Hello,

Why (from a presentational viewpoint) would a magician keep the jokers seperate from his deck of cards. Why does he pull them out of a pocket if he's gonna do an effect with them?

I know Jay Sankey says something like: "the Jokers wil start doing tricks of their own in the deck," but I'm looking for some creative other suggestions.

Any thoughts?

regards
Simon

I usually keep them in my pocket to add in secretly if I've had a card signed or whatever. Normally if I need all 52, which isn't that often.

The Jokers always remain in my deck. If they are not needed, then I remove them and deposit them back in the box. I use them in certain effects such as sandwiching cards for example.
Cardamagically,
Dom
:)

From a presentational viewpoint (rather than a practical one) - that's a good question! Hmm...
You don't use Jokers in most card games...
They are essentially duplicates of each other so it's not good if someone picked one in a take a card trick...
They have no suit, no number, and so to some folks, no value...

When I remove them, I do so by spreading the cards face up. I simply say "we don't need the jokers for this trick", which is pretty much nonsense, but it seems to fly. I have never come up with a strong presentational reason for removing them and discarding 'em. I do this when I want to ensure that the spectators get a quick look at all the faces of the cards. Otherwise, they're left back in the box.

Removing the Jokers from a deck shuffled by a spectator can allow you to glimpse or cull cards under the guise of a legitimate action. This would, hopefully, strengthen the impact (if handled well), as the spectators impression is that they shuffled the cards immediately before the effect took place.

Thanks for all the responses!

I think I should have made myself a little clearer. In the effect I'm doing I say I don't have a full deck because three cards are missing: first the ace of spades which is my lucky card that I keep in my wallet, and the jokers are missing as well. I then take them out of my pocket and do a sandwich effect with the jokers.

I was looking for a 'reason' why I keep the jokers seperate in my pocket.
Jay Sankey says something like: I keep the jokers away from the deck, because they start to do tricks, watch this (then he starts the effect with the two jokers).

So to sum up: I don't take them out of the deck, I take them out of my pocket and do an effect with them.

Any thoughts?

Simon

I normally keep them in the deck and when I spread the cards initially, point them out and mention I'm using a full deck. Why would you keep them in a pocket? If one or both are gaffed you could just have them at the face of the deck, place them to one side, then use them when you need to.

The only time I'd have jokers somewhere other than the deck is if I were doing a routine that used four or five of them, because you don't get that quantity included with a deck.

More odd seems to be carrying around a lucky card in your wallet from the deck in play...

Paul.

Wow - I hate this idea. You are asking to be rumbled.

I think you guys are running when nobody is chasing. Just do it.

Gil Scott

I usually throw away the guarantee joker just because it doesn't look good and I keep the other joker in the deck. Keeping one joker gives me an excuse at anytime to go through and remove both jokers. Under this guise I can remove the first and while I appear to be searching for the other I can be controlling a card or cards into position for the next effect. I never find the other joker but it gives nice cover for playing with the deck. Once I have my cards in position I say "Oh that's right I only had one joker"

As for what to say when removing the jokers. I think its a pretty common thing for anyone to remove the jokers from a deck. Before any card game this is common. So keep what you say as simple and generic as possible. During the action I describe above all I say is "Wait a minute let me get rid of the jokers" I remove one then after I have my cards in position I say "That's right I only had one".

If the jokers were in my pocket I wouldn't say anything about why they were there just bring them out and do the effect. Like I said before its very common to remove the jokers from the deck everyone has done it. So having them in your pocket makes perfect sense.

, Jonathan

I dump the Jokers because I do a lot of 52-cards-only effects with the Faro etc.

Paul Gordon

I don't think you really even need to bring up removing the jokers to the spectators. As was pointed out most remove them for card games anyway so it's not an unusual action.

I agree with Gladfly3d it is a case of running while no one is chasing you. Magicians logic sometimes is not very logical. We all do it worry about something that the spectators are never in a million years even going to think about. I'm not saying we shouldn't worry about things. It's just we worry for the wrong reasons often

The only reason I usually keep the jokers is to make thick double backers out of them.

I do not keep the jokers in, but I do like the point Richard Osterlind makes (Mind Mysteries vol. 2) about discarding them, even (especially?) if you leave them on the face of the deck so they're seen by all when coming out of the box. That seems to make things just a little more... normal? You do not need to say anything; simply set them aside. Perhaps I am over-analyzing but I suspect a lot of reasonably intelligent people will vaguely infer that this deck of cards is not only used for card tricks but also card games. I mean, when I go to somebody's house and they hand me a deck of cards, that's exactly how it is. OR, hilariously, they have lost a card so the joker is the four of spades, or whatever. I can see how this would not benefit someone who is performing hundreds of card tricks a night, discarding jokers at each and every table. In that case, just get on with it, Magic Boy. Your deck of cards IS used for card tricks.

The only problem I foresee is one that holds in general, for people and magicians: we think we are better actors than we really are: "Oh, wait a minute, I forgot to take out the jokers! [goes through deck] Silly me. [still going through deck] Where are those guys? Ah [locates them]." As someone mentioned earlier -- do not make a big production out of it.

Like someone said before, JUST DO IT. No need to make a huff and a puff out of it!! If you take the jokers out then you just take em out If you are going to leave them in just leave them in Simple!!

Thanks, magico563:-)

Whenever I do a packet trick, I typically simply remove the cards from my pocket and begin. I have never had a spectator ask for justification or seem confused that there wasn't any.

Here's what I say when I do NFW... (A trick that starts with a packet of 4 identical Jokers) I don't remove them from a deck.... Why would a deck have 4 Jokers?

Here's what I say...

"So I've got a bunch of different trick decks right. And normally I take out all the jokers but I discovered the jokers are trick jokers. So I've got all of them here... and I'd like to show you...."

Your question seems like a presentational one... not a sleight or move question. The answer is a presentational answer. Don't necessarily change your moves to fit your presentation.... it's usually much easier to just change your presentation.

Eric

I'm not looking for any justification, I'm just looking for an interesting presentational hook. Why do you keep jokers away from the rest of your cards?
I'm not looking for any technical details, etc, or people to tell me to just do it. Please read my post more carefully. Really, it's not that scary to take two jokers out of your pocket. I was asking if somebody has any presentational ideas to make it a bit more interesting.

I guess eric Falcone understood me correctly.

@ Cain:

I can see how this would not benefit someone who is performing hundreds of card tricks a night, discarding jokers at each and every table. In that case, just get on with it, Magic Boy. Your deck of cards IS used for card tricks.

Hmm, I don't know what you mean by the phrase: just get on with it magic boy. Doesn't sound very respectful to me.

I don't believe anyone has misunderstood the original post. What some of us are saying is it's not important to have a reason to have them in your pocket etc.. More often then not trying to give a reason is a red flag to the spectators and then they are trying to figure out why you are making a fuss of something so simple. Sure if you have 4 jokers in your pocket then you can say there from other decks but still it maybe running when there is really no need.

Randy

The Ace is your lucky card and the Jokers are it's bodyguards.

Ron