Sneak a Peek at Our Review

Do you remember the feeling you had the first time you saw the Svengali Deck? You may have seen it as the famous TV Magic Cards as performed by Marshall Brodien. It seemed impossible: a deck is shown to have indifferent cards; a single card is selected by your lovely volunteer⁵ and returned to the deck. With a tap of the deck, every card in the deck becomes the same card. Marshall promised in his television commercials that performance of the card trick was “easy, once you know the secret.”

Marshall Brodien Rocks!

Now take the excitement you felt watching the Svengali Deck for the first time and multiply it by ten.⁶

The effect is straight forward. You ribbon spread the deck face down to show the entire deck to be blue backed. You then turn the deck over and ribbon spread it to show that each card is different. You ask the lovely volunteer to select a card, and it is lost in the deck. With the assistance of the two jokers, the selected card suddenly appears on the face of the deck.

You now ribbon spread the deck to show that every card in the deckmatches theselected card. But wait, there’s more! You now turn the deck over and ribbon spread it again to show that the back of every card has turned red.

I have truthfully described the trick. The strength, in my mind, of the trick is found in therepetition of moves. You use the ribbon spread to show the changes in the same manner each time. The audience won’t notice any “funny moves”⁷ and the effect moves along so quickly that it seems impossible. Check out the video at Penguin Magic of the trick. It is exactly as you see.

There is a downside I need to bring to your attention. The deck is not in Bicycle, it is bridge-sized and you cannot allow the audience to examine the deck. This means you can’t switch it in or out of your routine easily.

I personally don’t think you should let an audience member touch your props. You don’t see singers allowing the audience to touch their vocal chords or dancers allowing the hungry crowd to feel their feet. So keep your props to yourself. If you’re willing to accept the different size of the deck and the different back design, this is the perfect trick. It will make or enhanceyour reputation.

INSIDE MAGIC RATING: Three and a Half out of Four.

Footnotes

⁵I have been in therapy for the last twenty-two years because my “lovely volunteer” was also my cousin. The psychological twists I’ve been through due to picturing an attendee at our family picnics as “lovely” or a “volunteer” would be enough to keep most Russian writers busy for years.

Dr. Freud and His Magic Man

Freud did a short study on a patient he called “Magic Man.” The “Magic Man,” practiced Cups and Balls with his mother as the “Beautiful Volunteer from the Audience” for five years. He complained to Freud that every time he did Cups and Balls, he felt “guilty” and “dirty like a canine.” Freud said, prophetically, “Stoppen Sie, die ‘ Schalen und die Kugeln zu tun, ‘ Sie Idiot!” (“Stop doing the ‘Cups and Balls,’ you idiot!”) How true. How profound.

⁶If you have any idea how you can multiply an emotion, let me know. I mean, what is “happiness times three?” There was a study conducted at Yale where they tried to quantify emotions and develop methods to multiply or divide them. The monkeys they used were unable to take the stress associated with smiling so much and began laugh at their own nervous breakdowns. See, “What Are You Laughing Up, I’m Going Crazy!” Yale Journal of Psychiatry, May-July, 1967.

⁷Funny Moves is a registered trademark of Jerry “the Jello Ventriloquist” Johansen. Jerry wows the crowds with his Jello-puppet, Wiggles. His act cannot be done in warm weather or for longer than 15 minutes because of the melting factor. Inside Magic is against those who would rip off this classic act. This includes: Tommy “The Toothpaste Ventriloquist” Hanley; Stan “The Spaghetti Speaker” Silvan; and the infamous Masked Mashed Potato Puppeteer.