Dunbury Delusion

Dunbury Delusion is a classic card routine credited to Charlie Miller in Expert Card Technique where the audience is led to believe the magician has initially failed.

Plot: A card having been chosen and returned to the pack without the magician knowing what was selected. The magician removes three cards stating they will help him find the selected card, but the spectators notice that one of them IS the selected card thinking that the magician has already failed. However, after turning the 3 cards face down, the magician triumphantly produces the chosen card from the pack, the card which was down on the table changed to an indifferent one.

The first known version of this plot was published as "The Partagas Sell" in Farelli’s Card Magic Part Two, which was developed by Senor Partagas, a magic shop owner in Barcelona, Spain.

It's been said that Charlie Miller named it "Dunbury" after the Dumbarton Bridge that crosses San Francisco Bay.

Versions

• The Partagas “Sell” - Victor Farelli, Farelli’s Card Magic Part Two (1933)
• The Dunbury Delusion - Charlie Miller, Expert Card Technique (1940)
• Fours of a Kind - Jean Hugard, The Royal Road To Card Magic (1951)
• Design for Laughter - Jean Hugard and Frederick Braue, The Royal Road To Card Magic (1951) p. 54)
• The Dunbury Delusion - Bill Simon, Effective Card Magic (1952)
• Dunbury Drop - David Ben, Tricks
• And Counting - Karl Fulves, Packet Switches (Part Five)
• Dunbury Delight - Frank Garcia & Dai Vernon, Million Dollar Card Secrets
• Dave's Delight - Dave Lederman, Super Subtle Card Miracles
• Deep Dunbury - Ed Marlo, Marlo's Magazine Volume 1
• Did-Dan-Dunbury - Martin Nash, Sleight Unseen
• ?? published in Genii" late 1964 in the first issue of "Magicana" ??
• Quick Deep Dunbury - David Solomon, Marlo's Magazine Volume 1
• Dunbury Delusion Revisited - David Solomon, Solomon’s Mind 1998
• The Coué Test - Roberto Giobbi Card College Volume 1 (1996)
• Easy to Master Card Miracles volume 4 by Michael Ammar.
• “Bob’s Delusion” by Bob King in Precursor (Number 83, July 2002)
• The Trick That NEVER Fails in Precursor by Paul Cummins
• Make Mine Dunbury Well - Jon Racherbaumer Cardmagic
• Finger on the Card - Gary Ouellet Masters of Magic series

• ?? Jim Swain had a great handling of it using something he called the Cool-Out Move, I think, in a GENII a couple years ago. It must have been around Summer or Fall of 2000, but I don't have the exact reference or my index handy.

References

• http://www.geniimagazine.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=167716
• http://www.questx.com/magic!/1-500.html