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Ok so im at the bar.. armed with a 2 Dollar window and a Svengali Deck (bicycle blue)...

so I do about 5 or 6 tricks with some people at the table... i show them the cards are all different... this, that, and the other thing... but for whatever reason everyone wants to "see" my cards!! Im wondering what you guys do to prevent them from even asking to see your stuff... the only thing else i can really think of is putting a legit bicycle blue deck in my pocket and switching them out... what are your thoughts?

Work at every little aspect of your performance which may, either consciously or subconsciously, be saying that something is amiss with the cards. Kenton's Secrets of Indirection is a great place to seek some help on this matter.

use a regulardeck before hand.. do a few tricks with this.. have theinspect the cards first anyway.. then switch to coins or something.. when you bring out your svengali.. people wont ask nada.

other than that.. just dont draw attention to the fact that ''all the cards are different'' just show them that they are without sain it, if you know what i mean

tell em to f*** off LOL

nah, i stick with what ID just said.... don't give em any reason to suspect somethings amiss

I concour with the above two post. Dont give it any "Heres an ordernary deck of cards" look at this perfectly normal coin. And handle everything naturaly take the cards like they are normal.

Yeah, starting off with an ungimmicked deck get's people into a false sense of security. The only problem is, if someone actually realises the second deck is a trick, you lose credibility...

so dont let them realise the second deck is a trick

The spectaotors should be thinking you are taking out the same deck, it shouldnt come across as a different deck

Why not use an ordinary deck in the first place ??

I can easily do 3 hours with an ordinary deck, but most people are fed up after half an hour anyway !!

So use an ordinary deck, let them look at them, shuffle them if they want, then do your magic. That way, you won't have a problem.

It is very interesting. When I started in card magic (I did general magic already as a child) people would frequently ask me to see the cards or ask if they can shuffle the cards etc. Now when I perform I very rarely have people ask this type of questions. People, still ask a lot of questions but they are usually always the pleasent type of questions about "how this is posible" or they might ask me to repeat the effect.

Often I am walking around with an 8-king stack or some other setup but they just very very rarely ask to shuffle the cards. I suppose it has to do with "flow".

If your magic "flow" in a light, entertaining and easy going way, it is as unlikely they ask to examine the cards as that someone will burp in a music concernt!!

It is all about "sense" of situation! If the spectators are captivated, and feel they are in "professional hands" they will usually not be "difficult". And even when they are a bit difficult it is usually good humored and they are easy to bring on board.

One line that works well for me (for difficult, but friendly spectators) goes something like:

"Aha, you have a very rational attitude! Probably this effect will work better if you kind of suspend your analytic mind"

Sometimes I also tell - on the off beat - that doing magic is very interesting because it teaches a lot about people. Some peope have a very analytic mind.... some people just enjoy.... Some people are a bit difficult (gesturing towards the difficult spectator). Depending on the situation I explain about various types of spectator and people is generally seem to like this "presentational plot". It involves the spectators on many different levels and I find that the spectators in general become very positive and enjoy the magic. Also they (virtually) never ask if they can shuffle the cards or similar kind of questions.

I am trying to remember when it last happened. I think it happened about a year ago when I performed in a wedding. I had just separated all red cards from all black cards and made a perfect faro (maybe adjusting one or two cards) so all card were alternating and red/black. While I casually "shuffled" the cards (I spend the last 20-30sec on the setup) I remember a spectaor asked if he could shuffle the pack!! I remember, that I just used an out I use for this type of situation:

" Oh actually I have placed a few cards in certain psycological positions".

Then I went on and explained that the next effect is about psycology (well all effects involves psycology).
This worked and I just continued and the spectators were as amased/amused as ever when I performed Lennert Greens Dragons
pearl (minus the last part that requires the full 8-king setup).

Hope this help...

