Hi guys, I understand that magicians have used gimmick card tricks as part of their routine before. Sometimes, when you perform certain gimmick card tricks, you might tend to be afraid that the audience will try to see whether your deck has a gimmick there after you have finished performed your routine.

Well, if they never bother to inspect, kudos for you and prepare to receive great compliments. But what if the audience want to inspect your deck and really want to convince them? In such a situation, what will you guys do to overcome it? Does anyone can recommend what type of gimmick cards tricks that can be inspectable and heckler proof?

Cheers :rolleyes:
Invisible

Gimmick card tricks
most popular and most common and most practical
Svengali and Stripper, i love them personally

Stripper is 99.9% clean for all laymen, because they can inspect every card and even shuffle them

as for svengali, maybe a deck switch after the routine will be alright, you can also follow the cleaning up method taught by daryl in the booklet

Watch andy nyman's performance on the svengali. I love it to the max!

In any case, i hate gimmick decks. In my shows, I only use gimmick cards. Either something that I can ditch later on, or something that I can hand out as a souvenir at the end of the day.

Just do a deck switch.

You can perform tricks with a normal deck first, let them inspect the deck. In the middle of your show, switch the deck to your gimmick deck.

An alternative methos is to perform with the gimmick deck first, then switch to a normal deck.

If I have a choice of using sleights, I would do that. But if the gimmick makes the effect more impossible, then why not? Just my two cents worth.

Deck switching is probably the best idea, but that mainly applies to shows.
What about when you're at a friend's house and they ask to see something and u decide to show them invisible deck. Deck switching would not really apply here.

ZiAn

Here's waht i think about this thread..

Firstly, there is no way that a gimmick could be inspected because its a gimmick card afterall. Take the gaff deck for example, there is no way to cover the gaff cards but tell the lay that you've changed the card to what it is now and just give them the deck to be amazed. But, if you were to switch back the card, there is now no way youre able to pass the deck to be inspected.

Secondly, a deck switch is one of the most apporiate ways to be able to pass the deck to be inspected.

That's just what i personally think about this topic. :lol:

jon

Double post, maybe you will delete one of the post.

Anyway, gimmick cards or deck, all have its strong point and weak point.

It depends on how the magician want to do to cover up for the weak point.

First thing when come to your mind is, can the strong point be good, is it worth the effort. If it does, and you presented it well, it will deliver further than magic using sleight of hands. (not saying that sleights of hands are not good)

Example is, you wanted to vanish a card into your pocket, 2 choice, using gimmick card or P*lm the card. Sleight of hand can achieve such act, but it tend to make you much more tighter situation in a surrounded place, if you are good, then good for you. But why not choose an easier path and use a gimmick card to achieve it. A D*rk card can simply covers the act and make your hand even cleaner.

Thus, for similar effects, its the way you deliver that will seems impossible. You can do a signed card transport with sleight of hand but gimmick card cannot. A gimmick card can make things simpler, while some sleights cannot. Weight the different you wanted and use the one you think its best for you.

Sorry, got to remind you guys to use abbreviations or *** where necessary.

Deck s****hing can be easier than most people thought.

Ok let's use the invisible deck at a friend's house for example. If you are performing at the table, s****hing decks should be real easy. Even if you don't know how to do cold deck s****hes, there are easier deck s****hes you can use. For me i just simply take out a marker or coin for the next routine and the s****h is done. Even if you are not working on a table you can still do the same thing. Just ditch the deck in your bag and s****h in a new deck.

One other method like I mentioned is to perform with a normal deck first. Let them know that the deck is normal. This will disarm your audience. Do a deck s****h in the middle of your routine and show them the invisble deck. Trust me, they won't think you are using a trick deck cos they had already examined the deck..or so they thought.

Well, thanks for all your advice guys. Looks like majority of the people are using deck s****h as a method of pulling off. Good idea too! I find that using a Stripper deck can be also a good way too but not 100% can pull it off. I have a friend who has accidentally feel the deck of cards are a bit abnormal after doing some shuffling of the stripper deck. :)

O_o!! wow they notice there is something wrong with the stripper deck?! That is really rare. Guess your friend is very observant.

My gf had a stripper deck in her house, think her father bought it. No one else in the family noticed there is something wrong with the cards and they use it as a normal deck. When i got the deck( which i thought was a normal deck back then), I noticed there is something wrong with the deck lol.

That was the 1st time I performed with a borrowed stripper deck :lol:

lol
your gf's dad must be very rich
buying a deck from magic shop , i assume, without knowing wat is it,
and use it as normal cards
hahaha, cool wei

Haha actually he knows it's a trick deck and he performed it to his family. But the rest of the family thought it's a normal deck lol. He also got a svengali deck! :lol:

haha
better advice him to keep the deck properly
if not, something bad might happen, which previously happened to me
my cousins were all amazed by svengali
and they actually inspected my deck of cards when i was bathing
haha!!!!

Lol, actually he only left his stripper deck lying around. I think he is confident that no one will find anything wrong with it. I did not get a chance to see his svengali deck, I only heard from my gf he performed the svengali effect. She tried to find the deck but cannot find it lol. :lol:

Wa your cousins actually did that?!! Did they ask to inspect the deck after you perform the effect? Or they want to inspect but wait for you to go bathing then inspect? lol

ahha, yea they kept quiet after i perform the effect
and when i was not around they went into my room to check
hahaha, so, they knew the secret, but still cannot figure out how is it done

How about don't use any gimmicked decks?

IMO, Svengali is too over-exposed, in fact it was my first deck and I bought it 7-11. I bought my stripper at Toys'R Us and I think they even sell the ID. So now kids also know how to perform those deck tricks. Chances are, the parents will also know.

