The Cassandra Deck : This is a special deck of cards designed by Dicc Hilford for a host of different mental effects. The following is just a small sample of what he has published in the area of mentalism with playing cards. By suiting the presentation to your needs you can easily change the MAGIC TRICK to become a real MENTALISM effect.ĭocc Hilford is also a great thinker with a lot of thoughts on playing cards. Much card magic can be changed to give it a more 'psychic' look by using different cards.You can use a poker-sized tarot deck, or a set of ESP cards. then you should be able to pull it off very well.) Just remember, mentalism has traditionally been the discipline in magic that demands much more from the presentational and showmanship skills of the performer, as more often than not there aren't doves and huge card fans to hold an audience's attention. Take note that many many many tricks can be presentationally altered to get your desired result (I feel for instance that a Signed Card to Wallet effect won't go down well in a straight mental act, but if you change the presentation from the card that jumped to your pocket to an effect where they imagined something or maybe it's a prediction etc. The following sources are all pertaining to the use of Cards in a Mentalism setting. Like gambling.who wouldn't want to be able to just know what cards their opponents are holding? Of course, this leaves the other question open - if you could really do this, in the real world, why are you not on ESPN winning all the Poker tournaments.? Of course, there are presentational angles around this.and it's every man for himself out there - why are YOU not a Poker millionaire? If you can relate your apparent abilities to tangible advantages, it becomes so much more meaningful. Just remember what Osterlind says about it : normal people use cards to play games and gamble, not to do card tricks with.
I will not talk about it, but I know how powerful it can be in performance. The use of Cards in Mentalism has these days been discussed over and over on the discussion boards on the net. Tony Corinda on the use of cards in mentalism, 13 Steps to Mentalism, Introduction to Step 10
"I firmly believe that it does not matter what you use for a mental effect as long as you use it correctly."