I use borderless cards most of the time. I love using borderless cards, and it seems that there are some misconceptions about using a deck without a border.

If magicians see me using it some assumptions are made. First, I can’t do anything with a reversed card. This is simply untrue. Reversing a single card in a borderless deck can be covered many different ways. Some are a little bit less graceful than others, like covering the whole edge of the deck with your hand. But others can be quite cleverly covered. A Veser holdout for example, can be quite effective if you can pull off a clean spread. Slightly injogging the card will accomplish the same thing from a relatively squared deck.

Now there are challenges. You can’t really do Twisting the Aces or other Elmsley based effects with reversed cards as the small number of cards leads to flashing. So you will likely have trouble with packet tricks that require reversed cards. But other than that I haven’t had an issue! Even something like Triumph is possible with a borderless deck.

Now let’s talk about the upside! Your double lifts will look cleaner during the alignment. If you are off by a bit the borderless nature covers it well. Any type of false dealing looks better, as do many passes and side steals, card replacements, etc.

Anything involving a face down card or cards is moving across a face down card or cards, borderless cards will help you out!

Culling cards is also covered a little bit better although it doesn’t really get affected very much by borders or not.

One of the best things about borderless cards is that ANY trick you do with borderless cards can be done with bordered cards, or any other cards really. The same is difficult to say about bordered cards.

If you’ve been using bordered cards all along, I encourage you to pick up a deck of Bees if you can. Nothing fancy, just the other common brand! Play around. Try reversing cards, try performing the common tricks that you do.

If none of these seem to be impacted in a negative way, why not give it a go?

Let me know how you make out.

The phrase I actually like is more on the lines of:

Run with me, run past me, or get the F%&* out of my way!

You get to choose how much effort you put in. The truth is, there is very VERY little information known to me that isn’t in one way or another publicly available. I don’t have someone’s unpublished personal journals, I don’t have original copies of underground videos or notes.

I have access to all the same books, videos, and information as you do.

So why aren’t you running past me? YOU can achieve far more than I can. We have the same tools at hand. In my case it is usually cards but that is certainly changing.

Run past me! Please! I want to see someone just make my head explode with how much they are doing, innovating, exploring!

Don’t run with me. Although I would love the company. Run past me. It’s lonely at the front of the pack. After all, at the front of the pack you should be alone right? Competing with those close behind you, if any.

Get yourself some information! It is all there to be had. Go get YOUR piece of the pie. Read some books, read something EVERYONE ELSE puts back on the shelf.

You don’t need a recommendation from me, in fact the recommendation it self kind of puts you behind me in a way doesn’t it? Perhaps it allows you to run with me? It doesn’t really let you pass me. THAT is what I want to see. I want to see you recommending books to ME!

I’ll happily eat your dust.

Cover bands are a compromise. You can’t really afford the original band, or they are dead, but they are NOT the original. Rarely, does one come along and REALLY make a song their own. If they do, it is often just one.

So, here is the question. Are you a bad cover magician? Don Alan’s routine, with his same patter, inflections, tone of voice, jokes and timing? Perhaps you are one of many to do Sam the Bellhop… Do you do it exactly like Bill Malone? Sometimes it happens, we imitate someone, but it can CERTAINLY be avoided by not watching the video on repeat until you get it down, his mistakes as well…

Write your own tune. Change the patter, find your own style. Try reading a trick and using it. Without a visual to copy it is VERY difficult to copy someone’s style.

Avoid other magicians for a while.

Yes there will be a long awkward phase as you try to find your bearings. This is how it works. You start with a functional, practical thing. It is your job to make it your own, add your own touch, paint, colour, flavor, feel, soul…

Pick your descriptor, but you need to start with NO visual indication of how something looks or is presented exactly, OTHER THAN the written words that were used to describe the trick in the first place.

Don’t be a bad cover magician. If you are going to use other people’s tricks and patter, make it yours. Change the timing, personal jokes, etc. A good example of bad cover magic. The Snowstorm in China presentation EVERYONE does. It’s so cliche people on cruise ships will actually get up and leave when someone goes into that trick. I’ve heard of this happening from the people who walked out and they were not alone!

Get some style. Be awkward, it’s allowed.

I understand the technological movement forward with magic and all other areas for that matter. I appreciate the ability to instantly communicate information in new formats. Monetizing a secret in a 3 or 4 minute video makes fine business sense. But I really have to ask.

Would you rather pay 5 bucks to learn a new instantly downloadable trick, or would you prefer to be shown an unpublished piece from, say, Steve Freeman’s fertile mind? How about something Michael Weber has been working on that has yet to be published/shared anywhere else?

The same sort of information can be delivered in a different way and it takes on an entirely different meaning, different level of importance, it becomes a more profound experience.

I’m glad people can get their fix, but I, personally, will be leaning towards secrets, the real ones that aren’t for sale, or available for instantly downloading.

Does your audience believe the words you are saying? Or is your patter completely unbelievable and insulting?

