Psimbol Deck

Review area devoted to tricks and effects where props are involved.

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Psimbol Deck

Postby Johnny Bravo » Jan 5th, '06, 01:17



The Effect
You show forty white cards with different shapes printed on them, shuffle and place them face down on the table. You ask a spectator to cut off a small packet of the deck, look at the shape he cut and remember it. Next, ask him to shuffle the packet. Then ask another spectator to take the balance of the deck from the table and place it in his pocket. All these actions are made with your back to both spectators.

Now ask the spectator to mix his packet face up on the table. Just now, you turn and explain that you will show the cards from the table, one by one, and at the exact moment he sees his shape he has to think "this is my shape." Finally you take out a note pad and draw his chosen shape.


Cost
£12 +p&p from http://www.topsecretmagic.co.uk/mental.html#PSIMBOLDeck

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

Review
These come on very thin what feels like plastic, so thin you can in fact see through the cards which could be to your benefit. Size wise their the sames as bikes. The back is completly white, no markings.

A very small amount of memory work is involved, but it really is a piece of cake, took me about 5 minutes. Me who can't cope with an ID yet!

Personally I think it's not a bad little trick, but unless anyone knows other wise it's a one pony trick. Still it's only an extra deck to carry.

One niggle & that is in displaying the cards to the spec to show they are all different, which indeed they are. However you have to be careful as a bit of reaccurance can occur as you step through the deck displaying random faces. This can also occurs later on when a spectator deals through the cards one by one depending on the size of their cut.

Overall
Yeah not bad for the money, I'll certainly give this a try out live & see what happens. 7/10
:) :) :) :) :) :) :)

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Johnny Bravo
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Postby Bundy » Jan 5th, '06, 09:10

In the effect description part you write the magician deals the cards on the table, one by one. When i use this trick i let the spectator deal them, as you write in your review part. That makes the trick stronger i think, because you never touch the cards during the trick.

Also what i like to do when you get out your notepad and pencil to draw the shape is to draw the outline of the card first, just a rectangle with rounded corners. I show this shape and say that i read their minds to see what their card was, and made a picture of the back to show them i was right. (ok, dumb little joke). So nobody is impressed, so then i say i'll try and also guess what the front looked like, then draw the correct symbol.

As an extra bonus i use a special notepad. The top paper (with the drawing on it) has a plastic coating, the one below is normal. (followed by a coated paper, a normal, coated, normal, etc...). So now i tell them that i not only can read their minds, but also control it. I take the top paper and give it to them, then take the second for myself. Now i tell them i will make them think that piece of paper is not paper, but metal. I tear up my paper to demonstrate it's only paper, but because they think it's metal they won't be able to tear up their piece of paper. And because of the plastic coating they can't no matter how hard they try ;)

Ok, that last part is not really a trick, but it gets funny responses.

But about the trick itself, nobody has guessed how it works yet. And because you never touch the cards during the trick and you can do this with your back turned to the spectators i think it's a really strong effect.

Bundy
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Posts: 101
Joined: Jul 19th, '05, 08:35
Location: Cuijk, The Netherlands (30:AH)


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