talkmagic.co.uk

Near enough...they arrive Thursday morning

Basically, I will then have among others, The Svengali Deck, The Stripper Deck, "Lips" Card Trick as well as two ordinary sets one blue one red, all Bicycle design in a bid to mask switches.

I also have stuff like Penetration frame, Mirage Deck, etc.


I bought stripper deck as I want to gradually move away from gimmicked-up cards (gonna specialize in card magic I think) and I'm told not much people spot the way the stripper deck works.

Is there any words of advice on any of these tricks you have to offer? I plan on training myself up on "Lips" first. So is there any way of perfecting them as in your own personal touches to those tricks? Cheers in Advance.

Mark

With stripper and sven I would also buy the encyclopedia of card trick, it has chapters of tricks to do with these cards, and lots of tricks to do with non-gimmicked as well.
I would also say use a deck switch and you should be fine!

TheMaskedMagician wrote:
Is there any words of advice on any of these tricks you have to offer? I plan on training myself up on "Lips" first. So is there any way of perfecting them as in your own personal touches to those tricks? Cheers in Advance.

Mark

You can personalize all of the above. Unfortunatly I can't really tell you how as then you would be personalizing them for me rather then you. First learn the way they are laid out in the instructions. Then I would start changing the patter to your own style and in time and with ever gaining knowledge of the art you will make changes slowly, possibly unknowingly. It amazes me when a fellow magi asks me for help on an effect I've been doing for years. I go to help and realize mine really no longer resembles what is in the instructions.

I'm a bit confused (I might have misunderstood your post), but you already have a Mirage Deck, but you've ordered a Svengali Deck? Seems a bit of an odd way round, that's all.

'Lips' will take very little time to learn, at least in terms of mechanics. You need to think carefully about the presentation, and whether it suits you as a performer. Thinking about it, that's actually a great trick to really start working on your performing style.

You could do it very innocently. You could do it very obviously innocently (acting up). You could act surprised. You could be cheeky. You could be a bit of a comedy lech (but I'm guessing this really would not suit you).

As to the Stripper Deck, our very own Tomo is the expert (he's made a DVD on the subject, and written a book on it). The one thing I'd suggest is that you don't just do "pick a card, put it back, oh look, is this your card?". It's got no drama and makes the method obvious. A lot of people have seen Svengali and Stripper Decks, but handled correctly, you can get them past magicians.

On the subject of handling, Mark Lewis is probably the forum's expert on the Svengali deck and has a book called 'The Long and the Short of It' all about the deck.

If they're feeling generous, they might give you some tips.