talkmagic.co.uk

I use bridge size because that is the size that is sold in every garage and corner shop in Ireland. If someone hands me poker size I can still do stuff. Use whatever is at hand and feels comfortable to you. Only snobs insist on poker bicycles.

I know some performers who go for poker bicycles in odd colour combinations - the green is particularly vile, and the reverse colours (like a photographic negative) is as bad.

Your audience does not have these cards, so why should you?

If you really want to look like a somebody who can do magic and not some magician. I suggest you head down to the local drug store and pick a pack of those generic brand cards. The kind that everybody has on them. This will not only (hopefully) disarm the idea of you using a trick deck, but they will also be cheaper and easier to get ahold of.

I know a few pro's who INSIST on Bikes because of this or that reason, but the fact remains that your normal person out there knows that most cards that are Bike cards, can be a trick deck even if they aren't. They also know for fact that there aren't any gimmick or trick decks made from the cheap decks you can get at drug stores.

Randy wrote:They also know for fact that there aren't any gimmick or trick decks made from the cheap decks you can get at drug stores.

That couldn't be further from the truth. I would wager that the majority of laymen who know of gimmicked decks do so because of cheap kits that they had as children.

I've never understood why somebody would learn with one size cards only to perform with another? Why relearn everything? Go with what you are comfortable with. I've always gone poker size, just more popular here.

I too have used the my hands are not right for that move. Its a pretty poor excuse but sounds good in my head when I get fustrated. Then I watch Rene Levand perform and he only he has one hand. All the excuses just go out the window as you realize magic is only limited by your own mind. If the existing method doesn't work for you, then find/create/alter one that does.

If you are a billiard player however things are different. Practice on a 9 foot regulation table and then go to the local pubs and play on the smaller pub tables, you will make a killing, just remember that the bands on the pub table are probably dead so it takes time to get used too...sorry off topic.

Randy wrote:If you really want to look like a somebody who can do magic and not some magician. I suggest you head down to the local drug store and pick a pack of those generic brand cards. The kind that everybody has on them. This will not only (hopefully) disarm the idea of you using a trick deck, but they will also be cheaper and easier to get ahold of.

I know a few pro's who INSIST on Bikes because of this or that reason, but the fact remains that your normal person out there knows that most cards that are Bike cards, can be a trick deck even if they aren't. They also know for fact that there aren't any gimmick or trick decks made from the cheap decks you can get at drug stores.

And I know for a fact that a good performer rules out the possiblity of gimmicks at the onset of the performance through presentation. And the use of gimmicks never enter the spectators head. And that is the difference between an accomplished performer who knows the craft and well, the rest of the pack.

Using 50p packs from corner shops is the worst, they don't spread right, they feel horrible, the only thing they're great for is culling because they're as rough as a robber's dog. Great substitute for sandpaper or wet leather, not so good for magic. Anyway, I've never had anyone accuse me of using a trick deck when I bring out a set of Bikes. There's things you can do to rule that out (all of which are tiny unconscious convincers for the spectator to remember during their later attempts at rationalization, rather than the wonderful "check the pack, make sure it's not a trick deck", which - rather than appeasing an audience as you think it might - actually puts more heat on you than if you were to perform your trick on the surface of the sun).

I use Bikes, because then - if I have to use narrower cards - everything feels so much easier. Except backpalming, but I never do that anyway.