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Svengali Deck

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The Svengali Deck of cards is a specially constructed deck that can be used by magicians to perform various card tricks. The deck and the tricks performed with it is self-working and require almost no skill.

The deck can be dribbled or riffled to create the illusion that the deck is completely ordinary. It can even be shuffled. The trick involves a spectator choosing a card from the deck and returning it; the card can appear practically anywhere in the deck, making tricks like the Ambitious card incredibly simple. The final and most stunning trick is when all the cards are suddenly presented as being all the same card as chosen.

History

The original name for this deck may have been Cards Mysterious. The current name, Svengali, comes from George du Maurier's 1894 novel Trilby where Svengali is a fictional hypnotist in the novel. Today the name is used to refer to any person using mesmeric influence, usually with an evil intent.

Burling Hull in his book Sealed Mysteries claims it as his invention and that he copyrighted it in 1909. W. D. LeRoy appears to be the first sell it as the Svengali Deck.

This deck is also sometimes referred to as a Long and Short Deck and in Europe as the Radio Deck.

'Two-Way Svengali Deck and the Three-Way Svengali Deck are used to force more than one card by using different "banks" of duplicate cards.

Variations

  • Joe Stuthard's Trilby (1949) and Bi-Co Trilby Decks are variations on this deck. In the 1960s and 1970s, Marshall Brodien sold millions of Svengali decks under the name TV Magic Cards.
  • Joe Berg's Novel-Gali Deck which, in addition to the changing faces, added a color changing back.
  • Al Stevenson's Blanka Deck using blank cards.
  • Ralph W. Hull's Mirage Deck which adding the rough-and-smooth principle.
  • Theodore DeLand also incorporated the Svengali Deck principle into a version of his Inverto so the deck could be displayed

Handlings

  • Greater Magic
  • The Encyclopedia of Card Tricks