Hello and a bit about blinds and coolers

My name is Alex.

I've been reading for a while, but never posted. I thought I would introduce myself and talk a little about some theory.

I do a routine of false cuts and shuffles and end by revealing the deck in order. Before the big reveal, I allow an audience member to shuffle the cards and "ring in a cooler" for the finish.
I was discussing the blind shuffles and their difficulties with a friend who is not a magician or card handler. His response was "why do your shuffles need to be fake if you switch the deck?"

I've been doing this routine for a long time. I have collected a notebook full of blinds. But why should it matter if the deck gets exchanged anyway.

Shuffling by a spectator is a huge part of the effect. When I removed it, to show instead that it's all my hands, it feels more gratifying. But a lot of the magic for the audience is gone. If I keep it in, then my hard work and the parts I love about practice become meaningless.


Similarly: In Drawing Room Deceptions, there is an elaborate gambling routine in chapter four. I wont ruin or expose any part of this, except to say that there is full deck stack that must

1. be taken through a system of careful stock shuffling and
2. must not be revealed to have been in a stack to begin with.

Why wouldn't we just start with a stack that has already been culled and then execute blinds? The stock he teaches is very specific and leaves the performer in a dangerous situation if it should go wrong. I happen to think stacking from the end position of this routine and doing a push-through riffle shuffle is considerably safer and changes nothing about the presentation or effect.


I'd like to hear other people's thoughts.

Hello,
Alex
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sendmindsacrosseons
Jan 26, 2017
2,173
1,338
23
Virginia
Hi Alex, and welcome to the forums!

Let me just make sure I'm understanding this right:
1. You already have a deck out that you have been performing with, and have Cooler set up to switch the hot deck for a stacked one
2. You do a series of both stock and fake shuffles as well as stock and fake cuts
3. At some point during your performance, you will switch this deck out for a stacked one
4. You continue performing with the stacked deck

There are a few reasons why I would start with the stacked deck in Cooler, and use a hot deck, but a few criteria must be met first.

First, lets say you're table hopping, or you're performing the same routine back to back to back. You start with a card routine that does not require a stack, and switch to the stacked deck as the closer, or as an intermediate trick. If this is the case, then you would want

The second is simply to improve the effect. If I were making a card routine with a stacked deck and a deck switch, it would probably go like this.
1. Opening card trick with no stacked deck, something eye grabbing
2. Follow up trick allowing the audience to shuffle the deck a few times during the performance, subtly making note of it to them both times.
3. As soon as all the dirty work is done for that effect, switch to the cold deck which is in stack. Reveal the first effect.
4. Continue with the stacked routine, no need to shuffle. Continue on from the last effect as if this is a continuation through your patter and subtly remind the audience the deck is stacked. Just make sure that if a card was removed in the previous effect you don't accidentally have them select it here (or have them put it back in the deck and just ditch the card).
5. Do whatever effects you need to do with the stacked deck
6. Either switch the decks back so that the cards can be inspected, or shuffle the stacked deck if you don't need them in stack anymore.
7. If that wasn't your closer, you can continue with the not stacked deck if needed.

HOWEVER, there really is no need for the magician to do fake shuffles at any point in these routines. In both cases, I would let the audience shuffle the stackless deck, and then not make a big deal out of it. That's because even though you the performer know that there are 2 decks, the audience only ever sees one deck. To them, the deck was the same one that they shuffled up, and by hinting to the fact that they actually did shuffle a deck, you don't need to shuffle it every time. The fact that they mixed it up, and the fact that you have multiple effects fit together to make one seemingly seamless performance gets rid of the need for the magician to shuffle the cards at all. Any time that the magician begins playing with the cards, most of the audience has some thought in the back of their minds that we are messing with the cards. If you don't need to mess with the cards, why bother letting them think that?

Something that I sometimes like to do with my effects, performances, and routines is that, once I'm done learning/making them is that I rip every piece out of them that isn't absolutely necessary to the method. I then add back only the ones that truly make the trick feel different, but not necessarily look different. For example, do I really need to palm away a card if I'm just going to put the deck in my pocket for the rest of the effect? No I don't, so why bother? I'm sure it'll look cleaner when I hand the deck to someone, but the moment I put the deck in my pocket, the presentation no longer needs the deck. All the magic will happen outside of the deck now, so there isn't really a reason to inspect it.

Now of course, this is different if you want to start with the cold stacked deck. At that point, you can't exactly let your audience handle the cards so you have 2 options. Look at these through the eyes of a spectator. Which would feel more "magical".

A) Magician brings out his own deck, does an effect, does his own shuffles and cuts, does an effect with them, and lets you see the cards at the end.
B) Magician brings out his own deck, lets you shuffle them up, does a couple effects with them, and lets you see the cards at the end.

In the second case, he switched the deck after letting you shuffle, alongside what the first guy did, which was to switch the deck at the end.

I'll end with this. If you've ever listened to Metallica, you'll know that Kirk Hammett has some of the most killer solos in there songs (especially the old ones). However, he is most definitely not the best guitarist in the world. His solos never seem to be as full as someone like Steve Vai during his instrumentals. Why? Because he understands, and I'm paraphrasing this, that even though he knows how to do everything, he doesn't need to throw everything at the audience at once. Meanwhile, while Steve Vai has crazy talent and is probably better than Kirk, he needs to throw everything out there sometimes, just because that's his style. But when Kirk has to perform a live solo that isn't part of one of the songs, he also has to throw everything out. The funny thing is, both of these guys learned to play from the same person. So while they know the same stuff, there approach is different. They need to do what's better to fit there style.

Similarly, magicians need to pick and choose their techniques and methods to best fit the style of their current performance. The thing I love about deck switches is that it already leaves you clean, and it allows you to do things at your own timing with them. In most cases with a deck switch, the magic can allow the magic to happen in the audiences hands for at least part of the routine. Just because you know a ton of maneuvers, doesn't necessarily mean they'll fit in all scenarios, so don't try to cram them in.

So overall, there isn't always a reason to do false cuts and shuffles, especially if there is a great alternative, like a deck switch, nearby. However, this isn't a 100% thing. You kinda just have to feel it out. Sometimes a deck switch is just not the right way to go depending on the setting.

Sorry for the long response, but this is something I have thought about a lot.
 

RealityOne

Elite Member
Nov 1, 2009
3,744
4,076
New Jersey
HOWEVER, there really is no need for the magician to do fake shuffles at any point in these routines.
***
Any time that the magician begins playing with the cards, most of the audience has some thought in the back of their minds that we are messing with the cards.
***
Something that I sometimes like to do with my effects, performances, and routines is that, once I'm done learning/making them is that I rip every piece out of them that isn't absolutely necessary to the method. I then add back only the ones that truly make the trick feel different, but not necessarily look different.

Brilliant.

His response was "why do your shuffles need to be fake if you switch the deck?"

I've been doing this routine for a long time. I have collected a notebook full of blinds. But why should it matter if the deck gets exchanged anyway.

The answer is because you like to do false shuffles.

To expand on what @Maaz Hasan said, put your focus on the audience's experience. One shuffle by the magician often is enough to convince the audience that the cards are shuffled. Five shuffles convinces the audience that the magician has done "something" (in addition to boring them to death) with the cards. The presence of that "something" leads to the loss of any concept of magic and the performance devolves into a presentation of skill.
 
Searching...
{[{ searchResultsCount }]} Results