Guys I need to be able to switch a shuffled deck for a stacked one in as direct a way as possible (no hands going to the pockets with the deck etc) this is easy enough seated at the table and can be covered by cutting the deck well enough but I'd like to do it standing. If I need a gimmik that's fine but can people point me in the right direction to crack this one.

So performing a deck vanish and having it re-appear (stacked deck) isn't feasible?

I have a gimmick from another trick, I dont want to list the trick because it might give it away.

The gimmick is a card box, with the bottom cut out, that way you can have the stacked deck on the table inside the card box, and then while the other deck is on the table with some misdirection you just pick up the box shell and place it over the shuffled deck leaving the stacked deck out for use.

Make sense?

Barrie Richardson has like three deck switches in his book Act Two. Roberto Giobbi has published some deck switches in his Genii column. David Regal has a pretty subtle one in his book Approaching Magic. Or you could go the route of Juan Tamariz and just do a good-old two pocket switch.

Toppit would be my first guess.

no I don't want to give thre impression that anything has really happened to the deck after the shuffle. I want the spec to shuffle and return the deck and then maybe a cut or a moment of patter explaining what I'm doing, maybe while casually handling the deck. I have the option of ringing in the cooler under the cover of bringing out a note book or something providing I can think of motivation in the presentation and then make the switch using that for cover still I'm looking for alternatives. I'll follow the leads already posted, thanks so far anyway.

Look into some gambling material, there are tons of ways of ringing a cooler in under the impression of a cut

yeah as I said I'm good when seated to just cut the pack but I can't dump the hot deack while standing the way I could while seated that's what's got me flumoxed really.

An optional way could be to buy the deck seals http://www.penguinmagic.com/product.php?ID=1409
and just give the impression that it's a new order deck. Then a few false shuffles, and you're good to go.

There's also the deck shell and the deck shell DVD, where they teach a switch

LOLOL. Someone watched that Penn and Teller show...

Bahaha yes this true... but as I have been into gambling magic since like day one, I already knew that term lol

I was thinking the same thing

Haha...That term is as old as the hills guys. Penn was certainly not the first magician to use it. In fact it probably means that Penn watched "Shade."


If you are good when seated...seriously toppit. Especially if you will cut the deck. You are basically lapping in a different direction. In the action of switching the deck from one hand to the other make the switch. Come back to your coat to grab a pen from your inside breast pocket. Make the ditch and grab the pen. This is not a burnable move but with misdirection it should work. Now all you need is an excuse for the pen.

the deck needs to be shuffled by the spec unfortunately. The nature of the trick needs to eliminate the idea of a stacked deck (which obviously it is)

Ok yeah topit seems like a good idea here I'll look into it thanks for all the input.


Oh and I haven't watched any of "Fool Us" yet but I've heard great things. Certainly much better than what I've seen of BBC's magicians. Gonna catch up with the show online when my desktop's fixed.


btw which is better? the David Penn dvd or the Michael Ammar dvd?

Moot point, last I checked. The Michael Ammar dvd has been "set for re-release" for the last two years. You might find a used copy on the secondary market. Penn's will include the toppit and it will be good to go with a short amount of work. Ammar just sells the pattern and you will need to get a tailor to install it....still it's only $6.00. My personal recomendation(at least until Ammars DVD hits the market again) is get David Penn's.