talkmagic.co.uk

Hi guys!
Just a little question...What is your preferred packet trick whith normal cards?






Mine are color-monte and re-set by paul harris.

The Favourite question has actually been asked a lot. Have a search for FAVOURITE in the miscellaneous section.

Favourite Packet Effect

Both your choices are excellent. I would include "Twisting the Aces" as well to that list, and Michael Closes version of the 4 card repeat effect (I can't remember the name - but it's on DVD 3 or 4 of the worker series...)

Packet tricks tend to use anything and sometimes everything except normal cards.

Twisted sisters - fave packet trick

Twisted sisters is great, but i love NFW even better

Packet tricks tend to use anything and sometimes everything except normal cards.

True, but this particular thread was about non-gimmicked packet tricks...

ok! my fav non gimmick packet trick is 'Castrol & Evian' by Paul Gordon. It can found in his 'Cause and Effect' book. Well worth learning some of the effects in that book

Quote:
Packet tricks tend to use anything and sometimes everything except normal cards.


True, but this particular thread was about non-gimmicked packet tricks...

That was my point - can you actually get a non gimmicked packet trick by definition?

If non gimmicked cards are used, isn't it just a card trick and not a packet trick?

Elmsley's 4 Card Trick is the classic.

I like Ascanio's Upturned One, and Ladies Sing The Blues too, which both have surprise endings. They do use gimmicked cards though.

I don't think you should be afraid or worried about using gimmicks, as most spectators don't even know they exist! This can make your magic seem even stronger, as some packet tricks would be impossible without gaff cards.

mark_c1975 wrote:I don't think you should be afraid or worried about using gimmicks, as most spectators don't even know they exist! This can make your magic seem even stronger, as some packet tricks would be impossible without gaff cards.

i dont totally agree mark.
I'm not a professional, i do tricks not on stage but whith friends and people that , after, maybe wants to control the cards. So it is important to havo normal cards... or to remain clean whithout gimmicks.
And IMHO most spectators suspect some gaff in the cards when the effect is SO impossible. And, at the end, some tricks whith normal card are strong and and impossible like the gaffed ones.
Sorry for my english

No problem my friend... we all have our own preferences. Not everybody uses gaff cards, or likes packet tricks, or fancy shuffles.

This is why card magic is so fascinating... there are so many facets to it, so many different ways of performing, that you can't like, or learn, them all.

What one person does with cards all the time, another person may dislike.

Cheers.

8 card brainwave.

Mike.

Either a card-warp, linking cards or oil & water.

Not so much packet effects, but they qualify for the 'not a whole deck' and 'normal cards' criteria

mark_c1975 wrote:I don't think you should be afraid or worried about using gimmicks, as most spectators don't even know they exist! This can make your magic seem even stronger, as some packet tricks would be impossible without gaff cards.

Hmmmm

I'm afraid I am a bit on the contrary side of this... as I believe that spectator's aren't ALWAYS as gullible as you think.

For example, an effect which is so impossible that it could only have been done with gaffs will beg suspicion. For instance, holding 4 cards which all change to 4 different cards.

However, the reverse side of this is that packet-style effects which look totally impossible, using nothing more than regular cards and magician's skill, can be fully examined afterwards.

This, to me, is real magic.

Gaffs and stuff are fine, but there's quite a fine line between what is skill, and what is impossible. Find that fine line, and you've found the perfect effect, surely?

For example, the classic 'twisting the aces' routine is pure magic, as is the Colour Monte and will stun spectators again and again. Why? Because it's a display of the seemingly impossible, coupled with regular cards, and pure skill and performance.

NFW, which we all know uses gaffed cards, on the other hand is also a stunner... has the same dramatic effect on the specator, and is seemingly impossible. But, there is no way that the cards are examinable.

All of us have at one point in our magical voyage been possessed with CUPS—the odd impulsive need to purchase something on the strength of it's marketing. For me, this period was around the 2002-2003 era when a sudden splurge of online magic shops came to being. Mostly packet effects, gaffed decks or gimmicks of one kind or another.

I was already an 'OK' card magician, at that point. But, in buying these effects (most of which were in the £15 price range and got to the back of the crud drawer quicker than a spider on rollerskates) I actually learned a heck of a lot of sleights, techniques and subtleties which I'd have otherwise never have come across.

Plus, add the fact that creative magic comes from experience. Packet effects are an excellent way of learning how a creative magician's mind works, and the results are often more instantaneous than with, for instance, learning an effect or sleight from a book or DVD.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong—but that makes a packet trick something of a paradox. On one hand, people are against them, on the other hand, they're an aid.

After CUPS, most cardies will agree that purist magic feels so much more satisfying to perform?

seige wrote:NFW: But, there is no way that the cards are examinable.

Well, it's not as bad as you think...At the end, you end up with the 'interesting' AC but apart from that you're clean. Therefore, if you could get rid of the AC in some way that would solve your problem. However, I don't think NFW calls for examination the way some tricks would - I mean, you've shown the four aces pretty cleanly at the end.

Kati

id have to say that there are DEFINATELY ungimmicked packet tricks, as Seige pointed out that "twisting the aces" is one of them.. there are also ungimmicked versions of NFW..Jumping gemini is another... Jazz aces is another. the invisible palm could also be said to be a packet trick which is a killer effect if done smoothly, i could list many more UNGIMMICKED packet tricks, and of course as also pointed out earlier its sooooooo satisfying not to use gimmicks because there will always come a time when someone throws you a deck of cards and demands to see something and those who rely on gimmicks will have to reply " well i dont have anything on me at the mo.... etc etc"

so even if you just learn a few you wont have to use the above quote.. they dont have to be knucklebusters some are "almost" self working.