Listen to one more magician talk about going back in time thirty seconds. Or hear about the card that refuses to stay in the center of the deck. If you push this little button… This is the fastest card trick in the world…

I do not believe you.

Tell me something worth listening to.

I received the recent L and L publishing 30th Anniversary set including a few lectures by Vernon. I have only seen this type of footage at Magic-Con last year where Vernon’s lecture was the surprise. It was amazing to watch.

I already owned the full DVD set of Revelations before this set was announced, but the idea of passing up on having 4 formal lectures by Vernon was just too much for me.

My first impression from watching one of the lectures, is that Vernon was really quite nervous in front of the group. Although it might be indicative of his age, his hands are shaking, which I assume is nerves, and he fumbles quite a few times in his hurried way of going through things.

That all being said, he does go VERY slow at times and just nails it. His tips on the pull through shuffle are astounding! Typical Vernon brilliance that we know and expect. His handling of cards in general is just magnificent.

I’m not here to judge anyone who has or doesn’t have the DVD set, but I encourage you to find a way to view these lectures! Lectures that Vernon put on while he was MUCH younger than we know him in the Revelations DVDs.

You will see a passionate, knowledgeable, expert of a man who clearly dedicated his life to the art. Often grazing over some brilliant stuff that you will rewind and watch again. Something that those in attendance would not have had the chance to do.

This is a unique opportunity, and while I have yet to go through all the extras, I am very happy with the purchase so far.

If you are on the fence and don’t own the previous DVD set, this is a no brainer, buy these! If on the other hand you do own the previous DVD set, you might want to see if you can sell them to a friend to get the new material, or put them on a magic forum for sale to help purchase this set. I think it is must watch material.

Each time you tell someone that you have something amazing, that you’ve found a new great trick, or revolutionary principle, you better hope it lives up to their expectations. If it doesn’t quite live up to the person’s standards, you have essentially cried wolf. Each time you do, and there is no wolf, it degrades your word. Until eventually, it doesn’t matter anymore.

Perhaps my wolf is your puppy. Or what I consider to be new and significant, you might think of as ordinary and mediocre at best. Try not to cry wolf unless you think it is a wolf to them too! Otherwise no matter how good your findings may be, people will see it as nothing more than a puppy, even if you have found the holy grail.

A little while back I met a friend at his office. He asked if I wouldn’t mind performing something for an employee of his. We spent the next little while doing a few tricks and I tried to tell the full story behind each of the effects. Giving a pedigree of sorts to each piece. No lies. Just the truth as I know it.

Well, wouldn’t you know it. SHE LOVED IT. Afterwards my friend told me how much of an impact it truly made. I didn’t attempt to pass over a ridiculous presentation like time travel or something equally as plausible…

In fact, I went overboard, there is one effect where I claim the deck is gaffed, a tricks deck, or rather a trick card in the deck. But in this case, to keep with my all honesty approach I even mentioned that the presentation I was telling her wasn’t true and that it is in fact a normal deck. Almost like a double talk act. It too got a stronger reaction than my usual presentation which ends with me admitting that the deck is ungimmicked.

My point? Maybe it’s a good time to tell your audience the truth.

Or you can keep taking rings off of your “key case” that hasn’t been fashionable… ever.

Whatever floats your boat!

One of the most magic-life changing decisions you can make, is to buy a bunch of playing cards. New, sealed decks, but not just 10 or 12 decks. You need to go to Costco if that’s your local place, or if you are ready to take the plunge, approach a company like Kardwell and buy a gross (144 decks).

I’ll never forget first, how excited I was to not have to buy playing cards again for a year or more. Second, how much money I would be saving, and of course how empowering it was to know that I could throw an old deck of cards out without worrying about opening a new one.

I’ve mentioned this before, but I see and hear about magicians living deck to deck and quite honestly it’s about time you made the move and bought a bunch of cards. I don’t care where you get them from, just get them in bulk and don’t be afraid to crack a new deck. You don’t need to squeeze every last drop of blood out of the stone your deck has become. Get used to working with a deck that isn’t about to die. It’s better for everyone. It’s better for me, you and your audience.

The previous post was meant for yesterday. I got caught up with the new interview I did last night and I really have to tell you, it is one you do NOT want to miss.

For nearly 2 hours last night Lance Burton and I talked about all things magic, tracking his career from when he left Kentucky to when he landed in Vegas. But wouldn’t you know it. After 2 hours We hadn’t covered everything…

But if you’d like to be kept up to date on this interview and when it will be uploaded for your listening pleasure I highly recommend you sign up for the mailing list. The only place where you will hear the whole interview in it’s entirety.

With someone like Lance Burton it is amazing to hear all the details that are usually glossed over when read about his amazing rise to magic stardom.

Alternative Methods:

I thought it might be a good time to talk about alternative methods. By that I mean exploring a principle beyond it’s obvious application. An excellent example would be that of making things float or levitate in magic. The same method can be used for many more amazing things. In fact you might consider this a friendly challenge of sorts. Try using that method for something like a card control, or an inanimate application. Something without any movement or floating…

In fact I recall an astounding card location that was as fair as fair can be that used it as a means to locate a cut…

Experiment without thinking of the obvious applications for many principles you are using today.

