I normally do kids shows and do them quite well. But...I'm going to have to do some strolling magic for some older kids and younger adults. I thought a good addition might be some easy/quick to learn self-working card tricks.

Anyone know of any good self-working decks/card tricks I can pick up?

I'm taking Color Monte, as that's always a good one to throw off the young adult hecklers.

Biddle trick, 2CM , ACR, synchronACEity, elevator card, ...
I do not know whether tricks frm Heckler can beat d young hecklers..
I tried some of it and it worked just fine..

Dead Reckoning by John Bannon is great.

John,

I have been doing research on this topic for the past 6 months or so therefore I can probably offer some assistance. However, I need to understand exactly what your after here. You said to entertain some adults so I'm under the impression you aren't looking for those childish, anyone can figure out, self workers. Also I would be interested to know how much you plan to invest? In addition, are you ok with partially stacked decks, because some of the best self working card tricks require a little bit of setup? From your question it seems like you are looking for special decks or gaffed cards too. If this is true I can't offer my help. If you are looking for professional regular deck self workers read on.

Enough with me questioning you, my advice of the top of my head would be:

John Bannon: Dear Mr. Fantasy (Book)
Lennart Green: Green Lite (DVD)

With these combined sources you will find dozens of self working card effects, that are AMAZING. These are professional self working card tricks. By that I mean, if you are looking to fool and entertain an older crowd as well as young adults, these are for you. Just to give a brief overview you'll learn three great self working card tricks from Bannon's book including Dead Reckoning, Power of Poker, and Wait Until Dark (which is Simon Aronsons imfamous Shuffleboard card trick). Lennarts DVD also has some great material such as Rain Man (again, a variation of Simon's Shuffleboard), The Eye of Stonehenge, and Stolen Cards, (which is a variation of the classic Gemini effect). If I had to pick for you I would certainly go with Bannon's book because it more or less includes everything on Lennarts DVD except eye of stonehenge.

Hope this helped, if you are like me on the other hand and are looking for several sources to invest in do a search for "Self working card tricks with IMPACT. That is the thread I started with a wealth of self working recommendations.

Cheers,

Ron Slater

Basically, I'm looking for some self-working card tricks that AREN'T easy to figure out. I know I have to do some strolling with kids of all ages, basically 6-18... possibly 18-20 too... those who can't get into the bar area.

The younger ones are easy to entertain with my existing repoitre... it's the young adults I'm mostly worried about.

I can probably invest about $100-$150 or so. At the moment, I only need the tricks for one show... though anything new I learn is always an investment for the future.

Color Monte is always a fun one. I can do a few simple forces along with some "mind reading" patter. I have a tear and restore card trick I can do that usually stumps them... but I need to stroll for quite a while, so I need to expand my existing bank of tricks.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll look into Green Lite... I learn card tricks better from DVD than books I find.

Many thanks!

I would suggest something along the lines of triumph or the acr. They aren't self working but they are great for the kids that you are trying to learn stuff to entertain. My question is when do you need to learn this stuff by...because I don't know much into self working but I know where to find powerful magic that is relatively easy.

Alright John I think I understand now. I'm the same way with the DVD's. I never used to buy books because I just didn't care to read them and I too learned better from DVD. Too tell you the truth though, self working card tricks are so easy to learn in print. Also, the sources I provided are not in the hands, they will require a performace area, table, etc. Just a heads up.

Good luck,

Ron