The Trilby Deck has been sitting on my desk to review for some weeks now, but it was sitting in the archives at Kaymar Magic for much longer. Originally invented in the 1940s, it has been recently re-released in collaboration with BBM. You get a teaching DVD and two special decks of Bicycle cards which make many sorts of trickery possible…
When is a deck not a deck?…
It’s a bit like a Svengali deck – but with some refinements which make it much more convincing and allow some extra moves.
It’s a bit like Stripper deck – but again with some refinements which make for a more natural handling.
And you could use either of these aspects on their own, but they are even more powerful when combined, and also enable a load of colour changing deck and brainwave type options.
What’s on the DVD?
Liam Montier is a good teacher and takes you through all the details of the deck, including displays, shuffles and other moves and subtleties and ringing in and out of play different portions of the deck. The DVD contains about 15 tricks – some with the Svengali elements, some with the Stripper elements, and some with a ‘BiCo’ deck (for colour changes and Brainwaves). But I’m sure you will think of many more ways to use this versatile pack.
The deck lends itself to a modular approach and the teaching uses the same approach – encouraging you to create your own routine out of the individual elements. But the DVD also contains an ebook of Joe Sutherland’s original booklet (with some updates) which covers all the moves on the DVD and also Joe’s original routine.
Trick Decks – good, bad or ugly?
So let’s be honest, some people have a thing against ‘trick decks.’ My own opinion is that there is no reason to make things more complicated than they need to be – but maybe I am just lazy? The advantage of something like the Trilby deck is that it is not a ‘one trick wonder’ but a very versatile system which could be used for a whole set. Indeed with certain elements of the deck in play you could use it for pretty much any effect you would do with a regular deck – and still have the added advantage of more options.
We think this is a welcome revival of a deck which should be more well known. Why not head on over to BBM and pick one up…
The Trilby Deck £24.99
[PS – The original manuscript is difficult to get hold of now, but there is a review of it on TalkMagic which may be of interest to anyone considering purchasing.]
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