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- Yo, what it is guys.
Chris Ramsey here, welcome back.
Today, as you know, is Tutorial Monday.
Is that what we're calling it?
Not what we're calling it.
Find another name, comment below.
So today we're going to look at the Elmsley Count,
the Elmsley Count, which is a very, very useful,
practical, and highly used sleight in card magic.
It basically allows you to count cards
with hiding one card.
And with that you can create many, many different types
of routines, including a very famous routine,
Twisting the Aces.
Twisting the Aces is something taught by Vernon, yeah,
but my friend Xavier Spade has a really, really great,
fooling and amazing handling on it
that is going to be so much fun to learn.
We're not going to learn that today.
We're going to learn the Elmsley Count here,
but after this video, one you've practiced
the Elmsley Count, head on over to his channel.
I'll leave the link below.
If you're not already subscribed, go ahead and sub.
He's going to teach you probably the cleanest
and best handling of Twisting the Aces you've ever seen.
We're going to call it Twisting the Spadeses.
This ceiling is incredibly low.
Without further ado, the Elmsley Count, by Xavier Spade.
- Hi.
So the Elmsley Count was originally created.
- [Man] By Count Elmsley.
- [Man] By Michael, Michael.
It was actually called the Ghost Count.
The Ghost Count is the original name of the count.
By Alex Elmsley, this isn't him.
- [Man] Kids friendly show here, Spade.
- [Man] So Alex Elmsley created this count.
There's also another count that's similar to it
called the Jordan Count, but that usually comes after
this one because of the position it leaves you in.
So I'm going to teach you how to do this.
It's a way to hide the third from the top card of four,
and you can use it to count three as four
or eight as four, whatever.
You're counting everything below the third card
and above the last card, as four.
So yeah, let's just get into it.
So the first thing I like to do when I'm teaching this
is I use two cards because of the way this works.
So this hand is going to hold it,
or the hand you're counting from,
in my case it's the right hand,
is going to hold it in a nice loose pinch,
so I'm kind of using my thumb and middle finger like that,
and I'm just going to push over like that.
And my thumb is going to constantly push forward
pretty slowly as this count is going on.
That's all this hand does.
This hand is going to grab the card
in a weird kind of clip.
See that?
It's not really straight.
- [Man] And that's just one card?
- [Man] That's just one card, just like that, alright?
So this is the essence of the Elmsley Count here,
this action, so I'll peel, replace,
peel, replace, peel, replace.
So let's get into this.
- [Man] Wait, do that again.
Keep doing that.
You're not switching the cards?
What?
- [Man] Yeah so that, that's the, so.
- [Man] Ha ha, looks so magical.
Yeah.
- [Man] So.
- [Man] It doesn't look like you're doing anything.
What?
I'm freaking out.
- So that's the basis of it,
so you want to just push off,
and then this hand is going to stay here.
This card goes back in between these fingers like this,
and then you peel off the next one.
That's, that's it.
So now let's add a third card because this is where
the Elmsley Count, or Ghost Count,
really starts to be useful.
So from here, this is where, you know, listen,
we all rolled snot.
I rolled snot, you're rolling snot right now,
I know you are.
- [Man] Guilty.
- [Man] Yeah, I see you.
So you're going to peel off the top card.
What I like to do is before I place it
in the hand that I'm going to count from,
I kick over the top card.
I just give it a little pinch,
and I can get that, see, a little off center?
That allows me to peel off this top card,
put it in that pinch.
This hand is now going to push forward,
and here you're going to replace that card
as you take the new top card into that pinch position.
And then count three four.
So the whole point here is rhythm,
so one, two, three, four.
- [Man] Can you go over the replacement
of the top card again?
So the first card you peel off and replace?
- [Man] So this goes, so once you peel off the top card,
underneath the packet, I'll do it this way.
This card is just going to slide back in and stay.
That's it.
- [Man] It will stay there.
- [Man] These fingers don't have to move.
This thumb is just going to push forward a little bit,
so peel, replace, see, nothing happens,
just push back.
So that's the beginning of the Elmsley Count.
Alright, so now you can count four,
so you go one, two, three, four,
or you could count, you know,
one, two, three, four, five, six,
whatever you want to do from this position.
It's basically up to you.
But let's get into why you need the Elmsley Count,
and that's to hide the fourth card from the top.
Now for the Elmsley Count to work for most purposes,
it has to be in the third position.
If you have it here, you're going to be hiding this card.
If you have it in this position, you'll be hiding this card.
