Hello one and all.

At the moment, I'm revisiting effects using the old '8 Kings' stack, (you occasionally have to give the fingers and knuckles a rest - they've been 'jogging' too long! ).

The only thing that gets me is the time it takes to reset the stack if a particular effect has demolished it. (Laying cards out on the table etc ).

My question is: "Does anyone have any 'shortcuts'/'methods' to set up this stack quicker than usual?"

All the best,

Andrew

That's an interesting topic. How do you efficiently stack 52 cards? I don't really use cyclical stacks at the moment but a memorized one and here is the way I usually do it:
I do a high/low-angle separation (1 - 26, 27 - 52) and then fan one half in the right hand in a wide fan and pull the cards out in the left hand dealing position one by one in order. Then the other half. This is quite fast I think. (Using the Tamariz stack I'd have the option to go from new pack order with faros and shuffling but I found that the time you need to stack the deck in new pack order in the first place is not faster than this direct stacking.)

I cannot help you on the 8kings though (for obvious reasons this stack is not used very much in Germany). For Stebbins of course there is the Stebbins Secret published by Ortiz but there again you need to be in new pack order in the beginning...

Greetings,
Denis

(Another intersting topic is how to stack the deck in front of an audience. I have only one practical way to do this.)

Hi all,
apart from the Si Stebbins Secret (Ortiz-At the card table), that Denis mentioned, there is a very good and fast method by Brother John Hamman called "Chinese Shuffle To Si Stebbins Stack". You'll find it in "The Sectrets Of Brother John Hamman" by Richard Kaufman. A most wonderful book, by the way.
The same principle will work with the 8-Kings-stack as well.

As far as openly stacking a memorized deck in front of the audience is concerned, I only know the method, that's given at the end of the Nicola-section in Encyclopaedia of Card Magic. Does anybody know of other practical and deceptive solutions for this task?

-Uli

Re: Openly stacking a memorized deck

The method I use is a little complicated to describe (in english anyway) - and is basically a procedure by Pit Hartling based on a Tamariz presentation - but one nice aspect is that you stack the two halfes seperatly. So in one effect you stack the one half and then you can do some other effects that preserve this condition and then in the other effect stack the remaining half. The obvious advantage is, that you do not have to stack 52 (!) cards in the course of one effect which tends to be a long and sometimes obvious project.

Greetings,
Denis

Hi Denis,

Sounds like some more great thinking from Pit Hartling. I really love his magic.

It is an interesting question about stacking the cards in front of the audience. I think that most magicians beleive they have to start with the stack which then gets destroyed during the performance. But not many of us reverse the procedure, starting with a fully shuffled deck and building a stack as our routine proceeds.

It could be really powerful magic, building to a great climax thanks to the stack.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm...got me thinking now!!!!!

Regards
Andrew

In "The Book With No Name," Annemann detailed his method for quickly setting up the Eight Kings stack. It's good, and I've used it for years.

Joe Z.