There are more decisions in performing magic than you might anticipate. For example, if you plan on doing card work and you pull out your own deck, could the spectator choose to use a different deck than yours? How about a brand new deck, sealed, deck of cards?

Can they shuffle? Can They choose where the card goes back? Can they decide how many cards will be taken?

All of these decisions can easily give the audience a false sense of true control and inject the magnificent question of “What if”

What if I opened the new deck, what if I put the card closer to the bottom, or what if I had one less card chosen?

All of these questions could come to mind for a spectator and it is your job to allow these questions to be prompted by the choices your spectator makes, if you let them make any…

Let the audience do something that appears to change things. You might even consider letting it actually change things!

The truth of the matter is, secrets don’t come from the internet, or DVDs, books or letters. They come from people. A person discovers something. It’s an idea, it was always there it just wasn’t thought about yet.

If you know a particular secret in magic. That does not make it yours. If someone shares a secret of theirs with you. It still isn’t yours. Even if you work on it from that point on. It ISN’T yours to publish, distribute, share, upload, etc.

Until they choose to release the original idea that they shared with you. You shouldn’t even be THINKING about putting out your variation. Perhaps you think it’s been changed enough to make it yours. Possibly, but that trick of yours in it’s current iteration wouldn’t exist without the original secrets coming from that person. Therefore, without that seed planted by the other person, your flower of a trick would not exist today. Of course that point is arguable. But I stand behind it. If you run with someone else’s idea. It isn’t yours to release until they release it first, including all branches that come off the tree, regardless of how far they reach.

Just a thought…

Lately, I’ve been in a bit of a slump. Not in life or magic, in my blog diversity! What happened to Look It Up!, and Whats Shane Reading Now?, or the INTERVIEWS!

I will tell you exactly what happened. I’ve been making some connections and working on some projects that is taking the time I usually spend putting those things together.

So, it is my pleasure to announce that in the next month you can expect to see a new interview. A remarkable interview with one of magic’s true superstars…

I’m not going to say who, though those on my mailing list will receive an email shortly with all the details.

If you aren’t on my mailing list… you’ve been warned. The email with details will be sent in 45 minutes… 11:00AM EST (Toronto)

You can still sign up to the right.

I attended an auction last night, the annual auction for my local IBM ring as a matter of fact. It was a grand time…

But something was glaringly apparent. Those playing the role of buyer, seller, and auctioneer had a relatively inadequate amount of knowledge about the things being auctioned. This was bad for everyone.

A few things I knew a little bit about and tried to help fill in some gaps. This extra information certainly increased awareness as well as the selling price of these props! Bids that would normally not have been made at all were being made. More people wanted things when they had more information.

Another thing was quite apparent, some people simply don’t care.

One gentleman brought what appeared to be an engraving or print from maybe the early 1900’s but quite frankly it was impossible to tell. He was asking a reserve of $100 and quite honestly, I would happily pay that amount if it was real. There was just one problem. He refused to answer any questions. When asked where it came from, his answer was “my living room”, pressed further we discover he apparently purchased it at auction 39 years ago, but there is no paper work, no certificate of authenticity, no information pertaining to the artist, etc.

This is all FINE! But there was one that broke this camel’s back.

He wouldn’t let anyone see it! He wouldn’t take it out of the frame for further inspection at all. He either didn’t want to know more, or perhaps was hiding something. We probably won’t know. But it was pretty clear that had the group had more information on it, much like the change bag, it would have made him a bunch of money!

Knowing is powerful. Information can be the difference between getting a deal, or getting ripped off. Knowing can make you the expert or the ignorant. It’s a personal choice, neither one is necessary for a happy life or a good time. Just some have advantages of others.

The story of Apple computers is absolutely riveting. While most people know the Steve Jobs part, not so many people are as familiar with the Steve Wozniak side of it. Who was Steve Wozniak? He was Mr. Jobs best friend way back when and he is also the more technically brilliant. He designed and built the first computer Apple made, which they sold from their garage.

Steve Jobs was the charismatic genius with impeccable taste and a desire to enable the average person to use a computer in a fun way. He was the visionary and business mind.

Steve Wozniak was the technical genius, the man with the solutions behind the dreams and visions at first.

Steve Jobs would not have become quite who he was without Steve Wozniak, and the same goes for Steve Wozniak.

I’m purposely omitting ethical and moral judgement towards Steve…

You could very well use and need the same thing. Someone who has a mind that thinks in a way yours does not. Or someone who can perform the things that you come up with. We all have our own place and strengths. We also have weaknesses… Some of which we choose to try to hide or ignore.

Embrace your weaknesses, and highlight your strengths. You sell your strengths and buy your weaknesses. If you aren’t a creative thinking and inventor you can buy new material, books, information, etc. then perform them, assuming performing is your strength.

Whatever the case, try to find someone in magic that complements you like Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak complemented each other. You will both be better for it!