Would you do card warp with someone elses cards???
Most magically yours,
WR

Greg, I like your trick. Check out David Regal's "World's First Card Trick" on his video series volume III. It's in the same vein but has an even more simplistic method. He actually started doing it as a joke, but people were continually fooled by it.

Yes, I know that one. I have his tapes and books... the stuff is great! He was working the Castle this week and did his cups and balls and a killer routine for the ambitious card. He's a very funny guy.
Greg

I do card warp with other people's cards and a torn & restored... I do ask if I can fold the cards, but after I'm done they don't care about the damage. Most people have old decks that are incomplete and it seems more amazing to them when you do something startling like Card Warp because they know they are not trick cards. Always ask, but you would be surprised how many people let you do it.
Greg

Simple is my key with a borrowed deck... try something like the Drunken Shuffle, or.. if you really like slieghts.. you could probably get away with some packet add ons like the Braue Addon to do some switching... just my thought

a short ambitious card routine, or some prediction short effects, where spectator shuffles the deck himself, or some more "sleightful" David Regals Streamlined Assembly, which is impromtu and you need only 4 jacks (aces or whatever) and 12 indifferent cards...

Martin

With a borrowed deck, I sometimes have the need to show off and display my skills. Through time, I realize the things that impresses them the most are simple stuff.
A simple DL to make a card change in the spectators hands. Layman love that stuff, and if it's with their own cards, they will go crazy. I often have two selected cards replaced in the deck... "Is this your card Mike? No, but if I give it a snap, it changes... Here, Sarah hold Mike's card.. let me look for yours... Sorry, I'm not used to other people's cards.... d**n, can't find it. Actually look in your hands Sarah.. Mike's card has changed to yours!"

A very strong trick with a borrowed shuffled deck is Paul Harris' "Reflex". I follow Darwin Ortiz's suggestions about presentation given in his "Strong Magic". IMO a good opening trick is "Four-Way Coincidence" by John Murray in Card Cavalcade II (not totally sure about the number, sorry). Many times I'll do Steve Freeman's "Time Machine" which originally appeared in Genii magazine in the early 80s.

I always liked Harris' Reflex better than the improved (?) Whack your Pack. Gets a great reaction. Only more recently did I realize it was probably based on Hamman's Billy The Kid.

There are so many good tricks you can do I can't pick a favourite.

Paul.

If I had to choose a trick to do with a borrowed shuffled torn and screwed up deck, I would have to say Card Warp and T&R which I have been doing for many years as it stands. Now, I would even go as far as doing a riffle glimpse force and do a mind reading effect. OR, OR, OR, OR! EWWW, Do a deck switch and restore the cards to new! The resurrection deck! WHY NOT! Deck switches are used all the time.... and say I can't do anything with this let me fix it... BOOM NEW DECK! Ten do anything you want!

Enigma

A recent entry is "J.J.'s Hummer" that appeared in the April, 2002 "Linking Ring".

I have an effect I myself came up with just for those occasions when somebody sticks a deck of cards in your face. It's called Choice Cut. One spectator selects ANY four-of-a-kind, or four different people each have a card selected and all are hopelessly lost in the deck. The deck is cut into four piles, and VOILA, their selections are topmost. You can probably figure it out, but if you ever want to learn my method, visit me at my website.

Triumph is a powerful effect, but not one you would want to attempt with a dog-eared beer stained deck of cards..

I'd stay away from any sort of riffle shuffle effect.

Steven Youell

I totally disagree .... I can do a triumph ion the hands that blows folks away .. and can be done with the siysthte of decks

Enigma

I believe Mr. Youell might be referring to the original Vernon routine that uses a push-through false shuffle. That move is very tough to do with a deck that is trashed.

Certainly, there are Triumph variants that don't have such restrictions on the condition of a deck. Lorraine's Slop Shuffle is used in many versions and is easy to do with almost any deck condition.

BTW, what does "the siysthte of decks" mean? I'm curious.

I have to say there have been some excellent suggestions, for tricks with a borrowed deck. I wonder if anyone has tried colour monte with a borrowed deck, this effect is extremly simple and a card trick classic. As for the problem of only have one of each card (whilst the Spectator should at least believe you have two matching cards) I use the jokers, in many card decks other than US Card Co. the Jokers are identical. If the spec has a pack of Bicycles I 'ring in' a duplicate joker. That said no one has ever said to me but the jokers are not identical' non-magicians just don't seem to notice this kind of thing!

Best of luck
Dave

Try the Professor's "The Trick that Cannot Be Explained." It is a terrific way to practice many subtle principles and it can be done with any deck regardless of condition.

Dick Zimmerman once did this for a group of Magicians after a night of magic in Detroit. His lecture was outstanding, but all they talked about was this trick. Of course, Dick was incredibly lucky, but you'd be surprised how often this trick works out that way.

Dick wrote the name of a card on a matchbook, allowed the spectator to shuffle and cut, turned over the top card and the card staring us in the face was the prediction in the matchbook. That was quite a few 24 hours ago now, and I've done the trick literally thousands of times since. The ending is always a surprise - to me! and that makes it as much fun for me as it is for the spectator. PSC

Hello there Pennjarr!!

YES! YES! YES! I've been doing 'Color Monte' for a number of years now, with a borrowed deck. It's a great effect... and looks even better with regular (borrowed) cards.

- - Troy

I go for OOTW with no set-up or an in the hands triumph. I should add that I usually hit a couple of classic forces and do prediction stuff first. When I blow the force (or feel it is time to move on) I go to Triumph. Those are what I like to start with, at least, with a deck that has seen many a better day.

I would perform Intercept (a really amazing mental card trick, the spectator selects a card by thinking) and homing card plus. These are powerful card effects and can be done with a borrowed deck. Also the spectator cut's the aces.

If the deck is in relativly good shape I would perform set reset Plus (as described in Roberto Giobbi's card college) and the Dance of the cannibals. I find, that performing such effects with a borrowed deck, is more effective.

Paul Cummins has a set of lecture notes called From A shuffled Deck in Use or FASDIU for short. He is offering volume 2 for sale now. These were the notes from FFFF this year. There are many nice items in these books.

Mike Powers