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The Daily Magician

Best Playing Cards For Magic Tricks

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There’s only one item standing between you and unlimited magic tricks- the number one most important item a card magician can carry around with him. That is, of course, an actual deck of playing cards. There are a lot of different types of playing cards and decks on the market, and sifting through them all can be an exhausting task.

But get this-

YOU CAN’T GO WRONG WITH A SIMPLE DECK OF BICYCLE PLAYING CARDS.bicycle-playing-cards

The classic Bicycle decks have remained the reigning heavyweight of decks for magicians for a reason- they’re well-made, instantly recognizable and extremely affordable. If you are new to card magic, pick up a blue pack and a red pack and you can last for months on them. You can get two decks for under a fiver at Amazon, and most other magic shops.

But what about people looking for casino style cards?

The Bicycle equivalent within the borderless decks is undoubtedly the Bee line of cards. A sub-branch of Bicycle, they are a classy yet durable and efficient pack of cards (they are also very affordable too). They are also available at Amazon and most magic shops.

 

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That covers the most common divisions of playing cards, but there is also the whole other world of gaff (or trick) decks. It’s important to note that-

YOU DON’T NEED TRICK DECKS TO PERFORM GOOD TRICKS

Almost all of my favorite tricks can be done with a completely regular deck; I think it adds to the effect if you can hand out the cards for inspection afterward! That being said, there are a few great trick decks that most magicians will have covered at some point in their life.

The Stripper deck was the first magic trick I learnt, and even today I will use it if I feel like taking a break from sleight-heavy and stressful tricks. It enables you to locate and remove any chosen card at any time, which makes for a huge number of possibilities. It is fairly cheap- just under a tenner at Amazon.

I’ve mentioned The Invisible Deck before, but I think it deserves another mention on this list too. The Invisible Deck is definitely the best trick card deck money can buy you! The spectator thinks of a card, and straightaway you can reveal that the very card they were thinking of was turned upside down in your deck all along! It really is as good as it sounds- it’s not perfect, but it’s pretty close.

Finally, the One-Way Force deck is a trick deck that may seem extravagant, but in reality is surprisingly inconspicuous when used right. This deck consists of 52 of the same cards, meaning you can force people to always pick that card, whilst giving the appearance of a completely free choice. You do have to be careful whilst using this; it is better to use it to help strengthen a trick rather than base a trick on it. It can also be found at Amazon.

Whilst trick decks can help you produce some great magic tricks, you can’t go far wrong with a couple of Bicycle decks and a few hours practice.

How To Make A Card Float!

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If you want to learn magic, making a card float is probably one of the tricks you’ll need to learn sooner or later. This is a classic magic trick that almost every magician can do a version of. But where to go about learning it?

Learning how to make a card float is not as difficult as it sounds, but it will take either time, or money.

Now why do I say this? Well, you can either learn how to throw a card in a multitude of ways that suggest you have some kind of gravitational sway over it, or you can shell out a bit of cash and let a gimmick do the trick for you.

Both tutorials have their pros and cons. If you can learn to throw cards, then you don’t need to spend any money, or carry anything around with you to make it happen. You could even do it with other people’s playing cards! Essentially, its impromptu. The downside to this approach is that no matter how good you get, it will never look as realistic as it does when you pay for the secret.

In the end, it’s down to you to make the decision- or, alternatively, you could study both ways!

One of the cheapest and most loved methods of making a card float is through the use of Yigal Mesika’s Loops; they’re mobile, easy to use, and you get a bunch of them in a pack. I can’t say too much without revealing the secret, but check out the reviews to see what other people are saying- Just search for Loops by Yigal Mesika and there will be a whole host of results.

The next product is also a classic- Hummer’s Whirling Card. This method is a tried and tested way of getting a card to float- you can even get it to float all the way around your body; there’s not much else to say about it! You can read more about it by checking out this updated post here.

Okay, this final one, also by Yigal Mesika, is expensive. Don’t buy this one unless you are sure you want to- it is a great trick, just make sure you’re certain first. This trick essentially takes the concept of Hummer’s Card and does all the work for you- all you have to do is go out and blow minds!

It’s called Tarantula and it is available from most magic shops, just simply search ‘Tarantula 2 Magic Trick’.

How to make a card float without any gimmicks:

There are a few YouTube videos that show you how to throw cards better than I can explain, so I suggest that you watch these first, then come back here afterwards.

This video details how to throw a card into the air and have it return to your hand like a boomerang, which is a really nice effect to learn.

And finally this video shows you how to just throw a card the old fashioned way, no tricks.

Learning how to make a card float will either take a bit of time, or a bit of money. But either way, when you first show it off to someone, their face will make it all worth it!

About Us

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“How Did 2 College-Aged Amateurs Build a Loyal Following of 3,000+ Magicians—Including Many Of The World’s Best Performers—in just 6 Months?”

Dear friend,

Can we tell you a secret?

We’ve spent the last few years thinking very hard about a whole lot of topics that seem to have ZERO connection to magic.

However, during the time we spent purposefully not studying magic…

We’ve discovered more ‘secrets’ about achieving success in magic than in any magic book we’ve ever read!

Over the last 6 months, our practice of these ‘outsider’ principles has resulted in thousands of magicians signing up for and reading our daily newsletter.

How?

To explain how this phenomenon works, let us tell you about two of the men who have impacted our magic the most—yet who have no connection to magic themselves!

The first is a man named Jay Abraham.

He was the first person to clearly show us a philosophy that changed how we approached magic.

Here is that philosophy:

“Breakthroughs come by going outside the source.”

Perhaps some examples would illustrate this…

1. FedEx, famous for its overnight delivery, borrowed the ‘hub and spoke’ model they use from the system the banks use to clear checks overnight.

2. Roll-on deodorant borrowed its mechanism from the humble ball-point pen!

The bottom line is this:

When you think differently and explore concepts outside of magic, you almost always discover concepts and ideas that you can ‘borrow’ and bring back to magic.

Honestly, it’s like an unfair advantage. No one else knows this stuff—and why would they?

If they’re only studying magic, they’re only going to keep on finding what everyone else is finding.

In other words, their growth can only be linear.

But if you draw your inspiration from sources that no one else has ever touched, you’ll be able to do things that no one else has ever even thought about!

Your growth will be exponential.

THAT’S how you become the smartest magician in the room.

However…

By definition, thinking differently is hard. It’s challenging. It takes you outside your comfort zone—outside the cookie jar of magic.

In other words, it gives you PROBLEMS.

But far from being a bad thing—that’s exactly what magicians need right now!

To explain, let us tell you about the next man we want to pay homage to—Ray Dalio, economist and legendary investor.

In his incredible book, Principles, he talks about how the process of evolving via confronting and overcoming these problems will help you ‘ascend’ to higher and higher levels.

From your new vantage point, you’ll be able to see that most of the problems are similar in type—and that the same solutions will work across different industries, hobbies and pursuits.

This is the secret.

This methodology is what we’re going to show you how to do and apply to magic, step-by-step, by simply reading our emails.

If all that sounds intimidating, don’t worry.

We walk you through it step by step, email by email.

In the meantime, you can see these techniques in action on our official podcast, Of Sleights and Men.

You can start listening by clicking below…