Bob Hummer’s

Face Up
Face Down
Principle
 Bob Hummer’s
Face Up Face Down Principle
Explanation by David Regal

In an undated manuscript published by Frank Werner, probably in the 1940s,

Bob Hummer released a principle in card magic that has since been
incorporated into many effects, taking many forms, performed by an
assortment of magicians.

The principle, since dubbed CATO (for Cut And Turn Over) is, for some,
difficult to get one’s head around. I’m one of those people, and if you are,
too, you’ll appreciate the following explanation of how the principle works:

Take four cards and alternate them face up/face down in a squared packet.
Take the packet and deal two piles of cards, as if playing a card game with
two players.

NOTICE that the face up/face down cards have just been segregated.
Simple.

Now turn over either one of the piles and push the two piles together.

NOTICE that all the cards face one direction. Simple.

Now take eight cards and alternate them face up/face down in a squared
packet. Perform the same procedure. Again, upon completion all the cards
face the same direction.

So, if, by taking face up/face down cards in alternating condition and
following the above procedure the result is all the cards facing the same
way, it stands to reason that:

ANY CARD THAT BREAKS THE PATTERN WILL NOT FACE THE
SAME DIRECTION AS THE OTHER CARDS WHEN THE
PROCEDURE IS PERFORMED.

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In other words, by turning over any of the alternating cards prior to the
procedure, breaking the pattern, those cards will automatically break the
pattern at the completion of the procedure.

Hummer has added a swindle to the process:

Take a card and place it face up on the table. Cover it with a face-down card.
Look at the condition of the two cards: A face-down card covers a face-up
card. Now turn over the two-card packet. Examine the condition of the two
cards once more: A face-down card covers a face-up card.

Now do the same thing with a four-card packet, placing the cards in a face
up/face down alternating condition on the table. Turn the packet over – the
alternating condition of the cards has not been affected. This will be true
with any even number of cards.

This concept grows in depth as cards are cut, and non-alternating cards are
added to the mix, but at its core lies the above simplicity.

Here are a couple of Hummer effects using his principle. The first does not
use face up/face down alternating cards, but cards that alternate by color:

Sensitive Fingers

Spread through a shuffled deck, removing face up pairs that alternate by

color in the same manner. In other words, if you take out a pair that has a
black card atop a red card, table the pair and remove another with a black
card atop a red, dropping this second pair onto the first. You can remove any
even number of cards in this manner and the trick will work. I always
remove nine pairs.

Perform any shuffle that does not change the alternating condition of the
cards. You can overhand shuffle any odd number of cards, tossing the
remainder of the packet on top, or perform a Charlier shuffle, which is
particularly effective with a small packet.

The Charlier shuffle: The packet is held in the left hand (the cards can be
face up or face down – it doesn’t matter). The left thumb pushes off a small

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group of cards, and those cards are taken into the palm-up right hand. The
left fingers now spread a small group of cards from the bottom of its packet,
and those cards are taken on top of the cards in the right hand. Now the left
thumb spreads some more cards off the top of its packet, and they are taken
onto the bottom of the right hand’s cards. Continue this pattern until the left
hand’s cards are exhausted. Even though you have apparently mixed the
packet, in reality it’s simply been cut.

Demonstrate to the spectator what you’d like him to do with the packet.
Push over two cards, turn them over, and cut the cards. Turn over two more
cards, and cut the packet. Do this two or three times, stressing that the
spectator might end up cutting between two face up cards, or two face down
cards – it’s totally out of your control. Spread through the packet and turn
back down the face up pairs, replacing them to the same spot in the packet.
The packet will remain in alternating red/black condition.

Hand the packet to a spectator and turn your back as he performs the
procedure as many times as he likes. If you’d like, you can have him
perform the procedure behind his back, or with his hands under a table. Have
the cards returned to you either behind your back or under the table top.
Sometimes I’ll add that the spectator can, if he wishes, turn the entire packet
over before handing it back to me.

