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The Magic Cafe Forum Index » » Gaffed & Funky » » The Ultimate Gaff Deck Kit by Magic Makers (1 Likes) Printer Friendly Version

EndersGame
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Is anyone familiar with this product "The Ultimate Gaff Deck Kit" by Magic Makers, or can comment about it?

http://www.magicmakersinc.com/p-667-the-......kit.aspx

It comes with a gaff deck and instructional DVD for 13 different effects (listed below). Official videos with demos of all the effects can be seen here:

https://www.youtube.com/user/MagicMakers......Deck+Kit

And here's an unofficial review that showcases the entire deck: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKcE4xCHyEg

A lot of the effects seem to be different names or variations of popular and existing packet tricks e.g. Follow the Leader = MacDonalds Aces; Chase the Ace = Ultimate Three Card Monte or Million Dollar Monte; Queens Gone Wild = Queens Out of Control; Fleeing Queens = Wild Card; Trading Kings = Twisted Sisters; Money Monte = Color Monte. I'm not 100% sure I'm correctly identifying these, and maybe others will recognize some of the other effects.

I've not been able to find any reviews of the Ultimate Gaff Deck Kit here in the forums. Even if the DVD isn't that great, it does look like a good workhorse collection of gaffs. Thoughts or impressions?

Quote:
Full Deck Color Change: A spectator selects a card and then watches as it is lost in the deck. You then reveal their chosen card to be the only on with a different colored back. As if this is not impressive enough, the entire deck transforms into the same colored back as the chosen card as well.

Single Card Color Change: Sometimes two isn’t better than one. A simple color change of the back of one card chosen by the spectator, and then back to the color of the deck will make jaws drop.

50/50: Baffle the spectator by showing them two cards. Place one behind your back. Have the spectator guess which card is left in front of them… but they will never guess right no matter how many times they try.

Magic Card Merge: A card merger that will surprise everyone with a twist. Watch as you magically pull a selected card from the middle of the deck to the top. This card just happens to be a selected sign card and it just happens to then merge with another signed card. Stunning.

Follow the Leader: Not just a fun childhood game, this magic trick uses four piles of four cards with one ace in each pile. As the performer, you will slowly cause each ace to disappear from three of the piles. Those aces have to go somewhere, right? Surprise your audience by making them all appear in the mysterious fourth pile.

Crazy Aces: Perfect for the doubting Thomas in your audience, Crazy aces will rid your audience of any disbelief in your skill when you repeatedly switch back and forth two number and two ace cards in your SPECTATORS hands through visual transformations. You’ll make a believer out of them.

Chase the Ace: Inconsistency isn’t always bad in magic. You’re audience will be baffled as they try to chase the ace only to realize that it is constantly jumping positions. The kicker is the finale they will never forget. Based on Rob Stiff’s Chase the Ace and DeLand’s Pick It Out.

Queens Gone Wild: Wildly entertaining, eight nine of spade cards with one wild queen of hearts cards are placed on the table. One by one the wild queen transforms every card in wild queens.

Fleeing Queens: Simply two piles, four queens and four other cards. One by One the queens will flee to another pile. When the spectator turns all of the cards over they will see all of them have transformed into queens. It won’t be simple for them to try and figure out the trick.

Trading Kings: Mind games. Have your spectator freely choose a red and black king. These cards will be revealed to have switched places in two different colored piles. As if this isn’t tricky enough you will reveal these kings were they only two they could have thought of because every other card has a blank face. Mind=blown. This Effect is based on Parade of the Kinds and Any Queen Called For by Davenports.

Money Monte: A Monte routine with a twist. The surprise ending will keep your spectators guessing.

Itsy Bitsy Spider: More fun than your childhood nursery rhyme. This trick demonstrates four cards with spiders on the front. The spiders then vanish from all of the cards living only their webs behind. No rain required.
CoffeeWithMagic
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I own the "Packet Killer" DVD and "with the Ultimate Gaffed Deck" by Magic Makers.
I think it's pretty much the same as this, minus the Itsy Bitsy Spider and maybe a few other differences? The Packet Killer was definitely a solid purchase for me, and I would recommend it if you're looking for a great assortment of gaffed cards.
EndersGame
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"Packet Killer" is also by Magic Makers, and comes with The Blue Gaff Deck, and a very good DVD featuring Simon Lovell. There's definitely overlap in some of the cards and the effects, but the video performances and explanations by Simon Lovell in "Packet Killer" seem to be considerably better than the video that comes with "The Ultimate Gaff Deck Kit".

I wonder why they've opted to use non-standard names for the effects in "The Ultimate Gaff Deck Kit", especially since many of them seem to be well known effects.

