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Svengali Deck
Learn about most useful gimmicked deck ever invented, and buy yours now at Vanishing Inc. Magic.
What can you do with a Svengali deck?
Miracles! Although the method is straightforward, many different effects are possible with the deck. It allows the performer to appear to be demonstrating considerable sleight of hand, whilst in fact, the deck does almost all of the work itself.
What is the effect?
You can have a selected card lost in the deck, a quick tap and it comes to the top. The spectator can cut the deck into several packets, select one and turn over the top card and there is their selected card again. A card is shown, then miraculously changes into the selection. You can even riffle through the cards to show them to be all different and with a magical gesture, riffle again and they all turn into the selected card.
Often included in magic sets, and hugely popularised in the 60s and 70s when it was sold as TV Magic cards by Marshall Brodien.
The history
The Svengali deck is a trick deck of cards that’s over 100 years old. Burling Hull is credited with its creation. He showed it to Boston dealer WD LeRoy who marketed it in 1909. In March of the same year, the trick deck was copyrighted in Washington DC (Class A. Xxc. No.233032) with the rights going to Burling Hull. He was just fifteen when he created it.
The principle behind the cards was first recorded in the 1600s in the Asti Manuscript c.1700.
Who was Svengali?
The dictionary says a Svengali is "a person who exercises a controlling or mesmeric influence on another, especially for a sinister purpose." What has that got to do with a trick deck of cards? Well, again, no one is really sure. Although there was a novel in the 1800s that featured a character called Svengali who was a magician. The deck was named by Herman Hanson, an employee of LeRoy. Hanson went on to become a successful vaudevillian magician and was stage manager for Thurston.
Easy to do card trick
You can open this deck, read the instructions and perform amazing magic in minutes. It is very simple to operate. If you know some simple sleight of hand, then you can really go to town, but it’s not essential to do the basic effect. The Svengali deck cannot be inspected by the audience, but you can convincingly show the cards to be all different.
Who should buy a Svengali deck?
We recommend Svengali decks to people starting out in magic, if they are adults or kids. It’s a fun trick to learn and is super easy to perform. We guarantee you’ll be impressing your friends and family within minutes of reading the instructions.
You can buy a high quality Bicycle cards Svengali deck for just $10.00 by clicking the button below. It comes with thorough, illustrated instructions by world champion magician Daryl.
If you want any recommendations for other easy to do card tricks, please get in touch, or use the live chat and we'll be more than happy to help you.
Buy your Svengali Deck now ($10.00)
An old TV advert for a Svengali Deck
