Copyright © 2015 by Devin Knight All rights reserved. No part of this e-book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval now known or to be invented, without written permission from the author. All Manufacturing Rights Reserved. 2 For Becky One Final Time 3 IMPROVED INVISIBLE DECK How To Make It Yourself Devin Knight The rough-and-smooth principle has been around since the early 1920s. The Invisible Deck was invented by Joe Berg in 1936 and was first released as the Ultra-Mental Deck. My deck is an improvement because it deals with two issues. First, with this deck you can show the backs. I am not the first to think of doing this; Joe Berg, Aldini, Jochen Zmeck, Alan Shaxon, Cody Fisher, and Lawrence Turner have all developed methods. Second, a lot of magicians have trouble handling the Invisible Deck. They have trouble separating the cards, or have trouble with too many reversed cards showing up in the spread. The cards are either too snug or too loose. My deck deals with these problems and makes doing the Invisible Deck almost foolproof. Although others have thought of ways to show the backs, I think I am the first to solve the issues of easily separating the cards and not having unwanted reversed cards show. How The Deck Is Made: This deck is not made like the standard Invisible Deck because the full backs of the cards are not roughed. Only the lower halves of the backs of odd-value cards are roughed. This term for this is “Super Roughing” and was coined by Aldini. In addition, the upper halves of the faces of all the even-value cards are roughed. I have not used standard roughing fluid, because many magicians have trouble with this; either they cannot get the cards apart, or too many reversed cards show. Instead, I have used Harry Robson’s Roughing Sticks, put out by Vanishing Inc. These sticks are available from magic dealers for about $15. You can also use the expensive Science Friction or the cheaper alternative, Plastic Dip Spray, which is sold in hardware stores. All the cards are back to back. The even-value cards are backed with odd-value cards, and the Kings are backed with each other. With the exception of the Kings, the value of the two back to backs cards will total 13. That will be explained in detail later. Only the lower halves of the BACKS of THE ODD-VALUE CARDS are roughed with the roughing stick. The lower half is roughed from the middle of the card to the bottom of the card. When an odd-value card is roughed like this and put back-to-back with an even-value card, the cards will not separate (even though the back of the even-value card has no roughing stuff on it). This is true whether you put light or heavy pressure on the cards, provided you put the pressure at the lower half of the card that is roughed. It is as if the cards were glued together. Normally, with a roughing stick you only put a strip of the material across a section of the card, because if two 4 cards were completely roughed they would NOT COME APART. We are using this principle to our advantage. HOW TO CONSTRUCT THE DECK Take a new deck and separate them into odd-value cards and even-value cards. Take a roughing stick and apply the roughing material to the lower back of the odd-value cards. Only the lower halves of the BACKS of THE ODD-VALUE CARDS are roughed with the roughing stick. The lower half is roughed from the middle of the card to the bottom of the card. If you are using a roughing stick, there is no need to allow the cards to dry. Now take the roughing stick and apply the roughing material to the upper half of the faces of all the even-value cards. The half half is roughed from the middle of the card to the top of the card. Now you will assemble the cards into back-to-back pairs that total 13. The spades are backed with hearts, and the diamonds are backed with clubs. Put an odd-value card face down on the table so that the roughing material is at the lower half of the card. Take the face-up even-value card that goes with it and place it on top, so the cards are back to back. The roughing material on the face up even-value cards is at the top of the card. HERE IS THE LIST OF HOW THE CARDS ARE MATCHED BACK TO BACK. 2S/JH, 4S/9H, 6S/7H, 8S/5H, 10S/3H, QS/AH, 2H/JS, 4H/9S, 6H/7S, 8H,5S, 10H/3S, QH/AS 2C/JD, 4C/9D, 6C/7D, 8C/5D, 10C/3D, QC/AD, 2D/JC, 4D/9C, 6D/7C, 8D,5C, 10D/3C, QD/AC. RED KINGS ARE CONSIDERED ODD AND BLACK KINGS ARE EVEN. KH/KS, KD/KC Stack the pairs in a random order so the even-value cards are face up. Do this so it appears to be a mixed deck of cards. Since the black Kings are considered even, put the back-to- back Kings in the stack so the sides showing the KS and the KC are face up. Put the Kings on the faces of both sides. Put the King of Clubs on the face of the even-value cards and the King of Hearts on the face of odd-value side. USING SCIENCE FRICTION AND PLASTIC DIP SPRAY You can spray half of the card’s backs with either of these sprays. Follow the directions on the can. You can spray all the odd-value cards at one time, but you will need to mask off the 5 other half of the card so it doesn’t get sprayed on the section you do not want roughed. It takes about 4 hours for these sprays to dry. I have found it more effective and faster to use roughing sticks. The cards are put into the card case so the lower roughed halves on the back are at the lower section of the case. When you remove the cards from the case, make sure the roughed backs are at the bottom. When you spread the cards, hold them so your thumbs can only spread the cards at the lower section. Make sure that the upper halves of the cards extend above the tops of your hands. See Photo 1. So long as you only spread the cards at the bottom, from hand to hand, NO REVERSED CARDS WILL SHOW. PHOTO 1 The cool thing about this is that unlike the standard Invisible Deck, there is no way unwanted reversed cards will show if the pressure is too light. Square the deck and turn it over sideways, spread the cards the same way at the bottom, and only odd-value cards will show. Square the deck and move it down in your hands so your thumbs can only spread the top area of the cards. Something amazing will happen and you will fool yourself. Except for the face card of the deck, ONLY BACKS will show! See Photo 2. This is the incredible secret behind this deck. When you spread the cards, spread them lightly. Exert almost no pressure on the cards. That could cause them to clump together. Hold them loosely as you spread from the bottom, and you will find that all the cards will show and not clump together. 6 PHOTO 2 To help you know which end is up, you may wish to take a pencil and draw a straight line across the top edges of the cards. See Photo 3. This is an easy way to tell which end should be up. If you put the cards into the case so the pencil line is always at the top, they will come out ready to work. PHOTO 3 The values of each back-to-back pair add up to 13. Aces are 1, Jacks are 11, Queens are 12, and Kings are 13. Paired with a 5 would be an 8, because 5+8=13. Because the Kings are already valued at 13, they are paired with each other. The Hearts and Spades are back to back with each other, and the Clubs and Diamonds are back to back. Commit this to memory. Remember that a Spade looks like a Heart turned upside down, and that is why they are together. The remaining two suits, Diamonds and Clubs, will take care of themselves. You can also remember that in bridge, Spades and Hearts are the major suits and paired. Clubs and Diamonds are the minor suits and paired. The red Kings are considered “odd” (both “red” and “odd” have three letters). The black Kings are considered “even.” 7 You will notice that one side of the deck only shows “odd” cards (Ace, 3, 5, 7, 9, Jack, red King). On the other side of the deck, the top card of each pair will be an “even” card (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, Queen, black King). Remember, because the Kings are back to back with each other, you must think of the red Kings as “odd” and the black Kings as “even.” To perform this effect, you need to determine the name of the card that is back to back with whatever card is named.