Well it might look very long .....
However, spend sometime to read through it.
Recently working in a magic stall change my whole thinking of being a magician
And this article speak truth and it hurt .. ouch :P
I am the one that said: Well stripper and long and short is for kiddo.
:D hope you all will enjoy ..

There are two kinds of magicians in the world — those that like the stripper deck and those that don't. But a good magician knows when to use the appropriate tool. In real life, we have certain laws laid out by nature which all matter must respect. And since childhood one gets used to watching these phenomena and over a period of time it becomes commonplace. An example would be someone living in a holiday resort. While for most it's exciting to visit resorts, but someone who is born there may not find it as exciting as someone coming from a city. It's human tendency to want more and never get satisfied with what we have. A magician's task is to use these laws of nature and manipulate them in such a combination that to an ordinary person it looks something supernatural.

The Stripper deck is one of the most underrated and least talked about "concepts" in magic. Note that I used the word "concept" and not "deck". One must remember that the goal of a magician is to create an environment of disbelief for the spectator. This is the end result. You are doing magic to please your audience, not to please your ego. If there is any device that allows you to create a level of abstraction over the laws of nature to create something unnatural, that is all we need.

It is hard to imagine a magician who doesn't know about the stripper deck. Yet there are very few people who realize that it is one of the most diabolical concepts ever conceived in the psychology of magic. When most magicians learn about the concept, they often think it's childish and refute it saying that real magicians never use them. These "real" magicians fail to realize that the same things that they achieve through slights can be achieved in a more clean fashion with a stripper deck. It's a very old quotation that being complicated just for the sake of it is a fool's trick. This is not to say that one does not learn sleights, just that one must respect the genius of the stripper deck. Letting your audience pick a card from spread out cards on the table, putting it back wherever they want, squaring up the deck themselves and then shuffling it with their own hands, and then the magic happening is much more satisfying for the audience than all these things happening in your hands with all the funny sleights. It gives the audience a much cleaner sense of things and least to suspect. And after that when you do show them the magic — they have no questions to ask. They freely chose the card, they put it back while the deck was in their own hands and they shuffled it. There is no explanation for this. IT IS MAGIC.

I have been doing magic with a stripper deck since 1995. I bought it at a local community fair. The moment I knew the secret I knew it wouldn't get better than this. Every time I perform using the Stripper Deck, I get awesome reactions. I even do tricks with it blindfolded! And people have nothing but respect for me. I have done it in schools, for my friends, at home, local get togethers, everywhere. For almost 10 years now, the concept has never failed me — even blindfolded. And people FEEL magic. Even the most skeptical of the audience members are convinced that it's paranormal.

Like it or not, the stripper principal fails all sleights to control a card as far as the audience is concerned. You may feel more comfortable to hold a break and smuggle the selected card to the top, but from the point of view of the audience each time a movement happens in your hand, one point is added to their suspicion meter. Stripper deck keeps it to the minimum. Remember — learn the most difficult way possible and do the easiest.

I really feel sorry for those people who say that you will grow out of it. There is nothing to grow out of. How can someone grow out of a concept? Can anybody say that I will grow out of the alphabet? You have in your arsenal one of the most powerful concepts available to create an aura of disbelief for your audience — but no. You don't care about your audience. You want to prove to yourself that after a month of practice you can pull a fancy move off so you can feel great that others can't do it and you are more dedicated and hard working than all the others. But from the audience standpoint it proves nothing. The audience does not see the sleights, they see magic.

During the space race back in the 1960s, NASA was faced with a major problem. The astronaut needed a pen that would write in the vacuum of space. NASA went to work. At a cost of $1.5 million they developed the "Astronaut Pen". Some of you may remember. It enjoyed minor success on the commercial market.

The Russians when faced with the same dilemma used a pencil.
For magicians who have insecurities with the device, I have the following piece of advise. As humans we are bound to feel despair. As good humans it is all the more when you see someone get something for doing less than what you did. For example, someone stealing to make a living and someone working hard to do the same. The same feeling also arises when you have worked hours on your latest super sleight which you KNOW is great. And when you see a kid doing the same thing with the stripper principal one tends to get insecure, betrayed, and even disheartened.

You must realize that finding a spectator's card is not magic. For them it serves no purpose. Ok, if you can tell them where their lost cat is then maybe they will worship you. You want them to know that you are doing something supernatural with something natural. It's your presentations that make you a magician, not your deck or sleights. Work on your presentation. An experienced magician will shine among inexperienced ones because of his polished presentation. Remember, a magician is an actor playing the role of a magician. Two people may do the same magic yet get different reactions. It's all in your personality. There are so many actors in Hollywood, yet we can tell them apart. Why? One would argue that since they all “act” there should be no difference between them. Treat your audience with care. I also feel very sad when I hear even the most experienced of the magicians use the phrase ‘this will completely fool your audience”. Let me tell you something, nobody is fooling anybody. The right phrase would be “this would completely fool their senses”. These two statements are poles apart. The goal is to suspend your audiences' beliefs, not to make a fool out of them. Don't fall into this trap.

Experience and knowledge are two very different things. When someone has spent 10 years doing something we don't say he has 10 years of “knowledge”. We say he has 10 years of “experience”. Although you and a kid may have the same knowledge about the stripper principal, the experience between the two makes all the difference.

“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. – Albert Einstein.”

I guess it's alright for a magician to use gimmicksto acheive strong effects. Like me i use gaffs quite often... hey buy you have forgotten about svengali, It's th best gimmick deck i've ever used before. :)

However, If you can perform the EXACT same effect using a borrowed deck the effect would be stronger for sure.

