by Demitri » Oct 3rd, '05, 07:46
Blade - Nice job on the effect. It looked good and aside from the king troubles, which wingman pointed out, your handling was nice and clean.
There are a few things that I wanted to point out - some which may cause suspicion.
First and foremost, you pull the deck out, take out the cards and shuffle them face up. You might not think this is a big deal, but two things make it suspicious. 1 - you pulled the deck down and it was face-down. You then turn the deck over to shuffle. Yes, it's to prove the cards aren't arranged or something like that, but if they're not set up a certain way, why did you need to turn it over. Second - dealing face up straight from the box is a VERY unusual move. Part of the effect is making everything seem like it's ordinary - typical - until the magic works. Most people are accustomed to shuffling face down, seeing it face up right out of the box can be suspicious, especially after you've shown the back.
Naturally, there is a reason for it, but there are ways around it. Rather than pulling the deck out to show a red back, turning and shuffling - you should show a few of the cards and build patter with it. You CAN show a few cards, so work with it.
Take the deck out, peel a few of the top cards off and just talk about how you're going to show them something with a deck of cards. While turning the deck over, you can patter about the fact that none of the cards are arranged or special. The best way to kill the suspicion is to simply do a spread of the cards face-up. Even if you don't show the whole deck, most specs are more than satisfied that they've seen enough to know you're using a normal deck. You COULD patter about NORMAL DECK. NORMAL! NOTHING AT ALL SPECIAL - but I wouldn't. Just make it a non-move. Casually thumb a few cards face down, casually spread as you tell them about a strange thing that happened to your cards one time. In short - sell it by not selling it.
2 - The first four cards. To call these selections is a bit loose of a term. While it's not a HUGE deal that you're dealing down the top 4 cards, it just doesn't ring through as random. You could try a few face up hindu shuffle forces to skirt this issue, since it won't ruin your card set-up.
3 - Wingman already commented on the king handling. Just work on that and it's fine.
As for the final change BACK - this I think could really send the effect right over the edge. I had one quick way to do it, which will leave you dirty for a split second, but I think it can work. For the sake of keeping most of your methods for this out of the public, I'll pm you my ideas.
Overall - great job. It's a nice attempt at reworking an existing concept and taking it to another level. Good job.
Opps, sorry about the delay. Here's a video clip of my color change.
