Magic Tricks

What is an effect worth if you don't know the secret? How much time and effort was invested in developing the secret, and lastly if it is to be released as product, what is the right price?

For my part secrets like this one may seem overpriced and should be ten dollar downloads, but I have come to learn professional secrets are priceless. This is a well kept professional secret and one that is surfacing quite a bit lately.

I have seen too many effects. Where if you can't reinvent the wheel just put them on the same model car only a different color and do a spin-off. A lot of over the counter magic is like this.

Where the professionals differ, is they have figure out how to use those same wheels on a Learjet.

For the price it would have been nice to have multiple outs for the technique used in this version of the effect, and I do mean this version of this effect because the secret is not limited to the gaffs or the gaff type provided. I do not want to give anything away about the secret, so don't ask..

There are different ways to gaff this effect, but knowing what they are come with experience, research, and buying magic secrets. Some more costly than others is all part of building your arsenal.

Obtaining the secret strikes me as an introduction to what appears to be a trend of multi-deck effects. As a professional magician you are not limited to what is provided in the box, and/or the online instructions. The sky is the limit to the inventive mind, and I don't think anyone will disagree - magic that leads to creation and invention is the most satisfying.

If you are like me the whole point of purchasing card effects, packet tricks is to learn different types of handling and gaffing methods.

I am not one to purchase an effect to perform as seen on the promotional video or as is in the online tutorial. Sometimes I don't have a choice and effect is what it is, but I am in this to learn techniques I can apply to my own effects.

I see the Crimson Deck as utility concept and more than a trick deck and again the true reveal is its not limited to what you get in the box, but as a launching point or your own cardeistry.

For the $40 price tag think beyond this trick deck itself and what is really being revealed here.

I just watched a video from another effect last night applying the same deck gaffing premises. A totally different type of gaffing and card effect than the Crimson Desk, but in the very same family of concepts. I personally have been using these same premises to create my own effects. I smile when I think to myself how did I not think of doing something along these lines years ago.

On the instruction video when Laura discusses the history behind the Crimson Desk. Think about the nucleus of what is being shared.

I would give this a 5, but I am going to give it a 4 out of 5 because to the the casual magician just wanting to perform the effect. The cost would have been offset by providing multiple outs in the set, or perhaps multiple gaff types provided to broaden the range of effects the deck could do.

For the professional minded magician who has not been introduced to the premise used. All its going to take is a spark of imagination and maybe dusting off the of these magic decks that have been sitting in the bottom drawer waiting to be donated to the local magic club.