Help please: some easy tricks with Marked-Stripped deck

[Guest]

Hello:

I am gradually introducing a friend to magic. He is somewhat intimidated and easily overwhelmed so I am helping him out. I made up a stripped-marked deck for him (red bikes with Farmarx) and I wonder if any magii here can suggest one or two fairly easily explained/easily mastered routines for such a deck.

Please don't give me a book reference because I have a limited library. I am not asking for somebody else's published secrets as much as I am asking for a bit of help in the creativity department to coax along my friend.

I have adopted 'Lazy Man's Card Trick' and 'Do as I Do' for this purpose. Looking for one or two more.

All help welcome.

[Guest]

You want simple, yes?

He could open his set with this--

Setup: Have the black suits facing one way, and the red suits facing the other way. Then shuffle the deck, and case it.

Performance: Shuffle, and fan or ribbon spread to show all cards completely and randomly mixed. Close spread, and overhand shuffle briefly. Allow spectator to cut once, and magician carries the cut. Then, he begins a series of cuts, pulling off segments of the deck and dropping them to the table. OF course, he is really stripping the reds from the blacks. Done quickly and with confidence, it appears to be a series of cuts dropped to the table. When finished, he ribbon spreads those left in the hand, which would be all black. Then he gathers the tabled cards, and ribbon spreads them to show all reds. Rotating one color as he gathers the spreads, he can then riffle shuffle together and have all cards facing one way for other effects.

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Any key card effect can be done by feel instead of/in addition to sight. Simply have one reversed card on the bottom of the deck, have a chosen card dropped on top of the deck, and cut to "lose" the chosen card. If your friend knows the identity of his reversed card, then he can both visually and tactilely find the chosen card. Teach him some easy but flashy revelations for the chosen card.

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Any good bookstore has the Dover reprint of the Hugard Encyclopedia of Card Tricks, and you might even have it in your library already. There is a whole chapter on Stripper Decks loaded with effects. There is also a whole chapter on key card effects, too. Plus, many of the other effects in the book that are meant for ungimmicked decks can be backed up with the assurance that he can find the card via the stripper principle.

Ok, so you asked specifically for no book references. At roughly $10, you cannot afford not to have this reference book in your own library.

Hope this helps a bit.

Jon

[Guest]

Thanks very much thats helpful to combine stripper effects with key card also.

Also the vote for Hugard's encyclopedia is a helpful endorsement.

I appreciate your thoughts.