Has the Invisible Deck just been bettered?!
I’m not quite sure about that. I pure magic terms, the simplicity of one card named card being face down has a clarity and purity which makes it one of the most magical effects ever.
Invisible Date still has most of that magic strength, but it also adds a delicious hook with a personal connection to boot to the plot.
You explain a deck of cards has similarities to the calendar, there are 52 cards in a deck and 52 weeks in a year, the pips add to 365, the same as the number of days in a year etc.
Your participant then names any date special to them, you run through the deck and remove the jokers, the only face down cards. On them is written the exact date, month, and day they just named.
It’s not the first time CardShark have tried to give the Invisible Deck some personal attachment, they released Michel Huot’s Visa Versa last year which had a holiday destination theme. It was a nice direction to take the deck and I don’t know why it passed by largely unnoticed.
But Invisible Date has really hit the nail on the head, it opens presentation themes as well as creating a discussion point and gives you a genuine chance to bond with your participant.
Unlike the traditional Invisible deck, you don’t need to worry which way up the deck is for the reveal because it uses one of CardShark’s special decks. You do need to write the dates on the cards yourself, but that really doesn’t take long even if you take your time, just make it legible.
Although the deck is not examinable, you can do some convincing displays, but it looks so very clean I don’t think it is necessary.
Rather than the traditional calculation of the Invisible Deck you just convert the date to its numerical value i.e. March is 3.
The tutorial is clear and thorough, it runs through the construction of the deck, the set-up and tips on the handling. Plus a few extra presentation ideas are thrown in at the end.
You know what, I may like it more than the Invisible Deck.
Invisible Date is easy to present and perform, and the reactions are guilt making.