Flushtration Count

The Flushtration Count, also known as the Back Count, is a method for showing that all the cards in a small packet are identical when in fact they can all be different. It was popularized by Brother John Hamman in his trick, Flushtration, marketed by Abbott's Magic in 1969. As such, it is commonly attributed to Hamman, but Canada's Norman Houghton published the count nearly 15 years before in Ibidem No. 1, June 1955.

History

Using the Hindu Shuffle to display apparent duplicate cards in the deck was published in The Jinx, No. 44 (May 1938, pp. 301) credited to Harris Solomon in a trick titled "Nomolos."

In Ibidem No. 1 (June 1955), Norman Houghton describes using the Hindu Shuffle mechanics on a small packet in right-hand Biddle Grip. He prefaces the description of his false count by saying, "This is accomplished by using, in conjunction with the Biddle sleight, the old principle of repeatedly showing the back of the same card, while apparently showing different cards."

In Wit & Wizardry (1998), the publisher, Ariel Frailich, notes that Houghton was referring to "... the Harris Solomon Hindu Shuffle technique in the Jinx, no. 44, May 1938, where the same back (or face) is flashed intermittently."

Variations

• Rhumba Count, by Jean-Pierre Vallarino (1992). An elegant alternative to the Flushtration Count wherein the packet begins face up in dealing position (rather than face down), then is grasped and revolved by the opposite hand as the count is executed in a flourishy manner.
• Orion Count is a flourishy flushtration count by Yves Doumergue (1997)
• Kiss Count, by Boris Wild (2004)

Notable Effects using the move

• The Cheating Gambler Outdone! by Ari Soroka (see Jason Palter Lecture Notes-Paltered Reality, 2007)

References

• Ibidem, No. 1, June 1955.
• The Secrets of Brother John Hamman, by Richard Kaufman, 1989