The Optical Cut

LESSONS - chapter 9, page 789

In John Scarne's famous Schaefer Beer commercial, there's a short sequence where Scarne cuts and holds a break (Hindu cut), riffles the front of the deck to sell its squareness, and then spin-cuts to the break. But the break is blatantly visible, which only means one thing to laypeople: an obvious form of manipulation. With a little thought, the same goal can be accomplished without exposing the break. For flourishes, this fine point is probably irrelevant, but for cutting to an ace(s), it's easy to go from obvious to completely deceptive.

The clip starts with the original commercial footage played twice.