Since the USPCC is under new ownership, they are apparently discontinuing a number of their card ranges, much loved by magicians. Therefore, can I commend this petition to Save the Tally-Hos to all lovers of card magic…
Posts under ‘Card Magic News’
More new Bicycle Karnivals on the way – Renegades!
Here’s a sneak preview of the latest playing card offering from BBM – the Karnival Renegades. More info as it comes, of course. They are also releasing some tee-shirts this year featuring some of the Karnival artwork.
And does anyone have any thoughts on the new Phoenix Deck (from CardShark)? A thread on Magic Cafe is suggesting it might be a replacement for the Bicycle Deck. We will wait and see. If you want to try them out for handling, the Card Collection are now stocking them in the UK.
New Bicycle Card Box now hitting UK
Although USPCC started producing the new boxes in the summer, it has inevitably taken a while for the new look boxes to come over here. Apparently Murphy’s Magic in the US bought up all the old style stock from USPCC.
The new boxes look like this:
Some magicians are worried that this will mean problems when switching in gaffed card boxes (such as Alakazam’s Extractor). However, it seems unlikely that most lay-people will notice the difference – especially if there is some time delay. Most ‘normal’ people aren’t particularly interested in card boxes!
As a bit of a card Geek, I don’t like all the words on the new design so much – and the card design on the back of the case is the basis of some clever bits of magic. But I suppose it would be possible to stick a card on the back of the case. Various people also supply old-style tuck cases – so you could just use one of them while they are still available.
If you purchase new-boxed cards in the UK, do let us know where you got them from.
The Genius of Bannon
Regular readers will know that I am something of a fan of the work of John Bannon – something I first came across in the wonderful book Dear Mister Fantasy. He has a knack for producing clever, subtle and effective card magic.
Well the good folk at BBM are shortly releasing a 2DVD set of his work called Bullets After Dark and have kindly made a review copy available to me. I haven’t had time to view it yet (but soon…) but if you pre-order you get some brilliant extras which I HAVE looked at already.
There is a an e-book called Open and Notorious which is on the theme of the classic Open Prediction. This is fantastic! I love it. There are 3 different versions – they won’t please the purists since they do not fulfill all the original requirements – but to my mind they are still very strong effects, and potentially more entertaining for the spectator than the original premise. Classic Bannon.
You also get a little video preview and explanation of a trick called Chain Gang. This is a sort of 3 card sandwich (collectors) type effect – requiring some facility with cards, but very clean.
I presume that these goodies will only be supplied with pre-orders, so I suggest you go over and pre-order now!
Pre-order Bicycle Assassins now
October 26 is the official launch date for the latest Bicycle Karnival cards from BBM but you can pre-order now at this preview page which also has some more pics. We’ll let you know more as soon as we get our review pack…
Bicycle Karnival Assassins
If you’re on the BBM mailing list you may have seen this already, but here’s a sneak preview of the new Bicycle Karnival Cards coming out this October. The next must-have for Halloween?
Karnival Midnight – the Bicycle Deck’s latest incarnation…
We’ve just had the first word on the forthcoming deck from BBM (they have a box shot on their site). More details will follow, but for now here’s a sneaky preview…
Karnival Midnight - sneak preview
Uncut Karnival Deck Sheet
If you loved the Karnival Deck, then you better get yourself over to BBM quickly before their limited edition Uncut Karnival Sheets sell out. Apparently only 100 being sold. Yours for £25 + P&P.
