Magic Tricks

So, you pick up Dani Daortiz's "52 To 1" from the "Borrowed Deck Project," Chapter 4, thinking, 'Alright, a borrowed deck! Impromptu, clean, right out of the spectator's mitts.' And then you start watching the explanation, and reality sets in.

The hype of a "borrowed deck" usually whispers 'impromptu' in your ear, doesn't it? Like you can just walk into a room, snatch a deck from old Bob's poker night, and bang, miracles. Not here, friend. Not by a long shot.

There's a vital bit of grunt work you gotta do beforehand. A prep that requires you to cozy up to the very location where you're gonna perform. Which, right off the bat, shoots the whole "impromptu" notion dead in the water. Maybe you work in the same venues all the time, and that's not an issue. But you need to be aware of that requirement BEFORE you buy.

And then there's the spectator. Unless your audience consists of folks who've had a recent run-in with a short-term memory eraser, or perhaps are currently suffering from a severe case of goldfish-brain, this thing simply will not fly. There's no amount of stage presence, no amount of 'audience control', that's gonna save you when your spectator remembers what you're showing them RIGHT NOW is not WHAT THEY JUST SAW.

And God help you, what if the kind soul you ask to borrow a deck from hands you a different one than the one you have prepared for this trick? I realize red and blue Rider decks are the most common, but they're not the only ones out there.

Look, Dani's a genius, no argument there. And he provides a neat way to work a crowd to narrow down choices to get that chosen card. But it's the same one he revealed in his "Chaos" project, and for a much neater trick. This trick has too many holes to make it workable. It feels like a side dish that should've stayed in the kitchen. Save your money here and go get the tricks from "Chaos." You'll thank me later.