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In celebration of its fourteenth year, Sorcerers Safari, Canada’s premiere Magic Camp, is giving away a free ticket to see the grand master magician, Juan Tamariz, live at his SOLD OUT show on Saturday, June 19th 8:00 PM at the Panasonic Theatre in Toronto, Ontario.

‘Win a chance to see Juan Tamariz live‘ contest rules:

Look through the entire Sorcerers Safari Magic Camp FLICKR account and make note of the photos you like the most. Click here to view the Sorcerers Safari Magic Camp FLICKR Photostream

Download those photos and arrange them into an amazing video/mash-up with either royalty-free tunes, music you’ve created or a super cool voice over. When finished, upload your masterpiece to your youtube account, then send the link to this email address: ticket@sorcererssafari.ca.

In order for your video to qualify, you must:

1. include the words Sorcerers Safari and Magic Camp to your video’s tags.
2. mention in your video that 2010′s Sorcerers Safari Special Guests are Dan & Dave Buck
3. include this link (http://www.sorcererssafari.ca) in your text description.

Keep your submission under ten minutes and make sure to submit your entry before midnight June 14th, 2010.

The most creative video, chosen by a special Sorcerers Safari panel, will be awarded the ticket to see Juan Tamariz. The winner will be announced on June 16th, 2010. Remember, we’re looking for clever, funny and inspirational entries.

Good luck. Be creative. Have fun. The contest starts now. Go!

• No purchase necessary.
• All ages allowed to enter.
• Winner only receives a ticket to see Juan Tamariz.
• Winner must handle their own accommodations.
• Masters of Magic Series is presented by Luminato, Magicana and Allan Slaight.
• Winning ticket cannot be resold but may be given away w/ permission from S. Safari.
• Sorcerers Safari has the right to change this contest and the rules at any time.

According to the Twitter account of @bucktwins (aka dananddave.com):

TODAY ONLY. Order the new Erdnase Journal and receive a FREE deck of Erdnase Playing Cards. http://bit.ly/cU4XKO

UPDATE: dananddave.com has extended the deadline through Friday for BMD readers so don’t pass this opportunity up!

The Experts Journal is a beautiful reproduction of the original 1902 publication ofThe Expert at the Card Table by S.W. Erdnase. On the outside, it’s a perfect facsimile, however, leaf through the pages and you’ll discover an empty canvas for new ideas. This isn’t just another edition, but “a journal in which to coalesce your card-centric thoughts.” More information can be found on dananddave.com/news

Are you looking for a great deal on custom playing cards from Ellusionist? Here is a great one…

Now, one of the darkest decks to hit the street is now on sale for almost 50 percent off. Until midnight Thursday, you can buy our Bicycle Shadow Masters decks for $3.87 each (limit of 12 decks).

The Shadow Masters are used by magicians and flourishers because of their shaded design and incredible durability, so this Memorial Day you can spend it weaving your dark art in style.

If you use the coupon code DECKPROMO during checkout you’ll get a 10% extra!

Act fast, this awesome magic deal ends Thursday night.

Click here to go to the sale: Ellusionist Shadow Masters

I’ll admit, when I got these cards, I was fairly shocked.

It might have been because of how “poorly advertised” they were. But with that aside, let’s talk in full about the Arcane Deck from Ellusionist.

The design of this deck, like most “exotic” cards on the market, have a one way back design built into them.

The feel:

This is something I had some “peeves” with. When I first opened them up and played with them for a few days, the edges felt sandy. It was almost like a low grain sandpaper. I should tell you that these are a little thicker than regular Bicycle cards. Moving on to overall feel of the cards. These don’t feel like normal Bikes. They feel a lot softer. Normal Bicycle playing cards have a very light oily touch. When you slide your finger across the surface of these babys, it just goes.

Handling:

These merit a very small window for opportunity in handling. Due to the edges and sides sticking together, you are left with nice clumps. These aren’t bad in normal card handling though. What I mean is for all my flourishing friends, if you do an elaborate 40 packet display cut, you will have an easier time doing it because they stick together where you cut. However, Sometimes when you are doing more “in the hands” flourishing where speed and fluidity is key, they tend to get a little choppy and blocky. So keep that in mind.
Design:

I generally don’t feel these types of cards look great in performance. I can’t really complain about the card faces. They look nice. Faded indexes and pips. Blood red hearts and diamonds. Silver spades and clubs. It adds a ghostly feel to them. Also, the court cards (Kings, Queens, Jacks). These are really faded and simplified. To add further design, smoke is going behind them. This looks INCREDIBLE. And lastly, the Ace of Spades….looked decent. So in wrapping up my design rant, these cards fit the role.

