talkmagic.co.uk

Sorry to come across as the ultimate newbie but here's the thing...

Having tried for so long to be a purist who only uses standard decks - never gimmicks - I now have a rising deck, an ID, a defaced deck, and a red rover deck. All are bicycle reds. Oh and a standard bicycle red deck.

I could easily carry them round (-ish!) and swap from one to another but what's the best way to make them easy to identify for me without spectators noticing anything. "Hey - why does that deck have I.D. scrawled on the side?".

Cue chorus of slapped foreheads at my ineptitude as a newbie but I really would appreciate any suggestions. Is there a subtle but simple way of identifying multiple decks that you people use?

I got one of those labels, the ones you get in offices, and just cut off about a bit and right in pencil "ID" or whatever it may be. I have specific pockets for each deck in performance so as I prepare I just take the label off and put it in the designated pocket.

I very very very rarely use gimmick decks, barely ever now but I always have my ID in my jacket pocket in case of mishaps.

You could have the rising deck in left jacket pocket, ID in right jacket pocket. I wouldn't use all of them in one performance.

I use small markings. Usually an ink dot in a certain place on the deck to know which it is. No1 will ever notice

I have a system of opening the box in a different way depending on what the cards are. My IDs have the seal sticker torn off on the inside of the flap, regular decks have the sticker cut through in a semi-circle shape and so on... Weird, but it works.

Is the labelling purely for your benefit before you perform? If so, you can just attach a Post-It note, or similar, to the box.

If you want to use multiple switches during one performance, it can certainly be done, but having too many decks (in my personal experience, you can have trouble with three), can cause problems. You won't have time to stop and peer at the boxes and put the wrong one back! (Usually)

What I sometimes do is mark the end of the box. For example, by scraping off part of one digit of the serial number, going over it with a white gel pen, or adding a little bit with blue/red ink. Just a small scratch or blob, enough that you can find it easily, but it won't mean anything to someone else.

Well i just just a 2H pencil (cause its light) and initial the inside of the flap its just a measure of double checking but i always know which pocket the decks are in before i use them...

you can do whatever as long as the audience doesnt see "GIMMICKED" written acrossed because most of these gaffed decks cant be handed out for inspection so anything subtle will work....

I write the name of each deck on the box, but the box always stays in my case and the cards go loose into whichever pocket they belong in!

Alternatively you can put a thin bit of paper around the box with the name of the effect on it, similar to when you first buy them

Thanks for all your suggestions. I've already started with different pockets and what I've also done (how ingenious of me?) is underlined in red the following letters on the box where it says RIDER BACK:

RIder back = RIsing card
rIder back = Invisible deck
riDEr back = DEfaced
RideR back = Red Rover

I did conser riDER BACK for that one as DER BACKwards is RED. A bit too clever maybe!

Anyway, I do wonder if I'm getting too gimmicky anyway. I used to be a real non-gimmick purist. Also I did the Rising Card effect on a couple of people today and they just kind of went "Yeah, right" and then followed it by Lightning Card from RRTCM using an ordinary deck and they were blown away. £14 well spent on the rising effect then!!

Following on from your point - with red decks, it tends to be quite easy.

The words BICYCLE & PLAYING CARDS make it rather easy. just take a red sharpie.

I know a lot of magicians tend to claim they don't use many gimmicked decks - I do sometimes use them, but I do have a rather substantial collection.

All you have to do, is colour in the corresponding letters.
Cheek to Cheek - biCyCle - C C
Omni Deck - bicyCLE playing cARds - CLEAR
ID - playIng carDs - ID

you get the idea. You cant see the letters coloured in, because red sharpie ink is exactly the same colour as a red deck of Bikes, but you should be able to remember what it says

I believe, that is a damn good solution.

Excellent ideas Tim (and Tom!) - thanks for sharing!

All good ideas I would say but perhaps a bit too much work (physical and memory). I used to write the abbreviation on the inside of the flap. That way you can open it to yourself you can see what the trick is. Recently though I got an idea from... I believe a Bill Malone tape, wherein he writes an abbreviation on the bar code of the box. With that done, no one would notice without looking for it and it is very easy for you to identify. This is what I use now and it's easy, effective and relatively hidden in plain sight.

Writing on the barcode works quite well too. During a performance it is best to remember which pocket things are in, obviously, but when you are digging them out of your case it can be handy to have a reminder.

TimEden wrote:Thanks for all your suggestions. I've already started with different pockets and what I've also done (how ingenious of me?) is underlined in red the following letters on the box where it says RIDER BACK:

RIder back = RIsing card
rIder back = Invisible deck
riDEr back = DEfaced
RideR back = Red Rover

I did conser riDER BACK for that one as DER BACKwards is RED. A bit too clever maybe!

Anyway, I do wonder if I'm getting too gimmicky anyway. I used to be a real non-gimmick purist. Also I did the Rising Card effect on a couple of people today and they just kind of went "Yeah, right" and then followed it by Lightning Card from RRTCM using an ordinary deck and they were blown away. £14 well spent on the rising effect then!!

Excellent marking system by the way. As for the last part consider this. You consider yourself a purist (a word I hate because using a gimmick does not make you any less a magician) and the best response you got was from and ungimmicked effect. Perhaps you are projecting more into your ungimmicked then gimmicked and the audience is is picking up on that. After all your audience does not know if something is gimmicked or not so how would that factor into the reaction unless you are projecting differently.

I use ungimmicked just because I am too lazy to carry around a bunch of props. I use Kundalini rising for a rising card and it absolutly gets a great reaction Kundalini is technically an ugimmicked deck. But I also used to get a great reaction from the Arne Card rise and you would be hard pressed to find a less gimmicked deck. Interestingly I like Kundalini better and the reaction I get is better. Of course Kundalini rising happens in the spectators hands. And now I sound like a commercial for Jeff McBride.

Thanks for the bits of praise on here for my marking of decks system. I'm so new to this that it genuinely means something to me.

Anyway gimmicked vs. ungimmicked:

The rising deck I have is so obviously mechanically driven that I suppose that's why my spectators were not so impressed. They didn't understand the mechanics exactly but at least understood that it was mechanically driven and that my other trick was all sleight of hand.

I understand about it not making you less of a magician but somehow it seems less effort.

Is it not the case that a spectator would be more impressed if you just picked up a random pack of cards (e.g. theirs) rather than presenting something like Pickard's "Defaced" in which you have to reveal a seemingly blank deck so that immediately they're thinking "Oh he's just bought one of those magic decks of cards"? Even if it *does* still require sleight of hand and is a visually attractive effect?

Just some musings...