Out Of The Ordinary

Don’t get me wrong, full deck effects can be powerful magic.  They are, however, subject to some pretty severe limitations.  I’ll look at three full deck effects here, and rant about one of them.  But really, the rant is just because I think it doesn’t work, so feel free to ignore that part if you want.  Full deck effects, for anyone reading this who’s wondering, are exactly what they sound like.  It’s a particular magic routine that has to be done with the entire deck, usually minus one or both of the jokers.   In the process of pointing out their pros and cons, I’ll use R. Paul Wilson’s effect from his series Extreme Possibilities (DVD, L&L Publishing 2008) titled “ConCam Rendezvous”, an effect from The Royal Road To Card Magic (Hugard and Braue, Royal Magic Edition) titled “The Tantalizer” and Bob Cassidy’s effect “Memorized Deck” from his DVD titled Mental Miracles.          

 The above effects are VERY strong.  Each can stand alone, and has definite impact when included in an act.  However, I wouldn’t include them in anything but a formal closeup show, done for an audience in a theatre.  Due, of course, to the following limitations.        

 The Memorized Deck is one of the strongest effects I do.  The effect is exactly what it sounds like.  A shuffled deck of cards is memorized and then called off as the halves of the deck are held by audience members.  It’s a great closing effect, and has tremendous impact to the audience.  However, I wouldn’t even think of doing this in a walkaround act.  Firstly, the impact would be greatly lessened by not performing this effect on stage.  Second, it takes five to eight minutes to reset the effect properly.  No good for a magician who’s supposed to be strolling around entertaining as many people as possible in the space of an hour.            

The Tantalizer is likewise a very strong effect.  Personally, I present it as a demonstration of a proposition bet, or a bet that the mark (victim of such a bet) has no chance of winning.  The idea is that a card is chosen, signed if you want and returned to the deck.  I deal the cards into two equal piles and propose odds of 50/50 that the card is not in my half.  Venturing a larger bet and better odds for the audience, I deal my cards into two halves, giving one half to the audience and one to me.  Increasing the bet and odds (except not really, because I’m cheating) that they have their card, I keep dealing until I only have one card.  Of course, I win the bet by having my single card be the chosen one.  R. Paul Wilson has a nice take on this where you can show the mark your cards when you have three, and they don’t see their card among them.  In the con business, that’s called a convincer, and is meant to lure the mark into betting more money, and thus losing more money to the con man.         

 The Tantalizer is a great effect, and I’ve had a lot of fun with it.  I’d still do it with a full deck.  But, that’s the limitation.  How often do I keep a full deck?  The answer is not very often.  One of the strongest things I can do as a magician is to give signed cards.  It makes a great souvenir and it makes people remember me, especially when I find the signed card in an impossible place.  So, as soon as I’ve done my first walkaround set, I’m generally down a couple of cards.  Oops, can’t do The Tantalizer anymore.  I’ve tried to work out the system, and unfortunately it doesn’t work with less than a full deck.  Thus, I could do it once, but the presentation isn’t as quick as I’d like and thus shouldn’t be included as an opener.            

Finally, ConCam Rendezvous.  This is a great trick.  I watched R. Paul Wilson perform it on the dvd and thought “damn, I’ve got to learn that!”  Sadly, I think the fault is not so much with the trick, although it suffers from the same flaw as The Tantalizer.  I think that it’s really a combination of needing a full deck and the fact that Wilson doesn’t do a fantastic job of explaining the subtleties of the technique.  In watching the tape, I kept asking “what if X,Y or Z happens”?  None of that is covered.  I would DEFINITELY include this in a formal closeup show, but it seems like putting it in a walkaround act is just asking for trouble.          

 Full deck effects are great material.  They’re strong, they amaze the audience, and in the above cases, the technique behind them is really not all that complicated.  Unfortunately, they have a lot of things wrong with them, and most of the time it seems that it’s too risky or slow to put them in anything but a formal theatre show.  So in conclusion, full deck effects can (mostly) kiss my ass.    

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