Magic Circle History Day 2026: The Magic Man of Amsterdam - The lost story of Louis Lam

Introduction

In my presentation on Louis Lam’s life, I demonstrated a colour changing deck routine. A spectator freely selected a card from a red backed deck, and its back changed to blue. Its matching card, taken from a blue backed deck, changed to red. When the decks were examined, every card in each pack had also changed back colour.

The routine combined two of Louis Lam’s colour changing deck effects: The Movie Colour Cards and Coloro. Both are explained below in Louis’ own words.[1]

To combine the two effects, I made several changes.

The first change was to use only one deck for The Movie Colour Cards. Instead of using a double backer and secretly reversing it, I placed an ordinary card from the differently coloured deck on top, so a blue backed deck appeared to be red backed. I reinforced this impression with the Hindu Shuffle Display. I then attached a small piece of double-sided tape to the back of that red card.[2] After the display, I dropped the remaining packet onto the face up cards, allowing the taped red card to stick to the uppermost face-up card. This removed the red back from play, so the deck could be shown at the end as entirely blue backed and handed to the spectator.

I also used only one deck for Coloro, so that each colour change in the combined routine relied on a different method. The first used The Movie Colour Cards method, based on the Hindu Shuffle Display, and the second used the Coloro method, with one half of the deck blue backed and the other red backed. I simplified the handling by removing the clumsy sequence in which the spectator selects a card, returns it to the deck, and then sees it removed again moments later. Instead, I simply removed the matching card to the one first selected.[3] I also avoided the need for a pass, one of Lam’s favoured moves, by openly separating the deck at the point where the back colours changed and placing the left-hand half on top of the right.

 

James Green

June 2026

 

[1] The original text has received minor edits to modernise the language and to help the reader follow the instructions.

[2] I felt the use of double-sided tape was justified as it was available in the 1930s and, in another of Louis Lam’s tricks, he demonstrates an awareness of using substances to temporarily stick cards together.

[3] To allow me to do this I used odd numbered red cards (28) (i.e. A,3,5,7,9,J,K) and even numbered blue cards (24) (i.e. 2,4,6,8,10,Q). I therefore ensured that a spectator selected an odd numbered card from the first deck. The odds were 7:6 in my favour as there are more odd cards in a deck than even. Had the spectator selected an even card, I would have ‘audience managed’ the situation to settle on an odd numbered card.

The Movie Colour Cards

 

Effect 

Two decks of cards are introduced. A blue-backed deck of cards is taken out from a blue card box and a red-backed deck taken from a red card box. The blue cards are shown to have all blue backs, whereas the red cards have all red backs. The red cards are put back in the red box, and the blue cards in the blue one. The boxes are reopened, and the blue backs have turned red, and the red backs blue.

 Method

Invite two spectators onto the stage, but stipulate that they must have very good eyesight. The performer now explains that she is possessed of hypnotic powers, and that she is in a position to make her spectators colour blind. This is the presentation, now for the explanation.

The preparation is quite simple. The whole secret depends on double-backed cards. One of the double-backed cards is put on the red deck, blue back uppermost. The other double backer is put on the blue deck, red back uppermost. Put the decks back in their respective boxes, i.e., the red cards with the blue top in the blue box, and the blue cards with the red top in the red box.

To show the cards to be all the same colour use the following sleight [Editor: Hindu Shuffle False Display]:

Suppose we have all the red cards with the double blue card on top. Take the deck in your left hand and remark casually “a blue deck of cards”. As the cards come from the blue box nobody will suspect any trickery. Now hold the cards in your left-hand face-up. The cards should be lying with their length resting on the hand, four fingers at the bottom and thumb on top. Draw out a good portion of the cards from the bottom of the deck, with the fingers and thumb of the right hand. Holding them in the right hand, show the back of these cards. Remark, “a blue deck of cards”.

With the left hand draw off a few cards from the top of the cards in the right hand, back on to the cards in the left hand. The remaining cards in the right hand are turned over showing the back, with the remark “all blue cards”. This is repeated several times.

Actually, you are always showing the back of the bottom card of the deck in the right hand, but to the audience it looks as if you are showing them the back of a different card each time.

After having done this a few times, replace the cards in the right hand under the cards in the left hand. Turn the deck face-down.

You are now ready for the next move. All you have to do is to turn the top card over secretly and put the cards face-up in the blue box. When they are taken out, they are all red. The same happens with the apparently red cards.

Props

Two decks of playing cards with different coloured backs; ideally red and blue and with the same back design; and their accompanying card boxes.

Two double-backed cards; both red on one side and the blue on the other.

Notes 

Originally published in ‘Brunel White Presents “Would You Believe It?”’ (1935), pp. 16-18.

   Lam’s name for this effect was influenced by the emergence of colour motion picture in the 1930s. Technicolour was introduced in 1932, Kodachrome in 1935 and Agfacolor in 1936.

    From a historical perspective, “The Movie Colour Cards” is interesting for two reasons:

First, it is one of the first published examples of a colour changing deck effect. Dennis Behr’s Conjuring Archive lists only three earlier versions (none of which use Lam’s method).

   Secondly, “The Movie Colour Cards” is believed to be one of the first published effects to use a Hindu Shuffle False Display (although Lam doesn’t refer to the sleight by this name). The Hindu Shuffle itself came to prominence in 1933 when it appeared in Jean Hugard’s ‘Card Manipulations, No. 1’, ‘Farelli’s Card Magic, Part 1’ and in two articles in ‘The Sphinx’. Theodore Annemann used the shuffle for a false display in a colour-changing deck routine in 1932, three years ahead of the publication of ‘Brunel White Presents “Would You Believe It?”’. However, Annemann’s trick was only written up in a private manuscript, and on the other side of the Atlantic, so it is probable Lam invented his version independently.

