Friday, October 30, 2015

The magic cafe hates you almost as much as they like money.

So there was a thread on the Magic Cafe where a creator was being called out for not honoring his sales. And it filled up with multiple people complaining of the loss of several hundreds of dollars. And  if you've been around long enough you know what happened, the thread was deleted. While I don't know what happened before it was deleted I think the thing that bothers me the most is that the person being called made no post to defend himself. It may be a bit cynical but it I feel it looks like he was just waiting it out knowing that as an advertiser the offending thread would be removed.

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Kardar Playing Cards

Chris Gould is a creative genius. One of his many marvelous creations is a reading system known as Kardar. An extension of that is his Kadar Playing cards. He did this by teaming up with another person on kickstarter. If you Google Kadar playing cards you're bound to find some complaints about a lack of communication after funding. None of that had anything to do with Chris and if you find that you would like the Kadar playing cards I urge you to go through him on Alchemy Moon for them.

The Kadar Playing Cards are his efforts to bring his kadar system to full poker deck printed by the US playing card company. I got three decks, the leather case, the coin, and both books. Worth ever penny. It's an interesting system and even if I bought the full reading book I like the system in the little booklet aimed at the average card user (read shut eye if you must) Each card has two short sentence on them bit like a fortune cookie. One sentence is usually more upbeat that the other. The art is superb and there are many secrets. Also there is a private forum with oh so much info. Chris is much more focused on building a community than on cranking out ideas.

Devils Library Vol 1

I really like the idea behind the Devil's Library of a bizarre effect that more affordable. So for the buy in price you get a leather card case that look like a book and a deck of old style cards. And an aged photograph. You also get a paper book and a pdf explaining things.

One of the down sides is that you have to age the deck yourself. The method if fully explained in the pdf. It's not hard but it is a skill and I think I'd need to do more decks to really get a good consistent look but I doubt my efforts as is would ruffle many feathers in performing.

The booklet and PDF leave no stone unturned in explaining the effect Chris Gould devised and it is so very clever. The effect is one of spirit writing and but with the include props and tale it could be so much more. I'm very happy with my purchase even if the effect is not in wheelhouse.

Why would you want a Tshirt with another performers name.

I'm sure that Danial Madison is a stellar performer but I fail to see the point in owning decks with his logo and name. And now Ellusionist released a shirt with an awesome picture and the slogan "I am Danial Madison." I just don't see the appeal in wearing a shirt with some other persons name. And as a professional performer it would be unconscionable to wear an advertisement for another performer.