The Secret “WTC” Move

Effect:

Performer sandwiches the Joker between two Aces. The Joker suddenly vanishes and in its place are the other two Aces. The performer then rolls up his sleeve to show that the Joker is under his watch band.

Preparation:

Place a Joker under your watch band before you start. This can be done prior to the performance, and you can keep it there until you are ready to perform this effect (wear long sleeves).

Performance:

Openly remove from the deck the duplicate Joker and the two red Aces. As you remove these cards, get the other two Aces to the top of the deck. Place the red Aces face up on top of the face down deck. Place the Joker face up on top of the Aces. Now, holding the deck face up in the left hand, get a left pinky break below the top five cards. Using the right hand, pick up all five cards, as three, from above in the Deep Overhand Grip.

Now using the left thumb, slide off the Joker onto the deck, and pivot it over, face down (see fig. 1).

Place it beneath the cards in the right hand, but hold a thumb break (see fig. 2).

Now tilt your hand up to show the audience the Joker. Next, slide the top Ace onto the deck, but as the packet is covering the deck, secretly drop off the joker onto the deck. As soon as you drop the joker, complete the pivot of the Ace. On top of the deck should be a face up Ace with a face down Joker below it.

Slide this Ace, face up to the bottom of the right hand’s packet. Now, the situation is the deck is in your left hand with a joker face down on top of it, and in the right hand, you have two black Aces face down sandwiched by the two face up red Aces. Next, table the deck, and perform a “Half Ascanio Spread” to show two face up Aces and a face down Joker (actually the two black Aces).

The Half-Ascanio is as follows: you hold the packet above by the right upper and lower corners with the right hand. Then you slide out the bottom card to the left and leave it jogged to the left. Then slide the top card over and leave it jogged to the left and slightly down.

What the audience thinks is the Joker is actually the other two Aces (see fig. 3).

So far, it appears as if you have merely placed the Joker face down between two face-up Aces. Align the two face-up Aces to the left, and leave the face down double jogged to the right. Remove your right hand, and hold the packet only with the left hand by the left edge.

You will bow the cards upward to keep the double in place (see fig. 4).

Point to the double, and say, “Watch the Joker.” With your right hand, grab the double with your fingers on the top and your thumb on the bottom (see fig. 5).

Pull your right hand to the right and turn it palm up, and spread the Aces (see fig. 6).

Say, “See; the Joker’s gone, and in its place are the two Aces. I did it while you were watching me watch the Joker. You may think that if I really watched the Joker, it wouldn’t have gotten away from me, but that’s not true.” Roll up your sleeve. “See, I watched the Joker.”

Notes:

When writing this up, I asked David Winkler for input on this effect, and the most important part he felt he should mention is the presentational script, so here is David’s word-for-word advice to me being passed on to you:

I think it’s important to describe the patter theme with this trick otherwise I think it might not make any sense to some. Make mention about a very secret gambler’s maneuver that very few people are aware of. It’s known as the WTC move and you were let in on the secret many years ago from a retired professional gambler.

It has taken you many hours of painstaking practice to perfect. Normally it’s done with a complete deck during the course of play but for demonstration purposes and to make it easier to follow you’ll use just a few cards. Let’s say that the gambler spotted a card he wanted to hold out. The WTC move would look something like this.

I’ll turn the card I want over so it stands out for the demonstration. There the move is done! Did you see anything suspicious? Well that’s the beauty of the WTC move! While you were watching my cards and hands I was “Watching” as well. I mean “Watching The Card” you know “WTC”. Now the card I wanted is safely up my sleeve and under my watch band until needed.

. . . at the very end when the joker is found up the sleeve and the two aces are revealed between the other two aces. You should say something to the effect when you watched the joker you also exchanged it for the two aces that had been held out there before the routine began. Get the idea.

Actually that got me thinking about a variation to this routine where you could start out by showing the two aces (the ones that will be produced from between the other two aces) and causing them to vanish in some way.

You could call this the WTC move to your spectators and because they didn’t see anything you say that you’ll do it again and start off with the regular routine in print. You are apparently repeating the WTC move for their benefit.

This way when the aces appear between the other aces and you show how the cards apparently go up the sleeve and under the watchband things might make more sense. Obviously you’d have to find a way to vanish the aces cleanly and have them end up on top of the deck ready for The WTC Move Routine.

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