Conjuring Credits

The Origins of Wonder

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cards:half_pass [2017/08/01 09:47] – link updated denisbehrcards:half_pass [2021/02/25 21:16] (current) – better wording, McMillen mentioned denisbehr
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 The Half Pass originated as a technique to bring cards from the top of the deck around to the bottom, reversed. It appeared in this form in Henri Decremps’s //[[http://askalexander.org/display/5129/Decremps+from+Kaufman/161|Le Testament de Jérôme Sharp]]//, 1785, p. 161 of the Hugard translation (unpublished), in the context of a [[cards:card_at_any_number|Card at Any Number]] effect. Johann Hofzinser briefly disclosed the modern-day variant of reversing the bottom cards in situ within a letter to friend, Carl von Pospischil on Oct. 27, 1847. This letter can be found in Magic Christian's //[[http://askalexander.org/display/25365/Johann+Nepomuk+Hofzinser+1806+1875+Non+Plus+Ultra/245-247|Non Plus Ultra Vol. 1]]//, 1998, p. 265 of the Pieper translation, with a full description of the technique following in //[[http://askalexander.org/display/7924/Johann+Nepomuk+Hofzinser+1806+1875+Non+Plus+Ultra/35-36|Non Plus Ultra Vol. 2]]//, 2004, p. 36 of the Pieper translation. Six years after Hofzinser's letter, the method hit the printed page in Jean-Nicholas Ponsin's //Nouvelle Magie Blanche Devoilee//, 1853, p. 49, with no credit to Hofzinser, or anyone else. The Half Pass originated as a technique to bring cards from the top of the deck around to the bottom, reversed. It appeared in this form in Henri Decremps’s //[[http://askalexander.org/display/5129/Decremps+from+Kaufman/161|Le Testament de Jérôme Sharp]]//, 1785, p. 161 of the Hugard translation (unpublished), in the context of a [[cards:card_at_any_number|Card at Any Number]] effect. Johann Hofzinser briefly disclosed the modern-day variant of reversing the bottom cards in situ within a letter to friend, Carl von Pospischil on Oct. 27, 1847. This letter can be found in Magic Christian's //[[http://askalexander.org/display/25365/Johann+Nepomuk+Hofzinser+1806+1875+Non+Plus+Ultra/245-247|Non Plus Ultra Vol. 1]]//, 1998, p. 265 of the Pieper translation, with a full description of the technique following in //[[http://askalexander.org/display/7924/Johann+Nepomuk+Hofzinser+1806+1875+Non+Plus+Ultra/35-36|Non Plus Ultra Vol. 2]]//, 2004, p. 36 of the Pieper translation. Six years after Hofzinser's letter, the method hit the printed page in Jean-Nicholas Ponsin's //Nouvelle Magie Blanche Devoilee//, 1853, p. 49, with no credit to Hofzinser, or anyone else.
  
-This approach didn't seem to catch on with western magicians. Until the early 1930s, the term "Half Pass" was still used to denote the original top-to-bottom techniqueThe tide began to change c1933; see Bob Fisher's trick, "Something With Double Backed Cards," in //[[http://askalexander.org/display/38543/The+Sphinx/10|The Sphinx]]//, Vol. 32 No. 12, Feb. 1934, p. 372, in which Mr. Fisher defines which of the two Half Passes he is referring to.+This approach doesn't seem to appear in the published record again until the late 1920s and early 1930s: A Half Pass in which only the bottom portion is turned over in a routine by Jack McMillen is described in the posthumously published //[[https://askalexander.org/display/17916/Page+Wright+s+Manuscript+Sixty+years+of+lost+secrets/169|Page Wright's Manuscript]]//, 1991 (written ca. 1929), p. 171. 
 +See also Bob Fisher's trick, "Something With Double Backed Cards," in //[[http://askalexander.org/display/38543/The+Sphinx/10|The Sphinx]]//, Vol. 32 No. 12, Feb. 1934, p. 372, in which Mr. Fisher defines which of the two Half Passes (top-to-bottom or in situ) he is referring to.
  
 Also see [[cards:half_pass_covered_by_a_stripout_action|Half Pass Covered by a Stripout Action]]. Also see [[cards:half_pass_covered_by_a_stripout_action|Half Pass Covered by a Stripout Action]].