I know a lot of you love Dean Dill's,
"Blizzard". It's everything a good card effect should be and truly tests the ability of a magicians misdirection skill. Once you acquire the ***** to pull it off, it will be a main-stay in your act. However, if you perform on a regular basis for laypeople, you will encounter the wise guy who will challenge you to turn the cards back to their normal state. It happened to me at a party last month.

Despite the fact that the effect blew everyone away, once the challenge was thrown out, the audience had that look of anticipation that told me they were skeptical that I could do it but wanted to see it done none-the-less. I hate to admit it but I was stuck. I meekly smiled and ran to the bathroom where I sobbed like a schoolgirl.

That night the idea struck me to use a mental photography deck instead of the provided deck the trick comes with. I figured the odds of the wise-**** request were small but worth it. Three performances later and not one request to change the cards back to normal condition almost convinced me to go back to the original.

Thank God for my wife's boss, is all I have to say. Last night at a function hosted by her company, my closing effect was
"Blizzard". Her boss, Mr. Know-It-All, bellowed above the oohs and ahhs at the tricks conclusion, "Let's see you turn them back Houdini!" Of course his employees all jumped on his band wagon and joined in on the challenge. The satisfaction of obliging his request was only magnified by seeing the look on his face. It may not fit everyones presentation style or "out", but for me, these two effects will always stay as is in my repitoire.

You should not have encountered that problem to begin with. The effect is not that a regular deck of cards changes into a blank deck, it is that the card the spectator named is the only one that is NOT blank. Reconsider your presentation. I present it this way and have never been asked to
'print' anything.

Matt... I have done the effect both ways (as a spec picking the only face card from a blank deck premise to my present way of performing it) I feel awkward once a trick hits big mainstream and I'm doing it like every other magician does. That's why I switched completely over to my handling.

It's more or less the opposite premise of Deans original thinking but it works for me.

If the reaction hadn't been positive to my change, I would have continued searching for another presentation format or stopped performing it altogether. I appreciate your advice to reconsider my presentation of Dean's effect. I did present it exactly as written in the instructions when it first came out, and soon so was every other magician.

Regardless of the handling, when some spectators see a blank deck it throws them way off guard (which is what we want)

However, regardless of which handling I used, one out of every 20 (if not more) performances, some wise guy would grab the blank deck, inspect it, and hand it back with the challenge to turn it into a regular deck.

Not to sound too defensive regarding my idea, but another reason I don't do Deans handling is because for me, Blizzard is my closer. I place the card box on the table while looking for a pen to do a signed card to wallet prior to Blizzard. I like using the same deck of cards in my act, especially with Blizzard since many people have handled it throughout the evening and have either conciously or subconciously verified it as being an innocent (which it is) Deck.

Thus when they see that the deck has lost all it's markings, it adds to the mystery. Sure, it's rare that someone challenges me to make the deck "normal". And even if no one ever challenges me again on this, at least I have the peace of mind of knowing that I'm not doing the effect like everyone else. Should I not get the reactions that I have been getting since using Deans excellent effect, I'll go back to the presentation drawing board.

Hmm, ok, I see your point. If anyone ever asked to print the deck I'd just toss a marker from my jacket on the table and tell them to start without me.

But I like your idea of incorporating the Mental Photgraphy deck. Nice.

I don't think mixing a mentalism effect with a magic effect is a good idea. I think they are much better separately.

Andrew

Matt, thanks for your observations and opinions. The different ideas and methods that we all have is one of the main reasons magic appeals to me so much! A friend of mine and I were discussing the pros and cons of adding the mental photography deck as an out to my Blizzard presentation. To be honest, I never used my mental photography deck in any way before so it gave me a reason to get it out of my bottom drawer.

My friend recommended Bill Malones MP routine from his recent DVD collection. I checked it out this morning and for what it's worth, a great handling for this deck!

As I mentioned before, it's rare to get the challenge to turn the deck to a printed one(by the way, love your solution to this challenge) but may be worth the effort to learn Bills routine when the occasion presents itself.