New Stuff and Old Stuff

After our successful appearance on iTricks.com this week, I've been receiving tons of praise and offers to do other shows. Sorry Oprah, this week's not good for me...

OK, by "tons of praise" I mean my mom listened to it, and by "offers to do other shows" I mean no offers to do other shows. But we are available!

Am I crazy, or has the new stuff been rolling in at a surprisingly fast clip this week? We received a giant shipment from an overseas manufacturer, as well as new DVDs and tricks from other places. Plus, we're continuing work on the remainder of the Fractal Card Magic trilogy and new DVDs coming up from Troy Hooser. Nobody ever said the magic business was easy.

But with all this new stuff, there's an old classic that has recently captured my interest: the venerable Svengali Deck. You may think "Surely, John is a magician of some skill. Why would he want to use a Svengali?" The reason is because these old tricks have a way of staying around, and as I once heard Gazzo say, "a classic is a classic is a reason."

Being relatively new in magic, and having a rapid education, I never really used a Svengali deck in my magical development. So I decided that I would take one home and see what the hubbub was about.

Invented by Burling Hull around 1909, the Svengali came into its own around the 1930s and 40s. It has been sold by pitchmen all over the world (including Chicago's own Marshall Brodien on national TV), and is undoubtedly the best-selling trick deck EVER.

After a few minutes, I could finally see the true genius behind the method. So many options, so little time! But I realized, that with so many magic effects, the key to its proper use in performance was to not over-play it. Perhaps I would perform a card effect with a normal deck, switch it for a Svengali, do a routine, then stop doing card tricks for the rest of the show.

Pitchmen, on the other hand, are working from a completely different angle. They demonstrate the deck showing all different, all the same, selected cards jumping everywhere, trying to entice customers with promises of becoming the hit of the party. That's all well and good, but I say there's still room for the Svengali in the professional magician's repertoire.

FUN Inc. carries several varieties for Svengalis: a Bicycle Svengali, our own Royal Magic brand, and a Svengali Pitch Deck that comes in bulk. We've also got a Svengali DVD and Svengali booklet that's also available in Spanish. The FUN Inc. Svengali Kit includes the booklet, DVD, and a Bicycle Svengali Deck, everything you need to become a Svengali master.

So if you think you're too professional to use this old chestnut, give it a try. You just may look at the Svengali Deck with new eyes.