Other designs:

What does that mean? This means the Jokers and Case design pretty much. However, the design of this deck, like most “exotic” cards on the market, have a “one way” back design built into them. The 2 Jokers provided in this deck look really eerie. Each one had a Ghoulish creature creeping through the card in smoke. One Joker is actually a subtle card revelation. In fact, too subtle for practical use. Unless you are reading it up close, it might not be noticed in a real revelation effect. And finally, the case design. I wasn’t a fan. Too much unused space. You get the back design which is reasonable, and then the front is the design of the Ace of Spades. What I don’t like, is how prosthetic it looks. It just has a lot of wasted space all filled in with black.

For the overall review, I would say that these are worth your money if you are planning to use them for flourishing, or even just display. Sure they handle like butter (I STILL can’t believe they aren’t butter!), but they are hard to “understand”. On an overall rating, I would say a 3.5 out of 5.

Pros:
-Handle like butter
-Nice flourishing
-Stay together for ease
-Look catchy
-Thicker stock

Cons:
-Too complicated
-Hard to see in many places
-Sandy edges
-Smell bad (YUCK!)

So, what do you think about the Arcane Playing Cards? Leave a comment below.

Want your review posted here? Submit your review

One of the major advantages that plastic cards have over paper cards is durability. Whilst a single deck of good quality plastic cards can cost a similar amount to the price of a brick of Bicycles, they will outlast all of the cards in the brick many times over.

Plastic cards are not suitable as a generic playing card choice for all magicians. Their suitability for you really depends on the tricks that you regularly perform.

I personally have been using a single deck of Copag branded cards as my only deck of playing cards for well over a year and they are still in great condition despite being used daily.

Don’t expect to be able to fan or spread them evenly, tear them or perform tricks involving crimps or bends, but for a wide variety of tricks, the cards are still more than adequate.

Whilst using plastic cards as your main weapon of choice may not be for you, if you were to save your paper cards for performance situations only, you can save a lot of money by practicing with plastic cards because you won’t have to spend your hard-earned cash on new packs of playing cards anywhere near as frequently.

I have tried a few brands out and “Copag” seems to be one of the best of all the brands of plastic cards that I have used so far. They handle reasonably well, they retain their shape even after continued use and don’t have a strange smell or suffer from the ink coming off like some of the other cards that I have tried.

I used to perform in a bar and one of the great advantages of plastic cards is that if they get covered in beer they can simply be wiped dry and you are good to go!

Another cool thing I noticed is that if you draw on the cards with a dry erase marker, you can simply erase the drawing after your performance by wiping it off with a damp cloth. Lastly, if they cards start to look grubby – just wash them and they are as good as new!

In summary the plastic cards:

• Are waterproof
• Are washable.
• Can last for years of continued use.
• Are not stained easily. (Most stains can simply be be wiped off.)
• Retain their shape even if bent.
• Can save you money if used as your main deck or as a practice deck.

I’d be interested to know of anyone else’s views on plastic playing cards and their experiences with other brands. Just drop a comment below!

- John Harrower

The Krazy Kids at Big Blind Media are offering loyal readers of BestMagicDeals.com a Kracking Deal on their Karnival Cards!

They will give you one of each of the range of Karnival Decks (1 x Karnival Deck, 1 x Midnight Deck, 1 x Assassin Deck, 1 x Renegade Deck) for just £12! That’s a Kolossal 40% off! But get over their quick – the offer ends on May 21st!

How’d you like £173 magic for only £34.99?

Alakazam are offering ALL the following DVDs for that bargain price! And you still get 173 loyalty points (worth £8.75!) as if you’d paid full price!

The Gecko device was the best selling magic trick of 2008 and now it’s getting a major upgrade. It’s called Gecko Extreme and for what I can see in the trailer it’s so much cleaner.

The Gecko Extreme takes the original Gecko and pushes it beyond your normal performance boundaries with all new gimmicks, training and performance material straight from the creator, Andy Amyx.

The Gecko Extreme includes:

• The Gecko Tail (GT) which allows you to transform those objects as well as vanish them
• The Gecko Quick (GQ) – GQ is a new “holster” for the Gecko, so you can hook up even faster and cleaner than before.
• A new Full-featured training DVD by Andy Amyx that goes into even more detail about what can be possible with the Gecko using the Gecko Extreme.

It will be available exclusively at Ellusionist on May 4th.

I’ll try to find you a deal