Who’s Steve Dela?

If you’re not familiar with Steve’s work, where have you been?  He’s a busy and award-winning close-up magician.  He’s responsible for the fabulous Will To Read (which remains my absolute favourite take on this type of Free Will effect), the awesome All About Eve book test and an At the Table lecture which I still haven’t got round to watching!

What makes Night Flight Deck special?

The most obvious difference from every other marked deck I have seen before is that the Night Flight Deck is 100% plastic.  I still remember the first plastic deck I saw (it was the Karnival Death Heads, in case you’re wondering, back in 2011).  It was a bit of a shock to the system of someone so used to cardboard-based playing cards.  But I was (then) pleasantly surprised and still am.

In the context of mentalism – and that is the primary focus for this release – the ability to do all your fancy card moves is less important.  In fact, I find the handling of these cards pretty solid – they riffle beautifully, though don’t fan (for me) quite as well – but I don’t think the material will cause handling issues for anyone.  On the contrary, the big selling point is that they should last much better than normal cards.  Too early for me to tell with this deck, but I see no reason to disbelieve the marketing on this one.

The Marked Difference

So what about the markings?  I have to say they are brilliant.  They really are hidden in plain sight.  They will fly past a layperson – but once you know what you’re looking for they jump out at you.  I have tried them in various lighting conditions and have found them simply the easiest deck to read I’ve ever tried.  For ease of reading, they’ve even, for me, knocked the DMC Elites off their top spot (though the Elites still have a smarter tuck case!).

To make the point, this picture shows the same card from 3 well known marked decks.  Even on this reduced quality JPG, I think it is clear which is easiest to read.

Not only are the main marks incredibly easy to see, but there are also several other marks which mean you can tell at a glance what colour a card is (even if you can’t see the name marking) and there’s a one-way feature – which is an often overlooked subtle method for aiding some miracles.  So there’s a lot going for these.  The overall effect is close enough to a Bicycle-style deck that no one will bat an eyelid.  (Though they will eyeball some bats – did you see what I did there?!)

The tuck case looks innocuous – which is a bonus – especially in mentalism work.  And has a classic mentalism reveal on the top.  I found it slightly difficult to open – but that’s probably just me. 

Other Bonus Features

The whole thing came nicely packaged in a plastic storage case – to keep it doubly safe.  There are also some extra cards.  The deck comes with two double backers – one red/blue and the other blue/blue.  This latter has apparently caused some controversy – since the two blues are slightly different colours.  Steve tells me this is deliberate – so you can use it as a key card in a spread.  Sounds like a good idea to me. 

In fact, that takes me to my only two small niggles with the deck.  I actually prefer the ‘odd’ colour blue of the double backer to the ‘normal’ back colour which is a shade lighter. I suspect that is simply a familiarity thing – since the darker blue is closer to the standard Bicycle blue.  This really is a personal preference thing – and I suspect that the more I use them the less it will bother me.  And as I reflect on it the lighter colour probably makes it slightly easier to read in low lighting.

I’d also really have liked to get two jokers in the deck – since I do a mix of magic and mentalism and a pair of jokers is very useful for any number of tricks.  But as I said these are both minor niggles. 

The bottom line is that the Night Flight Deck is a superb marked deck.  I will be using this whenever I do marked deck magic and I think it has the potential to become the new standard.  Great job.  I’m very grateful to Steve for sending me a review copy.  And you can pick up your own deck here

Steve Dela – Night Flight Deck – review

4.6 / 5 Reviewer

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The post Steve Dela – Night Flight Deck – review appeared first on Bicycle Cards.

The effect

In essence, a prediction which is a page from a book, is left in full view. The spectator then makes several free choices about where to place 3 objects – and the text of the book is shown to perfectly match their decisions.

That’s a very bare-bones description – and Peter Nardi includes a very clever alternative presentational hook which possibly makes the effect even more convincing.

The page itself has several other features built in which enable you to do a book-test type revelation of a merely thought of word, and another aspect which ties in with another Alakazam release – the BIP test.

What do you get

You get several copies of the printed page from the book – you shouldn’t really need replacements but it is handy to have them. Also some envelopes which can be use in different versions of the effect and a DVD that runs to a little over an hour and explains all the routines and details of the effect. It’s a no frills video, but it clear and easy to follow.

In case you haven’t already picked up on this, I think this is a wonderful effect! Steve has worked out some brilliant subtleties which massively increase the effectiveness of the ‘Free Will’ aspect of the effect. I love the portability of the props and the premises of the presentations.

The base effect is itself very strong – but the extra possibilities are fantastic. The ‘book test’ reveal is incredible (and actually makes me want to buy the book test whose principle it incorporates). If you do own the BIP test then you can you use that to get another extra effect – and you have almost a complete act in one piece of paper!

I’m struggling to think of any negatives to this. I suppose it is English language only – but that wouldn’t be a problem to most of our readers! I’m not 100% sure I would use this in normal strolling – it is the sort of effect (especially if you use a couple of phases) that you might want to use in a setting where you had a little more time.

On the positive side, the props are well printed, take up no space, the effect is strong, there’s no reset – apart from putting the page back in the envelope. It even comes in very nice packaging! We love it – and it will definitely be going into our pocket for performance at the drop of a hat.

Will to Read is highly recommended and available from our friends at the Merchant of Magic for £34.99 (at the time of writing)

Review copy kindly provided by Murphys Magic to whom dealer enquiries should be directed.

The post Steve Dela – Will to Read – review appeared first on Bicycle Cards.

We’re going to start with the incredible Narcissus by Chris Philpott. This takes the principle from the wonderful 100th Monkey effect and brings it to a whole new range of close up and emotionally engaging presentations. If you’re not familiar with the original principle it meant (in its most basic form) that you could appear to make people stop being able to read words. In these effects you take a photo of the spectator with their own phone, holding a card with various things written on it – and when they look at the picture or video, the words have changed in a remarkable way. Fantastic idea, wonderful engaging presentations. Worth every penny! £49.60

Next we’d like to highlight a really innocent-looking but incredibly versatile prop which will enable you to force almost anything. If you’ve been in magic any time the name Svengali Force Pad will tell you all you need to know. But this is an essentially self-working and incredibly versatile item to include as part of a larger effect. We’ve seen them crop up as part of various presentations on things like BGT or AGT. You might be able to make one yourself, but why not get a professionally made one for the very modest price of £10.99.

Regular readers will know that I’m a bit of a fan of mentalism, and Steve Dela has taken an old idea and given it a twist to turn it into a fantastic bit of walkaround magic. Will to Read is a prediction type effect using a page from a book – it takes almost no space in your pocket but has a big impact. And has the potential to be linked in to other effects to make a great routine. £32.50

And finally, since we haven’t highlighted any playing cards for a while, I thought I’d mention the Superior Deck by the Expert Playing Card Co. It comes in an attractive blue, red or black backed deck. Along with the promise of handling well (we haven’t yet had a chance to try them to comment I’m afraid) they also have a tuck case which promises to be more resilient and last longer. All available at £4.99 each. They’ve now released an Invisible Deck, a Marked Deck and a set of popular gaff cards in the same design.

That’s all for this month.  Let us know if you’ve seen anything worth looking at…

The post Trick of the Month – October 2016 appeared first on Bicycle Cards.