The way I use a marked deck might be obvious to some of you reading this, especially after the last post. Regardless, I figured it was best to document an experience I had with marked cards.
A while ago, I traveled to visit some distant family members I had not seen in over a decade. It’s become a special memory for me. They had heard I did magic tricks but had never seen me do anything before. I had no idea what to do, but I had packed a deck of DMC marked cards with me. The cards were in the Mnemonica stack. There was a slight language barrier, so I wanted to do something direct.
I was sitting in the living room, and was waiting for one of my family members to come out of his room. He was shy, but was persuaded by family to come out to see some magic.
After some small talk, I sat the cards down in front of him after doing some false shuffles. I decided to do Mnemonicosis, a favorite of mine when I’m feeling lazy.
He ended up (after much thought) deciding on the 2 of Hearts. I did the “If you were to pick a number, 1 or 2,” gambit popularized by Juan Tamariz and Dani DaOrtiz. He picked 2. I invited him to deal two cards off the top of the deck, and there was his 2 of Hearts.
He stared blankly at the cards. After some silence, a smile lit up his face.
Truth be told, I wanted to leave it there, and end “magic time”. I thought to do more would be to tarnish this lovely moment. But after some silence, another family member asked for more very politely. I couldn’t say no, but had no idea what to do. My mind went blank.
I asked the shy one to take the cards and shuffle them. He said he couldn’t shuffle, but everyone in the room insisted he just do anything to mix the cards. I invited him to do a wash style shuffle but he ended up taking two piles and trying to mush them together.
Of course, they didn’t magically faro and the cards started falling all over the carpet. I could tell he felt a little embarrassed. Another family member came to help pick up the cards, and did a Hindu-style shuffle for him. Afterwards, I noticed the top card’s markings, the 4 of Diamonds. I recalled the reveal included on the box.
Without taking the deck, I immediately moved into a simple cross-cut force, and revealed.
Gasps filled the room, followed by a stunned silence. I finally ended the performance there, dismissing their protests this time, and our conversation eventually moved on.
So, what is the moral of the story?
Well, it’s another one about the importance of marked cards and knowing when to quit, yes. But it’s also about how even if you aren’t planning on doing any trick that uses marked cards it’s still very useful to have them anyway.
Additionally, being aware of the marks you see (without staring) can be very helpful in most situations and help you stay quick on your feet, especially if you have a card reveal somewhere on your person.
Overall, you should use a marked deck, even if you avoid tricks that explicitly use one.
That’s the long story short. But, more on all this in the next post, tomorrow.