Sam the Bellhop

An emailer sent me this film clip showing a classic magic routine called Sam the Bellhop. It's an old one but done as good as it has ever been done. Late add: many of you asked me how it's done. The beauty of this trick is that you cannot see the trick even when you know exactly how it's done. I learned it from Dai Vernon at the Magic Castle. It simply involves almost every false cut, false shuffle, and "card count" deception in the book. The deck is pre-arranged and never changes no matter the shuffle, cut, count, or card exposure. Malone is great and you cannot see a single manipulation---even in slo slo mo. What makes it truly great is that he allows an audience member to cut the cards and shuffle them too. Amazing.