The following handing of the packet is performed. It may read as

complicated, but in reality it is very simple and can be done by feel. It takes
the place of dealing the packet into two piles and reversing one pile. We’ll
call it The Hummer Un-sort:

The left thumb deals one card at a time off the deck into the right hand as the
right hand turns palm up/palm down, alternating position with every card.
Start with the right hand palm up and take the dealt-off card under the pad of
the right thumb. Now turn the right hand palm down and take the next dealt
card into the hand, still taking it under the pad of the thumb. Every card dealt
goes under the skin of the right thumb – I find that to be the easiest way of
looking at things. Repeat the dealing with the right hand turning palm
up/palm down, until the packet is exhausted.

Bring out the packet and explain to the spectator that you detected nine face-
down cards (the number will always be half the total number of cards used).
Deal through the packet, placing all the face-up cards into one pile and the

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face-down into another as you count the face-down cards aloud. It is vital to
emphasize the face-down cards and ignore the face-up cards, so as not to tip
the climax.

Toss the final face-down card onto its pile with finality, as if that is the end
of the effect. As your spectator reacts, interrupt him to say “And my
fingertips are so sensitive they didn’t just feel which cards are face up and
which are face down… they separated all the red cards from all the black
cards!” Show this is the case, first spreading the face-up cards, then turning
over the face-down cards to reveal the segregated colors.

Of course, this explanation doesn’t make any sense at all, and in fact butts
heads with the concept of feeling which cards the spectator happened to turn
face-down, so you can opt to give the spectator the credit: “And you must
have sensitive fingers, too, because somehow you managed to separate all
the red cards from all the black cards!”

Sensitive Mind

I perform this effect as a follow-up to the first. As the first effect has two
climaxes, this adds one more, giving the total routine a three-beat feel.

Have the spectator shuffle the eighteen cards. Take the cards back and say
you will now try to see if the two of you can create some order out of chaos.
As you talk reverse every other card in the packet. Do not make a move out
of this, do it openly but do not make it obvious that you are strictly
alternating the cards. Perform a Charlier shuffle. You can do the shuffle with
the packet face up – the illusion of a random mess of face up/face down
cards is excellent.

Have the spectator perform the same procedure as before as you look away,
turning over two and cutting as many times as he’d like.

Here you do a lovely dodge. You need to spectator to change the orientation
of one card in the packet, and to remember that card. Say to the spectator:
“Look down at the cards in your hand. You mixed them up – there’s no way
I could control what card ended up on top. Can you see the face of the top
card?

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If they say “yes,” continue with: “Well remember that card and turn it face
down, so I can’t see it. Now cut the cards and hand them to me…”

If they say “no,” continue with: “Well turn it face up so you can see it.
Remember that card and cut the packet. Now hand the cards to me…”

In both scenarios a card is thought of, and that thought-of card has its
orientation reversed.

As before, perform The Hummer Un-sort. Upon its conclusion you may fool
yourself, all the cards will face the same direction except for the thought-of
card!

I always bring out the cards and orient them so a face-up card is on top.
There is an off chance that the selected card has ended up on the face, so I
riffle the cards with my thumb just to check to see if this is so, in which case
I alter my patter to fit the situation. Almost always, though, the one face-
down card lies amongst the others.

Say: “Before we were testing sensitive fingers, but now we’ve gone to
another level because you’re just thinking of a card – let’s see if I have a
sensitive mind! You know. I think I do, because now every card is facing the
same direction except for one. Put your finger on it, and for the first time tell
me the name of the card you’re just thinking of….”

Again, tenuous logic frames this effect, but it works to build the climax.
Spread the cards revealing the one face down card, and after the spectator
names his card, have him turn it over to end.

***

I cannot get over the cleverness of these effects, and I hope you enjoy adding
them to your repertoire.

David Regal
March, 2012