talkmagic.co.uk

Aggghhhh! It's the....

sorry, not the Bammo Monster Monte

That's right; it's a Tiger Svengali Deck!


The Effect
Same as a normal svengali deck -- the remembered card, appears on a window; is torn and restored; is found wherever the magi cuts the deck; comes always on top of the deck ala Ambitious; moves from one packet to another; is written on a prediction paper; found inside the lemon on a table; brought home by pizza delivery guy; etc. With more imaginative mind the effects are countless.

Cost
$7.95 from Ellusionist

Difficulty
1

Review
It plays just like an ordinary svengali deck. The only problem with this particular deck is that, when used frequently, the edges start to feather and become whitened the parts of which needs to be then blackened with a sharpie. I seemed to have used an old marker and the edges now "stick" to my fingers, such was the case with blackened Tiger Deck -- with this svengali of the same colour, however, it's much easier and smoother to handle than a normal deck because of the L&S principle. Nonetheless, it takes a bit of time for me to get used to the ink-layered cards.

I recommend coming up with a long (but not tidious) and exciting routine with this one.

Overall
I'm now a proud of the second svengali deck. I used to consider tiger decks of much higher quality than normal bikes, but now since the readiness to "go white" is so strong that now I'm determined to used this deck for practice instead of the other svengali (normal red bike). When the edges get white I just have to blacken them again with a sharpie, which I can't do during the performance (if there's ever one...hehe)

Question
I was wondering, does the deck's colour being black really reduce the spectators' suspicion? Some say, like Jin Hiviki who seems to adore tiger decks, that "When I produce a tiger deck, the specs always say it isn't a trick deck"; some on the other hand say that spectators will always assume that whenever they see a black deck (more of a novelty colour for bike decks), there's something fishy about it.

In the light of Japanese magic scene, there started to be a voice against this black decks. A cardician I know once said of this deck; "I bought them but haven't even cut the seals yet. They used to be rare items for me, but now I'm reluctant to use them -- hard to use them in fact."

Another thing is that even the famous online forum in Japan called "2ch", which attracted more than three hundred posts regarding Tiger Decks, began to have negative comments about using them.

So I'm asking you folks in this forum -- do you think specs will assume that, on seeing one of these tiger decks, there's a gimmick? has anyone had an experience in which a spec gave a shout, "Yo lemme look at that weird cards!"? or, has there ever been a spectator who said "Wow...cool" and stopped there (i.e. didn't go ahead and grab the deck)? My sister who's very sharp on sixth sense (she is!), but who doesn't like magic tricks much, said of a normal tiger deck I bought; "cool!".

Maybe it's the way I present it. Handled sloppy, even the normal svengali is suspicious.... so I'm now learning how to make this deck look normal, but do you think that the fact that this deck is black adds something indeed 'fishy'?

I have a friend who uses black tiger decks (although I dont think he has a svengali) - He always finds that people suspect the deck, and I must admit- I would too. Mind- I'd suspect anything with a bike on it really, but something visually odd always looks like a trick.

I've found the best way to use such decks is to incorporate a single card into some kind of colour change routine. You could of course do a deck switch and then go on to do some svengali magic- that might work quite nice I guess.

I bought a pack of cards from the Gadget Shop in Hull a few weeks ago cos I'm a sucker for gadgets

The cards are called the ID but not as magicians know it. They are plastic and see through (Oooo, I bet that woke a few up !! The cards, not clothing )

In a rash moment I thought of all the card tricks I could do with a pack of clear cards but in reality, I'll only use them to play cards with the kids when we go away in the caravan.

WHY, cos the deck looks fake It isn't, but that isn't the point, it looks it.

If I took a pack of see through cards, or tiger blacks or any other fancy coloured pack in my local pub, they'd all walk off cos they had decided it was a fake deck before I even did anything.

If they don't have what they are used to, playing their game of cards in the corner, summats up with the deck

Its blooming hard work getting away with Bikes never mind anything fancy Much as I'd love to get a pack of Tigers to go with my invisible plastic deck, I know they'd never see real magic action Still, I might have to get a pack, just so I have them

I agree. The novelty of funny looking decks takes the focus away from the magic. I am in the states, and all we use is bikes (for the most part.) I won't buy anything else b/c if I do, people stop paying attention to the effect, and shift instead to the deck.