daley”, a three-phase approach to Dr. Daley’s Last Trick.

I have another routine in my notebooks called “Tale in the Twist”, which also uses the Ace, Two, Three and Four of Diamonds. After twisting in the usual manner, the backs of the cards change from red to blue. Then the Two, Three and Four transform into the missing three Aces. The script talks about The Professor and how he always used red-backed cards, not blue ones, and the four Aces rather than the four spot cards. This presentation motivates the transformations.

Finally, I’ve devised an interesting variation called “Twisted Logic”, in which each Ace turns face up and then face down again. This was an outgrowth of the clockwise/anticlockwise idea mentioned in Twisting the Aces Three Ways.

I hope you enjoy learning and performing “Tongue Twister”. If any aspect of the explanation is unclear, please let me know in the comments.

Yours Magically,

Marty

P.S. There are many worthwhile variations of “Twisting the Aces”—too many to mention, in fact. These include the “Asher Twist” by Lee Asher, “Waving the Aces” by Guy Hollingworth (in his excellent book Drawing Room Deceptions) and the “McClintock Twist” by Reed McClintock. Do you have a favourite variation? If you do, please share it in the comments below.

“Underambitious” is my minimalistic take on an Ambitious Card routine. Although the effect has been around since the late sixteenth century, and the French magician Gustav Alberti is credited with the “ambitious” presentation, it is most commonly associated with Dai Vernon, who played a significant role in popularising it. “Dai Vernon’s Ambitious Card” was published in the Stars of Magic series in 1949 (Series 5). Vernon expertly crafted the routine to engage the audience in a thrilling game of wits with the magician. His deliberate engineering of suspicious situations made onlookers question what they saw, only to be surprised when the “ambitious card” was found in an unexpected location.

Most modern renditions of the plot involve multiple phases and are relatively complex in their construction but, sadly, lack the entertainment value of Vernon’s routine. “Underambitous” takes the opposite approach and only features a limited number of phases.

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