Full Deck Color Change: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt8McM80_NY
Single Card Color Change: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBO8Ts708Ok
50/50: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNkiRcDkw3c
Magic Card Merge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AMX5fMF2UU
Follow the Leader: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNo-kpz54k8 (= MacDonalds Aces?)
Crazy Aces: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W9sgq19oSs
Chase the Ace Plus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7emDf6vuvF0 (= Ultimate Three Card Monte or Million Dollar Monte?)
Chase the Queen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m0Hg0CaFGE
Queens Gone Wild: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNSnu171PEo (= Queens Out of Control?)
Fleeing Queens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-_nP_q4Vx4 (= Wild Card?)
Trading Kings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYIjNZrqUbE (= Twisted Sisters?)
Money Monte: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icF4NBpEu5I (= Color Monte?)
Itsy Bitsy Spider: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fg4oPP2uyvQ

Am I identifying these correctly, and does anyone recognize any of the other effects?
DaveGripenwaldt
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If you are interested in Gaff card effects you might keep your eye out for a series of Gaffs that Murphy's will be putting out soon from Greg Wilson. All original effects..all completely routined. I am biased because I have been working on this with him, but I'd have to say Magic Makers calling their deck "Ultimate" is premature at best. Smile
EndersGame
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Right now I'm just interested in this particular Magic Makers product ("The Ultimate Gaff Deck Kit"), and trying to get some reviews/impressions of it.

I'm also interested in identifying the effects it includes, especially since many of them seem to be quite common under different names. See for example, the "Chase the Ace Plus" and "Chase the Queen" videos above. "Chase the Ace Plus" seems to be a version of "Ultimate Three Card Monte". "Chase the Queen" seems familiar, but I can't quite put my finger on what this effect is normally called.
EndersGame
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"Itsy Bitsy Spider" is a similar effect to Jim Pace's "The Web" (including use of a spider gimmick), but uses a different method that requires more advanced handling.

I've also found the name of the person who teaches on the DVD - it is magician Kris Nevling.
Artie Fufkin
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Magic Makers, in keeping with their long-time philosophy, has filled the Magic makers "deck kit" with effects ripped off (aka without permission) from other card effect creators.

The different names for each effect are a feeble effort to conceal the fact that Magic Makers ripped the effect off from the popularly named original.

Best avoided.
Ethical card magicians shop elsewhere.
EndersGame
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I was not aware until now that Magic Makers had a reputation for this. I did purchase "The Ultimate Gaff Deck Kit" recently, and cannot recommend it. The deck itself has a good collection of gaffs, allowing you to do a wide range of packet effects like the ones mentioned above. But the two big negatives for me are:

1. The companion DVD featuring magician Kris Nevling is extremely disappointing. Unfortunately the negative comments about Kris on the reviews over at amazon.com for the Ultimate Gaff Deck Kit are quite accurate. The DVD really does feel like a poor home-made attempt to teach magic, similar to a kid doing a youtube card trick tutorial. Kris doesn't bring much passion to the table, his performances aren't very inspiring at all, things aren't always clearly explained, and there's a lot of verbal stumbling which could easily have been fixed by doing a re-take. Very unpolished and mediocre at best.

2. Many of the tricks do feel like they have been ripped off from classic and popular effects, even if they do have different handling and names. Examples have already been given above, but an obvious one is "Itsy Bitsy Spider", which is a similar effect to Jim Pace's "The Web" (including use of a spider gimmick), but overcomplicates the handling by adding an extra card, and which doesn't at all improve things. In most cases Kris does give his own handling of the effects, but it just seems a bit lame to give them different names, when this is clearly intended to be a collection of classics like MacDonalds Aces (= Follow the Leader), Ultimate 3 Card Monte (= Chase the Ace Plus), Wild Card (= Fleeing Queens), Twisted Sisters (= Trading Kings), and Color Monte (= Money Monte). For someone trying to learn these effects for the first time, it's probably best to stick with the original versions, despite the appeal of getting a single gaff deck which gives you the cards you need to do all of them.

I also recently purchased "Packet Killer", which features Simon Lovell and comes with deck of assorted gaffs for packet tricks. It is also put out by Magic Makers, and it seemed quite impressive. I was also under the impression Simon Lovell had a good reputation. Or do the negative comments about Magic Makers also apply to that product? The DVD was quite good and it also seemed to have good reviews and comments here on the Magic Café: http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......orum=111
Artie Fufkin
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Packet Killer contains more standard effects than it does marketed effects.
Lovell did a few discs and effects with Magic Makers, and knows of what he speaks.

It's really just a personal choice also whether you want to support a company that rips other creators off.

Just because a specific product may be original, purchasing it supports the perpetrators of the ripped off products.
Cheap is always appealing, until you realize it's a rip off ... but there are always folks that will choose cheap.

If you've already bought it, I really wouldn't worry about it.

But I'd not personally purchase anything else from then, choosing instead to support original creators AND original creations.
EndersGame
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One effect I haven't been able to identify yet from The Ultimate Gaff Deck Kit is the one called "Fleeing Queens". It's a transposition effect, where four queens switch places with four indifferent cards (actually DFs).

Here's a promotional video clip showing the effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-_nP_q4Vx4

I've watched the DVD explanation, where it's not credited, but it seems to me that it must be a variation of an existing or old trick, maybe using aces instead of queens. Does anyone recognize this trick, or know under what name it is more typically known?
EndersGame
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Just to update this thread, I've been able to identify a few more of the effects on this DVD. I wasn't entirely correct in the names I suggested in my second post, e.g. I was mistaken about "Queens Out of Control" being represented on the DVD because it's not. But these ones are, even though the handling does vary somewhat from the original effects:

Chase the Queen = Stand Up Monte (Garrett Thomas)
Queens Gone Wild = Wild Card (various)
Itsy Bitsy Spider = The Web (Jim Pace)

Unidentified as yet are:
Crazy Aces
Fleeing Queens
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