I use lots of packet tricks and never have gotten adverse reactions from audiences (because they were packet tricks), yet I read lots of negative posts about packet tricks from other magicians. The posts go on and on about how you should justify why you are using only a few cards or better yet how you should produce them from a full deck. Do spectators really look pejoratively at packet tricks or is this just an unfounded conclusion that isn't true? I am curious what others think especially the ones that do a lot of these.

Try this thread
http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......m=201&84

Jorey

Thanks but that thread doesn't really address my thread.

I've never found it to be a problem either. I like packet tricks and present them just as that. A trick / effect with a small packet of cards! To me, and those I've entertained, it's no big deal.

Mark.

Rarely have I had anyone question the use of a packet trick. I pull out the little, black, plastic wallets all the time. I can only think of one time where someone said, "oh, you're pulling out your special cards." On the other hand, about 2 weeks ago a woman, who seemed very impressed with my ACR, exclaimed "you can really do a lot with those trick decks!" I wasn't sure if that should be a compliment or whether I should cry. Years of practice and the spectator ascribed it to a simple trick deck.

Usually, if the trick is executed well, no one questions the cards. Even with my examinable packet tricks - no one ever asks to see the cards! As long is entertainment is being had by the spectator I don't think they really dwell on the fact that you pulled out a few cards instead of a full deck.

Tim

You don't need any justification in using a packet of cards.
A deck of cards is a deck of cards and a packet of cards is a packet of cards for lay people.

In some cases, it is better to do a trick as a packet trick even if you can use the cards from a deck.

Hideo Kato

Agree with the folks here...Much ado about nothing. Mostly just a bunch of magicians over-thinking the matter and deciding that some sort of justification has to be given for using just a packet. BS! They just want you to believe in what they think as to how things should go.

In general, specs don't have a clue about any of it, they go where you lead them as to effects. Of course every once in a while you get someone over-thinking the moment or recognizing the magic as some sort of challenge or test they must pass but mostly you get specs that are honestly amazed at not how you did something but just that you did it, something amazing and out of the ordinary.

Believe me, specs don't sit there wondering about you using just a few cards. Just keep doing your thing boom, mostly because it's working for you as is.

For my card effects, I use mostly packet tricks, some gaffed but most not. I have never had ANYONE question me, and when they do, am prepared to answer that I find people distrust full decks and too many cards to watch. "Watch, only four cards..."

I do have a deck that is almost a full deck width, made up of packet tricks, in order, with the exception of the last 13 cards, set up to do either Lazy Man's Card Trick, or Bannon's Triumph as fate dictates. Just love it...

So as Mr. Marion, the man, says above, don't worry about it at all!

Jim

Sometimes going out of your way to justify something simply draws attention to what you're doing. I try to have some kind of reason for pulling out a separate packet, of course if it's a trick that consists of cards that couldn't be made up by a single deck that's justification enough. But people don't need much reason. If anyone takes issue (which almost never happens) I simply explain that it's to save time as I don't want my routine to slow down as I look through the deck for the cards I need. I also carry a secondary deck that I use for my T&R, card warp, and linking cards. I simply tell them that it's my sacrificial deck that I use for tricks that ruin cards. Laymen accept that reason because it makes more sense than ruining a whole deck by destroying a couple cards during the course of the night. That way I also have my complete crisp deck for the tricks that require that sort of thing.
Above all else my goal is to entertain them, and so long as you're not pulling out one set of aces, doing a trick then putting those aces back in a little plastic wallet only to pull out an identical set of aces from a different wallet, then people really aren't going to get too excited over you pulling out a separate packet of cards.
That said, most of the packet tricks I do are done with ordinary cards that can be pulled directly from the deck, so which approach I use depends on which tricks I'm doing. I just try to be consistent.