"Special" decks

[Andy Graf]

Hi folks,

I just started messin around with card tricks and mostly only have "special" decks. Decks like the "invisable deck" and a "Svengali deck" I also have a trick called "Mental Photography", that comes with a blank deck of cards.

It seems to me that these decks almost take the skill out of doing magic. Would the vetern magicians agree?

Don't get me wrong here, I'm not knockin them. They produce great results. Just wondering since I have been looking at more "skillful" tricks that require double lifts, and lots of practice before anyone can watch the effect.


Can you feel my newbism?

[Kipp Sherry]

Originally Posted by Andy Graf

Hi folks,

I just started messin around with card tricks and mostly only have "special" decks. ...It seems to me that these decks almost take the skill out of doing magic. Would the vetern magicians agree?

Andy,

Here is a veterans perspective. It doesn't matter how you achieve the effect, what you are after is a good response from the audience.

Magic is based on several principles and as a magician you should study all of them. Gaffed cards have principles that should be learned. To learn them you really have to study them. You have to go beyond the simple instructions that came with the gaff.

Example: Svengali Deck
Most decks come with instructions on how to perform at least 9 different effects with the same deck. Many magicians only do the deck change where all the cards change to the same card, then back. They don't even take the time to learn the other 8 effects. I know pitch men who make a living at pitching and selling ONLY Svengali Decks. But they have taken the time to study the principles of the deck and they have mastered 25-30 effects that can be done with the deck. If you can make a living at it, then that is really all you need, but you need to know it well.

Let's say you don't want to make a living at only Svengali Decks, you just want it as one of your many effects in your routine. Okay, still study the principles that make a Svengali Deck work. These same principles are used for a multitude of effects like "Magic Coloring Books", "Mentalism Routines", all the way up to big stage effects. You just have to take the principle beyond the cards themselves and you have an arsenal of magic at your disposal.

Let's say you don't want to expand into the other areas of magic and you just want to stay with card manipulation. Okay, still study the principles that make a Svengali Deck work. Add those to other principles such as palming, double lifts, misdirection, etc. and pretty soon you will be doing amazing card effects that will even blow away magicians who think they know how you did it. Because you are using several different principles, they will have no idea which ones you are using and thus, no idea on how you did it.

I give this advice to young magicians all the time:
1) Once you buy an effect and learn how to perform it, take it to the next level. Now thoroughly study the principle behind the effect and see how else you can use the same principle to achieve different effects.
2) Once you learn an effect, take it to the next level. See how many different principles you can use to produce the same effect.

Do this and you will become a master magician.

Until we appear again,
Kipp Sherry