Arm's Length
Bill Abbott sells the deck for about $100 and this kit, which is half the price, provides gimmicked cards so you can make your own deck and save money. Simply add two red-backed Bicycle decks of card and make sure that you have double-sided tape, an X-Acto knife and nail clippers handy. After some cutting and taping, you'll have your own Octopus Deck.The ads state that it will take about two hours to make the final deck. It took me about an hour.
The deck combines several principles so two cards can be clearly forced, while two more cards, with a little pumping, can be discerned. With the basic effect, four people select cards, two by simply looking at various cards in the fanned out deck and two by pressing down on the edge of the deck and glimpsing a card.
There's some more that's needed that you'll have to purchase from a magic dealer for about ten bucks to perform the second phase of Abbott's routine.
The Routine
You bring out a deck of cards, fan it in front of two spectators and ask each to mentally note and remember a card that they see. You instantly name the suit of their cards and after a few brief questions, identify the cards.You wrap rubber bands around the deck and toss it to an audience member and ask him or her to peek at a card. The deck is then passed to another person to do the same. Without any questions you name the selected cards.
You then ask two people to join you on stage. Removing the rubber bands from the deck you hand half the deck to each spectator and ask them to place the cards inside their pockets. The two spectators reach inside their pockets and remove any card and place it in another pocket, without looking at it. You write something on a piece of paper. When the unknown cards are removed, your prediction is shown to be correct.
Putting it in Ink
The trick resets immediately and can work in walk-around as well as in stand-up situations. According to the ad copy, the Octopus Deck can be freely shuffled by a spectator between each phase. However, you probably won't want a spectator to handle the cards this freely.In all, the Octopus Deck is brilliant. As with performing "tossed out deck," there's some careful audience management that is necessary to make this deck work. I'm still building my routine, but with my deck done, I'm hoping to try this one out at my walkaround gigs this weekend.
-Wayne N. Kawamoto
MSRP: (US) $50
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Dealers can purchase from Murphy's Magic Supplies, Inc.
