talkmagic.co.uk

David Blaine is planning to release a series of gimmicked decks made by Bicycle Card Co to the general public. Is this a good move for Blaine?

http://www.magictimes.com/archives/2010 ... tlight.htm

He's selling Svengali, stripper and marked decks by the looks of it. I think that's good for him and good for magicians - more young people will be inclined to learn but they will start with the basics, which is perfect.

I'm with Ted, this appears to be good news all the way around. So long as the Blaine name alone doesn't sky rocket the price.

Because USPCC is making the cards rather than some guy on the aftermarket, buyers should end up with well made decks. Short cards that are all cut the same length and have properly rounded corners.

If the Blaine Stripper decks are anything like that last set of Strippers that USPCC made then they will be of good quality as well. I like that the strip is subtle.

I'm not a fan of Juice marking but like the idea of using the Boris Wild placement.

For the end user, these will likely beat the hell outta pitch decks.

This will be great, unless he does another special and advertises them to millions of people. The best place to start is with regular cards, patience and practice. Most people buying these will assume all tricks are done via gimmicked decks., and likely not put in the effort to become elegant and entertaining.

Appaerntly he is planning a tour next year

Fair play to him. I hope it gets new people involved in magic.

"The cards come in Red, Blue and Black backs, one for each product so they can be differentiated."

Hmmm, so what happens when someone says;

"Show me that one where it comes back to the top all the time."..."Sure, hang on let me swap this blue deck for my red deck."

I know they're for beginners but it's a bit of a give away having them in different colours.

russpie wrote:Hmmm, so what happens when someone says;

"Show me that one where it comes back to the top all the time."..."Sure, hang on let me swap this blue deck for my red deck."

At that stage they'll start learning a very important lesson, which is that they need to be in control but entertain - while being able to say, "no" sometimes.

It can't be a bad thing, having a big name attached to a product like that would be a great way to attract more people into magic.

Hopefully it means he'll do more magic and less stunts as well. As I had one of the Paul Daniels magic sets to begin with it isn't really any different from that. Well known magician making props available to the public.

I disgagree that this is a good move. Not only is it simply repackaging an old effect and sticking 'Blaine' on it, it will make people believe that magic is simply about using a gimmick deck and some instructions, if these get popular.

As someone said above, the best place to stat is with a regular deck and a book. Infinitely more versatile than any gimmick deck, even the stripper which some people may recongnise if they bought magic kits as a kid.

This might make more people more interested in magic, but it's doing it the wrong way.

The magic available to the public is normally shrugged off as "not how they do it", so I'm not worried in the slightest!

As ive said elsewhere...
I have an issue with the marked deck.
there are a couple of cheep marked decks out there, that dont infringe on methods we use.

we must remember that the fact that something was given away many years ago, doesn't excuse something else being given away, today.

I don't think that it really matters if lots of people do buy this, as someone said, it's not really all that different to the old Paul Daniels sets.

People don't really associate these sorts of tricks with what 'real' magicians do. I've had a joking conversation with a spec about some silly fake thumb that was in her kids magic set, I mean how's that ever going to fool anyone. That was about 10 seconds before vanishing a silk, guess what method I used?

people know about marked decks, they dont know how they are marked - but lets be honest here, everything is available, usually for free too...

but as for any kind of exposure led view, we can pop onto online magic shops and see the swami very clearly photographed and exposed...

i dont agree with it, but its there...

i think having blaine's name attributed to decks, and his obvious love of magic (lets be honest, it cant really be for money doing this, but his brand - he's got more money than he can spend as it is) - i think he can do a lot of good with these decks...