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Hi can anybody point me in the right direction of information on practical methods on switching one deck for another. .Any books or DVD that would be worth looking at. I realise most of the time it is done at the end of trick but am looking for a method switching during the middle of a trick. Thanks Paul

Really it all boils down to misdirection. This comes with development of both visually leading your audience, as well as strong patter and presentation skills.

If you can lead your audience and get them to look exactly where you WANT - you can pull a hippo out of your back pocket, and no one will catch you.

On that note - here are some resources for misdirection/presentation/and switches

I know some of the Card College books deal with presentation and patter development -

#2 has a treasure trove of information on the subjects of misdirection, psychology, routining and presentation. Definitely a MUST HAVE.

#4 has a few chapters on card/packet/deck switches - so you can look there for more information.

Another book you'd probably find really helpful is Pocket Power. I can't recall the name of the author but this is one of a few books of this name that deal with misdirections, switches, ditches, steals and more. This might actually be the perfect start for you.

That's all I can come up with at this hour (it's late here, in the US). Hope these help.

Demitri has some good points there, and I'd like to add my own.

Sometimes you don't really need misdirection for deck switching, you can do it right under their noses. 'How?' I hear you ask...

Easy. Learn yourself a couple of packet tricks, non-gaffed ones preferably, so they use regular cards from the deck. For example, Elmsley's Twisters Flush uses 10, J, Q, K and A from a suit.

Take these cards from the deck, and then just put the rest of the deck in your pocket, saying something like 'We'll just get the rest of the deck out of the way for the moment.'

After the trick is done, and everyone is stunned with amazement, reach into your pocket where you dumped the deck, and pull out a different deck. Obviously they have to have the same design, but there you have it, a deck switch in full view!

You can also buy Deck Shells here:

http://www.ellusionist.com/order/Deck-Shell.htm

for switching decks.

Hope this helps,

I tend to do it exactly as mark just said. Perform a routine that only uses a small number of cards from the deck, then switch it afterwards on the premise of bringing the deck back into play!

~Sym~

I like the idea of performing a packet trick as a lead in......but remember to remove the "packet cards" lets say A-2-3-4 of Clubs for this example, from the deck you are switching to.......that way you can place the cards back in the pack in plain view, and it will leave you with a full deck, and no duplicate cards.

First of thank you for all your suggestions.. I would like to explain my reason for asking is for the last couple of days I have been thinking about a idea for a routine and it would require a deck switch in the middle of it. Before I go on I would like to point out that I’m not sure wither this is a original idea or one I have dredged up from the back of my brain that I have seen somebody perform or read about. If it is somebody else’s idea or a play on somebody else’s effect I would like to give them full credit.

Right so here’s the idea.

In a table hopping/close up situation: You get a spectator to select a card then get him to replace the card in the deck. He then gets to shuffle the pack pass it on to next person who again shuffles cuts the pack as he or she wants. This continues for a few people around the table. You then pass out the card box and get one of the people to replace the cards in the box. The cards then get passed around to you and you place them to you right in front of one of the spectators on top of upturned glass or in a empty wine glass. Telling that person that there job is to guard the cards not let anybody touch them including your self.. To help with this job you pin a sheriff badge on them and give them a small 3 / 4 inch cap gun. At this point you can use some humour to point out some of the people around the table that you think look dodgy or suspicious i.e. watch the guy with the beard or never trust a beautiful lady wearing red. You can play this up as much as you would like and gets some good interaction with the group going. You could also point out to the group beware of men with small guns but this would depend more on the audience type and how you would like to play it. At this point you move on and perform another effect. Somewhere during this effect you make sure our sheriff is still guarding the cards and his ready to shot anybody who tries to touch them.

At the end of this effect or even a few more you thank the audience for there time and casually reach to pick up the cards now at this point if you played it right the sheriff should end up firing the cap gun at you. When he dose that you look surprised and shocked as if his made a mistake and that he was guarding the cards for you not against you. At this point you recap what has gone on that a card was selected put back in the pack. The pack was shuffled passed around shuffled some more put in to the box then put on the glass and their one job was to guard the cards. All the time play down the fact that you ever touched the cards. And reinforcing the fact half the group had touched them.

