talkmagic.co.uk

Sudden Deck II

The Effect

The magician takes out a couple of card templates both blank and throws one onto the table whilst explaining that from these flat templates, card boxes are made, with a click of the fingers the template he is holding is now printed. He then folds the card into a box, clicks his fingers and pulls out a deck of cards.

Cost

£24, from many stores. I got mine from alakazam magic who have a demo vid available on thire web site.

Difficulty
(1=easy to do, 2=No sleights, but not so easy, 3=Some sleights used,
4=Advanced sleights used, 5=Suitable for experienced magicians only)

1 or 2 very slight misdirection and good timing needed for the colour change. see reveiw bellow.

Review

excelent product, you get two blanks, one red blank and one blue, so four templates in all. Unexaminable, strong template can be used many times.
This is a throw away trick for the start of your card routine. You could do it with no patter at all, as if you always make your cards appear this way.
The fact it is non examinable is of no importance. You the magician are just taking out your cards and putting the box back in your pocket /back under table, the fact that the box was flat to start makes no difference to the fact that you need to now put your empty card box back in your pocket / under table, which is nice as it's a self clean up trick.
Trick duration is at least 30 seconds. But this is a fast trick, I need to get out my cards, I make up a box, here are my cards, now lets do a card trick. I personaly just do that and don't dwell on the trick itself, except to say somthing like 'red cards today I think' just as I print the colour on the box.
The templates will do more than one outing. I do not know how many, they are cardboard and won't last forever, so care shoud be taken and when I put back in my pocket I am very carefull which pocket I put it in.
If I have a table then it goes under this to stop rubbing of my clothes against it. It is made of the same card (perhaps a tiny bit thicker) as the normal card boxes, so you can judge from that. Remember you do get two a red and blue. Would be interesting to see how they last for some of you guys.
The only tricky bit is the timing on the colour change. I am not a very good magician buy the standards of most you guys and I got it down in about 20 minutes. Mirror and practice esential and they seems to be a sort of knack to making it quick. The instructions are good and clear.
The cards you use are your cards, so ungimmicked.
Have to unfold the box to reset, although easy this may be a consideration for those table hopping


Overall

I would say this is a good throw away trick in order to spice up the introdution of a deck of cards into your routine.
For £24 some may be disapointed with what they get, four bits of card, but you pay for the effect, and people do look at you kind of confused and giggly which is nice way to start.
won't last forever, and table hoppers may have extra wear from the box rubbing on their clothes. I work mainly from a table and so I do not have this problem to consider as I just place it back under the table. The only pocket I ever place them in is my inside jacket.
Pleased I bought it, but very quick.
7/10 as its a nice disarming opener.

Really want to buy this effect. It is possible to make up spare templates ?
Otherwise it is a pretty expensive effect if things take a lot of wear and tear being placed into the pocket. It would be nice to think that spares could be made up.

Is the box slightly larger than a conventional box?

sorry about the delay in replying

wished to do some further testing.

mine are holding up really well, about 20 performances with just one box
still looks brand new, placed it in my pocket about half these times, but again I don't table hop. So what I do in 3 months you guys may do in a week.

to answer questions, no and yes

Heard mixed things about this. It's incredibly angle sensitive apparently, which put me off a bit.

I do not own it, but David Regal was at a convention I went to a couple of weeks ago and I got to fool around with the gimmick a little; There ARE angle issues, but if you hold the deck close to your body near your stomach/chest, you can make it less sensitive to the angles.

Even if you perform this once, it's worth the price (although I never bought it because I had already spent more money than I count to), always try to picture what the spectators will see and then think, "is this type of astonishment worth the money?"...Now picture this effect and think if it's worth it.

I really hope I don't sound like an advertising bot ,

~Magically Dave

Nice review. I want to buy this trick for some close up magic. Thanks for the review!

David R. wrote:I do not own it, but David Regal was at a convention I went to a couple of weeks ago

and there I was thinking that you were David Regal...

oh well.

hi guys, I just joined talkmagic and this was actually my first "trick" I bought and performed for my family.

I'm trying to keep my magic 'skills' a secret with my friends until I can really wow them. AFATK I don't know any magic tricks or card tricks so I didn't want to try this one on them.

but my family was very impressed with this effect, even though I was totally a beginner and kind of slow (in my opinion) with the *printing* of the deck.

a BIG TIP that actually doesn't come with the instructions: he says to practice and it will wear in. I find this isn't necessarily true - make your fold BEFORE you go ahead with the instructions.

What I am trying to say with no exposure, is, practice the FIRST part of the effect, before ever doing preparation for the SECOND part.

Now I'm much faster thanks to this trick including two copies (red and blue) of "sudden deck".

And only ONE person I had an issue with b/c of angles, and that was my fault... it's not so much side to side you need to worry about (although that can be mitigated by holding it closer to you)

.... it's if you're standing up, and they're sitting down that it gets bad. any way you can, get down to their level so you perform it with them looking straight at you (and the "sudden deck")

OK my first post also.

I saw the demo of this but when I got it I thought I could never make it look as good especially the snap change.

Folks, I have done this several times now and I still don't think my snap change looks as good.

But that NOT what the people watching have thought. If fact, much to my amazement, thats the part they're blown away about! Not only that but so much so that when I've produced a deck of cards from the empty box they're still concentrating on the printing!!

I think the secret is with this is that the first gaff is so unexpected that they edit out any inconsistancies and anything else.

Price I think is a little steep and you could possibly make templates but that I think would lose the profesional look which makes the printing all the more spectacular.

Despite my reservations, so far I have had nothing dropped jaws on this.

agreed mi, my snap color change sucks still, and nobody seems to have called me on it, it's more like their face gets a weird expression of amazement...

it REALLY helps if you go back to (you can even un-do the second part of preparation) when the gimmick first came out of the bag... and do the fold way back, and practice the color change without anything else.

also drop your hand a bit before you color change, and jerk your hand quickly upwards as you color change, it will be at least twice as fast.

i dont see why david regal do not want to use normal bicycle card box pattern, printing 'BICICLE' instead of 'BICYCLE' and 'REGAL BACK' instead of 'RIDER BACK' is somewhat letting people to know that the box is abnormal and is gimmicked.

Would that have something to do with Trademark legal issues?? I would think that he would have to make those changes if he didn't get their consent to use their logo and trademarks, etc.....

My money's on trademark issues as well. As for the price tag, I think it is overpriced, as was the first version, when it first came out. They later dropped the price. I think the first one is less angle sensitive, and also less likely to be damaged in your pocket. Personally I didn't think the second one an improvement. but if it works for you, then it's obviously a winner, and if you're out performing for cash, then you'll get your money back half sharpish.
If you are thinking of a purchase then check them both out, preferably hands on, at your local dealers.

I've had this for about 24hrs and I've been playing with it constantly. But I just can't get the colour change to happen fast enough.

It is a bit "angley", so I've turned a bicycle box inside out to prevent any unwanted flashes.