I was performing in a restaurant this morning and my cards were hard to handle because of the humidity and the ink on the cards were smearing. Would baby powder do the trick before I start handling the cards or is there something more effective?

Wow! What kind of cars were they? Even in the hot and humid sweat-shop that is Dubai I've never had a smearing deck. Magazines and newspapers? Yes! But playing cards? No, not ever!

Try baby powder and switching your decks more often. In Vegas it is too dry and cards sometimes buckle a bit.

Uff. I cant imagine something like that. Maybe using playing cards with ink as least as possible.

See if you can find Fournier 605 playing cards. They are amazingly resistant to moisture.

Lee Asher sells them.

I believe Alladin cards are also resistant to humidity. I've never seen ink smear on cards. What brand were you using? I know this is an old thread, but I hope you see it.

Japan summers are notorious for being incredibly hot and humid, but I've never had a problem with smearing ink, even when performing outdoors in the blistering sun and sweating all over the cards. You can try the brands that have already been mentioned, but the option I use is just using a new deck every 30 minutes-1 hour, depending on how much card handling I do.

That being said, if I know I'm going to be performing in a super humid environment, I'll purposely add more mentalism, coin, dice, pen, etc. effects instead of a lot of card tricks. It's always an option, and shows your spectators that you're versatile. When I approach a group and say "I'm a magician," they immediately expect me to do card tricks, but when I bust out, say, an Oreo cookie package and do a few routines with the various Oreo gimmicks available (Cookie Bite, Overstuft), I find they become more engaged. Just my opinion.

D.