The Pass

The Pass is an example of sleight of hand, and is employed by a magician to gain control of a card which has been chosen by a specatator and, seemingly, placed randomly in the deck. The pass is an example of card control. Despite the seemingly fair conditions, the performer is able to control the card position for subsequent use in any number of effects: this move forms the basis of many "take a card" tricks.

Effect, as perceived by the audience

A card is selected by the spectator. The magician cuts the deck and the spectator places the chosen card, face down, on the bottom half of the deck. The top half is then replaced and the card seemingly lost in the deck. The magician does no more than square up the deck, but is then able to reveal the card at the top of the deck.This can be used in the Ambitious card routine.

The secret of The Pass

The card is freely chosen by the spectator and replaced on the bottom half of the cut deck but, when the top half is replaced, the performer secretly holds a break between the halves by inserting his fourth finger tip lightly between them. This action is hidden by the deck and the other fingers.

Turning the body to the left, the left pinkie must be able to control the top half of the deck by straightening it. The right hand now grabs the bottom half of the deck and pulls it up and over, as the top half goes vertical and then flaps down underneath to become the bottom half. The bottom half, with the spectator's card on top, now becomes the top half. During The Pass, there is quite a bit of movement of the two halves of the deck, but in a skilled execution, this is all covered by the performer's hands and the body turn. It looks like he is merely squaring the deck up, or even doing nothing at all.Sometimes it's even necessary to turn your body to your left.

Variants of The Pass

Not all performers have perfected this skilfull move which takes years of practice to do cleanly. Because of this, certain "covers" have been invented which act as a kind of misdirection to fool spectators into not noticing the Pass itself, but rather whatever cover the magician chooses to use. Two examples are riffling the cards and dribbling them. In the first case, the riffling covers any sound that the pass might make and gives an excuse for both hands to be on the deck. In the second case, the dribbling action contains so much motion that the action of the Pass blends into all the falling cards. While these have their own names (Riffle Pass, Dribble Pass), they are essentially the classic Pass with a cover.

Even with all the misdirection, it still takes months of practice to master any pass mentioned above. Instead of these, some may perform the Herrman pass which transposes the halves as the deck is turned face up. Another version is called the Invisible Turnover Pass because the deck is given a complete rotation in the performer's hands. Still others may just cut the pack at the break and riffle shuffle, making sure the chosen card falls last on top. A further false cut and shuffle may act as a convincer, but whatever the moves, the performer has control of the chosen card at the top or she may place it in another position using a further shuffle.