I’ve been doing a residency for the past few months and in that time, week after week I’ve seen an improvement across my performances, presentations and prestidigitation.
It also allowed me the freedom to develop sets, predominantly to keep things fresh for myself and hone new material. I’ve now developed three sets that I perform which are known as Blue Deck, Red Deck and Mentalism Set, but we’re not going to get into the details of my sets right now. But if you’re interested in my openers, you can read about them in this post.
We’re going to look at my three closers, why I use them and how you can help me make one of my closers better!
Omni Deck
I know I know; magicians will spout that everyone does Omni Deck and it’s overused, and you shouldn’t do it anymore but that’s definitely not what audiences say when they open their hands to see a clear block of plastic in place of their cards!
I’m amazed at how versatile this gimmick is in terms of routines to get into it, what you can potentially do during and afterwards. There’s so much misdirection that you can do a sloppy job switching it in and no one would notice, but always aim to do it as best as possible please.
I first learned Shawn Farquhar’s handling of Omni Deck from his Penguin Live lecture back in 2012 before changing to a handling I learnt from Michael O’Brien in his The Imagine Nation Project Vol1 book where he uses a holdout called the Switcheroo. Although he uses it for a different routine, I decided to use it for the Omni Deck. Shawn’s handling was great, but I could never perfect it, and I didn’t like how much I was fumbling to get the gimmick in play. The Switcheroo allowed me to free up pocket space too, which is always a premium when working walkaround.
I typically perform Omni Deck at the end of an ambitious card routine with a signed card and have switched between the usual “disappearing” deck presentation to a variation by James Brown on his Professional Opportunist DVD (which appears impossible to find now) where the participant imagines seeing through the deck and having their signed card stare back in their face. It has been getting different reactions which I found interesting, it’s like they aren’t sure what they’re looking at because it’s such an odd sight whereas the typical presentation gets massive “You got me!” responses.
Due to the way I currently perform where I want to direct patrons to my Instagram so I need the cards again for a follow up effect. So instead of doing a full switch out of the deck, I just return the cards to the box and place it on the table while they’re signing the card. As mentioned above there’s so much misdirection nobody notices what I’m doing. This moment of relaxation allows me to accomplish other effects I’ll get into another time, but here, I can ring in the Omni deck with ease. Then after the climax of the routine I usually get questions like “Where did the deck go!?”, to which I respond by making it reappear in the card box. I know there’s a better presentation to affect the return of the cards which I haven’t stumbled upon yet, but if you have ideas, please let me know (but this isn’t how you can help with a trick I do, that comes later!)
I also have a Phantom Deck, which I’m slowly starting to play with to see what the reactions are like. Let me know if you have a preference for those who perform with both!
What’s In a Name
My mentalism set was born out of comments from people wanting more from magic outside of rubber band and card tricks.
The set is still evolving as I trial out different routines but so far my constant and reliable closer has been Oz Pearlman’s What’s In a Name1. There are many parts to making this routine work and I’m still getting better at them, namely the tear and load. The only way to get better at the tear is to actually do it, and I’ve found that I don’t necessarily need to rush the actions which is what I previously did so if you’re learning the tear as well, don’t feel like you have to rush through it because you think people are burning your hands.
The load I have gotten around by adding a tangent effect in-between. Even though people may forget that you took out a notepad, I decided to utlilise it with an extra effect, namely the 37 number force. I got this idea from Anton James in his At The Table lecture and it’s been a great confidence booster to include as I get better at this routine. I tear out the number prediction and hand it to someone while explaining what I want them to think of and as they open the paper up to reveal the number I’m loading the wallet accordingly.
If you’ve seen Oz perform2 this effect, you know the types of reactions you can get and it’s very hard to follow up with another effect once you’ve read their mind in such a personal way.
Phone Photo Transpo
The final closer that I use, which is part of my Blue Deck set is one I am certain nobody does because I developed it from another effect and it’s also the routine I need your help in improving.
I learnt the basic effect from one of Jay Sankey’s YouTube tutorial videos, which might be surprising to some of you reading but Sankey is a creative powerhouse and still puts out gems now and then.
The original effect is presented as a psychic feat, where the participant is shown a facedown card, Jay asks if they know what it is, then shows that it’s a Queen of Hearts (for example), he then offers to take a photo of the card before the participant attempts to find it. The photo is taken, and Queen is lost into the pack while the participant holds the phone in-between their hands. The participant stops at a card during a dribble and finds the Queen. A question is asked what happens if you pick the wrong card, so a different is chosen, and used to make a magical gesture towards the phone where instead of a photo of the Queen it’s now the new selection.
There was something about this effect that I liked, and I tried it out as Jay taught for a few performances but found my audiences were making comments like “I thought the photo would change to the card I named earlier”, which is a great lesson in listening to your audience. So, I reworked the routine, and this is how it looks now.
I take out a random card and ask if the participant knows what it is. They guess and check the card.
If it hits, then claim credit otherwise move on
Mention that you’ll do something with this card instead and offer to take a photo of it. You take a photo of the group you’re performing for and the card.
You lose the card into the pack and have the participant cut the the cards onto the phone.
After a recap they check the card, they cut to and see that it’s the card we took a photo of.
You mention that this wasn’t the card they really wanted originally and after confirming what it was look through the deck to locate it but find that it’s gone. You mention that you put a card into your wallet earlier, showing that it was the card they named.
You mention that we can now take a photo with this card, but as a magician you don’t do things twice and after a magical gesture ask the participant to check their phone, whereupon they see the card is now their named selection.
I really like these changes as I feel like it makes the effect seem more impossible the more they think about it and every time they look at the photo, they’ll hopefully remember me.
But here is where you, my helpful readers come in. How can I make the effect better? As good as I think it is, there’s improvements to be made, I’m sure. Here are some thoughts I’ve had so far.
I’d like to be able to insert myself in the photo somehow but haven’t worked out a way yet.
I need a way to distract or prevent people from getting to the ending early right after I take a photo since I don’t let them see it straight away.
I’m sure some of you will be able to replicate this effect with your own knowledge of sleights but when I’m satisfied with this effect, I may write it up for those interested.
I learnt this from his Penguin Live Lecture
Would it work, I wonder, to ask a second person to take the picture of you and the first person holding the card?
I guess there is a risk of the picture taker noticing a discrepancy in the photo, but perhaps asking them to immediately place the phone face down on the table could work?
Thanks, David! Your constant practice, combining elements, and willingness to try something to see how it works is a challenge and encouragement to me that I should be doing the same more consistently.