 

Coloro

 

Effect 

The performer removes a deck from its box and spreads the cards from the right hand to the left hand. A card is now freely selected and put in a menu holder clip (or glass) on the table, face towards the audience.

 The spectator is now asked to tell the performer what colour cards he is using, and the reply is: “Red cards”. The performer confirms this by showing that all the card backs are actually red. He then announces that he will show a miracle; in fact, an optical illusion. He states that spectators only imagine that blue cards are being used, and to demonstrate the statement, the top card is taken and shown to be blue. “In fact, all the cards are blue,” the performer remarks, and show that the colour of the backs of the cards has actually changed.

 But the experiment is not over yet. “If my experiment has really been successful,” the conjuror continues, “the back of the card you selected must also have changed colour”. He takes the previously chosen card from the menu holder, which is then handed to the spectator, only to prove that the performer’s remarks are true: the colour has changed from red to blue.

 Method 

The beauty of this effect is that ordinary unprepared playing cards are used, and that it can be repeated over and over again.

 By now, you will have jumped to the conclusion that we use blue cards as well as red cards. To prepare, get two decks of cards, one with a blue back design, and the other with a red design. Of course, you must use the same design.

 Take 26 cards of one colour, and exactly the same 26 cards of the other colour. Now take two red cards from the 26, say the five of clubs and the ten of clubs, and also take these two cards from the blue 26 cards. Put the blue and red piles next to one another on the table and insert the two blue and two red cards as follows. The two piles on the table must be face-up. The red ten of clubs is put at the bottom of the red cards. The red five of clubs is put on the top of the blue cards. The blue five and ten of clubs are put at the bottom of the blue pile. The five first, then the ten. The two piles should now read as follows:

 Red pile: Bottom card ten of clubs and 25 red cards.

 Blue pile: Bottom card five of clubs, then ten of clubs, 24 blue cards and the red five of clubs on top.

      Now put the face-up blue pile on the face-up red pile and insert a red-backed joker anywhere in the deck. Place the whole deck in the red box in which the cards were sold, and you are ready for your performance.

     Come forward with your cards in the box and take the cards out (being careful not to expose any of the blue-backed cards).

 First, show the cards to the spectator’s face-up, apparently to show her all the cards are different, and to look for the joker. Take the joker out, and put it on the card box, back up. This is a convincer, to prove that you are using red cards from a red box.

Turn the cards over so that the backs are up. Hold this deck in your left hand and spread cards slowly from left to right. Not too many of course, otherwise they would see the blue cards. Have a card selected from the spread of cards (the red-backed top half of the deck) and returned (to the top half). Turn the deck over, spreading the faces, and ask the spectator to say stop when he sees his card (in the blue-backed top-half of the deck). Ask him for the name of the card. Suppose it is the ace of hearts. Take this card from the deck and put it in the stand on the table (a menu holder, or glass is very suitable), with its face towards the audience. As far as the audience are concerned, they think you have put a red-backed card in the holder, but actually, you have put a blue-backed card in the holder.

    Now fan the cards face-up from your left to your right hand, until you come to the ten and five of clubs. Insert the little finger of your left hand between the five and ten, just as if you were going to make the pass. In this position, hold the cards with the left hand only, and for the first time you ask the spectator, “what colour cards am I using?”. He might not remember, but when he sees the red joker and the red box, he will immediately say “Red cards”. Ask him if he is quite sure? He might hesitate, but here is where you tell him he is right for you will prove it to him. While talking, you have made the pass and have brought the red cards to the top (cards are still face-up).

 To prove that the cards are red, you hold the deck face-up in the left hand, and with the right hand pick up and drop a few cards on the cards in the left hand. Repeat this a couple of times (showing the red backs). He is fully convinced now that you are using red cards. Tell him you are sorry to contradict him, for it has only been an optical illusion. Ask him to blow on the cards and the miracle has happened.

 Take the top card slowly from the deck and say: “I told you a miracle had happened; I was using blue cards”. With these words turn the card in your right hand over and show blue. Replace the card on the deck and turn the deck over. Slowly spread the cards, backs up, from left to right hand and show that the whole deck consists of blue cards. Here again, you must be careful not to show the red cards.

    In conclusion, say: “If my experiment has really been successful the card you selected will also have changed colour,” and here you take the previously chosen card from the holder (or glass), to show him that it has changed from red to blue.

 Although these instructions may appear complicated and lengthy in print, you will find that the experiment can be carried out with the greatest of ease and constitutes a first-class miracle.

Props

Two decks of playing cards (ideally with different coloured backs, such as red and blue, but with the same back design).

A card box; ideally printed with the red back design of the cards to be used.

A menu holder clip (or glass) (optional).

 Notes 

Originally published in ‘Brunel White Presents “Would You Believe It?”’ (1935), pp. 12-15.

   The use of a menu holder (or a long-stemmed wine glass) to isolate the chosen card is stylish. Alternatively, you could just lay the selected card on the table or close-up mat under the card box but remaining visible. The benefit of placing the card on the table/close-up mat is that this avoids any angle issues if spectators are not all directly forward of the performer. Also, the colour of the card box next to the selected card reinforces the belief that the card is from that coloured deck, until the performer is ready for the colour change reveal.