What to do with a double-backed deck?

Discuss your favorite close-up tricks and methods.
Guest

What to do with a double-backed deck?

Postby Guest » June 22nd, 2006, 8:53 pm

Wanting to replicate Dai Vernon's effect that fooled Houdini, I attempted to obtain a double-backed card from my favorite magic shop. They only sell them by the deck. So, ten bucks later, I find myself the owner of 52 double-backed cards, with use for only one. Anyone have any ideas for effects for which I can use the remaining cards?

Gary Brown

Guest

Re: What to do with a double-backed deck?

Postby Guest » June 22nd, 2006, 9:45 pm

Gary,

Jon Racherbaumer has a trick in Arch Triumphs, if memory serves: Spectator chooses a card, you lose it in the deck, then spring the deck into a nearby pool. All the cards end up floating face down except the selection. Use the MC Spread Force from Workers 2. Actually I think Workers 5 has a trick with 51 DB cards.

Alexander De Cova has a trick on one of his Treasures videos where you legitimately shuffle the deck half face up and half face down, and spread the resulting mix across the table for a free selection of multiple cards, which, without any moves whatsoever, become the only reversed cards in the deck.

Guest

Re: What to do with a double-backed deck?

Postby Guest » June 22nd, 2006, 9:46 pm

$10? Damn, that's a bit pricy.

However, there are plenty of tricks that utilize double backed cards.

Their use is sprinkled thru out magic literature, just look.

It's good you have the whole deck, you will use them.

Guest

Re: What to do with a double-backed deck?

Postby Guest » June 22nd, 2006, 10:53 pm

The "Houdini fooler" can be done pretty effectively gaffless also if that's something that interests you.

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Pete Biro
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Re: What to do with a double-backed deck?

Postby Pete Biro » June 22nd, 2006, 11:02 pm

The one tossing the deck into a pool was Vernon's.
Stay tooned.

Guest

Re: What to do with a double-backed deck?

Postby Guest » June 23rd, 2006, 11:45 am

Incidentally, now that I've had the chance to look at them more closely, turns out the db's (not withstanding my expenditure of tne bucks), don't match the color of a brand new red bicycle deck. The ordinary cards are much darker while the gaffs are more pink in tone and the difference is noticeable. Does anyone know if ordinary Bicycle cards vary in color? The gaffed deck appears to be made by Bicycle, but it's hard to know for sure.

Oh, and I should have mentioned that the dealer mentioned the "throwing the deck overboard" effect, a one time use of a double-backed deck. At $10 a throw, not to mention the environmental impact, I'd rather not do that. (In my opinion, doing this in a pool would result in someone picking up a db card eventually).

Thanks for the ideas.

Gary

Guest

Re: What to do with a double-backed deck?

Postby Guest » June 23rd, 2006, 2:44 pm

Hi Gary,

The $10 a throw isn't an issue unless your performing for free. : )

Also this isn't really a good idea for a pool as you pointed out someone has to pick them up eventually. Off the side of the ship is the way it has been used in the past. Maybe better to toss them into a snake pit. No one will go in there.

If you can find the right glue you can make several "two card" double backers by temporarily glueing 26 normal pairs face to face. After a little time in the water they will split and the evidence is washed away. This is an idea I have used and it works well.

As far as your "pink" deck is concerned not much you can do. This has been a problem for years for some reason.

What you can do is a fantastic routine of Steve Mayhew's found in his lecture notes "Impressing Jodie Foster".

All the best,

Kranzo

Guest

Re: What to do with a double-backed deck?

Postby Guest » June 23rd, 2006, 4:45 pm

Make up 2 Cheek-to-Cheek decks.
Van

Guest

Re: What to do with a double-backed deck?

Postby Guest » June 24th, 2006, 1:38 am

Originally posted by Nathan Kranzo:
If you can find the right glue you can make several "two card" double backers by temporarily glueing 26 normal pairs face to face. After a little time in the water they will split and the evidence is washed away. This is an idea I have used and it works well.
What a clever idea. Cheaper to perform, and destroys the evidence.

Dave

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Re: What to do with a double-backed deck?

Postby pduffie » June 24th, 2006, 3:38 am

The story I heard regarding Vernon was that he used a jumbo deck (for visibilty later) - all d-backers with 1 twin-facer (SBS). I assume he had a card forced from a regular deck, then brought out the jumbo cards with some patter about coincidence, or whatever. But here's the main point - this was aboard a cruise ship! He threw the jumbo deck into the sea. There was no evidence. The ship sailed away leaving the cards in the middle of the ocean!

Peter

Guest

Re: What to do with a double-backed deck?

Postby Guest » June 24th, 2006, 11:56 am

Thanks Dan! Feel free to use it.

All the best,

Kranzo

Guest

Re: What to do with a double-backed deck?

Postby Guest » June 24th, 2006, 3:49 pm

Nathan, that is a great idea. Thanks for sharing.

Guest

Re: What to do with a double-backed deck?

Postby Guest » June 24th, 2006, 8:37 pm

A contender for best effect with a double-backed deck goes to Jerry Sadowitz for Mind Ray (based on a Ray Grismer idea first published in Fulves' Pallbearers Review).

Basically, the spectator is handed a double-backed deck and requested to think of any card. (S)he hands the deck back to the magician and the magician then names the thought-of-card. More or less.

Simple, powerful, direct mind reading and extremely hard to top.

Guest

Re: What to do with a double-backed deck?

