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Some questions about Gaff decks.

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Some questions about Gaff decks.
« on: August 26, 2016, 04:57:29 PM »
 

PlayingCards654

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Hey
So I really love card tricks. never really used gaffed decks.. but now I want to start.
i did a little research and I come up with some questions:

So the bicycle gaff deck (with rider back/standart box) are no longer available in stores right? I saw some where that USPCC said no more gaffed decks with bicycle standart cards.. only special like ghost/tiger and so on.

so no new decks come.. now I want to ask about "old" decks that still available on some sellers.

i come up with 3 decks. I'm going to buy them all and want to ask you if there are more gaffed bicycle decks ("normal" bicycle) and generally if I'm right with what I'm saying here:

"oldest" gaff deck is Ultragaff. its the black box one that says Ultragaff. From what I understand, its only in Red back bicycle.
after that, they had the "Bicycle gaff deck". which had a revese letters box.. the "bicycle" and evrything else writting on the box was in revese font. these came in red or blue back.
the "newest" one is super gaff. (v2?) it has half blue half red box.. and cards come in red or blue.

So those are only 3 gaff decks on bicycle cards made? the order is right? (newest to oldest)
Thank you!
 

Re: Some questions about Gaff decks.
« Reply #1 on: August 27, 2016, 02:39:16 AM »
 

Don Boyer

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First of all, it sounds like the decks you're talking about aren't actually USPC decks per se - they were manufactured by USPC but on contract for Ellusionist, which is the company that designed and paid for the production of the decks.

USPC's policy, effective for roughly five years now, is that they will not allow modifications of their classic card backs and unique Aces of Spades and Jokers.  The reason is that their most popular designs/intellectual property are too old to be protected under copyright law - they're considered "in the public domain" and don't have any active copyright protection, just like all IP produced in the United States and released prior to 1923.  Some newer stuff isn't protected as well, but that matters less in this case - the important part is that things like the Bicycle Rider Back, the King-on-a-Bicycle 808 Joker, the Bicycle Ace of Spades, etc. are not under copyright any longer.  USPC seeks to protect them as trademarks instead.  Trademarks can be renewed in perpetuity, but have to be more stringently "kept whole" and undiluted.  What that means is that they can't allow modifications of the trademark in any way without weakening the legal protection their trademark receives under the law - and weaker protection could allow other people or companies to use a trademark legally, which USPC certainly doesn't want.  Therefore, they no longer allow any alterations to these designs.

So what's a gaff card designer supposed to do?  This.  The Ace of Spades and Joker can't be altered for any gaffs - but they can be replaced with an alternate design that isn't too similar to the original.  The Rider Back (model 808) design can't be altered for gaffs or even for printing a marked deck - but there are two very similar "near look-alike" designs, both protected under copyright because they're newer but adequately different from the Rider Back that they don't dilute its trademark.  The two designs are the Mandolin Back (model 809) and the Maiden Back (model 813) - both were tested and designed specifically to fool an audience member to think that it's "just like the deck back home" that they play with, whereas the truth is that it's a clever replacement.  Those designs can be altered for gaffs, marked, etc. without any hassles from USPC at all.  In fact, I used a deck this evening that had a mix of Maiden Back cards and Rider Back cards - no audience member ever spotted the difference.

The restrictions on alterations doesn't just affect Bicycle standard cards, either - ANY deck using the Rider Back design is covered under the restriction.  Color changing is permitted, even a limited amount of color pattern changing, but actual alterations of the line work are forbidden by USPC Legal.  So the Ghost, Black Ghost, Black Tiger, Masters, Shadow Masters, etc. are also similarly affected.  The gaff decks for all those decks as well as the Bicycle Rider Back red and blue which are made by USPC for Ellusionist have all been "updated" to remove any designs that are covered under the restriction, with substitute cards added in their place.

Ultragaff is also covered, but I don't know if they're actually printing new Ultragaff decks anymore - I think they made a big print run and they've sold out that run and won't make more.  Why?  I don't know.  Perhaps it had too many of the "offending" cards, or perhaps they just didn't find it profitable enough, or maybe they had a licensing agreement of some kind with Houchin and Garcia (the deck's designers) that expired and they aren't allowed to make more.  Whatever the reason, they're currently out of stock and have been for far longer than it would have taken to get a replacement order from USPC.  And yes, they only made it to match with red Bicycle Rider Back decks (which means they'd match the Red Bicycle Masters deck as well).

If I'm correct, the original order of release was that Ultragaff came after the rest of the Bicycle gaff decks from Ellusionist.  The others all came out around the same time, I think, or at the least were timed to coincide not too far from the original deck releases.  The gaff decks for Ghost, Black Ghost, Black Tiger and Bicycle Rider Back red/blue are essentially the same decks - they have nearly if not exactly the same cards in them and all share the same training DVD, "Army of 52," for learning how to use them.  The DVD is a little out of date since the decks were updated to remove trademark infringing gaffs, but they're up-to-date enough to still be useful in learning gaff card magic with the new decks.

