mark lewis wrote:There is too much visual card magic nowadays. I don't mind it but you can have too much of it. Just chewing gum for the eyes. Nothing to baffle the mind. The strongest kind of card trick has a cerebral quality to it rather than a visual quality. This one fills the void admirably.
I don't normally agree with him, but this is true. Visual magic has its place but to me, the "quick tricks" that are usually assosiated with that kind of magic are all "look at how awesome I am". Out of this world though is great because although the out of this universe video that was posted was a little long winded, your average out of this world can run as a good routine. It ticks all the boxes; classy, audience participation and great responce.
I did for a long time like the classic original version of this effect, but now looking back, I'm really not a fan of the whole picking a card out and moving it across to the mark the next set of dealt cards. I just think it ruins the flow of the routine. I think it's much better to just be able to let them deal the enitre deck. It also makes it all the more impresive too, to be able to show that they have managed to seperate the entire deck. I do like that with the classic version, if you do it a paticular version, that for the life of me I can't remember the name of, I saw it on one of Eugene Burgers dvds, that you can have them seperate the reds and blacks, but with the remaining cards, show that they are shuffled. I'm not knocking the classic version at all, I've seen it performed very nicely, but I would say that another small problem with the old version is that it's been youtubed quite a bit, so although you may not refer to your next trick as being out of this world (which I know and self respecting magicain wouldn't do), the whole seperating blacks from reds plot could remind a slightly interested person of a youtube reveal video they might have seen. Just a thought.
As for the version I'm most fond of at the moment, mine, I love it because mainly it's mine, but because it does use the entire deck, you can have show that they really have dealt out half black and half red by spreading the cards, and then after showing both the piles in their entirety, you put the piles back on top of eachother to complete the deck again, only to show that when they are spread out again, the cards have completely interlaced. This interlacing part I wouldn't usually incorporate as part of the effect, I would normally say something along the lines of, "well that's great, congratulations, but what good is a deck of half red and half black to me? I'll have to shuffle them again." This is where you reasemble the deck, "great, all shuffled. What, you don't believe me? Take a look." I spread the cards to show them interlaced. It's a nicely flowing routine and I do love that little kicker on the end. I know that it's probably not the greatest out of this world effect out there but I can see myself taking that to work with me for my forseable future.