Bicycle-Cards.co.uk

There are a large number of magic blogs out there on the InterWeb, but I only recently stumbled across this excellent site by David Britland. David is a well-known card magician in the UK and he very generously makes some of his excellent ideas available here publicly.

Here is a link to a very powerful ACAAN plot with a number of clever subtleties built in. Highly recommended reading…

We wish you all a magical 2008! And to start the year off well, here is a special offer from one of our partners:

Four Jokers are fairly shown front and back, then one-by-one each of the printed Joker illustrations turn face down on the cards! Comes with cards (nicely printed on Bicycle stock) and DVD and another bonus routine - and currently less than HALF PRICE at £7.05!

(Click on the image for a video demo and more details)
 
 
 
 

Bicycle-Cards.co.uk would like to wish a Happy and a Magical Christmas to all our readers!

These are the lates from Ellusionist in the USA.

This is a UV500 finished deck printed on Masters quality stock.

The deck includes a double backed gaff as standard, and the box contains a barcode reveal too.

Will let you know when they hit the UK.

They are included as one of the giveaways in Ellusionist’s Christmas Special, if you are prepared to order ($75 worth) from the US.

I have not been able to track down exactly how long these have been shipping now, but The Card Collection are stocking these for £4.50. These are the latest in the series of reverse coloured cards (supplied with 4 extra gaff cards).

There must be a limit to how many colours USPCC can produce Bikes in. They are now shipping in: Black, Green, Orange, Lavender, Berry, Pink, Light Green Reverse, Light Blue Reverse, Purple Reverse, Metallic, Reverse Red, Reverse Yellow, Reverse Green, Reverse Purple, Reverse Black, Blue Ice, Masters (Red and Black) and Clear, to say nothing of the various vintage designs!

But do any of you actually use anything beyond the normal red and blue? And if so, how do people react?

The boys at Big Blind Media seem to be producing new DVDs every few weeks at the moment. We’ve just had advanced notice of their new DVD 4×4 - there’s a teaser trailer with a competition on it.

It looks like it could be useful for all card magic fans - 8 different ways of producing 4 of a kind, some false cuts etc.

Dave Forrest is doing the teaching, and as we’ve commented before, we’re a big fan of his work. Should be well worth a look.

I noticed the other day that Trickshop.com are offering a FREE pdf download of Basic Card Control and Forcing.

If you’ve been doing card magic for a while there is probably not much new, but includes several controls and a couple of shuffles and forces.

As with all their products, the text and photos are clear. With the strength of the pound against the dollar at the moment, I would strongly recommend having a look at some of their range - there are some very useful routines and reference works at excellent prices.

You may already have discovered the Watching Magic site, but if not it is well worth a look. The current entries have some nice card work including Michael Vincent performing ‘The Open Travellers’ - a real treat!

This is a new one from USPCC and Magic Makers. It is like the RED deck, but in BLUE!

If I’m quite honest this isn’t my taste at all, but it seems to come with the equivalent gaffs as the RED deck, allowing a number of neat effects.

Anyone out there using one? How do spectators react?

The Card Collection have them already, but I haven’t found anyone else in the UK selling them yet, though of course they are trickling through to ebay now.

2 Comments »

This is simply one of the best magic books I have ever read and Richard Kaufman has done us all a huge favour by reprinting it recently.

Takagi’s magic is well thought out and beautiful. For the card worker there are a number of approaches to the ‘Triumph’ plot, an excellent alternative handling of the ‘Wild Card’ and an effortless ‘Spectator Cuts the Aces’ routine. But there is so much more than this - including coin work, silk and rope work, linking rings etc. etc. (you can read detailed table of contents with some comments here)

An old-school classic, but with much to enjoy!