THE INVISIBLE DECK by Eddie Fields

What The Audience Sees:

'Holy Smokes! Today Jamie told us that he brought an ivisible deck of cards with him and had me 'shuffle' them. He then had me pretend to pull one card out, look at it, turn it face down, and return it into the face up 'deck'. Well, after I did, Jamie pulled out a real deck of cards and asked me what card I reversed in the invisible deck. He showed me his deck and the card I named was reversed! Amazing!'

How It Went:

Well, there won't be any surprise that it went over incredibly well. It's funny because I never really perform the ID. I've had a couple for years and I'd occasionally pull one out but I've never really performed it regularly until I heard Bill Malone say that it was one of the three best card effects. After yesterday's reaction, I'm inclined to agree. I've been looking for effects to add to my new stage show (I'm almost exclusively a corporate Walk Around Magician)and after watching Bill's routine on his On The Loose series, I decided to give it a go. His version is pretty much the way I performed it, if time permitted.

At one office I went through the entire routine as I would have done it on a stage (it's slow at work in the summer) and I can't describe the reactions. If they weren't already standing, they would have done so. It went over that well.

Best Lines:
'There is NO F$%^&^% WAY!'
-just before I revealed the card. Hysteria broke out after the reveal.

'That's the Money! YEAH! The Money!'
-I think someone had just watched Jerry McGuire.

'That was the best card trick I've ever seen in my entire life'
-what can you say to that?

Actually, I'm not sure that last line should go into 'Best Lines' because it deals with one of the problems I've always had with the ID. Here I am, having put years into card sleights, memorization, shuffles, etc. and the ID comes along and blasts them. It just never sat well with me. It's only as I get older, however, that I'm able to let my pride go and say, "If the Audience loves it then use it. Meet your objective."

Angry Bob Rating:

I have a co-worker (Bob) whose uncle was a magician and thereby has a good working knowledge of how magic works. He's pretty grumpy but likes Magic Friday's because he can tell me how he figured out how the effect is done... A high rating means he'll never figure it out.

This one's easy-5/5. I was shocked, actually. I thought for sure Angry Bob's uncle would have shown this to him at one point or another but he hadn't. And Bob was floored. This kind of thing always surprises me. I read all the time about the horrors of exposure, with good cause, but to this day, I have never had a single spectator say, 'I know how that's done because I read it on the net or saw that in a magic shop.' Maybe I'll bust out the Svengali next month...

My Rating:

Despite the fact that it killed, I'm afraid I'm going to have to dock it a mark or so. I've always intended the Magic Fridays to represent the close up magic world and I'm afraid the ID is flawed in that one respect. Even though I didn't have a single person ask to examine the deck, if they did, and you weren't prepared (which I was) you could have a bit of a problem. Other than that, it's brilliant. So let's say 9/10. I would have given it 9.5 but you also have to deal with what I'm terming MATH ANXIETY. You would think a grown man (one who even won a Math Contest in Grade Six) would be able to think without second guessing himself but that wasn't always the case. Luckily I was always right. But the fear-too funny...

The JDG Tip:

Don't randomly guess on your Grade Six Math Contest, thereby winning, and disillusioning yourself throughout your entire life that you're an expert at arithmetic. Actually practice and you'll never have to worry.

Closing Thoughts:

I was a bit concerned that even writing this review might be getting dangerously close to exposure but since I haven't actually named the true name of this trick (the Hubalooba Trick Deck) there shouldn't be any problem if a random spectator read through this entire thing (which I highly doubt would ever happen)...
HAVE A GREAT SUMMER EVERYONE!

Jamie D. Grant

p.s. I'm taking a Magic Friday Vacation so this is the last installment until September. I hope you like the MF's as much as I enjoy writing them and please feel free to PM me with any thoughts or any effects you'd like to see in the future.

Take Care,

Jamie D. Grant
www.whatizit.net

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