REVIEW: THE EXCHANGE DECK BY DAVID GORING

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REVIEW: THE EXCHANGE DECK BY DAVID GORING

Postby I.D » Dec 22nd, '06, 12:26



The Exchange Deck

Available from www.ellusionist.com among other places ( AVAILABLE IN UK ). I got mine a while back off ebay

Price: £16.99 Deck & DVD

Category: Utility deck, used for switches and transpositions

Difficulty: 1/2 out of 5 .. if you can hold the deck in mechanics grip, you can use this.

They say:

Trick photography? Hardly. But once you witness The Exchange in action, you'll swear that either a supernatural force has possessed a deck of cards or you've witnessed a bona-fide blip in the fabric of reality.

The Exchange allows magicians to perform miracles - effortlessly. Easily. Flawlessly. Imagine outjogging a card from the pack and visibly changing the color of its back or face - without sleight of hand.

But wait, there's more! The Exchange allows you to:

-Morph four freely selected cards into the four aces
-Print your personal information on a blank business card
-Switch gaffed cards for the real thing
-Clean-up formerly dirty packet tricks - right under their noses
-Visibly heal a torn or hole-punched card

And much more - all without difficult sleight of hand.

Perhaps best of all, The Exchange can be set-up in any deck of cards without suspicion. The gaff is cleverly disguised in such a way as to be absolutely undetectable, even to spectators who scrutinize your every move! This is a devilishly clever card utility you'll put to work immediately.




I say:


When I first got this, my reaction was that of laughter. '' Oh, is that it '' but at the same time my mind opened up to the possibilities of using this deck. And that was before I put the DVD in.

The Deck

The deck is a normal deck which is cleverly gaffed to be able to use it for most of you performance. A little thought with the handling, and you can use it for most of your routine, though this would not be adviseable as it is not examinable ( not the whole deck anyway ). The deck can be ribbon spread, can be fanned with a little care and can be riffled and played with.

The gimmick isnt entirely obvious and I think that anyone would benefit from the DVD that you can get with it.

As said above, the possibilities are great. My favourite effect is you pick out the two black aces and set them down on the table. You have a spectator touch any card. You then pick out the red aces and leve them outjogged in the deck. You place the chosen card in between the two black aces set on the table. One snap of the fingers and the card dissapears. You guessed it, it is inbetween the two outjogged red aces. This effect is SOOO clean.

Another great effect. An insane ace assembly. After a couple of standard ace assemblys, you can pull this out of the bag and FRY spectators. Ok, you produce the four kings in a flourishy way.. then very clean show them as four seperate kings. You insert them halfway into the deck and leave them outjogged by half the length. Then ask the spector to wave their hand over the deck. You ASK THE SPECTATOR TO REMOVE THE CARDS. And they have magical changed to the four aces without knuckle busting sleight of hand.

Just two of many many effects possible with this deck. I havent used it for a while but have recently got it out again.

Downsides: the deck is a little fragile. I have had NO problems with mine and I have used it extensively. But for the heavy handed out there, just a little care please!!

Upsides: the deck can be set up in ANY deck without suspicion. A little thought and it could even be brought in during a performance. Maybe !!

The DVD

The DVD is presented by that nutter, Thomas Medina. He is one strange guy. But he presents the DVD very well. About 20 effects if I remember correctly including caring for the deck, repairing the deck should it arise to that, plus a TON of effects. He is imformative throughout. He breaks down each effect well, and you see a performance for each effect, which can give you many ideas on the kind of patter you can use and open your mind to the different ways you can present the exchange to give the impression it is something different happening each effect, when essentially, it is just one move.

I think the DVD is essential as it would take a creative mind to use the deck without it. There are no instructions with the deck itself. The gimmick isnt entirely obvious as to what it does.


Overall: 9.5/10

Nothing is perfect, nothing in my aresenal beside the Big Bertha deserves a 10. Even my beloved raven and Third Degree Burn. But this thing sure is close!! In the right hands and with a little creativity this WILL be a powerful tool in your arsenal. For the wannabees out there, it is essentially a deck that can do ONE move. However, throw your mind into the presentation and you can use this deck for effect after effect after effect, making this ONE move seem like one hundred different knuckle busting moves. What else can a spectator think.. except real magic!! 8)

I do love this deck and am surprised Ive not seen this mentioned on TM before!!

www.youtube.com/brum2redmagic !! Youtube Project started.. early days

Reading: Nothing right now
Studying: loving band redemption
Performing: Speechless, Stand up Monte, Coinvexed,
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Postby I.D » Dec 24th, '06, 17:05

It really is a great deck.. honestly :wink:

www.youtube.com/brum2redmagic !! Youtube Project started.. early days

Reading: Nothing right now
Studying: loving band redemption
Performing: Speechless, Stand up Monte, Coinvexed,
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Postby Nightfall » Jan 8th, '07, 10:19

I.D wrote:It really is a great deck.. honestly :wink:


You have convinced me , currently bidding on one :wink:

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Postby Johnny Bravo » Jan 8th, '07, 12:09

Oh you'll like this deck Nightfall, if you don't win the bid just go buy one, it's well worth it.