IMO your audience shouldn't have seen the movement unless there is something wrong with your sleights of misdirection. As for me, if the same result can be archieved using a regular deck, I'll prefer to use sleights. To me it's just to troublesome to carry a deck of cards with me that cannot be examined by the audience. stripper deck is OVER-EXPOSED.

i rather stick to sleights and perform usinga borrowed deck when the condition is right. :) that's jsut me.

I'll still use the stripper if i manage to come out with a few good routines using this deck.:)

good article.

Hmmm stripper deck....

I used to use it a lot when I first bought it.... in the Andy Magic Collection set.

Yes.. it looks like real magic, how Reds and Blacks can just separate like that... how the selection can just appear on top of the deck even after spectator has shuffled them... , how the 4 aces can just come of the deck like that etc etc. Its a real genious.

But again.. that kinda suck when people say hey.. ya card fake one lar.... or hands you an ordinary deck of cards. Then u are doom.

I am more of a sleight of hand cardician. I prefer using the sleights I know to do magic with ordinary playing cards. Yes decks such as stripper makes it much more easier and more magical, but people know its not real cards.

That's the reason i dont buy or play with decks like that. People know i like sleights. Using gaffed cards.. i have no problem. Nothin to hide. I always like things clean after the effect is done.

But then again... stripper deck.. its one great creation! I still have it in my drawer at home. Might play with it again next time! It has been a long while.

I gotta disagree that the stripper is overexposed, or the fact its not impromptu.

I know you guys carry a regular deck of cards anyway, and if you are gonna carry a deck of cards anyway, why not carry a stripper? You could still do your ACRs and whatever effect you wanna do. Now however, you have the option in case you get lazy, or need a little more oomph, you could still use the stripper function.

If the spectator doesnt know the secret of the stripper, they could examine it and not know the difference. To me, being a purist doesnt serve any purpose.
It takes away your concentration which could be better utilised concentrating on presentation.

My 2 cents.

Yeah, if my stripper wasnt bridge or non-bike's i'd probably play more with it.

But yeah.. my stripper is a cheapo bridge one... with no boaders.

I always enjoyed watching magicians at the counter performing effects with the stripper deck. The look on laymen face.. wow :)

Actually is not just about stripper or svengali ..
Is the mindset, the purpose and the way we present magic.

Too often we focus too much on sleights, on how good our skill,
Yet, we totally forget the whole purpose is to entertain.

Just my 2cent ..
Peace

Isaac :)

“Method matters only in regard to how it affects the effect.”
- Ortiz

my 2 cents..

from some of the posts i realise that the reason most of us dont use the stripper is becos the decks they have are not simmiliar to the common brands, are bridge sized, have funky back designs etc etc. Then get a Bicycle srtipper.. or better yet.. make your own.. :) Last time I had a stripper that i bought which is the 'Rummy King' brand, the kind that you find everywhere, 7-elevens, stationary shops etc, the guy who sold it to me must have made it himself, which is quite easy if you can manage to get your hands on those paper cutters, the one with the big blade, I've seen them in my office and photo development shops.

I had a svengali which is the '�牤Žq‰¤' brand, also obviously homemade. My magician friend and I were at another guys party, and brought the deck along. So happens that the group there was playing chor tai tee with the same brand of cards the whole night. So, later when my magician friend performed with the svengali, it blew everyone's socks off. noone suspected it to be a gaff deck at all. and it was you everyday basic tricks you do with the svengali!
So I do agree with the article and Issac.
I believe it was Jeff Mcbride who said "A performer makes the difficult look easy, and the easy look spactacular!"

ok.. i just realised the site doesnt support chinese chracters.. the unreadable brand of cards are supposed to read "Qian Wang Zi Wang", King of a Thousand Kings... :)

Bravo BRavo Bravo ...
:D :D :D

I love this quote.
Very simple yet amazing.

Isaac

Stripper deck.....

No other trick deck is as 'clean' as this. You hand it to the audience, they shuffle, they check but they never can guess, or even have the slightest idea how it works. And you can never go wrong with it...well unless if they do a riffle shuffle :unsure: You can even play a card game with it, I think.

The Svengali is a little obvious being a trick deck, but i think you can always do a switch, right.

I did a performance during a dinner gathering at a friends place once. You know what, of all the tricks, the ones they thought the most magical was the Stripper effects. I was a little nervous when I handed them the deck for inspection, but they just shook their heads in desbelief. They're a mix of old & young people by the way.

'The end justifies the means'
I can take out the 4 Aces from a shuffled deck with a stripper or a normal deck. Depends on which deck I use when I start. The effect is the same....that's all that matters. Just like whether u use a double lift or pass in your ACR.

The audience just like to be amazed....

i think i read these article before in one of the magic website...if not mistaken its from ellusionist. I was looking for "tricks with stripper" from google then i saw the article. I also realized that using stripper deck combined with sleights is powerful. Currently I am using stripper + marked card but I seldom use the marked card feature. With stripper deck i was able to perform a few variations of the "biddle trick", "2 card monte", "Ace Production", "Color Divination" or "Color Seperation with a Twist", and many more in the process of experiment with the deck. But it is better not to use stripper most of the time at one time or else someone will realize the gimmick existence. IMO The main key function of stripper is only this "spectator select a card-spectator put back into the deck-spectator shuffle the card" then the revelation is up to us. Actually I never even prefer the "subtle" method to reveal it as it will be obvious if shown to the same spectator for the second time. The subtle method is direct but it is not a good way to reveal the chosen card. Actually I have a method I can use on a normal deck which makes it similar to a stripper deck function. I guess you all know the method right? Anyway...stripper deck or some call it "the wizard deck", is actually one of the powerful tool in existence for card magician. A kiddo may reveal the card as simple as subtle pull, but a real magician may reveal it in another amazing way if combined with sleights.