(Hank) Moorehouse 1934 – 2011 - The Society of American Magicians

A Magician Prepares...
the delo Cut
In his 1973 book Rim Shots, Harry Lorayne introduced an
excellent move to card magic – the HaLo cut. (The name is formed
from the first two letters of Harry’s first and last names.) While
that book is now out of print, it is available as part of Harry’s
2008 book, The Classic Collection 2. In fact, Harry updated the
newer book and it contains more details and some new routines
and handlings for the HaLo cut.
While you’ll need to consult one of the Lorayne books
mentioned above to learn the HaLo cut, in this article I’ll share my
own move, which combines a version of the Halo cut with a Kelly
bottom placement (also known as the Ovette Master Move) to
achieve a different purpose. The original HaLo cut appeared to be
a simple straight cut of the deck; it actually kept the bottom card
on the bottom. The DeLo cut also appears to be a straight cut of
the deck, but it keeps the two bottom cards on the bottom. It also
exchanges the positions of those two bottom cards. If you have
maneuvered a selected card to the bottom of the deck, and then do
the DeLo cut, the selection will now be the second card from the
bottom, thus allowing you to freely handle the deck, flashing the
bottom card (which is now an indifferent card). Later, you might
like to do another DeLo cut to return the selection to the bottom.
We’ll start with the assumption that the selected card is on
the bottom of the deck, although your spectators should not know
this. With the deck held in standard dealer’s position, the right
hand comes over and grips the deck in Biddle grip as in Photo 1.
As soon as the right hand takes this grip, the left hand switches its
position to the grip seen in Photo 2
26 M-U-M Magazine
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by Dennis Loomis
Notice that the tip of
the left thumb presses
down on the top of the
deck in the upper left
corner, as the tips of the left
index and middle fingers push
upward on the bottom of the
deck immediately below the spot
where the thumb presses downward.
As soon as this grip is achieved, the right hand starts a swivel cut
of the deck at approximately the center of the deck. However, due
to the left hand’s grip, the bottom card of the deck will ride along
in alignment with the upper half, as seen in Photo 3.
As soon as the packets are completely separated, the packet in
the right hand, which was the bottom half of the deck, is raised
upward so that it can be placed on top of the cards in the left hand.
But as that is done, the right hand’s middle and ring fingers spring
the lower card downward in the typical Kelly bottom placement
position. As the two packets coalesce, the card slides to the bottom
of the lower packet, as seen in Photo 4. The deck is then replaced
into dealing position in the left hand; the selected card has been
moved to its new position second from the bottom. The deck can
now be handled very freely and the bottom card can be flashed.
Later, should you wish to bring the selection back to the bottom,
another complete DeLo cut can be performed.�
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