Postby Guest » June 25th, 2006, 12:57 pm

Originally posted by Gary Brown:
Incidentally, now that I've had the chance to look at them more closely, turns out the db's (not withstanding my expenditure of tne bucks), don't match the color of a brand new red bicycle deck. The ordinary cards are much darker while the gaffs are more pink in tone and the difference is noticeable. Does anyone know if ordinary Bicycle cards vary in color? The gaffed deck appears to be made by Bicycle, but it's hard to know for sure.

Gary
As far as the color goes, you must have gotten an old deck of double backs. Several years ago, the color was indeed different, however, most decks you get today are the same color. I get them by the dozen, just to have a supply for many of the effects mentioned above. I see Nate mentioned the color difference, yet I have not had that problem for quite some time.

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Re: What to do with a double-backed deck?

Postby Michael Close » June 25th, 2006, 1:13 pm

Over the years I have a serious amount of fun with a doublebacked deck of cards. One effect, titled Out of U and Me, incorporates the MC Spread Double Lift as a force. It can be found in Workers 5.

The other effect is a super duper Ambitious Card routine that Michael Weber dubbed "The Trick that Fooled Houdini and His Whole F**king Family." Using a doublebacked deck with one real card in it, you can do the Vernon effect - but you bury the top card each time. You can find this trick (plus another fun idea) in Closely Guarded Secrets.

Close

Guest

Re: What to do with a double-backed deck?

Postby Guest » June 25th, 2006, 4:12 pm

Hi Michael,

Have you seen Mayhew's routine? they sound very similar.

I would love to see yours in action.

All the best,

Kranzo

Guest

Re: What to do with a double-backed deck?

Postby Guest » June 25th, 2006, 7:04 pm

The MC Spread Double Lift/Force is a great move to use with a DB deck. You might also want to check out Al Schneider's "A Marriage of Cards", from the October 2005 Genii. It is a sweet version of the "Anniversary Waltz"/Fusion plot. Another take on that plot -- a bit more difficult, but somewhat cleaner-looking -- appeared a few years previously (with a full DB deck) on The Second Deal under the name Fusion Forc'ee.

Guest

Re: What to do with a double-backed deck?

Postby Guest » June 25th, 2006, 8:58 pm

Originally posted by Scott Fridinger:
As far as the color goes, you must have gotten an old deck of double backs. Several years ago, the color was indeed different, however, most decks you get today are the same color. I get them by the dozen, just to have a supply for many of the effects mentioned above. I see Nate mentioned the color difference, yet I have not had that problem for quite some time.
So was the problem that Bicycle used to produce inconsistently-colored decks, or was it simply that fakes were a different color? And, more importantly, was the problem true of blue-back decks, too?

Thanks for all the help.

Gary Brown

Guest

Re: What to do with a double-backed deck?

Postby Guest » June 26th, 2006, 12:24 am

I think it's just the gaffs that are sometimes a different colour. I'm guessing you got a deck that had been in stock for a little while because as Scott said - it doesn't seem to occur much these days.

Having said that I once bought a red/blue DB deck and the colour difference was massive, it was more like light pink and blue. Since then whenever I've needed DB cards (provided I've not needed red/blue), I've always made up the trick with Blue/Blue as I've never had a big colour difference with blue back gaffs.

Andy

Guest

Re: What to do with a double-backed deck?

Postby Guest » June 26th, 2006, 5:29 am

The old story was that the USPCC drill was to do gaffed runs just before replacing their ink. Hence the icky-pink DB decks.

Another benefit of "brick and mortar" magic shops: "I need a DB deck, could I see the back color?"

Guest

Re: What to do with a double-backed deck?

Postby Guest » June 26th, 2006, 6:14 am

Originally posted by Gary Brown:
Wanting to replicate Dai Vernon's effect that fooled Houdini...
A full DB deck and the tilt and a few other simple strategies like having a joker or one regular card in the deck could make for a wonderful ACR where you put the card into the CENTER of the deck. Mind you this adds the requirement of a force to the routine though that's really not so much an obstacle.

My question about such a routine is simply whether to finish with the odd card on top of the pack and the selection in the pocket (or card case or wallet) or ... to throw in the kicker of the all backs?

Guest

Re: What to do with a double-backed deck?

Postby Guest » June 26th, 2006, 6:38 am

Bob Sheets has a great routine called "Six tricks in two minutes" using a double faced deck. Awesome for strolling work.

Charlie

Guest

Re: What to do with a double-backed deck?

Postby Guest » June 26th, 2006, 9:32 pm

Bob's routine is great but does not use same color db's.

That would make for a very mundane color change. : )

All the best,

Kranzo

Guest

Re: What to do with a double-backed deck?

Postby Guest » June 27th, 2006, 12:36 am

Originally posted by Nathan Kranzo:

If you can find the right glue you can make several "two card" double backers
What I have used before is Chap-stick.
It sticks like glue but comes right off when needed.

Unless you're performing when it's 100 degrees it's great.

Guest

Re: What to do with a double-backed deck?

Postby Guest » June 9th, 2007, 7:18 am

Hi everybody:

Years ago, I read about the Vernon effect: The double backed deck and one normal card etc. It sounds truly awesome on paper BUT how do you ensure that the normal card ends face-up on the water? I always wondered.

Regards,
David

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Re: What to do with a double-backed deck?

Postby Richard Kaufman » June 9th, 2007, 8:05 am

There are no normal cards: 51 double backed cards and 1 double faced card.
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