"Let me see the deck"

[Slicke]

Let say you are performing using the Invisible deck or a Svengali deck or whatever gimmicks or gaff you have in the deck you are using and just after the performance , the spectator wants to see the deck :O ... What do you do ?

 

[KeoSilver]

I do two deck switches one too get the deck in and one to get the deck out if that makes any sense.

 

[NJillusionist3]

Well I remember what worked for me with the svengali was just dribbling the cards to show them all different and saying, "I just did at least twice." And if they pursue just keep up the "already did" act. Or you can do deck switches, that is obviously more sneaky and will shut them up, but is obviously harder to master. Although I haven't done any deck switches so i can't really speak for the difficulty.

 

[manipulator]

This is a great topic to audience management. If you have great audience management, then they won't ask. I never have that problem anymore. What do I mean by audience management, well you need to learn how to present the trick in a way that they will just be stunned or speechless. I think if the trick is performed really well, then you don;t need to over sell it buy showing the deck. If the trick is not done so well, then the trick might look suspicious and they may want to take a second look.

 

[Jo_Vision]

This is a great topic to audience management. If you have great audience management, then they won't ask. I never have that problem anymore. What do I mean by audience management, well you need to learn how to present the trick in a way that they will just be stunned or speechless. I think if the trick is performed really well, then you don;t need to over sell it buy showing the deck. If the trick is not done so well, then the trick might look suspicious and they may want to take a second look.

Audience management will reduce the amount of people asking to hold the deck, but there will always be skeptics no matter how well you perform. It is a good idea to be prepared to deal with such a case, and I think it is probably a good idea to work it out in such a way that you can hand them "the" deck via a deck switch or something because if you have a skeptic and you don't give them a deck to look at they are probably going to become even more skeptical. Maybe there is an excuse or some patter you could give them that would deter them, but I imagine it would have to be pretty good.

 

[visualartist]

You were supposed to eliminate any idea of a possible suspicious deck before the trick started.
I had the same problem years ago. Now, no one asks me that question.

 

[Nino]

I have a idea. You can to some tricks that doesn't require gimmicks or setup. When ask to see the deck you can show them and they won't find anything. So then you do a deck switch to switch to the invisble deck. All cross they need to use the same backs. Because you don't what to use red bikes then go to invisble shadow deck it will cause problems. It just a idea don't know if it will work because I don't have a invisble deck

 

[praetoritevong]

Alright, there are several different answers that come to mind.

First and most importantly: Why are they asking to see the deck anyway? Yeah, there are some people who are just naturally like that. But these people are few and far between. I can't tell you the number of times I've seen someone say "Oh, he was just naturally intuitive" or something along those lines. And I try performing for them myself, and find that they asked to see their deck, but not mine. Truth is, if you think your spectator is just "like that", chances are, they're not, so think again, and think carefully: what are you doing?

Secondly, there are a lot of practical ways to deal with this. In no particular order, some general groupings would be:

a) Subtlety to prevent this from happening
b) Remove the gimmick
c) Switch the deck
d) Just show them the deck anyway

a) would include things like flashing the deck, handling the deck openly, starting with an effect which uses a normal deck and letting them examining it, etc.

b) would include things like palming a double backer out, etc

c) would include an in the open deck switch, the use of a deck shell, or even just putting your deck away immediately (but subtly!) after use

d) may sound counterintuitive, but you'd be surprised how easily a double backer etc goes unnoticed. The more hesitant you are, the harder they'll look. Often they don't really want to examine the deck - it's just their first reaction (refer to note one above).

 

[Jo_Vision]

Another thing that I would say is use "normal" decks that people are used to seeing such as red/blue bikes etc. I was using a ghost deck and one of my friends who is very very skeptical of everything flipped out and wanted to inspect it because he had never seen that type of deck before. I was clean so it was o.k. but that is just a suggestion.

 

[RikAllen]

Another subtlety that you can use with a Svengali is to fan the deck before doing the trick. If you give it a few fans casually before shuffling and during your introduction the deck will appear normal. No one looks closely enough to notice the repeating card, just flash the faces and act like you don't care.

I also let spectators shuffle and cut the Svengali. I sometimes 'predict' the card they will cut to (from sealed envelope if you like). If they are handling the cards and have been shown different cards then they won't even be thinking of the deck, but how did you know?!? The prediction is also good cover for a quick deck switch (of which I know of a few...only ever use one.)

Audience management is probably one of the most understudied areas of magic. Two things come into play with this though.
A. Being able to control the audience

and

B. Knowing when to do what tricks

(there is a lot more involved with audience management, but for now)

A. "You might want to stand over here, you'll see this much better."

B. You have someone you're not sure about, should you pull out the rubber bands and do Michael Ammar's linking headbands (or anything else with normal rubber bands) or do an invisible deck routine?
I love magic with everyday objects. Redline is something I enjoy doing a lot. Do people ask to see the chapstick? No.

I usually pull it out, put some one my lips (for real) re-cap it and then as an afterthought do some magic with it. They just saw me pull it out and use it, why would it be anything more than normal?

I don't know if any of this helps...but just some things to think about.

 

[juancard]

Alright, there are several different answers that come to mind.

First and most importantly: Why are they asking to see the deck anyway? Yeah, there are some people who are just naturally like that. But these people are few and far between. I can't tell you the number of times I've seen someone say "Oh, he was just naturally intuitive" or something along those lines. And I try performing for them myself, and find that they asked to see their deck, but not mine. Truth is, if you think your spectator is just "like that", chances are, they're not, so think again, and think carefully: what are you doing?

Secondly, there are a lot of practical ways to deal with this. In no particular order, some general groupings would be:

a) Subtlety to prevent this from happening
b) Remove the gimmick
c) Switch the deck
d) Just show them the deck anyway

a) would include things like flashing the deck, handling the deck openly, starting with an effect which uses a normal deck and letting them examining it, etc.

b) would include things like palming a double backer out, etc

c) would include an in the open deck switch, the use of a deck shell, or even just putting your deck away immediately (but subtly!) after use

d) may sound counterintuitive, but you'd be surprised how easily a double backer etc goes unnoticed. The more hesitant you are, the harder they'll look. Often they don't really want to examine the deck - it's just their first reaction (refer to note one above).

Seconded, especially the 'handle the deck openly', I do that all the time, 'voluntary exposure of the cards'.