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| Topic: Combining an MD with a marked deck |
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Hi guys, I have recently fallen in love with marked deck magic! And also, since I regularly use a memorised deck (in just about every performance with cards), combining the two methods have led to some inexplicable effects, both methods cancel each other out nicely - the marks eliminate the need for glimpses, for example. Do you have any favourites / recommendations for effects combining an MD and a marked deck? I researched the forums and I know that Boris Wild definitely has some great work on this (which I will get soon, hopefully), and so does Larry Davidson :) Thanks! |
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MD + marked is indeed a deadly combination. However.... I want to give a little warning for what it's worth. Let not depend your whole repertoire on this combination. I hope not for you, but for 85% of us there comes a time that the eyesight diminishes and the reading glasses become an indispensable "body part"... Once over 50 years, it is a fate for many. A marked deck is fabulous on one condition: that you don't have to "read" the marks, but that you can see them in a flash. A split second. Otherwise it is not only dramatic but also pathetic. I, for instance, don't use it anymore. Dare to take that decision in time. |
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| I have a few MD decks marked up w/ binary codes. I ONLY use the marks for OCCASIONAL confirmations when using a MD so the audience perceives I am not RELYING on reading the deck. A glance at the back of a card is an art in itself. |
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If I were to ever use a marked deck, I'd like to think I'd spend a year with it in play, but never relying on the marks. I'm not too familiar with any memorized marking system, so I wonder: is it easier to code the cards as values between 1-13 and four different suits, or to devise a number system, coding cards 21, 37, 44? (Of course, if they are coded into numbers, one has to do the additional step of converting the numbers to the card -- 44 = 6C -- but I don't think that's too much trouble if you've already bothered to memorize a stack). |
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Waterloophai, fortunately eyesight is not an issue for me at present, but thanks for your comments...also I use a fairly easy to read marking system, which I have used in very low light conditions extremely easily from a distance. But thanks, I will take your advice on board :) Atom, great to hear from you again :) I completely agree with you, and yes I have routined my 'act' so that the glances occur on relaxation beats, or where no effect has happened yet. And also, yes I use it sparingly, and at all times in conjunction with sleight of hand AND the other features of a memorised deck AND other subtleties...which works really well as they all cancel each other out leaving an unexplainable experience for my audiences! At least, that's what I hope for every time, and that's what I'm striving for at the moment :) Cain, the marking system I use is not specific to my stack, it is just a regular marked deck. Which allows for devious presentations even with a shuffled deck. I find it easier to have the backs marked with the values rather than the stack number. |
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| Jon Thompson has a book out on the use of a deck that is "Stripped and Stacked," so that is another layer you can add to marked and memorised. |
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[quote] On 2013-02-22 10:25, Atom3339 wrote: I have a few MD decks marked up w/ binary codes. I ONLY use the marks for OCCASIONAL confirmations when using a MD so the audience perceives I am not RELYING on reading the deck. A glance at the back of a card is an art in itself. [/quote] If you do that (I've done and do it occasionally) you should consider a one-way-back design which offers nice options for binary codes as well. Then you still have an ordinary deck which you could give away. Jan |
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| Good idea, Jan! |
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| While the combination of marked and mem deck is powerful, a little caveat. Often, some of the most powerful mem deck routines are those that to the uninformed spectator could only have been done with a marked deck. In other words, as Aronson himself has pointed out, often one of the jobs of a mem deck worker is to disprove that s/he is using a marked deck. |
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| Exactly!! That's why I often give my deck of cards away - as a gift. Jan |
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@Woland, that sounds like the Deland deck! I believe Ed Marlo is credited with publishing the idea of marking cards based on their stack numbers rather than suit+value. There is an interesting system published along these lines in Antinomy #8. |
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| I love the combo myself and I use the stack numbers idea. Very often, paradoxically, marked deck + MD lets me very easily cancel out marked deck. I even say, even if these cards where marked, "and they are NOT", I did not see the back of the card you just put in your pocket [but of course I do see the back of the now top card to cue me :) ]. When I do jazzing with the combo, it fools even magicians – sometimes even when they know I am demoing mem deck work! It fools my wife who knows I use the combo. It just non intuitive to how powerful this is I think. I actually plan to document my experiences in a book one day, and have a bunch of notes. |
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| If you own The Multiple Revelation Project by Big Blind Media, you can do your revelations by just letting them say cards instead of picking them. |
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I user GT Speedreader deck with a mem/stacked deck. I have Martini shorten all the cards except the last card which is the bottom card of my stack -- it makes the bottom card a wide card -- I've tried all the breathers, crimps etc.... NOTHING beats a wide card -- 100% reliable. Elmwood magic sells wide cards .. but I don't think you can't specify what wide card you get .. their wide card works in a normal deck of cards. Wait till you see Labcomagic's ESP .. this will be a miracle for mem deck workers. A person can cut anywhere in the deck and you know where they cut to without getting near the cards. I will be getting my ESP soon. |
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| This is how I use a mem deck. I put Boris Wild's MD in Aronson stack. It makes pre existing routines even easier! I was able to create several of my own routines from experimenting/thinking with both tools at my disposal. |
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That's an excellent suggestion, Amazing Steveo. Martini Magic can make a variety of altered cards, and his workmanship is superb. It would be possible to use a variety of corner shorts, short, wide, belly-cut and other altered cards in order to make a number of specific cards in the stack instantly obtainable by touch. For some routines, it would be possible to achieve that by using strippers and moving them around as needed. |