Review of The Ultimate Marked Deck Companion Book by Ivan Laplaud

Review by: John Teo

As the title implies, this is a companion book to the Ultimate Marked Deck.  The deck itself does not come with the book.

 

If you do not possess the Ultimate Marked Deck and contemplate in purchasing one, the book gives a good description of what the deck is all about.  The deck is printed in the popular bicycle design and the marking is easy to read and yet hard to detect.  This is the hallmark of a good card marking system.  You actually read the name of the card itself on the back design, and not having to count or note the location of any symbol.  The markings are actually printed into the back design, and are not hand painted.

 

Now, to the book itself – this is a nicely printed tome comprising 150 glossy pages and perfect bound.  It is well written and easy to understand.

 

The book comprises 3 parts:  in part 1, the author gives a broad overview of the history of marked decks and their various marking techniques.  Part 2 describes the Ultimate Marked Deck itself – the marking system and its characteristics, and a comprehensive coverage of how to handle the deck and read the marks.  This is adequately and nicely illustrated by photographs.  Part 3 contains tricks and routines you can do with the deck.

 

Almost all the tricks and routines are from Damien Vappereau and Jean-Marc Gaheri, the creators of the Ultimate Marked Deck, with several interesting ones from Ivan Laplaud, the author of the book.

 

The strong point of a marked deck is that you can identify the chosen card amongst other cards without looking at their faces.  This principle is exploited in 4 different presentations in “Impossible Locations”.

 

There are 11 effects on the revelation of the chosen card.  A couple of them are quite interesting.  One is where a comical revelation of the chosen card becomes truly magical when the magician turns over his drawing of the back of a playing card to reveal the true identity of the card (“Mental Pad”, based on a Paul Wilson’s effect).  The second one is where the magician is not only able to divine which of 5 spectators on stage hides a selected card, but also reveals the identity of the card (“Cache-Card”).

 

11 more effects, based on popular card tricks such as “Do-As-I-Do”, “Super Memory”, “3 Card Monte”, “The Trick That Cannot Be Explained” and “The Spectator Is The Magician” are given new slants using a marked deck.

 

More miracles are possible if you stack a marked deck.  5 effects are explored in this section.  A Blackjack gambling demonstration using a marked deck is also discussed in the book.

 

Finally, in the Bonus Section at the end of the book, Gaetan Bloom, Darwin Ortiz and Michael Weber each contribute an effect.

 

Whether you own the Ultimate Marked Deck or any other marked deck, this wonderful book is a valuable resource.  (5/5 stars rating).