The Jerx DAP Switch
/This tabled switch is something I use all the time. I assume it’s a standard move but if there’s someone who should be credited here, let me know. It’s definitely ideal for one-on-one social magic, so maybe it’s not in wide usage for those who perform outside of that situation. In the recent newsletter I mentioned I’d show it, so here it is
It can be used for pretty much anything. Cards, coins, bills, balled up napkins, business cards, rings, keys, cellphones, Sharpies. Really anything but matchboxes. NEVER USE IT WITH MATCHBOXES! Just kidding, you can use it with matchboxes, chapstick, silverware, condoms, receipts, whatever you can reasonably fit in your hand.
If you’re looking right at the switch, it will sometimes look perfect, sometimes it will look like there’s a little glitch in the matrix, and sometimes it will look bad. But that’s okay, it’s not meant to be done with someone burning the object. (Very few switches are.) It’s a move that happens in their periphery.
For now I’ll call this The Jerx DAP Switch. “Jerx” because putting the name of this site on it will encourage people who don’t like me to give me a proper credit for it if there is one. And DAP is an acronym for the method of the switch: Ditch And Present. [UPDATE: See end for a credit.]
The item to be switched in rests in your lap. At some point you pick it up with your left hand. If it’s small enough to palm, you can do so. Usually I’ll just hold the object in my hand and rest my index finger on the table.
The item to be switched is in your right hand. You are going to Ditch the object in your right hand and Present the object in your left hand, in the action of bringing your hands together. You must come up with a reason for putting the object from one hand to the other (either freeing up the right hand, or setting the object to the left).
Beyond having a motivation, the other important thing is to do it at a point in the routine when people aren’t burning the object. So you just watch their eyes and wait for them to look away from your hands. If they’re legitimately staring directly at the object, that’s a bad time to do any switch.
As far as the ditch goes, you can drop off the object as you swing your right hand in, or you can pull the object into your lap as you pull it off the table.
Here’s my friend demonstrating both techniques. First with a playing card and then with a condom
Now, to state what should be obvious, these are just demonstrations of the moment of the switch itself. But the switch isn’t done as a trick. (That is, it’s not like, “Watch this card change to this card!”) It’s done in service to another trick. In reality you wouldn’t set something down from where you just picked it up. You would take the item away with your left hand and set it aside. And you likely wouldn’t want to do such an overt change, as with the condom. You’d want to switch a gimmicked card or coin for a normal card or coin; one cased, shuffled deck for a cased, stacked deck; one regular condom for a condom of the same brand with a pin hole punched in it so you can get her pregnant and she’ll be forced to love you forever. That sort of thing.
[CREDIT: It looks like there are several similar things that have been written up in the past, as I expected. The earliest one I can find (but I would assume it predates even this as a basic concept) is Marlo’s Propelled Lapping which was written up in The New Jinx (thanks to EA for the credit).
You’ll find it more valuable if you think of it as more of a general concept than just as a card switch, however. Toss something in your lap with your right hand and bring out something similar looking with your left. Do this when they’re looking at your face and not your hands, and it does not matter what your technique is. Your hands can be six inches apart. If they spot movement and they look at your hands they will just assume the movement was you switching the item from one hand to the other.
But as I wrote about in the newsletter, this isn’t something you’d want to do right before or right after handing something out to be examined. And you wouldn’t want to do it right before or right after a magic moment. Try to come up with a timing where it happens on the offbeat.]