At this point pick up the card box looking directly at your sheriff state “Look What you done?” Showing the card box to have a small hole in it. Take the cards out of the box showing they also have a hole in the middle of them with black around it as if been shot

At this point again you can use some humour about men with small guns who shot to early or about how much the cards cost you depending on how you want to play it.. As an after thought ask what the card picked was as if it doesn’t mater now as the trick you were going to do is ruined. They say jack of spades. At this point they think that’s the trick over and it was to get the holes in the card. So you thank them once again for their time and as you going to put the cards away notice that the hole doesn’t go completely through the pack. You then start to deal one card off at a time. Each card having a hole in the middle of it. Until somewhere about half way through the pack is a the first card with out a hole in it This card turns out to be the jack of spades holding a picture of a bullet and a speech bubble saying “That was close”.

So that’s the idea a way to revel a selected card in a novel way which gives lots of opportunities for some funny byplay with the audience. It should also automatically be reset at end to do again if you were table hopping. . As for the method use your preferred force to get him to select the jack of spades (this could quite easily be any of the court cards.) Then as the cards in the box get passed around to you switch the pack for the one with the holes and special designed jack in it.

This is where my original question on deck switches come from what I had thought was just to do it causally using the getting out the sheriff badge. As this would give me the reason to put hands in pocket as if I was looking for the badge and I would be drawing attention to spectator who I was telling was going to guard the cards. I also later on get to play down the fact of ever having touched the cards or the box. And because of the time delay till the revel people would have forgotten that I had. As for the cards with holes in a simple hole punch will make them and for the one on the box just do a part one so it’s a flap and as you pick the box up open it as at this point nobodies expecting it anyway. The jack could be created with a couple of stickers added to it one showing the bullet and the other for the speech bubble. Or just design the whole card on a computer graphics programme.

I would appreciate any comments about this idea and as I said at the beginning I would like not to take any credit for this. If this is just a idea that I have dredged from back of my mind having seen or read about and that somebody else performed or come up with. I’m sure somebody out there might be able to tell me.

Having typed all that in I have just thought wither this is the right place for it or if that counts as expose. If it dose Mods please edit or move as you feel is appropriate. I should also like to point out at the point I am in my magic career I am far from at a stage that I would be happy to perform this but I’m one of those people who once gets a idea has to play it out to a logical end. Dog with a bone springs to mind

Lion,

When I worked for Practical Magic they marketed a deck switch gimmick that I created. They no longer supply it so I cannot see any arguement about supplying you with one if I still have some. Can you PM me ?

That's a great table hopping routine, Lion. If you want to publish it as an e-book article, please PM me about distribution on my Web site. Authors get 100% of the profits from sales of individual articles or entire books, and have 100% of control over all aspects of their intellectual property. I'll explain how in detail if you decide to check it out in a PM.

That's a REALLY cool idea. Kind of takes things like Smiling Assassin to a completely new level. Well thought out, Lion. You should seriously consider the offer to market the effect.

Nice routine and some very nice lines in there - I particuarly like the 'adult' humour and in many ways the specs having a naughty giggle is more misdirecting than using 'normal' humour.

That was a really nice idea

To bad I can't do it with coins...

If I carry around 2 decks (usually its because one is stacked, i rarely use gimmicked decks) and I want to switch them. I act like I am done doing tricks, and I let things die down a bit. (Set a few anchors here if you know what I am talking about it will make sense and will let you let the atmosphere die totally if you want) then put the pack in your pocket. Then, if no one asks you for another trick just say "Oh, well actually i just remembered another trick I know that is pretty good." and remove the other deck. It takes a bit of finess, but not alot. And I have never had anyone call me out on it. Generally I do a trick with the stacked deck then go into more regular tricks. ( I would recommend having follow up good tricks, dont do them all the first time. That way if someone asks you to repeat the trick, you can distract them with "Oh well let me show you some others first" I find that most of the time people forget about asking you to do it again. The better crowd control you have, the better these methods work.)

But if you have good crowd control, just point with your left and switch with your right.

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