Triumph

Triumph is a reversing-card routine developed by Dai Vernon that was first published in Stars of Magic, Series 2, N° 1 (1946) in which a card is selected and returned to the pack, whereupon half the deck is turned face up and shuffled into the face-down half. The deck then magically rights itself, except for the selected card.

Dai developed the Triumph Shuffle to accomplish this effect, which is a type of Strip-out Shuffle.

Variations

• JORDAN, Charles - Reversed Cards. Instruction sheet published between 1916 and 1920, reprinted in Encyclopedia of Card Tricks, page 393 (1937) and in Charles Jordan's Best Card Tricks, page 66, compiled by Karl Fulves in 1992.

• Sid Lorraine The S.L. Reversed Card, page 34 in Subtle Problems You Will Do (1937) written by John Braun and Stewart Judah. First in-the-hands version of Triumph

• MARLO, Ed - Marlo's Triumph, page 46 in Marlo in Spades (1947). A Triumph without a Strip-out Shuffle.

• KORT, Milt - A Kortial Triumph, published in Milton Kort Lecture Notes (1963)

• DARYL - The Puerto Rican Triumph, Daryl’s interpretation of Dai Vernon’s classic Triumph, which incorporates an extremely convincing tabled cutting-sequence known as the Puerto Rican Cutting Display that was quickly adopted by many top pros upon its publication in Secrets of a Puerto Rican Gambler (Minch, 1980).

• FARMER, Bob - Double Dazzling Slop Shuffle Triumph, Fork Full of Appetizers, Book 1 (1982)

• CUMMINS, Paul - Personal Slop, an in-the-hands version of Triumph published in From a Shuffled Deck in Use (1996).

• HARRIS, Paul - Unshuffling Rebecca, published in The Art of Astonishment, Book 1 (1996), a more explicit (as opposed to implicit) approach to Triumph that employs the Plunger Principle to create the illusion of half the deck reversing itself as it’s pushed through the other half.

• STUDEBAKER, Peter - I.R.D., a version of Triumph in which the deck is referred to as a computer and the rubber band removed from around it called an Information Retrieval Device. A card is chosen and returned to the pack, whereupon said pack is “randomized,” first by overhand shuffling, then by riffle shuffling half the deck face up into the other, face-down half. The I.R.D. (rubber band) is wrapped around the pack, and after a few seconds, it pops off the deck holding only one card - the selection! Moreover, on its way through, it apparently righted the rest of the deck, as all the cards are now facing the same way. First introduced on the lecture VHS Classic Studebaker (2000) and DVD 2006.

• SANKEY, Jay - Back in Time, first published in Sankey Unleashed (Racherbaumer, 2004). An in-the-hands version of Triumph that employs Sid Lorraine’s Slop Shuffle and has inspired many variations, though few improvements. As a spectator draws one freely-chosen card from a deck that's spread between the magician's hands, the magician “freezes” him and tells him to "remember this image." The card is noted, then returned to the pack, whereupon the magician gives the deck what he calls an "upside-down-all-around poker shuffle," turning some cards face up and leaving some face down. He then removes one card from the pack and asks the spectator if it's the chosen card. It isn't, so the magician hands the card to the spectator and has him wave it over the pack like a wand, then declares, "We just traveled back in time." This claim is supported when he spreads through all the cards to show that they are now facing the same way. He also asks the spectator to turn over his card, showing it to be the selection.

• ACER, David & SANDERS, Richard - Time Boards, published in Random Acts of Magic (Acer, 2004). The magician explains that he doesn't wear a watch because his deck tells time. He turns half the deck face up and shuffles it into the face-down half, cuts variously to show that the face-up cards are randomly mixed with the face-down cards, then "winds" the deck, somehow creating a sound like a watch-winder. He then spreads the pack on the table, showing that all the cards are now face down except for three face-up cards near the middle - e.g., a 5, a 2 and a 7. Any spectator is directed to look at his or her watch and state the time, which turns out to be 5:27.

• KIMLAT, Kostya - Culligula: the Hardcore Triumph, a version of Triumph which can allow the spectator to do the shuffle. See DVD The Roadrunner Cull (2005) or Lecture Collection (2006)

• PEARLMAN, Oz - Emerge Triumphant, published in Triumph DVD (2008). A triumph in which the spectator's card appears in a deck that is in numerical order and grouped by suit (e.g. the selected Ace of Spades is between the King of Hearts and the Two of Spades).

• DUGGAL, Shiv - Reorient Express, a precursor to Paul Harris' "Unshuffling Rebecca" wherein the face-up half visibly rights itself as it's pushed through the face-down half. Created in 1978 but first published in Genii 2009 July.

Related Notes

• Using double faced cards, ascribed to Stewart Judah in The Lost Notebooks of John Northern Hilliard.
• Vernon's Magic Mix, entry 21 in Jacob Daley's Notebooks.
• Roll-Over Aces