Hey Cameron,

What would you say is your favourite packet trick or packet tricks to perform? It could be your own creations, or other magicians creations.

I personally like "Dupes" and "Troublemakers". I think the reason I like Troubelmakers is because it is visual, and more importantly it's examinable.


Thanks

Thanks for the kind words.

Honestly, there are many packet effects that I really like. My current favorite is Nothing But The Truth which is a packet lie detector trick which I created and should be available next month. Aldo & Rachel Colombini produced the trick for me.

I do love packet effects. They have kind of a bad reputation and I'm not sure why. To me, there are few things as magical as using just a few cards to create a whole lot of magic. When we use a deck of cards, the deck itself is able to act as a sort of camouflage for a lot of things that go on. I think audiences are vaguely aware of this too. But you only hold a few cards in your hand and perform two or three miracles with those cards, then lay people have no where to go. There's no place to conceal anything or switch anything (so they think) in a small packet so it seems very magical.

As Phil Goldstein (aka Max Maven) states in his intro to his excellent book "Focus", "When only a small number of cards is used, it provides a simple focus." I love that.

I do think you have to be careful with packet tricks, though. If you are going to pull them out of a wallet, there needs to be a reason. If they are all blank or all Jokers, this is a great reason. Otherwise, it's best to secretly add the cards you need to the deck and pull them out when you need them. I usually like to start from a place where it makes sense for me to pull out a "special" packet of cards. Also, I wouldn't do more than one packet trick in one set.

Cameron,

There is about 3-4 People on You Tube performing your effect Nothing But The Truth was this ever in print?

I did a pre-release special for people who are on my mailing list. It included a PDF and the dvd which will ship in early December.

However, if any of you guys want to take advantage of the offer, here's the page:

http://cameron-francis.com/Nothing-But-The-Truth.php

Thanks for the link. Just placed my order

Wow that sounds great, cant wait to raise some money and get this.

This trick looks amazing. Another winner, Cameron!

-Aaron

Thank you! It gets terrific reactions from lay people.