talkmagic.co.uk

This morning I was sat with my daughter and we were watching Postman Pat. In this episode he was going to be a surprise magician at a party. During this I was surprised to see that when he was doing card magic he was using Bicycle Cards. It was great to see such attention to detail was taken in a programme where it would have gone un-noticed. It is a shame when programs that could do with a bit more authenticity fail on simple things and a childrens cartoon does not.

Some of my best cardwork was inspired by The Amazing Patini. I guess someone advised them on Patini's act who had some degree of interest in magic. Nice observation Nic.

Why do you have to use bicycles to be a magician? That's just snobbery. A card is a card. Any quality card with suffice.

I also noticed Pat using bicycles. Although in Postman Pat Special Delivery Service he tends to use a helicopter.

I thank you.

TonyB wrote:Why do you have to use bicycles to be a magician? That's just snobbery. A card is a card. Any quality card with suffice.

I was not saying that you have to use bicycle cards to be a magician, only a fool would say something along those lines. But Bicycle cards do have certain associations with magic and many magicians do use them.

However your statement does not hold up " A card is a card" if you hold that to be true your next statement must be incorrect "Any quality card with [sic] suffice" if a quality card is needed then any card is no use, so a card is not a card for the purpose of magic.

I would presume what you meant to say was any suitable quality card could be used.

It is an interesting question, why do so many people use Bicycle. I can only look at my experience. When I started practicing card magic they were recommended as a quality card that handled well. After using the I found I liked them and found them reasonably priced. I did try others but came up against a small problem. When I bought some effect many if not most came with gaffs for red or blue Bicycle cards.

Regards,

Nic

Postman Pat - The magician.

Part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3jTMGHg5kI
Part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmiFgBMDDXM

TonyB wrote:Why do you have to use bicycles to be a magician?

I cannot see anyone suggesting you have to use bikes to be a magician?

I see someone pointing out that someone in the production team is clearly a magician, or a friend of a magician.

I came across these completely by coincidence yesterday whilst having a bit of a nostalgic afternoon with Beth. We spent the afternoon looking up kids TV programmes from my childhood and posting hundreds of videos on facebook - massive coincidence to see the videos on here too!

Typical youtube magician - book arrives but the gig is the following afternoon, exposure of levitation secret and vanishing cabinet, last minute manufacture of props, fancy flourishes, 52 card pickup, the tricky biz done by the assistants – all good stuff!