Looking at the various strange decks of cards available at the ellusionist site, it occurs to me that my daughter would love something like that. She is 16 an virtually unbeatable at card games (because she cheats), but she doesn't know any classic sleight of hand or anything. Knowing the impatience of the teenage mind, it will have to be something that she will get the possibilities with right away. Or she will lose interest before diving into it. Maybe something that will go with an easy but impressive beginner DVD?

There are invisible decks, Svengali decks, Forcing decks and whatnot. I don't have any experience with any of them (although I now realize that I had a Svengali deck as a kid. I just didn't know what it was for. No magic shops or videos or books in Norway in the '70s. So I gave up).

Finally I should mention that she lives far away from me so I cannot explain anything to her that she doesn't get from the instructions, and also that she speaks very little English, so the explanation would have to be either very visual or subtitled in Spanish.

Quite a nut to crack it seems. But I know it could be a great success. Just the kind of thing she will love and use to warp her poor mother's mind. All input most welcome!

Svengali Decks are fantastic for a new card person. They are totally self working and there are lots of really good effects one could pull off with them.

A really easy ambitious card routine to start. Force a card, have it returned and then have a spectator cut right to it themselves for another. I could go on and on.

There are some good DVDs and booklets available that will help someone to get started. As such it would be pretty easy to get her started.

Finally, after she got used to handling it, she could "hustle" decks and make some easy pocket money. Don Driver (a member of the café) has released a fantastic DVD on pitching Svengali decks. Here is a link to his DVD. Highly recommended.

http://www.dondriver.tk

Good luck. Mark.

I would also vote for Svengali to get started and if she gets it then get her a Cassandra and the directions to that. If she understands how to work with a Svengali she will love the cassandra deck.

You could (or get her to) use this site to translate any written instructions.
I've had great success with English/Spanish, Spanish/English.

http://world.altavista.com/

Hope this helps.

Regards, Mike

Thank you for all replys! We seem to be leaning towards Svengali then. Ok. Great!
When it comes to Altavista translations, I have a completely different, somewhat less impressed impression of it. But I think a visual DVD will be fine, such as the "25 Amazing Magic Tricks with a Svengali Deck" DVD, which I have seen a clip of. I just have to see if I can find one online in NTSC, since all Google hits so far seems to point to a European version of it (the guy on the video speaks with a North American accent, so I guess it should excist in NTSC). Well.. it's early in the search yet. I shall commence browsing. Thanks again people!

Here is a link where you could order the "25 Amazing Magic Tricks with a Svengali Deck" DVD. It should be in the NTSC format and not PAL. You could email them just to make sure.

http://www.magictricks.com/videos/dvds/dvdsven.htm

Take care. Mark.

Thanks for the link Mark! However, they charge a rather improbable $29.75 in shipping to addresses outside of the States. Haha. That is more than twice the price of the DVD itself.

Also, it occurs to me that maybe it is silly of me to order a DVD from overseas, have it shipped all the way here and then ship it overseas again to my daughter in South America. Hmmm. I need to be smarter than this.

A 'Stripper Deck' is another idea.
It's more versatile than most other gaffed decks.

Have the cards shipped directly to her.

The Amazing Noobini,
Considering your shipping issue a great alternative are Ebooks (shipping is free). Ebay has several for sale.

Then your daughter can use Mike T's great web link to translate the text. Your daughter will have an easy time learning magic.

My suggestion is Royal Road to Card Magic. It is a great book on card sleights and teaches basic to intermediate card tricks. One is currently being sold for USD $0.99.

Good luck,
John

Unfortunately her attention span is way too short for e-books that needs translation. She lives half of her life in front of a screen. Which is probably a shame.

Anyway...
Have any of you guys actually tried the Altavista Babelfish translation with two languages you speak so that you are able to verify the translation? No, I don't mean to sound sarcastic or anything. I myself have trusted that thing several times before my spanish reached a level where I could see the absurdity of the translation. Here, for fun I have tried to translate a passage into spanish, and then back into english. I have not tried to find a particularly difficult text or anything. This is the first and only snipplet of text I have tried:

Original:

"A classic hard hitter is now available in Ghost format. Used properly, Svengali Cards can mystify and entertain all of your audiences while you alone know the secret."

Translation:

"Hitter hard classic he is available now in format of the ghost. Used correctly, the cards of Svengali can disturb and entertain to all their hearings whereas single you know the secret."

Ok... it is sort of readable, but probably only because we have read the original text first. Imagine... I have actually written letters to people using that tool. Hehe.

