talkmagic.co.uk

I must know how! Is it on the forum?

hmm I can't seem to get on anymore what's going on?

Mmm I'm not sure about this deck, just to add a word of caution to this topic.
I primarily bought it 'cos the spectator can shuffle it. However...

I can do a fair tabled or mid air riffle, not perfect ie every card but perfectly acceptable. However on this deck the shuffle goes wrong sometimes & cards come out of order. And this is me doing it.

If I give it to a spec who can't riffle there likely to make a real mess out of it & if they can riffle then it's still not 100% gonna work & also if they can riffle well chances are they have a feel for cards & might feel something odd...

Also due to the nature of the deck it's a pain to fix things back together without the crib sheet to hand.

I know I can get around this by just riffling the deck myself in front of spec but that takes away the dynamic of the spec shuffling, the reason I bought it & also allows for cocks ups on my behalf.

Anyone want, it's been "completed", is almost as new & comes with DVD. £14 inc postage. (UK only)

chap - sorry to hear that you are having problems with the shuffling thang!

riffle shuffling the cards (like any 'similar' product) should work fine! one thing you can do to minimise any potential problems is tap the two halves of the pack on a table (or your leg) BEFORE you riffle them together... that helps 'settle' things down if you knowwhatimean!

if you want to register at the dedicated Rama forum there are lots of hints and tips about handling... http://www.spocmagic.com/phpBB/

i hope some of that helps dude...

Cheers Ozman

I'm gonna spend a couple of hours tomorrow evening, rewatching the DVD & picking a routine & learning it properly. I'll see how it goes.
Before I do that though I have to put the cards back in order

this does sound like a very neat deck, i personally don't like using gaffed cards but if it can do what people are saying it can do it must be good, i was just wondering if ot os obvious to other magicians that it's a gaffed deck, i.e if a magician, like me, had never seen the deck would they know it is gaffed?

i (along with many, many magis) watched henry evans demoing a number of tricks at blackpool last year. everyone was totally shellshocked. we just couldn't figure how he was doing it... of course, once you bought the tricks it seemed completely obvious! hehe!

he used some similar principles to the rama deck with some of his effects...

don't know if that answers the question dude...

wahey!

yeah that's cool, cheers mate, p.s congrats on a successful trick.

watched henry evans demoing a number of tricks at blackpool last year

As a matter of interest then, I presume he got magician type folks to shuffle the deck, did anyone twig at that point? Hard to tell as I'm sure magi won't grass up fellow magi but wondering if a layman who can do a riffle may feel the differance?

honestly - NOONE watching twigged!! and he was asking various members of the crowd to shuffle and handle the deck. it was incredible.

this is part of what spurred me on in the creation of the rama. i (like a lot of magi) had pretty much discounted the use of gimmicked decks as a bit 'amateurish'. watching henry evans reminded me that it is the EFFECT that matters. and if a whole host of magicians couldn't spot the gaff (and i hung out round monsieur's evans stall for almost 2 complete days - HA!), i think it'll be pretty rare for laypeeps to.

there are quite a lot of 'conditioning' moves you can make. for instance, if you don't trust your layperson to shuffle correctly, just do a riffle shuffle and don't push the cards flush. then ribbon spread them on the table and point out just how fairly they are mixed. then ask your spectator to push the interlinked cards together. tell them to remember this moment - THEY are pushing these cards together.

and, of course, with the rama you have a MASSIVE advantage. you can turn the deck FACEUP and ribbonspread it on the table, or run through the cards in your hands and SHOW that they are totally, randomly mixed up!!

use that to your advantage. on the dvd we show 3 or 4 ways of mixing the cards. riffle shuffling is only one of them. the fact that you can combine any 'mixing' with a totally fair, faceup examination means you can convince anyone of almost anything. hehe! if they are suspcious, let them look at the cards. you have nothing to hide.

you CAN overhand shuffle the deck with a bit of practise...

the thing is - make the mixing of the cards almost incidental. henry evans was a master at 'focusing' you in on the climax of the effect. the shuffling of the deck was a 'given'. it was done so matter-of-factly that you didn't even think that he was controlling anything. the simple matter of allowing the spectators to handle and mix the cards was enough to discount the thought of foulplay! once you KNOW what the gaff is, you start thinking that it is obvious. IT ISN'T! i promise you. if you signpost it, then people may get suspicious. but play it cool - and they will not twig!!!

Just got mine yesterday and I am already working out the many different ways to use the deck. You can do a two deck routine with a Brainwave in addition to the many other examples you get with the deck. It is great for endless mentalism effects. My only worry is letting a spectator riffle shuffle, as most people are not too good at it. Cuts are fine, but riffles may be risky.

DrTodd - really glad you are digging it mate!

i know there is some apprehension about letting the audience riffle shuffle... here's one solution that works well (if you are at a table)...

YOU cut and riffle shuffle the deck, but leave the two halves interlinked and not squared up. you ribbon spread the deck SHOWING that the cards are all randomly interspersed. then you ask your spectator to push the cards flush.

this is a henry evans idea and it's a real winner. THEY push the cards together and it's essentially the same as them shuffling them (in their minds at least). hehe!

hope that is of some use!

oh - and look what that lovely man Paul Zenon said about the Rama Deck:

" I get a bit tired of listening to card 'purists' talking out of their Ascanio Spread about there being no need to use gaffed decks; that's like saying that if you can paint, you don't need a camera. This is an ingenious and versatile combination of principles - a must-have for any jobbing magician."

he's such a dude!

Great suggestion! Here is another weird problem: my girlfriend cuts cards really gently and somehow cut the deck so that it did not always do what it is supposed to do (circumlocution is fun!).....any ideas?!??!!!

ok... you can usually 'see' when an error like this occurs...

solution 1 - when you 'see' a problem, simply ask them to cut again

solution 2 - tap the deck on the table BEFORE you ask them to cut. that tends to make everything sit where it's supposed to!

if a particular spectator gives you probs, i suggest you just use the aformentioned 'riffle and slowly push flush' technique.

(also - the more you use the cards the less likely they are to stick together - if you know what i mean! hehe!)

DrTodd - you can also get some good advice about these kinda things over at http://www.spocmagic.com/phpBB/ )

WAHEY!

Fab! I am performing this tomorrow night, so I will use these different solutions