I have a couple of minor quibbles with the deck, just handling really which I've posted in the techniques section, so have a look once you get the deck & maybe add your two penneth worth. :)

Had a wonder on the magic cafe forum to see if there were any extra hints on this deck but the deck is barly mentioned, one guy stating he'd made one deck up & that was it. :?:

Made my own deck up as well, always good to have two, however my home made version was c*** (not the best), wonder what I did wrong :oops:

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Postby Nightfall » Jan 8th, '07, 12:15

Yes it looks very interesting, I will add my thoughts when I try it (but I'm a newbie and everything looks great to me :lol: ). The fact that it comes with a DVD is also very good.
You mention that you tried to do your own gimmick , do you think that the gimmick is repearable if it breaks ?

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Postby Johnny Bravo » Jan 8th, '07, 12:37

Yes the gimmick is repairable & very cheap to buy. You wouldn't be able to repair it on the spot but if the gimmick was to go mid way their is a way to kinda finish what your doing (in theory)

Saying that the gimmick should last you ages anyway.

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Postby Nightfall » Jan 8th, '07, 14:18

Just paid for it.
Brand new , DVD + Bicycle Black Tiger Exchange Deck : £13.50
:D Happy me

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Postby Johnny Bravo » Jan 8th, '07, 15:49

Darn you, mine was £17.99 for Ghost Deck & DVD. Ahh well. PM me when you have it & I'll discuss my niggles which you might be able to suggest something if you feel the same about them :P

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Postby Nightfall » Jan 8th, '07, 15:57

Will do !
I'm really anxious to play with this deck it looks really good. it will be a nice change from my practice with RRTCM DVDs (and I have to admit that I had a nice time playing with the ID deck and the Stripper).
But still I want to improve my sleights a lot (the 5 DVD set of RRTCM is really helping)

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Postby Johnny Bravo » Jan 8th, '07, 16:00

The exchange deck is no good for sleights, if you can stick a card in to a deck its done, its as easy as that!
I'm still ploughing through RRTCM DVDs myself, taking it very slow.

Completly off topic I watched the Richard Sanders Shows DVD 1 & 3 over the last couple of days, he's very good at the sleights he teaches. Only heard of him via the Sankey/Sander sessions but I much prefer his stuff & I'm finding Mr Sankey more off the wall & un-funny everytime I watch him :(

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Postby I.D » Jan 8th, '07, 16:58

Ill pm you shortly Johhny, I meant to before but been extremely busy. The exchange deck can be versatile, can use the deck for other tricks with careful handling.

www.youtube.com/brum2redmagic !! Youtube Project started.. early days

Reading: Nothing right now
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Re: REVIEW: THE EXCHANGE DECK BY DAVID GORING

Postby Nightfall » Jan 10th, '07, 10:43

I.D wrote:As said above, the possibilities are great. My favourite effect is you pick out the two black aces and set them down on the table. You have a spectator touch any card. You then pick out the red aces and leve them outjogged in the deck. You place the chosen card in between the two black aces set on the table. One snap of the fingers and the card dissapears. You guessed it, it is inbetween the two outjogged red aces. This effect is SOOO clean.


While waiting for the deck and DVD to arrive , I was watching the demo video again, and this is the trick that impressed me the most! Is it simple to do ? Can you give any of the cards to examine after ?

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Postby Johnny Bravo » Jan 10th, '07, 11:04

Yes its simple to do although like all things requires a bit of practise before you do it live.

Can you give any of the cards to examine after ?

You can fan the deck, spread through front & back & spec can off course select a card & take it from the deck.

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Postby Nightfall » Jan 12th, '07, 11:47

Just arrived at work. I think I might leave earlier today in order to watch the DVD asap :P

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Postby dizzydog » Jan 25th, '07, 06:57

Just got this. No deck though. How long does it take you guys to make the Gimmick?

I looked at the instructions and got a headache. Am I overthinking it or is this going to take me a couple of hours?

:?

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