PACKET SETUP

By Richard Robinson

Taking a deck of playing cards from his pocket and holding them in his hand the magician says that there are times when the number of cards in the deck makes it more confusing then it needs to be.

For example he says I only need a few cards for this next mystery. He takes a few cards off the top of the deck, placing them on his table.

He then says the rest of the cards aren't necessary. Turning his hand towards the spectators they see that the rest of the deck has disappeared.

This vanishing deck of cards effect can be worked as a mystery where the cards suddenly disappear or a sight gag where the cards are suddenly crumpled into a ball and throw over the magician's shoulder or torn up into a handful of confetti.

The gaff is the work of Theodore De Land who in the early years of the 20th century created a number of gaffed cards and decks. While many of De Land's tricks where sold by magic dealers there were some that only appeared in magic magazines of the period. This is the case with "De Land's Vanishing Pack Of Cards" which was published in The Sphinx magazine in March of 1914.

Card Gaff

The gaff used is a picture of a deck of cards printed on a sheet of paper. Below is De Land's original art cleaned up and re-rendered to Bridge size dimensions.

From De Land's Original Instructions

Performer shows a deck of cards and throws a few into the audience; the balance of the deck is then rubbed between the hands and it once goes absolutely out of sight.

A fake deck is printed on thin white paper, the commoner the better. The edges are trimmed and the fake is slightly dampened so to keep it from "talking" when rolled up. A few cards are placed back and front of the fake and the whole affair shown as a full deck. The real cards are thrown out and then the fake is rubbed between the hands. The paper being damp soon forms itself into a small pill and is easily secreted between the fingers.

For the benefit of magicians De Land has made up hundreds of cuts for printing these fakes. Any printer will run them on cheap newspaper for a dollar thousand.

Download

Click the graphic above to download the Pocket Setup pdf print template: packet-setup-allmagic.pdf.