Get Small

(kudos to those who recognize the Steve Martin title reference)

This post will be a tip about doing card tricks that involve a large layout procedure; These are often un-weildly due to space conditions / restrictions.

I'm talking about things like the 21 card trick... or more gooder (like theres something less gooder than the 21 card trick?) the Grid / Matrix Effect that Lennert Green and / or John Bannon have done so much work on. Note: I first learned this in Jon Racherbaumers' MO Zine as "Spectator Works Harder to Triumph" and the credit was given to Peter Dufie... I'm not sure which came first, the chicken or the egg, but I do know this is an amazing principle. In case your curious, my favorite version is John Bannon's "Origami Prediction' (from his Bullet DVDs) 
So, yeah, basically the idea is to carry the needed cards in Playtime size (smaller cards) which allow you to do this large layout on a surface 1/4 the size it would normally require: and IMO, the use of said cards requires no more justification that that. I carry the above Bannon / Oragami effect in a small coin envelope that houses the 16 cards and the prediction. It's small enough to toss in a wallet if you want to carry something unique to perform at your next social gathering (I don't really consider this kind of effect a good walkaround piece... but I digress)  Sidenote, if you'd like to know just about everything possible with this kind of 'matrix' effect, I'd suggest a look at Lennert Green's dissertation on the subject in his EMC DVD release... he covers about a a dozen different options (more than enough food for thought to develop a strong routine.)

Beyond that...
There's quite a few effects in Cardopia that require such layouts and you might consider using this strategy to make these more user friendly by employing a smaller card stock.

That's todays tip of the day... hope someone finds it helpful