Description

When you first start out in magic it seems you quickly go off using stripper decks and marked decks. I remember using a marked deck all the time before the age of 15. I also remember have great fun with Deland’s Deck, which of course is a combination of a stripper deck, a marked deck, and a stacked deck all in one. In fact I used to do all sorts of miracles with the Deland Deck. But I haven’t picked one up now for over 25 years!

At some point you figure these tools are not good magic and move on. Well Kirk Charles’ book Marked for Life reminds you that marked cards are still very useful and by mixing in sleights, non-reader effects, and reader effects you not only can create some huge miracles, but also you can keep the audience guessing.

This 95 page soft covered book spends about a third of the book going through various types of marking systems and its very interesting to see the different approaches various people take. I decided to give the bold, but easy, Ted Lesley’s Working Performers Marked Deck a shot.

Once you read this book you will start using a marked deck again. It has many wonderful routines that just are so much better with a marked deck. And providing you follow the tips and tactics mentioned in this book no one will ever suspect a marked deck is being used. I think that is the key thing for me: by combining the marked deck with other principles you can make a good effect into a complete mind blower that could not be easily achieved in any other manner.

The book is well written and researched and comes with a large bibliography of other areas to continue reading about marked decks. Many of which I’m sure you already have, much to your surprise. It may not be a classic book, but it does provide you the path back to an old friend that really should be in every magician’s toolkit.

Details: Tips, Tricks and Tactics for Any Marked Deck!

The marked deck-most have one, yet so few actually use one. Full-time professional Kirk Charles shows you how the marked deck you own can be one of your most valuable tools. And if you don’t have a marked deck, he gives you all the information you need to choose the one best suited to your puposes. A high-quality paperback with 100 pages of clever and valuable information.

Contents:

3 Introduction
6 History and Background
9 Printed Decks
12 Hand Marking
19 Readers
19 Easy Readers
21 The Farmarx System
24 The Farmchas System
26 Luminous Readers and Juice Decks
29 Other Readers
32 Blob-o-vision
36 Strategies for Misdirection
41 Using Other Principles with Readers
41 Stacked and Memorized Decks
42 Lazy Man’s Easy Card Trick
45 Key Card
45 Voice-stress Analyzer
46 Estimation
47 Either/Or
50 The Virgin State
52 Blindfolds
53 One Out of Three
55 Partners: Overt and Covert