The Berglas Effect

Below, excerpts from a New York Times story.

The Mystery of Magic's Greatest Card Trick

In the late 1940s, the British magician David Berglas started refining a trick that came to be known as "the holy grail of card magic." To this day, nobody is certain how he did it.

Decades into his retirement, he has revealed just about every secret in his long and storied career. This includes the time, in 1954, that he made a grand piano vanish in a London hotel banquet room filled with guests. (Distracted, the audience turned their focus in time to see a pianist, who seemed to be playing the instrument a moment earlier, fall facedown to the floor). But even now, when the subject of Mr. Berglas's famous effect is raised, he remains as cryptic as ever.

"It's not a secret I can give to anyone because it’s not a secret as such," said Mr. Berglas, a formal and intense 94-year-old, at his home in North London. "It's like asking a musician who can improvise to teach you his improvisation, which of course he can't."

The trick is a version of a classic plot of magic, called Any Card at Any Number. These tricks are called ACAAN in the business.

There are hundreds of ACAAN variations.

For all their differences, every ACAAN has one feature in common: At some point, the magician touches the cards. The touch might be imperceptible, it might appear entirely innocent. But the cards are always touched.

With one exception: David Berglas's ACAAN (top). He would place the cards on a table and he didn't handle them again until after the revelation and during the applause. There was no sleight of hand, no hint of shenanigans. It was both effortless and boggling.

Among magicians around the world, his touchless ACAAN is one of the most talked-about and puzzled-over tricks in history. It was eventually labeled "The Berglas Effect," and helped make its creator's reputation in a career that spanned six decades.

Over the years, a number of magicians have reported private, one-on-one performances of the Berglas Effect that left them stupefied.