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, p. 79)
• "The Dunbury Delusion" (Charlie Miller): Expert Card Technique (1940)
• "The Dunbury Delusion" (Edgar Heyl): Sphinx, Vol. 45, No. 8 (October 1946, p. 238)
• "Fours of a Kind" (Jean Hugard): The Royal Road To Card Magic (1948)
• "Design for Laughter" (Jean Hugard and Frederick Braue): The Royal Road To Card Magic (1948, p. 54)
• "Dunbury Delusion" (Frederick Braue): Show Stoppers With Cards (1948, p. 9)
• "The Dunbury Delusion" (Bill Simon): Effective Card Magic (1952)
• "Franke's Confusion" (Harry Franke): The Linking Ring, Vol. 33, No. 2 (April 1953, p. 54)
• "A Card is Revealed" (John Braun): The Linking Ring, Vol. 39, No. 11 (January 1960, p. 65)
• "Streamlined Dunbury Delusion" (Ed Marlo): Seconds, Centers, and Bottoms (1960, p. 86)
• "The Expert's Dunbury" (Ed Marlo): Seconds, Centers, and Bottoms (1960, p. 104)
• "Dunbury Delight" (Frank Garcia & Dai Vernon): Million Dollar Card Secrets (1972)
• "Dave's Delight" (Dave Lederman): Super Subtle Card Miracles (1973)
• "Deep Dunbury" (Ed Marlo): Marlo's Magazine, Vol. 1 (1976)
• "Quick Deep Dunbury" (David Solomon): Marlo's Magazine, Vol. 1 (1976)
• "And Counting" (Karl Fulves): Packet Switches (Part Five) (1977)
• "Finger on the Card" (Gary Ouellet): Masters of Magic Series (1978)
• "Did-Dan-Dunbury" (Martin Nash): Sleight Unseen (1979)
• "Bauer's Delusion" by Ron Bauer): Genii, Vol. 46, No. 3 (March 1982)
• "Make Mine Dunbury Well" (Jon Racherbaumer): CardMagic (1983)
• "The Coué Test" (Roberto Giobbi): Card College, Vol. 1 (1996)
• "Dunbury Delusion Revisited" (David Solomon): Solomon's Mind: The Card Mysteries of David Solomon (1997)
• "The Dunbury Delusion": Genii, Vol. 63, No. 9 (September 2000, p. 61) Jim Swain had a great handling of it using something he called the Cool-Out Move.
• "Bob’s Delusion" (Bob King): Precursor, No. 83 (July 2002)
• "Dunbury Drop" (David Ben): Tricks (2003)
• "The Trick That NEVER Fails" (Paul Cummins): Precursor Date ?

Videos

• Easy to Master Card Miracles, Vol. 4 by Michael Ammar.

References

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