– Intro/Brief Overview
What’s up everybody welcome to Magic For Beginners, my name is Keith and today we’re going to be talking about these Crackers Cards, which is a fantastic little packet trick from Steve Dela. You may know Steve as the creator of the amazing marked deck that’s know as the Night Flight deck, which this packet trick is made up using those cards. Before we delve into the review, here’s a quick little performance of the trick so you can get an overview of what’s involved.
– What Is The Routine/Trick?
This is a fantastic little opener for any routine or can be used as the next step for a card trick or mentalism effect. As a basic premise and effect, you ask a spectator to name any King from a deck of cards, it can be the spades, clubs, hearts or diamonds and this is a completely free choice from the spectator on what they choose. They can even change their mind if they wanted. Once a suit has been selected, you can then tell them that you knew they were going to select that particular king and then you take out the cards from the plastic sleeve and spread the cards to show that you have four playing cards and the one King suit they selected is actually face up while the others are face down. Then you go onto say that not only that, you can remove the card from the deck and the back of the card is a completely different colour. Once you’ve performed the trick, you can replace the card, put it back into the plastic wallet and you’re reset and good to go again.
– How much does it cost?
I don’t recall how much I paid for these, as I got them at a lecture day at Darlington, but they’re usually £18 on Steve’s web site. I think it was about £15 for them which is a good deal I think, as it’s such a super simple and easy trick to do and it’s been added into my every day carry wallet as it packs small and plays big, in my opinion.
– What Do You Get With It?
So what do you get with it? This comes in a little sealed bag and you’re getting four cards in that bag and also a plastic sleeve to keep the cards inside, which is all that you need to perform the trick. There’s also the tutorial available on his web site, which anyone can see which explains the trick and how to perform it.
– Does It Come With Instructions?
Yeah, there’s a 7 page PDF document you can view which explains about the trick itself, how to setup the trick (Should it get messed up), and also a routine/handling for the trick. It would have been nice to maybe have a short video with Steve talking about the trick and maybe a performance for people to see, as I do love his performance style but a PDF is all that’s needed for it I guess.
– Is It Easy To Perform?
The trick is super easy to perform. If you can take some cards out of a packet (Which is probably the hardest part of the trick and Steve would agree as there’s a specific way to get it done) then look at the cards and spread them in your hand, you can do it. You just need to have them set-up and stored away ready for use. But the thing with this trick is though, you can expand on the effect and use it as something much bigger. For example, like in the performance that I did, I forced a playing card on the spectator and once they picked that card, it was lost into the deck. You can then say you know exactly when card was chosen and you knew it was going to be selected before you even performed the trick. Then you can say you have four cards here and the card the spectator choose was a king and that’s the first kicker. Now for the second kicker, you then present the one face up King with the correct suit and for the third and final kicker, you then show that the back in a different colour to the rest.
The cards are part of the Night Flight deck which is a marked playing card deck and as a result, from taking the cards out of the plastic wallet, you know which card is going to be shown to the spectator when you spread the deck.
– Where Can The Magic Be Used?
The magic can be used anywhere at all and it’s not set to a specific genre of magic. You can form a mentalism routine around it, use it for a kicker on a card trick and so much more. With regards to angles, you can easily control angles and make sure that the spectators don’t see anything they should. Like I said earlier, I have these in the plastic wallet in my every day carry wallet and they’re always there ready to be used and performed.
– Can You Inspect It?
Can you inspect it? Of course, you have to be careful when performing as to not expose the secret and the cards cannot be examined. But you can use a certain grip on the card you pull out to actually seemingly show that card front and back and it is indeed the one that was chosen. As it’s such a quick, visual and short effect you can perform the effect, put the cards back and you’re onto the next thing before some one asks to look at the cards etc.
– Is It Well Made?
So is it well made? Yes it is! The four cards are made with 100% plastic PVC which are designed to last, so if you’re using them at a bar and there’s a drink spilled on them, you’ll be fine which is what I loved about the early Night Flight deck which I bought, they’re PVC so will last forever. The plastic wallet is a decent quality too and may rip its sides over time with multiple usage, but of course that’s just ear and tear and how you handle the wallet.
– Positives
So what positives are there? It’s got such a small space to consume in your carry around, it’s perfect. It’s very, very easy to perform too, so if you can spread some cards then you can perform this trick. As stated too, the cards are marked so you’ll know EXACTLY which card you’ll be showing to the spectator 100% of the time, so it’ll never fail. It’s a simple little trick too and gets people hooked in and ready for another trick. As stated when talking about how well made it is, the cards are 100% plastic PVC too so will last forever.
– Negatives
So what’s the negatives? The plastic wallet is a bit small to get the cards out, but I’ve managed to get a certain way to hold the wallet and push the cards out rather than trying to reach in and pull them out, as I think that’s how the wallet will be damaged over time as previously mentioned. Apart from that slight niggle, there’s nothing else negative to be said.
– Conclusions
So, let’s delve right into the nitty gritty, is this trick worth getting? I wouldn’t bother… Just kidding. For the price point, quality of the overall effect when performing to spectators and the quality of the cards too, these will outlive a standard deck of cards and will be still usable years down the line for sure, so it’s definitely worth the money. Apart from the standard effect of asking the spectator to name a king suit and show that card, you can add this to many different routines and ideas to elevate the effect and give it a new leash of life. Forced cards, predictions and even getting three spectators to select one king by getting one spectator to select a King from the three options via magicians choice and then letting the other two spectators select a colour and then from that colour select a suit, then you’re good to go and perform the trick. Then from what seems to be a completely free choice from three different people, you’ve known what they were going to select.
There’s so many more possibilities which you can do with this trick apart from the two different ones I came up with in the performance and this conclusion section and I’d love to hear some of your suggestions and ideas in the comments about how you’d use this, or if you do use it what routine are you using for it?
Steve has been working behind the scenes on some amazing stuff, like a Night Flight invisible deck and so much more and of course I still think that’s one of the best marked decks out there at the moment and the deck that I always have with me. If you’re interested on learning about that deck, then check on the review on this channel which should be popping up on screen too for you to click. Hope you enjoyed the review and until next time, cya!