Ok... I can't resist. Here is another snipplet, only the translation this time. Pay attention to this card lesson now. The typing hand is quicker than the eye:

"Riffle the ends of cards and has its watching small stick inside its finger wherever they wish. They watch its card and they do not demonstrate to him. The card is mixed again within the cover and then you let to spectator even cut to the cover in several batteries - ten batteries."

I will now read about Stripper decks. The name is promising. Hehe.

Thanks again, and remember to riffle the ends of your batteries whenever you see someone with sticks in their fingers.

The Amazing Noobini, a FANTASTIC website for magic products is MJM magic ( http://www.mjmmagic.com ), which are selling the '25 Amazing Magic Tricks with a Svengali Deck' video for only $11.52.

And if you're planning on buying a beginner video for sleights, I'd suggest Ellusionist's "crash course" videos which are fantastic for beginners. I know people will probably flame me for suggesting these, I could care less, but I find them (and beginners as well) a lot more entertaining and much better quality than other videos such as AOA or Michael Ammar's videos.

Hope this helps.

Siclone: MJM magic looks great! Very reasonable shipping. And 962 DVDs to choose from. Hehe. That should suffice for now.

Regarding the sleight direction... I know that she would love to learn some flourishes and shuffles just as much as she would want to learn tricks. I am a little concerned that the Svengali deck will not be as effective in her world, being as she isn't performing in front of a crowd as much as inside of one, with kids who will want to grab and look through the deck and so on. Once the many similar cards-cat is out of the bag, it sort of takes the edge off of further tricks in front of the same audience. Well... A little bit at least. Of course she could move on to sleights then if she is still interested, but maybe a beginner's course in that sort of thing would be just as good.

So why would people flame you for suggesting the Crash Course videos? Is there some sort of politics going on within magic I should know about?

The "Stripper Deck (Bicycle)" can be examined to a degree and used in a regular card game.
There's a booklet on the deck 101 Tricks with a Stripper Deck.

I know that a lot of folks feel the the Stripper Deck is well known by laypersons but when used properly any suspicion should stop.
It's best to know some tricks with a regular deck as well.
There are books and videos on self-working card tricks that require very little skill.
A google search for 'self working card' will turn up some media.

I have tried a variety of translation programs and currently I use the Yahoo dictionary to translate word by word and find the meaning myself because I am yet to find an accurate translation program purely because it is so difficult to translate.

I do use the Babel fish program from time to time (I wouldn't have recommended it otherwise ) - but I too am yet to find a translation program that's flawless. As long as both parties know the subject matter then it's never been too much of a problem.
If anyone's got any funny translations then maybe stick them in the 'Not very magical, still...' section.

That section is not big enough to translate funny chinese to english and vice versa. I do find some of the funniest translations though come from idioms. I can laugh about them for hours.

Noobini,

If it doesn't need to be "cards" you might want to look at Tenyo magic. Very inexpensive and well thought out props. These are great for beginners.

Until we appear again,
Kipp Sherry

Well... it is done! I finally ordered an Ellusionist Crash Course 1 DVD which I think is a good way to go. It has a nice blend of learning tricks she can actually do with the ordinary card decks people have, and some show off trickery. Allthough maybe more complicated than Svengali card tricks, I don't think she will have any difficulty learning some of it. As long as she only has that one DVD there is a great chance she will watch it again and again. Teenagers always watch movies again and again. Not like me who gets 10 DVDs or books and then learns one hundred things badly. I will also send her a Bicycle Masters Edition red deck and a Ghost deck which may appeal to her goth tastes. By the way... if anyone knows of card decks and things that are sort of occult or old or mysterious looking, I would love to see a link. Perhaps that is a different thread tho.

A great big thanks to all who have offered suggestions! I have taken everything to heart and bookmarked potential future gift ideas.

Crash Course 1 is great, and I really think she'll enjoy it.

Make sure to stress the significance of practicing before performing.

||Sean Beard ||

If you're not looking to teach her sleight of hand, I'd say the best trick deck for any new magician is the Stripper Deck, for several reasons.

First, it gets you excited about magic, because you can do amazing illusions with virtually no effort. Second, it operates as a regular deck, so as you move on with your effortless miracles you can pick up new ungimmicked sleights and tricks along the way.

Eventually, you can accomplish almost any of the Stripper effects with a regular deck, as you integrate more sleight of hand into your repertoire. So I think this is your best bet by way of trick decks, as it neither requires nor inhibits the use of any challenging sleights.