"Debajo": Love at First Sight
By Joshua Jay - Sunday, June 2, 2019
Juan Luis Rubiales is gaining a name among magicians all over the world for his outstanding, clever approach to magic. He's from Spain, but he is unlike so many of his Spanish counterparts. His performance style is deliberate, quiet, and very funny. What sets Rubiales apart is his exquisite card and coin material, which mixes sleight-of-hand and clever subtleties.
So here's the name-dropping moment in the blog, where I'll tell you that I got to spend some time with Rubiales while at Juan Tamariz's house, and he showed me "Debajo." I'm so, so sorry to write that cringe-worthy, name-dropping sentence, but as it's the back-story of this trick, I hope you'll oblige me. Rubiales is a close confidante of Juan's, and they are at present working on a book together. The standout trick that I saw that weekend was from Rubiales, and it went like this:
Rubiales made four simple wagers. He removed a card and tabled it, and then asked me to guess which card it was. First he bet small: a couple of coins. Then he bet twenty dollars, and finally, he bet his house (which came with his wife, he added).
The first phase was that he caused each wager amount to appear beneath the cards on the table: a quarter, a half-dollar, a twenty-dollar bill, and a house key! To conclude, he showed that the cards he placed down...each one BEFORE I named the cards, were exactly the named cards. Eight climaxes in all.
Now, a seasoned magician will recognize this as a one-ahead principle mixed with a clever loading sequence of objects under the cards. This is a marriage made in heaven, because the appearing objects help obfuscate the details of the one-ahead procedure. Throw in a diabolical switch to get the cards in the right order, and you have my very favorite kind of creation: a performance piece.
"Debajo" is something that can go directly into your show, most likely as an opener or something early in the set. It's a great first-card-trick to perform for a group because it allows for a lot of audience interaction. It's completely easy to do, and the prop provided can be adapted to virtually any deck, and makes the whole thing self-working. I'm over the moon to be working with our friend Rubiales, and to release such a powerhouse effect.
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