So right above the top card and below the second card.
Any of those cards underneath will be hidden.
In fact, there's a really good trick
by David Williamson called the Magic Three Card Trick,
where you have to hide five,
so from here you would count one, two, three, four,
and you would hide.
- [Man] That's ridiculous.
- [Man] You would hide whatever is underneath there.
- [Man] Do that again.
- [Man] So, there's your group of seven cards.
- [Man] Random cards.
- [Man] Yeah, then there's one, two, three, four.
- [Man] So good.
- [Man] So that's that, so.
One step at a time.
So you start here and you're going to do
the same exact thing.
You're going to kick over this card
as you get ready to count in that pinch position,
and then as you come back, you peel off the top one,
and now you're going to push two.
All you have to do is push from the edge
and you'll get a double.
It just happens.
Okay.
This card gets replaced, just like you did
when you were doing three or two,
and you pull it together as one,
and now you count three and four, so.
I'll do it in this kind of bad angle
just so you can see it, so here.
And that's basically it, so.
The good thing about this is that you can hide a card,
but the bad thing about it is that you could get caught
into doing too many Elmsley Counts,
and that's what happens with a lot of routines.
It's a lot of Elmsley Counts, so they,
you know, you see all this happening all day.
But if you are going to do it,
just remember, rhythm is important,
so you'll see people do this,
they go one, two, three, four, right?
Because they are scared of that second card.
And you don't have to, you just one, two, three, four.
You don't want to change that rhythm up.
And whoever does an Elmsley Count like this,
punch them in the face.
- [Man] Oh my god, what is that?
- [Man] Just punch them in the face.
It's the way it was.
- [Man] The cards teleported.
- [Man] Yeah.
- [Man] To your other finger.
- [Man] That's the trick, that's the trick.
That's the way it was done for a long time.
If you watch people like Gary Kurtz,
he actually does top changes in the Elmsley Count like that.
- [Man] With what?
- [Man] I'm doing when he was still doing close up.
So when you're practicing.
- [Man] While changing spirit thorns.
- [Man] So when you're doing this, just remember rhythm,
just nice and smooth, bring it across.
There's other little touches you could do
where you flick cards down, so you could do stuff like this.
- [Man] You could do like a color change almost, huh?
- [Man] Yeah, if you want.
I mean, I'll do it face up so you can see
the card that changes, you know you can go here.
You can do that, or there was a nice older one
that I used to do for a long time
where you would come here and spread this out that way
at the very end.
- [Man] Alright.
All unnecessary.
- [Man] All unnecessary.
- [Man] But just cool nonetheless.
- [Man] A lot of Spanish magicians
do the Elmsley Count from here at the fingertips,
but it's more for display than it is
in the hands type thing.
And that's it, but you know, any.
- [Man] It's like the cards are made of poison.
- [Man] Yeah, any kind of touch you put on
the Elmsley Count, like there's Elmsley Counts
where you come from here and you tip over this way
to count this way, right.
- [Man] That's interesting.
- [Man] Right?
So it doesn't matter.
Once you get the handling and the feeling of it,
it's about the rhythm more than anything
because that card's going to stay hidden.
I could push up from here, I could push off three as well.
You know, so if I'm here, there's three, right.
So just push off, count, and it will be smooth.
That's the Elmsley Count.
It's fun, it's simple, it's hard, it's beautiful.
- [Man] And why would you want to learn the Elmsley Count?
- Because I have a miracle that I will be sharing
with you on my channels.
- That's right, folks.
Yo, alright guys, so that was Xavier Spade
on the Elmsley Count.
The guy's a beast, like he was doing
those little tops, which is,
they look like color changes every time.
It's pretty ridiculous.
Hope you enjoyed that and hope you
learned something from it.
I know that this looks like really easy
when he does it, but that's because he put
a lot of time into it, so definitely take your time
with this, learn it well, learn it properly.
And when you feel confident enough
to want to put that into a routine,
when you really understand the mechanics
and the rhythm, as he was talking about,
he's going to put a tutorial up on his channel
doing Twisting the Aces, which is a very classic effect,
but as usual, he's going to be adding his touches
and things that make it incredibly deceptive
and really a step above whatever else is out there,
so stay tuned for that, and sup to this guy.
Go show him some love on his channel.
You won't regret it.
The stuff that he's, the stuff that he's going
to be churning out is going to be sick,
so guys, thanks so much for watching.
Hope you enjoyed the video and we'll see you next time.
Alright, peace.
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