talkmagic.co.uk

So I'm not really new to magic but I am new to forums. I'm not allowed in the area yet that talks about secrets so please let me know if I am revealing too much. I've been thinking a lot about effects that involve more elemental stuff and by that I mean like Ice, Fire, etc... Anyways one of those involves something essentially identical to an omni deck, but made out of ice instead of plastic. Does anyone know a good way to approach making one? I figure I'd make some kind of ice tray but any tips or suggestions would be great!

Making something out of ice could be problematic. For one, it won't look right from the sides so angles will be a real problem.

Second, you'd have to keep it cool until you needed to switch it with the deck, because if you have it stashed in a pocket it will melt pretty fast and look like you have wet yourself (not a good look for a magician!)
Ice melts very quickly at room temperature, and even quicker at body temperature so having it in your pocket or something would mean you'd need to do the trick VERY quickly.

I'd first think of a way to store it so it could be cool until needed. If you were in a closeup situation, Im not sure it could be done very effectively. If you were at a table or on a stage, then you could get a little cooler bag for it and hide it somewhere within easy reach.

To make one though, get some small pieces of rigid plastic, cut them so they match the size of the sides and bottom of a deck, wrap them in cling film and fill with water. Turn your freezer up high, if I remember right, the quicker water is frozen it retains more air, so it becomes less see-through.

Thats my take on it, if you really want to do it those are the hurdles I would foresee.

Plus people would notice when it went in thier hands, so you would need a alternative handling.

Chris Tennant

Chris Tennant wrote:Plus people would notice when it went in thier hands, so you would need a alternative handling.

That too!

And likely they'd even notice it in the performer's hands, because they will be wet.

Its an imaginative concept, but I dont think its practical. There are other things you could do with ice. Freeze a card into some ice (again, providing you have the means to keep it cool) and use it as a reveal from a force or something? Like, bring out the cool-bag or whatever and their card is frozen into a block of ice, that would be a kicker.

I like the thought behind it, but can't see how the omni deck could be workable.

Matthius88 wrote:Making something out of ice could be problematic. For one, it won't look right from the sides so angles will be a real problem.

Second, you'd have to keep it cool until you needed to switch it with the deck, because if you have it stashed in a pocket it will melt pretty fast and look like you have wet yourself (not a good look for a magician!)
Ice melts very quickly at room temperature, and even quicker at body temperature so having it in your pocket or something would mean you'd need to do the trick VERY quickly.

I'd first think of a way to store it so it could be cool until needed. If you were in a closeup situation, Im not sure it could be done very effectively. If you were at a table or on a stage, then you could get a little cooler bag for it and hide it somewhere within easy reach.

To make one though, get some small pieces of rigid plastic, cut them so they match the size of the sides and bottom of a deck, wrap them in cling film and fill with water. Turn your freezer up high, if I remember right, the quicker water is frozen it retains more air, so it becomes less see-through.

Thats my take on it, if you really want to do it those are the hurdles I would foresee.

Well to make it look a little more authentic from the sides I figure I could just rough it up a bit with some sand paper and make some lines with a knife. In terms of storing it I was thinking of making a little pouch and lining it with some dry ice to keep it from melting. And in terms of the handling I wouldn't be using someone's hand. Most likely a nearby counter or table. Possibly the ground if I were outside and there wasn't anything else around. It does seem like a lot of work for one trick but I have pretty easy access to and a lot of experience with dry ice.

cgaafary wrote:Well to make it look a little more authentic from the sides I figure I could just rough it up a bit with some sand paper and make some lines with a knife. In terms of storing it I was thinking of making a little pouch and lining it with some dry ice to keep it from melting. And in terms of the handling I wouldn't be using someone's hand. Most likely a nearby counter or table. Possibly the ground if I were outside and there wasn't anything else around. It does seem like a lot of work for one trick but I have pretty easy access to and a lot of experience with dry ice.

Ah, then that makes it alot easier if you can get dry ice easily and now how to work with it.

Sawing out the edges with a knife to make it look better might work, Im not really sure on how it would look without trying it. Its worth trying for sure if you have easy acces to what you would need for it, just to see what the results would be. Dry ice is pretty white and, obviously doesn't have that shiny wet look that regular ice has. Maybe just take a block of dry ice and carve it down to the size of a deck, add small grooves with a knife?

Im intrigued now. If you do a bit of an experiment with it, let me know, I'd love to see how it turns out.

It seems like a hell of a lot of hassle for something that only lasts a second or two, you can make a regular omni cold (Frozen, Adam Glass is a idea), or uses a white spray from a long distance on one, if it has a literal dusting of it, then you can make it appear like a frozen block http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?catId=&categoryId=&section=&pIndex=1&aId=4400036a&start=2, I work for Games Workshop anyway so I know this works, you want the Ice Sheet which is second from bottom. Using Frozens technique for speed, or a classic freezer will make it cold, then just tell people its ice.

Chris Tennant

I've just always disliked the omni deck trick. I mean don't get me wrong, I always get a great response from it and i've never once been caught out on it. The audience I usually perform for aren't so much the type that can just appreciate a magic trick for what it is. They really don't like not understanding how things work and that makes it even more fun to fool them. I'm currently a medical student so most of my audience are other medical students.

I'm not really aiming to perform the omni deck trick. I guess I should give a better idea of where I'm trying to go with this so let me know what you think. In a nutshell, I'd have the spectator choose a card and then rip off a corner to make the card easily identifiable later. The spectator would keep the corner and the card would be shuffled back into the deck. The deck is placed on a table or the ground and covered with a napkin. Meanwhile I'd be giving some sort of explanation of a phenomenon or some other sort of patter that is relevant to ice or cold or whatever. I figure there might be some dry ice stuck to the deck (not sure but we'll find out) so hopefully blowing some hot breath through the napkin could show some frost. Anyways the top card and the napkin are removed and a frozen block of ice is revealed in place of the deck with the spectators card frozen in the middle of it. At this point the block of ice and the card inside can be fully examined. Also the corner piece that the spectator tore off at the beginning fits perfectly.

So thats just the concept of the trick. I know it seems like a lot of work, but I think once I have a mold, I can setup a few blocks and just store them in the freezer for whenever. Any comments/suggestions would be great.

Sorry to be a party pooper but dry ice is quite dangerous if you handle it without gloves.

I'm not really worried. I've handled dry ice a lot. It shouldn't be making any contact with my skin anyways. Its mostly just a way to keep the ice from melting. I thought maybe have an insulated pouch in an inside coat pocket that has a little dry ice at the bottom of it. The ice block would rest on top of that. I may end up scrapping the idea of keeping the block on my person while performing the trick and just have a different way of presenting it. But I'd like to at least see how the dry ice plays out.

Why not just give a standard Omni deck a bit of a frosted coating to create the illusion of ice if thats what you really want. You can get frosting sprays from places like Hobbycraft.

Mark

Well I'm more interested in the idea of having the spectators card inside of the block. And that they'd be able to break the ice to match the corner to the card inside.

I created a routine exactly as that sounds for a TV project I did for ITV in 2008

Interesting! Breaking into a block of ice to release a previously chosen and destroyed card which matches the card corner held by the spec all along is something which Mark is rather familiar with... just add two rather attractive twins and a bit of fire....

... and about 3 weeks worth of actually making the ice block!!

Somehow I think our OP may know thats something ive done though.... hmm