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Mexican Turnover
Mexican Turnover is a card sleight that secretly exchanges a card on a table while being flipped over with a card in the hand.
In volume 4 of Card College, Giobbi mentions this move "is rumored to come directly from the streets, where it was said to be used by Three Card Monte operators to separate reckless and unwary passersby from their money."
Giobbi's source is Roterberg's "New Era Card Tricks", although Giobbi also states "Roterberg's source for the sleight, however, is almost certainly Friedrich W. Conradi's "Der moderne Kartenkunstler", published a year earlier (1896) in Dresden, Germany." Conradi described the so called "Mexican Turnover" in "Der moderne Kartenkunstler" on page 16 under the "English" title THE AMERICAN STRONG TRICK, and wrote that to his knowledge the sleight came from America.
In Print
- Der Moderne Kartenkünstler by Conradi (1896) on page 16
- Erdnase (1902) refers to "Mexican Three Card Monte" on p. 74
- Card Tricks and How To Do Them by August Roterberg (1902), page 25.
- Henry Hay: The Amateur Magician's Handbook (1950) Page 105 - The Three Card Trick: Basic Monte explanation with pointers to references and the Mexican Turnover
- Al Leech, Handbook of Card Sleights (1954) Page 28
- John Scarne: (as told to Audley Walsh): A Treatise on the Sucker Effects of Three Card Monte (1972), D. Robbins and Co. Inc. Page 42
- Edward Marlo, That's It (1990). Reprint in The Card Magic of Ed Marlo, page 86, Multiple Mexican Turnovers (1993)
- Sonata (Bewitched Music vol I) by Juan Tamariz (1991) page 47 - Changes: Study for the Mexican Turnover
- Roberto Giobbi: Card College, vol. 4 (2000)
Variations
- Broken Taco by Lyle F. Laughlin in Genii 1948 November, Vol.13, No.3, p. 82.
- Sucker Mexican Turnover by Tony Kardyro in The Linking Ring, Vol. 21, No 09, Nov. 1941, page 35
- Disrupted Mexican Turnover Change in Jeff Busby's Back to Back (1977)
- Mexican "Change" Turnover by Tom Mullica in Harry Lorayne, Best Of Friends, Vol. 1 (1982) Page 62
- Mexican Turnover Switch by David Britland in Equinox (1985) Page 24.