Soren Riis makes a very good point. As your confidence improves, you will find that people ask you to see your props less often. Untill then, here is my top tip. Put another blue back pack in your pocket. When you are finishing up your routine, someone asks you to see the deck, drop the Svengali into the pocket and say something along the lines of 'Why, don't you trust me?' or something, then just say 'Ahh go on so' and pull the real deck out of your pocket and pass it to them. People wont expect you to have another deck in your pocket.

I'm always supprised how rarely a spec will ask to see my cards, I think I've only ever had it once or twice. But I always try to make sure that me routine finishes with a clean deck, that way if they do was to have a butchers then it's not a problem.

My strategy usually is:

- My first card tricks are always with a regular deck. I bring the cards out and toss them to a spectator while saying "Please shuffle them for me" and casually go on chatting with other spectators.

- After a while, I already have the audience assessed and know who is less likely to get curious about the cards. I do some kind of transpo trick and have the card placed face down on the palm of a spectator. If my guesses are right, that spectator won't try to see the face of the card untill I tell him to do so.

- When I feel that I have them under control, I casually switch decks. This can be accomplished by: putting the regular deck in your pocket, do some other tricks and then bring out the gaffed deck; with the deck in your hand, search your pockets for a pen (both hands go into both pockets, like you don't know in which pocket the pen is) and do the switch; etc...

- I treat the gaffed deck as a regular deck. I ask people to hold it for me for a while, I play with it, I throw a couple of false shuffles and cuts... You name it. The audience won't suspect a thing.

- I then usually link a gaffed deck trick with a regular deck trick - people won't ask to see the cards untill they think the trick is over. So although the gaffed deck trick is over, I link it to an imediate regular deck trick by casually switching the cards again. At the end of the second trick (which the audience believes to be the end of a single trick), I toss the deck into someone's hands or to a table. If people want to inspect the cards, they will. I never tell them "oh, and you can examine the whole thing!".

Personally i think it comes with experiance. I think when you start to show people tricks for the first 6 or so months you fumble a lot and you say things (without reliasing) that makes you sound or look dodgy so to speak so they ask to see the cards. Once your more experianced and confident you dont show any guilty looks or moves so they think everything is normal like it is supposed to be. Also i think when you start if you are doing a card trick you feel like you need to hide something so you sort of make the cards out of the way or put your hand over them to cover them, but once you make the moves feel natural like there supposed to happen you suddenly stop feeling guilty and you become more adventurous and you just leave the cards anywhere like on the table in front of them so if you dont care about the cards neither will the spectators thats just my opinion on it.

Guilt can really give the game away. Magicians guilt I have heard it referred to. As long as performed smoothly, until you start looking like you are covering things up, only you know you are doing something dodgy...that is the whole point, forget about it. As said in above posts act naturally and noone will suspect a thing. Like with sleights, don't think..."ok, now I do the x/y/z move", just get on with it. Above all, be able to do it without looking before you even attempt it in front of people. The same goes for switching things out.

The bits about using regular decks first of all and having them well handled by the specs I wholeheartedly agree with.

Sometimes I dont even fill the gap between with a non card effect, merely going to put the deck away with a comment along the lines of "thank you for watching", and then in the HUGE offbeat created raise my eyebrows and smile saying "oh, hang one, you'll like this one....".
I forgot something, that is all.
The deck hardly seems to go into the pocket at all, dissappearing for a fraction of a second and surprisingly with the boldness of it goes completely unnoticed. All I did in their eyes was to remember an effect that I was going to show them.

A few years back I may not have got away with this, as the guilty look would have been glaringly obvious in my eyes, however, now I really believe it is the same deck coming out of my pocket and so do they.

Hope this helps

Easiest option is to use a clean deck. Surely there are enough tricks with clean decks to fill any number of routines without ever having to resort to gimmicked decks?

I never use gimmicked decks and this is the reason why. There is nothing more embaressing or unprofessional than to be found to be using a "funny deck". The specs look at you like you're a con-man and a cheat. Now obviously this is what all magicians actually are, but you know how the mind of a spec is - they're easily confused, but also easily offended.