Tilt

Tilt or Depth Illusion is a card sleight in which a card is seemingly placed into the middle of the deck while really placing it beneath the top card.

Usually credited to Dai Vernon as the "Depth Illusion", Ed Marlo published and popularized the move in his booklet Tilt! (1962). Vernon's handling was later published in The Pallbearers Review Close Up Folio #10 (1977) by Karl Fulves. Ed Marlo in the Foreword for "Tilt" wrote :

"In the usual procedure of establishing my notes with other reputable card men, I was informed that Dai Vernon had independently thought of the Single Card Tilt and also preceded me by several months. Also that using the Single Card Tilt and placing four Aces under it was independently thought of by Ken Krenzel and Howard Schwarzman, both of New York, in June of 1961. As I had already stated my own thoughts were evolved as detailed under MORE BLUFF SHIFTS and if I were like some other creative gentry, who completely ignore ideas already established or in print for years or the fact that something or someone sparked their own thinking, I could have done the same but I'd rather not run with the pack."

More on the history of this move which can be read in:

• The Pallbearers Review Close Up Folio #10, pp 1025-27, 1977.
• How Deep is This Illusion? in Sticks & Stones #10 (1977) by Jon Racherbaumer.

Variations

• Ken Krenzel's Front Tilt in The Card Classics of Ken Krenzel (1978).
• Convincing Tilt By Daryl in The Last Hierophant (1980).
• Tilt By David Britland in Spell Binder, Vol. 1, no. 9, January 1982.
• Ed Marlo's The 380-Degree Tilt in Marlo Without Tears (1983)
• Fr. Cyprian's Untilt in Apocalypse, Vol. 8, No. 8, Aug. 1985
• Bill Kalush's Tilt Finesse in Totally Out of Control (1992)
• Howard Schwarzman's Tilt Finesse in Arcane No. 14, october, 1995.
• Ambi-Tilt in The Books of Wonder, Vol. 1 (1996)
• One-handed Tilt Get-ready in Card College, Vol. 4 (2000)

References

• Tilt discussion on Genii Forum