You mentioned a "Super Gaff" deck with red and blue cards in it.  If it is what I think it is, it's the "Gaff Effect Deck" that was sold by Penguin Magic and designed by 1st Magic Studio.  That would be the newest of the lot you mentioned.  Unlike the Ellusionist products, there was no DVD created to go with the deck - it's not a good deck for someone just beginning to use gaff magic for that reason alone, unless you're very imaginative and proficient with a fair amount of sleight-of-hand.

Honestly, even the training DVDs for the Ellusionist decks are a little bit above beginner level and don't cover how to use every single card in the box, but they give you enough of a head start that you can figure out how to use the rest.  I will say this, however - they're very LIGHT on important aspects of using gaff cards, especially things like card forces.  Some gaff tricks absolutely require that you know how to force a card, and you'll want a multitude of methods in your repertoire, lest you be caught using the same one over and over until someone finally figures it out.  Get separate training videos on card forcing and sleights - a good one would be "Basic Card Techniques" by Kaufman.  The video style is very dated - it screams 1980s - but the teaching is sound.

Now, are these ALL the gaff decks out there?  Hell, no!  Even I have more than just those.  Many gaffs are also sold individually, and some are ONLY sold individually, not as part of a deck.  Some will appear in a deck - for example, most of the Bicycle color-deck series from Magic Makers have gaff cards instead of ad cards, and in some cases, don't even have both or either of the jokers.  Early Black Tiger decks had a gaff card instead of one of the ad cards you see in current versions.  There are also some gaff decks that have more packet tricks in them, like the Bicycle Carnival Cards deck from Magic Makers (that also has a training DVD available).

Three final bits of advice:
1) If you're collecting gaff cards/decks, you can't go into it thinking you're going to get them all.  There's WAY too many out there!
2) Gaff cards are fun tools to have in your arsenal as a magician, but don't rely too heavily on them or you'll become predictable.
3) The absolute best gaffs are the ones that the audience never finds out are gaffs in the first place - the ones that go utterly undetected, like split cards, double backers, double facers, etc.  They're more versatile and really make you look like the one who made the magic happen, rather than the audience thinking that it happened in the card company's print shop!  The dead-obvious gaffs like the 14 of Diamonds, 3-and-a-half of clubs, etc. might come across to some audience members as being a little too scripted in how they're used; i.e., they know in the end that they were "supposed to"/forced to draw a specific card or cards to set off a chain of events to facilitate the trick, and the trick always plays out exactly the same way every time it's done, unless you have several variants of a specific gaff, like, for example, 14s in all four suits, plus some 13s, maybe some 15s, etc.  David Blaine's best gaffs come in several variants that are similar in design but with varying cards used in reveals, split card halves, etc., giving him more variety when performing the same trick twice - for example, three different cards containing a card reveal might have the exact same design/gimmick to them, even the same script on how he uses them, but each will have a different card in the reveal.  So all three might be Queens of Clubs holding a revealed hard in her hand, but the card revealed might be three totally different cards on each of the three Queens of Clubs.  That allows for greater versatility - someone who happened by chance to see the same trick twice might actually see two different cards being revealed, even if the method used is the same, thus taking away some of the scripted, pre-determined feeling one would get if they saw the same exact card revealed both times.
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Re: Some questions about Gaff decks.
« Reply #2 on: August 27, 2016, 02:34:31 PM »
 

PlayingCards654

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Wow. Thanks alot.
I did some research prior reading you aersome comment, and left with one question.

Super Gaff use's half red half blue back.. which let you spread the deck and "change" it color depend what side your spreading (like shin lim 52 shades of red deck)

is there any other gaff deck that uses that back? (half red half blue)

Thanks alot, you'r awesome and helped me alot. :)
 

Re: Some questions about Gaff decks.
« Reply #3 on: September 07, 2016, 12:29:17 PM »
 

Don Boyer

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Wow. Thanks alot.
I did some research prior reading you aersome comment, and left with one question.

Super Gaff use's half red half blue back.. which let you spread the deck and "change" it color depend what side your spreading (like shin lim 52 shades of red deck)

is there any other gaff deck that uses that back? (half red half blue)

Thanks alot, you'r awesome and helped me alot. :)

I'm sure there are.  I know of a gaffed deck where the red cards are printed in black and the black cards are printed in red.  Poke around on a magic website like Penguin or Tannen's.  They'll have a larger selection than going to any one manufacturer/producer's website.
Card Illusionist, NYC Area
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Deck Tailoring: Custom Alterations for Magicians and Card Mechanics
Services for Hire - http://thedecktailor.com/
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