The UnMemorized Deck by Marcelo Insua

I really want to love this, but the little Tamariz that keeps popping up on my shoulder tells me to bin it. I'm really unsure. I'll start with a few things I'm not keen on. First of all, I absolutely hate the trailer. What a total waste of time. 1 minute, 29 seconds worth of nothing. If your advert/trailer doesn't provide the customer with at least a basic overview of the product, then don't bother. I know I am being picky here, as this has absolutely nothing to do with the final product, but this is a practice I see becoming increasingly common. It achieves absolutely nothing. I see a trailer like this and I think either the effect is so crap it's not worth showing, or it's so simple a trailer would give away the secret. In this case, neither is applicable, Marcelo has created a solid routine, that I know has fooled some really knowledgeable people. Secondly, I would have liked to have seen a little bit more of a description in the ad copy. I saw Marcelo lecture quite recently, and when we ordered this product, I really couldn't be sure what it was we were ordering. Let me get some more negatives out the way, and I will give you how I would have written the ad copy. I personally found the English dubbing to be a little bit too conversational for my liking. Whilst Marcelo certainly explained everything quite effectively, I thought the English dubbing was far from properly scripted. It felt like the translation we received was a result of Marcelo watching the Spanish performance through once, and explaining it in English as he went. Again, a minor point but I thought it was quite funny that Marcelo picked his daughter to use in the explanation section. The poor girl clearly did not give a toss about sitting through another one of her dad's card tricks. Made me laugh though :) Lastly, whilst I am no expert on the fundamental principle being used here, I personally know of a few more names who should have been credited. 

Let me help Marcelo with some ad copy. This, to me, is how it should have read:

The UnMemorized Deck by Marcelo Insua

A group of spectator's assist in helping the magician shuffle a deck of cards. These cards can be borrowed and in any condition, there are NO special cards used at all! After the deck is seemingly mixed, the magician seemingly memorises the position of each and every card in the deck in a ridiculously short time! Having spectators remove and return cards VERY FREELY, he proceeds to name them by simply looking for the cards that no longer fit with his memorised deck! Making conditions even harder for himself, the magician mixes the cards face-up and face-down. One last selection, and he seems to be struggling! What ho! A miraculous turn of events transpires. With the merest snap of his fingers, the deck magically rights itself, with the exception of one card, the final selection! As a final demonstration, the cards are shuffled once more and a spectator is handed a mixed up portion. After freely naming any suit, the magician names each and every card of that suit that now resides within the spectators hand!

O.K. So with all that out of the way, I bet you're thinking what's left to like. Well I'll tell ya! First of all, this is a really easy system to learn. It's going to take hours rather than days to become totally confident with the fundamental idea behind the routine. Secondly, the routine, as I experienced when Marcelo lectured, is really fooling. Thirdly, there really is quite a bit of magic jammed into such a nice little routine. 

Let me summarise. I personally don't know when I would use this routine when working. It's something I really will put the time into learning in order to demonstrate it in the shop, and will file away in my mind under "Tricks to fool the lad's at the magic circle (who didn't go to Marcelo's lecture) or for the real arse who insists you do something with their cards". I don't see myself going to this routine regularly as a performance piece. On the flip-side, If I was looking to perform in a more intimate venue, seated at a table perhaps, then I would really give The UnMemorized Deck some serious thought. If you find yourself regularly at a table with a deck of cards in hand this is ideal. I can imagine this going down a storm during the break in a night of poker. It's a great way to create the illusion of fully memorising a deck of cards. Are laypeople likely to appreciate the cleanliness of the selection and returning of their card, I'm not sure. Will it fry those people more familiar with the usual methods used to identify a selected card? Definitely!

Overall, a good solid routine. Didn't knock my socks off as anything revolutionary but I think in the right venue, at the right time, this routine would kill.

Trailer: