Conjuring Credits

The Origins of Wonder

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Flippant Change

This visible one-handed transformation of a face-up card on top of a face-down deck was invented by Looy Simonoff; see Apocalypse, Vol. 1 No. 9, Sep. 1978, p. 103.

A precursor of this transformation may be seen in a one-handed change-production, “The Top Card”, by Louis F. Christianer in The Magical Bulletin, Vol. 5 No. 3, Mar. 1917, np. In Christianer's change, after the top card of the deck is displayed and returned face down to the top, with a flick of the wrist, a selection appears instantaneously face up on top of the pack. In a later republishing of the move (Felsman's Magic Review, Vol. 1 No. 10, Aug. 1920, p. 5), Christianer cites the old Air-Pressure Turnover as his inspiration.