I started out performing magic using the svengali deck. They will not suspect it is a gimmick pack if you are selective in the effects you choose to perform with it. Magicians get fooled too because it is too simple for them to suspect. Like I say, it about being selective in the effects you perform with a svengali. Some effects just scream, "Gimmick"!

yea
i got attracted into cards by svengali performance at a pasar malam
can see how strong is the effect
and they actually believe if i tell them its all illusion that they see all the same cards, haha

If you show ALL the cards the same, 99% of the time the audience would wanna inspect the deck. I guess this is one of those effects joeltay was talking about.

Make sure you are well prepared if you wanna show them all the cards change into the same card. For example you can have a 1way F**** deck in your lap and s**** the 2 decks. This way you end clean (with another gimmick deck, how ironic) and they can inspect the cards.

Yea. I never show all the cards being the same even though that is a strong effect. It just causes them to think gimmick.

Do an ACR with a svengali. Magicians get fooled by that. Card from middle of deck to top while their finger is always on the top card. Things like that, they will not suspect gimmick.

I really must compliment Ace for his use of *** and abbreviations. I think many of us have forgotten this little rule. Why? That day I just had a friend who came in here and "uncovered" a lot of secrets from the names of the moves. He was more than a bit "yaya-papaya", telling me "I know how THIS is done !!"... I was like ....@#$#*!!!

Ok, back to the topic:

Personally, I think Svengali has limited applications. I mean, you can't really preform more than 1 trick to the same spectators ( 2 if you are lucky). They will notice how come that "special card" keeps making it's presence felt. No such problem with a normal deck or even a stripper.

If you want to do a Gimmicked ACR, there are better ways than a Svengali.
A d*******e c**d will do. Forcing? Just 1 s***t c**d will also do. And it can be examined or rather more examinable than svengali.

Ok, considering there is a dvd ou there teaching people how to use a svengali, I may be wrong about it's limited applications. Maybe it's my knowledge that's limited. So if I am wrong, can somebody enlighten me?

Actually, I seldom perform Svengali deck routine as part of my gimmick trick. It is because I find that Svengali deck has its limitation and cannot be examined at all.

Thus, I personally preferred to use a single gimmick card rather than a whole gimmick deck as the gimmick card can be easily ditched away through misdirection. :)

That's true. There are limitations to the s******i d**k. My point was that if you are selective about the effects you use with that deck, the spectator will not suspect it is gimmicked.

Thanks for the compliment! :P Sometimes I'll also forgot to use them when i typed too fast lol.

That happened to me once too. After performing some card magic, a friend of mine actually went on the net and search for the method of my card tricks -_- Then she said: "I know le!! You just ***** and **** right?" I was like WTH <_<

Good thing she forgot about the method one month later. I performed 2CM to her and she said" But I did not feel it when you switched it!" Layman.... :lol: :lol:

For me if I use the svengali deck, I'll confirm show them the "ultimate move" of all the cards change into the same card. That is the strongest effect of the deck.

I understand the reason for being selective with the effects. But those effects are not strong enough and I can do similar things using a normal deck.

I'm too lazy to bring so many decks with me...hence my svengali deck had been collecting dust.

I've got a question

I have this deck that is black and white. When i DL it i sometimes tend to reveal de grey if de top card is black.

Is it possible to make it blend right in? Or at least make it straight enough so that people won't be able to see it?

PS: I have been pracitsing for 1 month

Don't understand your question.

But a DL shouldn't release any idea that it is a DL. :)

i think he is referring to the borders of the card.
try a normal bikes maybe?

Dude, get bikes if you want to do magic and use that grey/black/white cards for your flourishes man! You're being crippled by it N it's affectin your magic!!!!

What he meant was that he had a deck of cards which he bought. Its bicycle deck. Its not Black Tiger or anything. Its just black. The colour of the backing is black and the face of Spades and Clubs are blacks and the face of Hearts and Diamonds are grey. He meant that lets say he did a DL with a King of Spades and a Queen of Diamonds and it does not really blends if it somehow s*i*es off a bit. The DLs with normal blue or red bikes blends well due to the white borders on the backing. But now he is using this deck which is black for spades and clubs and grey for hearts and diamonds.

A bit lengthy but solves the confusion :D

gimmicked card tricks....


i do a couple, from the ellusionist gaff pack , dark card , grandpa aces and a few of my own printed cards.

gimmick cards are better than gimmicked decks as they are easy to add and remove from the set as and when without a deck switch


they offer plot lines /storytelling that gaffless card magic cannot offer so i love using gaff cards here and there to spice up a card set

defintely recommend if u can control ur audience and works a treat for kids

:)

I know what you talking about, you are using The Black Deck. I wrote about it sometime ago.

Never used it in performance before and don't think I would use it ever. Looked nice, but not practical.

Should just stick to normal bikes. But if you really, really, die die must use a nice deck, use a Tally-Ho.

for gimmicked card tricks..

I use invisible deck which is by far i think, the best out one can use when a mentalism routine goes wrong, blank cards to achieve some particular effects such as the name card thing ( don't really know what it's called ) and a svengali deck which is definitely mind blowing if one can actually utilize it properly.

however, i really have a problem with deck s****hing, the only way i can think of without any disruption is to use the cover of looking for the marker or something.
any ideas how?

-Ian

hey.

For starters, get the TLMS gaff packet. there is a whole lots of stuff you can do with those cards with the kowledge of some basic sleights like DL or colour changes. The fact that it doesnt come with an intructional DVD gives you ample scope for creativity. Give it a shot and maybe I'd be interested in coming up with a locally made DVD for it since I firmly believe that those very basic gaff cards are underused.

Csjoshi