Inside Symmetry & Parity (Part 2)

By Ben Harris - Thursday, September 15, 2022

We ended the first part of this blog with a question, “Why do we need 26 identical

‘force cards’ in our Svengali Deck?” As we deconstruct the deck, this is one of the first
and most important considerations.

Throwing the “force cards” away was, in fact, a revelation. Those 26 duplicate cards

are part of the Svengali Deck’s heart and soul. If you remove them, does a Svengali

Deck remain? Well, no it doesn’t; only the mechanical engine remains. This can now be

repurposed in new ways, other than that imagined and conjured into reality by

Burling Hull. With the 26 duplicate cards disposed, we can create NEW configurations

with the FOUR available sides and the short/long skeletal structure.

The results are lovely: The Parity Deck, The Imagination Deck, and The Chimera Deck,
are examples of the approach. They revealed themselves, successively, after initially
dropping the “blinders” created by over a 100 years of using those 26 identical force
cards! Incidentally, all three decks are supplied with the book (custom printed and
trimmed by the USPCC), so you can put them directly to use without any arts and
crafts.

Of the three approaches, The Parity Deck is, in my opinion, the most useful, and the
one we put to good use in the book. Here is a deck that contains all 52 cards, can be
examined, and you can even perform most of your favorite card routines with it. Yet,
its built-in “engine” allows for many effects that require no skill other than that used
with a traditional Svengali Deck.
Some of the effects are subtle, some are over-the-top. Take, for instance, the striking
full-deck Oil & Water routine (your audience interlaces the entire deck,
red/black/red/black and then cuts the deck into to equal packets. You’ve not touched
the deck at all. Instantly, and again without touching the cards, you separate the
colors: 26 black cards in one pile and, and 26 red cards in the other. To follow, there’s
a mind-boggling reverse kicker—the entire deck re-interlacing red/black/red/black
throughout! Did I mention it was examinable? This deck is an awesome “EDC.”

The two other decks described (and supplied), are of a more flashy and visual nature;
fully exploiting the FOUR surfaces of playing card available to us (the faces/backs of
the short cards and the faces/backs of the long cards).

To explain: A Svengali Deck uses up one batch of sides (traditionally, the faces of the
long cards) to display a mix of random card-faces, implying a full deck. I’ve kept this
static with all the configurations so that a full deck of faces can be shown at call. This
is important. An apparently full deck of faces implies that there is only one more
surface in play—those on the flip-side, a set of backs. We in fact know, through our
explorations, that we have a total of THREE additional surfaces to play with. Each of
these can be brought into view, as required, through nothing more than familiar
Svengali Deck handlings.

As an example: For the purposes of The Chimera Deck (a triple color-changing deck

effect), I specified THREE surfaces as BACKS, leaving one surface for a random spread

of card faces. The result is a deck that, like the definition of “chimera,” is three-faced

(actually, it’s three-backed). The deck can be displayed as having all red backs, all blue

backs AND then a third, high-contrast back-design (a bright and solid marigold color

was chosen for the supplied deck). A complete deck’s worth of faces can be shown

along the way as a “cancelation” device—implying that the deck is normal.

Just as the traditional Svengali Deck, with it’s compulsory 26 identical “force cards”
allows for many presentations—the force card appearing at any place the deck is cut,
the force card always appearing on the top of the deck, the force card appearing at
any number called, or the force card taking over the entire deck in a flurry of
astonishment—the NEW configurations, obtained by throwing away the force cards,
also reveal a super-nova of presentational angles.

The repurposed skeleton is put to use in a pseudo-gambling routine called “Deft

Dave.” This involves three decks being magically switched with each other, and plays
real big allowing you to fill the table with broad and generous ribbon-spreads.

Another angle is taken with the Tardian Case. This collapsable card case (foiled and
handmade just for this project in Malta) is a pretend “Tardis.” Just like the famed time
machine from the British TV series, Doctor Who, this little box seemingly travels
through time-space, exploring your card collection. You create the illusion of removing
three entire decks from the case, testament to the “it’s bigger on the inside than the
outside” gag—a running joke that has become such a part of the Doctor Who culture.

The third special deck supplied with the book is The Imagination Deck. Here, a blank
playing card is imagined into existence by a spectator. One moment it’s blank, then it’s
printed with whatever card she names. It’s a striking moment. The performer
attempts the same thing, but his card prints as a rough sketch only, his imagination
not as strong as the spectator’s. He tries with the entire deck, only to print a hole pack
of sketches. The spectator comes to the rescue and wishes the deck to be fully
detailed. Amazingly, the deck does just that—becoming fully printed and factory spec!

This particular reworking of the Svengali engine is the opposite placement of the
surfaces to that which we used in The Chimera Deck. Here, I’ve employed THREE
surfaces as FACES, leaving one surface for backs. The deck can be displayed as having
all blank faces, all partially sketched faces AND then fully-printed faces. Backs can be
shown along the way as a “cancelation” device—implying that the deck is normal.

Many more effects and techniques remain to be explored. How about an entire
routine with advertising cards collected from an assortment of decks—all with
different sales pitches on their faces, and different-colored backs? A card is freely
selected, then—demonstrating the “power of advertising”—ALL the cards become
printed with the same advertising face and back design as the selected card!

How about mentalism?

Think about a Svengali Deck that forces TWO cards, not one. What about
incorporating a repeated Koran stack (or other sequence, like CrossRoads or
Kennedy’s Mind Power sequence) into the deck? With any of these approaches you’ll
be able to show a regular deck—faces and backs—and then perform some amazing
mind-reading magic.

The possibilities are many. They’ve come about because we stripped away what we
knew about the Svengali Deck and then reimagined the skeletal structure and its
nuances.

As an analogy, think about the famed “Genii In A Bottle” story. We know it so well: The
bottle (lamp), the genii, the 3 wishes. It’s ordered, structured, familiar, and we leave it
alone because it works (just like we’ve left the Svengali Deck alone for 100 plus years
—because it works).

Let’s get brutal: Let the genii out of the bottle.

NOW, throw the bottle away—get rid of it!

Your genii is left with no home, no point of reference. What to do? As in the Stephen
King story—related to in Part 1 of this blog—something new can’t help but come out
of the situation. Just be observant and dare to go where no one has before.

I look forward to your feedback, there are many things to be discovered and explored
with this new direction. The Svengali genii has been freed. Let’s see where it leads us.
As Andi Gladwin comments in his Foreword to Symmetry & Parity, “A principle like the
one you are about to read…will never be owned or completed by one person; there is still
more to discover by looking at it from our individual perspectives, lives, and viewpoints…”

You can see the official trailer for Symmetry & Parity, here

Do stay in touch and send any thoughts, handlings and ideas along.