“The Elevator” (Devil’s Elevator by Dai Vernon and Bruce Cervon) is a beautiful trick that accompanied Gabi throughout his entire magical life. His very refined personal version is full of details that especially seek the maximum economy of movement without loss of clarity and maximum clarity without loss of economy of movement (a constant in all of Gabi’s magic). To our knowledge, Gabi developed at least three variations of this same trick:
The first one follows the line of the original trick, although adding handling, subtleties and details which makes the trick much more economical, subtle and clear.
The second one is a curious version where the red cards are inserted and rise with the black cards fanned out. Gabi said that he found this version unsettling because you could see the “entry point” and the “exit point” at the same time. In addition, he experimented with displays based on the “Background and Shape” principle of Gestalt Psychology.
Finally, the third version is the return to the first one with a different ending to rise the five. At the beginning of the trick, Gabi sometimes used the Biddle steal (but he preferred the merhod from the first and second version) and the relevant thing is that he adds a new and exquisite ending, which in a trick with cumulative effects like this one, achieves an extra potency, where apparently there was no space to fit anything else.
We would have loved to include a video of Gabi performing the last version but we don’t own any recordings oh him doing it, so we have to film it ourselves. We don’t have his hands but we did it with the greatest respect. In Gabi’s hands the rising of the five from this third version was a thing of beauty, and in addition it’s an idea which deserves to be known.
He used to say that “inside the humblest magic trick, the whole art of magic can be contained”.
Sources:
First version: Published by Gabriel Pareras in his Facebook account in 2015 and deleted after he passed away. https://www.facebook.com/193504380691651/videos/925092570866158/
Second version: Lecture in Málaga (2009) image rigths de Daniel Ortiz
Third version: Filmed and performed by Joaquín Matas in 2021