talkmagic.co.uk

Which do you guys feel is the easier to use? Or the better constructed? Or least noticable gimmick?

Lol I love my poll options.

Well they both do completely different things. I would say get both. If you just get one, your curiosity will cause you to get the other anyway. So get both. However, if both is not an option, get the stripper deck. In my opinion it is better if you are starting out. The svegali is great but I think if you are a beginner the stripper would be best.

svengali does one thing well, strippers do anything you pay them to do... erm sorry wrong thing... striper decks do several things well.

a stripper deck will pass inspection by all but the most die hard scrutineer weras a sven deck will give up its secret in a heart beat.

go for a strpper deck and you will be able to do the thing a sven does and more.

Will magicians ever get tired of stripper jokes?

I love Svengali, Strippers smell funky

If Tomo reads that your in for it!

But seriously you can't say one is better than the other (although Tomo and Mark Lewis might disagree about that). It comes down to personal choice really

Smell funky? It's only baby oil!

You can, in fact, construct your own programmable Svengali-like forcing deck from a combination of a stripper deck and normal cards that will pass a face-up inspection depending on how much thought you put into it. That means you can expand the range of force cards to groups of cards, or values, or colours, suits and so on. You can have the whole deck force your choice or just a portion, such as the middle for "cut the deck in the middle" type duties. I have a couple set up that, no matter how hard the spec tries, she always cuts to a red card in one, and a black card in the other. And yet she can spread both face up and see that they're shuffled, which is nice.

I like the idea of the forcing deck, Tomo. I'd never thought of using a stripper in that way before.

Lady of Mystery wrote:I like the idea of the forcing deck, Tomo. I'd never thought of using a stripper in that way before.

Full details in chapter 8 of m'lovely book

Lady of Mystery wrote:I like the idea of the forcing deck, Tomo. I'd never thought of using a stripper in that way before.

you dont necessarily NEED to force a cad with the stripper deck, its such a free choice, PLUS using a basic overhand shuffle, you can 'ambitious' the card to the top with minimal effort, stripper deck all the way, baby!

true but there are times when a force card is preferable like if you happen to have that card sewn onto a three foot banner you just happen to have rolled up near you.

the great thing about a stripped force is that you can shuffle as much as you like, cut the card to the middle yet still offer them the choice of looking at the card cut to or taking the top card after the cut which you will agree feels like the fairest possible force you can get.

Svengali's are great, but you can't really hand them out, whereas with the stripper, no one really notices anything is different.... I'd go for a stripper any day!

In the UK both decks are regularly available in The Works and other cheapo bookshops and pound shops. I do magic and kids come up to me with the decks and do card tricks. I do the same trick with a normal deck and they go away thinking I'm a real magician.

I would never, ever, use either deck, They are tools of children and amateurs. They appear in almost every beginners magic set.

Purely my opinion, and others will disagree, but I wouldn't go any where near either.

Tenko wrote:In the UK both decks are regularly available in The Works and other cheapo bookshops and pound shops. I do magic and kids come up to me with the decks and do card tricks. I do the same trick with a normal deck and they go away thinking I'm a real magician.

I would never, ever, use either deck, They are tools of children and amateurs. They appear in almost every beginners magic set.

Purely my opinion, and others will disagree, but I wouldn't go any where near either.

That's all absolutely true, Tenko.

There's a major difference between what they see as the decks the magician uses and what they know are their trick decks, that's for sure!

I loved the jokes and input.

Yes, I guess the decks are a bit childish, Tenko. But tools are tools and why not use them to astound people? Everything goes completely over spectator's heads so why should I be worried?

Looks like the Stripper Deck came away with a victory!

Thanks, everyone.