If you like Joyal Stack and can do perfect faros then my tip will be very good:
I can strongly recommend that you learn Ed Marlos "The Chain Calculator": magician shuffles the deck and after each shuffle he is able to tell the location of any card in the deck called for!
This system is also useful if you just want to shuffle a deck with Joyal Stack and then keep control of every single card in the deck.

You can read about "The Chain Calculator" in Ed Marlos: Faro Notes. I don't have the new book
- Ed Marlo' Revolutionary Card Technique, but I think you can find the Chain Calculator in this book.

Mats G. Kjellstrom
http://www.mastermagic.info

If you think its hard to memorize 52 cards READ THIS:

Most Cards Memorized
British mindbender Dominic O'Brien memorized on a single sighting a random sequence of 54 separate packs of cards all shuffled together (2,808 playing cards) at the basement bar of Simpson's-In-The-Strand, London, UK, on May 1, 2002.

It took Dominic 11 hours 42 minutes to memorize the 54 packs, and reciting them in the exact sequence took 3 hours 30 minutes. Guinness World Record rules allow only 0.5% margin of error (so no more than 14 errors), and memory-man Dominic completed the record with just eight errors – four mistakes and four prompted corrections.

Info from:
http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/

I am planning on buying the six hour stack. I also plan on buying Try The Impossible to learn more tricks. Does this sound like a good combination?

The best thing to do is to read every book about memorized stacks. Joyal Stack is very easy to remember and keep in mind. Aronson Stack requires more work to memorize.

Tip: Hermetic Press has translated Juan Tamariz famous book Sinfonía en Mnemónica Mayor to english.
You can buy it in august and it includes his memorized stack work. This must be this years HOTTEST book if you like memorized deck effects...

I have a copy of "The Six-Hour Memorized Deck" for sale if you're interested. PM me.

FWIW you can order "Mnemonica" now from Hermetic Press' Web site but the book won't be out until September.

Craig

I just got the Six-Hour Memorized Deck. I have two things to say:
1. Whoo
2. Hooo!
It's taken me about 9 hours to memorize it, but that's my own fault. Parts of my brain don't fire on all eight cylinders. (Long story)
The book is well written (with EXTREMELY good English, Mr. Joyal...) and it is a nifty resource for similar stack-attack type tricks. Some may consider these references "old", but not me. Only audiences are old, and these references will help make "old" ingredients into "new" recipes. There is plenty to acquire from them.
I especially liked the Shuffle Analyzer at the end. It is a clever approach to explaining and understanding qualities of various stack systems. Interesting indeed...well thought out and equally well presented.
And regarding which stack is "best"...well, knowing what to present answers that easily enough. (Don't build the show around the stack, use the stack to support the show.) Old news to some...I offer it as an iteration of basics.
In all, a nifty resource, an effective system, solid applications that will CLOBBER, and a dynamite little book.
Thanks!

Patrick

If you don't do card magic but do mental magic yo can use Joyal Stack with the new ESP deck : Symbology by Sean Taylor. A very good concept. This ESP deck contains 13 different symbols plus four colors, just like a ordinary deck. http://www.symbology-deck.com/

I bought this book last Wednesday and I am very pleased that I did.

I had been contemplating memorising a deck for a while now and was very pleased that I decided to buy this book.

I found it quite unbelievable just how quickly I got to grips with remembering the deck. The lessons are divided into 4 steps and I went through one lesson an evening. In four evenings I had the 52 cards and positions learnt.

I would certainly recommend this book to anyone who, like me, has been wanting to learn to memorise a deck but has been putting it off.

I also got that book back in 1997 and I think its a very good book... Highly recommended ! It took me 6 hours to memorize it, and I really like the fact that the technique to remember the cards rely on some "principles", so if you forget a card's position, you can go back to the "principle" and find the position easily.

It's a very good book, and the stack stays for very long after, because of the principles.

Anyway I can get my hands on this?

I was very excited to recently see that the 6 Hour Memorized Deck by Martin Joyal is now offered as an e-book. See here for details: http://www.hermeticpress.com/product_info.php?products_id=67.

And if you order before by September 14, you get a nice discount!

Thanks Hermetic Press for providing this book to another generation of magicians!

Enjoy!
Barry

Also worth noting that you can buy the stack-only (PDF), if you don't want the routines:

http://www.hermeticpress.com/product_info.php?products_id=66

Here is an example of what you can do if you have a memorized stack in your mind,
Last Laugh by Darwin Ortiz from Scams & Fantasies:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ch3o5tzYJpQ

This video is also interesting, Jason Ladanye performs a memo stunt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMWt3jVL7lU

Last Laugh again with Jason Ladanye:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tdzXdBXw5U

Those vids were really good. Is this last one a memdeck trick?

Just realize this in on Scams and Fantasies DVD. Very nice. Thanks for the tip.

I have found out 2 utility controls that can be applied to a memorized deck,
this will take your memorized deck work to the next level:

Flip Shift: http://www.magician-newyorkcity.com/products_flip_shift.html

Any Signed Card to Any Spectators Wallet: http://thekayloroption.com/

If you use the mem deck as an open index then you can control any card to the wallet with "empty hands".
Must be a very strong effect.

The link quoted above should now read
http://www.joyalstack.com/index.php?p=mdhm

Martin
http://www.joyalstack.com

Thanx Mats for the good infos on Mem deck.

@Jay@

I've never read the 6 Hour Memorized Deck, but based on links to Mr. Joyal's site, it looks like it has information on MANY different stacks.

Can anyone tell me how much detail he goes into on these other stacks - as in built-in effects of each stack, etc? Is it a cursory mention, or is there decent detail to get a better understanding of the pros / cons of each?

Thanks!