THE BLURB:
The $100 deck that was kept secret for four years!
In 1999, magic history was made. Less than 50 professional
mentalists were invited to own a new special deck. For this
honor, they paid $100! After the 50 decks were gone, many
pros tried to get one of these wonderful decks, but were
turned away. The secret to the stunning deck was to be kept
exclusive for four years. Now, that time is up and you can
own the same deck for much, much less! The deck is unlike
anything ever before invented. The DVD is two hours long and
shows over a half-dozen effects performed with the Cassandra
Deck before a live audience. Even more tricks are explained
in full with the help of professional entertainer David
Alexander.
You'll learn:
* Tossed – The ultimate tossed out deck where the cards
can be inspected beforehand.
* Destiny – A predicted card at any number effect where
both card and number is predicted.
* Poker Thought – You'll know every card in the hand the
spectator deals, as well as which card he mentally selected!
* Star Cross'd Lovers – A bit of Shakespeare and a
loving couple make for a startling revelation.
* Hey Nineteen – A card in pocket where the spectator
never takes her eyes off a selected card, yet it flies into
your pocket.
* A Light in the Darkness – a "cards across" where three
mentally selected cards move three different places, finally
landing in a sealed pile where they're identified as they
invisibly fly through the air!
* Tomorrow's Thought – An instant pocket index that's
easy to use.
* Sound Advice – How to learn sound reading, pencil
reading and muscle reading with the Cassandra Deck.
The Cassandra Deck has these important features:
* The deck can be ribbon spread on a table to show all
52 cards.
* There are no specially-printed cards, nothing added or
stolen.
* Each card can be chosen by hand or examined by the
spectator.
* You know exactly where any thought-of card is in the
deck.
* The deck can be cut and shuffled repeatedly.
* The spectator never has to write anything.
* The effects can be repeated with different cards
mentally chosen each time.
* Very easy to do! No memorization or difficult
sleights.
* Originally sold for $100.
Explanations of how to make and handle your own Cassandra
Deck are thoroughly discussed so you'll be able to use this
deck right away. Every nuance pertaining to handling your
audience is covered.
MY COMMENTS:
This DVD is worth the price just to see Docc perform as I
always enjoy his performances. He's one of my favorite
mentalism performers. The Cassandra Deck is arguably the
best utility deck for mentalists and magicians created in
the last decade or so. And the explanations of the inner
workings of the deck by Docc, and David Alexander, are
engaging and wholly informative. Although, including a few
opening statements against those who eschew card effects in
mentalism was totally unnecessary. Those that don't do card
tricks in mentalism won't buy this anyway. The expression
"preaching to the choir" applies here.
This is a very well-produced video that is very enjoyable
and informative and -- this is hard for me to say -- I can't
recommend this as highly as I'd like to. When Docc released
his deck to the public a year or so ago, he published a
companion volume, Fem Fatal, that included a whopping
sixty-four effects to perform with the Cassandra Deck. This
DVD contains eight of those featured effects. Granted these
are some of the best, but I can't help feeling that I'd
rather recommend getting the deck and the companion book,
rather than the DVD, which is almost unnecessary. There's
more value to the book (as always seems to be the case
between books and DVDs), and there's not really a lot of new
information presented here.
Still, it is a quality product and, if you get it, you'll be
quite pleased with it as long as you know that the companion
book exists. Oh, yeah, and if you are a fan of Docc's
performances, you gotta have it. You just gotta.
