Color Change

"Color Change" is generic term for any card sleight in which one card is apparently (and often visually) changed into another. The usual procedure is done by passing a hand over a deck which is held face up by the other hand. Many methods require Palming a card. More advanced methods allow the magician to apparently be holding only a single card before and after the change, such as Ross Bertram's TeBe Change.

The Color Change seems to be a creation of Felicien Trewey, dating from sometime near the end of 19th century.

One of the first descriptions of a Color Change is "Trewey's Back Card Palm" in Sleight of Hand by Edwin Sachs (1877) (page 114 in the Dover Publications Inc. edition, 1980). One of the earliest books to use the actual term "color change" was New Era Card Tricks by August Roterberg (1897).

Color Changes in Print

• DeSouza's DeCeptions (2001) Shapeshifter (pg. 89). With the deck face down in left-hand dealing position, the top card is turned face up, lifted off the pack, and suddenly changes into another card. Popularized by David Blaine on his first network special, Shapeshifter is Marc DeSouza's handling for an Oscar Munoz card change that first appeared in The Trapdoor (Issue 48, 1993).
• Expert at the Card Table (1902) Under the title Transformations. Two Hands. First Method. Now more commonly referred to as the Erdnase Change, and sometimes mistakenly called the Houdini Change
• Expert Card Technique (1940) (pg. 161)
• Greater Magic (1938) (pg. 212)
• Magic without Apparatus (1945) (pg. 108)
• Modern Conjurer, The (pg. 62)
• Sankey Unleashed (2004) Shanghai Change (pg. 143). With half the deck face up in the magician's left hand, he fans the other half with his right hand and waves it over the squared half, causing the face card to change.
• Tarbell Course in Magic Vol 2 (pg. 172)

Color Changes in Genii Magazine

• 2007, September - The Backhanded Change, by Kostya Kimlat. A delayed color change that takes place with the deck face up in left-hand dealing position when the right hand is palm up over the deck, as opposed to palm down.
• 2005, July - Erdnase Sideways, by Guy Hollingworth. A side-to-side (instead of back-to-front) method for executing the Erdnase Change (see video on right)