The Boris Wild
Marked Deck

Introduction

Congratulations on your purchase! The Boris Wild Marked Deck is one of the most powerful tools available to magicians. With it, a nearly limitless number of staggering magical effects are made possible. The Boris Wild Marked Deck (BWMD) is marked ever-so-subtly, yet is ever-so-easy to read. It gives you a limitless bag of tricks to draw from.

Getting Acquainted

Al Baker was the first magician to use an alphanumeric system of marking cards. In the 1950’s, he transformed portions of the natural back design of Bicycle Angel Back Squeezer cards into letters and numbers indicating the suit and value of each card. In the intervening years, several marking systems have been devised using letters and numbers, most notably the Ted Lesley Working Performer’s Marked Deck. The Boris Wild system, however, trumps them all (no pun intended). Instead of needing two marks per card, Boris’s system uses only one, for value. It is the position of this mark on the back of the card that tells you the card’s suit.

How the Markings Work

There are four “levels” or “zones” on the back of each card, on its left, long edge. Each level denotes a different suit. If you remove one of the “advertising cards” from your Boris Wild Marked Deck, these levels are clearly labeled. From the top down, the order of the suits on the backs of the cards is: Clubs, Hearts, Spades, and Diamonds. This is easy if you use a common mnemonic device: CHaSeD, in which the capitalized letter indicates the first letter of each suit, in order.

Now that you know the order of the suits, it’s a relatively simple matter to add the values of the cards to the mix. Each value is represented by a number. An Eight is represented by the number 8, a Two by a 2, and so on. The BWMD system uses no letters, even in the case of Aces and face cards. Aces are represented by a number 1, and each face card has a value. Jacks = 11, Queens = 12, Kings = 13. Since these values are often used for these cards in various games, there’s nothing to remember here, either. Finally, the Tens are represented by a single digit, a 0, not a 10. So by combining one of the numbers with the positions you’ve already learned, it’s easy to discern which card you’re looking at, just by finding the discreet mark on the back of the card! Illustrated examples also appear in the downloadable PDF at the end of this guide.

For example, a number 11 at the top of a card identifies the Jack of Clubs. It’s that simple! So, if you wanted to find the Eight of Hearts, you’d look for the number 8 in the second position down. The Ten of Spades would be a 0 in the third position. The King of Diamonds would be a 13 in the fourth position. Once you know what to look for, the marks seem almost painfully obvious to the viewer. But to the uninitiated, they’re virtually invisible.

Practice Reading

Getting used to reading the cards shouldn’t take very long once you know what to look for. If you’d like to practice, here’s an easy exercise: Start with all the Clubs. Put all of the cards in numerical order, and run through them one at a time, reading the back of each card as you go. Then, mix them up. Now try reading the backs, one by one. Once you’ve mastered the Clubs, add the Hearts to the packet in your hand. Run through the two-suit packet, reading the back of each card as you go. Then add the Spades, and finally, the Diamonds. You’ll be playing with (and reading) a full deck in no time!

Locating a Specific Card

Now that you’re acquainted with the BWMD and its markings, you’ll want to spot one card out of 52, while the deck is face down. In fact, this is one of the best features of the BWMD - something that cannot be done as easily with any other marking system.

Spread the cards in a wide arc (or ribbon-spread). Make sure you expose enough of the edges of each card so that all the marks are clearly visible. Because the backs are marked, it’s almost as if every card is face up! If someone names the Five of Diamonds, your eyes only need to scan the level where the diamonds are marked, the bottom level. At the most, you will have to read 13 marks to find the card. But in all likelihood, it won’t take that long.

Finding a card while the deck is spread between your hands is just as easy, though it may take slightly more time (only a few seconds more, at most). Spread the cards between your hands in a continuous motion, the left thumb pushing the cards into the right hand steadily and surely. Because of the way the cards have been marked - there is nothing in the center of the cards - your left thumb will not block any of the marks. Again, scan the necessary level as you spread through the cards, locating your “target” card as before.

Reading Tips

Even though you can read the marks on the backs of the cards, you need to do it quickly and discreetly. If there’s any indication, based on your body language, attitude, the tilt of your head, or the direction of your gaze, all hope is lost. You need to spend more time focusing on things other than the backs of the cards. Whatever you do, don’t stare at the backs of the marked cards!

And when you do look at the backs of the cards, don’t do it in a super sneaky way. Motivate your actions—your reasons for glancing at the card or at the deck. Read the marks when inserting your card in the deck, or when sliding it across the table. If you’ve controlled a selected card to the top, you can read the back at any time; when the cards are replaced in the card box, in your pocket, spread between your hands on the table, while the deck is being shuffled, etc.

Timing and distance are also important. Boris Wild suggests reading the card(s) long before or long after the necessary “business” takes place. Putting a minute or two between your glimpse and the action can help immensely. As far as distance is concerned, remember that you don’t have to be right on top of the cards in order to read them. You’re not reading a novel, just a single character, and noting its position at the same time. The BWMD can be easily read from a distance of several feet.

Quick Tricks and Ideas

Here are a few quick ideas that, with careful practice and presentation - and mastery of your BWMD, of course - can become stunning performance pieces.

• You can use the marks to determine the color or suit of cards, not their identity. In this way, you can perform versions of tricks like Paul Curry’s “Out of This World.”
• Instead of reading the back of the selected card, read the back of another card and use its identity as a key card, with which you can locate the spectator’s selection.
• Annemann’s classic effect Pseudo-Psychometry is made possible with the BWMD. Five or six spectators select cards and remember them. The cards are mixed, and you instantly return them to the spectators that selected them!
• Combining the BWMD with a stacking system like Si Stebbins, Juan Tamariz’s Mnemonica, or the Aronson Stack turns your deck into a powerful tool with a limitless number of possibilities.
• Matching effects are made easy with the BWMD. Have several spectators select cards and lay them face down on the table. Run through the pack and remove the mates to each selection. When the spectators turn over the cards, they match! You could remove the same cards from a deck of a different color, to help disguise the method.
• Boris Wild suggests using the marks on your BWMD as a back-up for your other tricks. While performing effects that don’t require a marked deck, you can easily check your progress (are the cards in the right order?, for example). Or, if dealing with a difficult spectator, the marked cards will let you know what card they selected, keeping you one step ahead of them at all times.

Name My Card

This trick is one of the strongest you can perform with the BWMD.

What You Need

A Boris Wild Marked Deck; no preparation necessary.

Performance

1. Hand the deck to a friendly spectator and have her shuffle the cards thoroughly. Then tell her to cut the cards and give you half.
2. Select your card from your half of the deck and pretend to look at it. It doesn’t matter what card you pick, since its identity will become meaningless in a moment or two. Don’t let anyone see the card you’ve removed.
3. Place your card on the table and tell the spectator to do the same: select a card, commit its identity to memory and set it on the table, face down. Pick up the spectator’s card and insert it into your half of the pack, face down. As you do, read the back of the card. You now know the identity of her selection. Tell the spectator to do the same, putting your card back in her half of the deck. Make sure she doesn’t get a glimpse of the card as she does this. Have both packets shuffled.
4. Now for the finale. Tell her that you’ll find the card she selected even though she shuffled and cut the cards. Stress the fairness of the situation up to this point. But, tell her that to add to the mystery, you’d like to make her into a magician. Ask her to look through her half of the pack and locate the card you selected. Once she has, you explain, she is to put it on the table, face down. At first she may act surprised or confused at your request, but if you tell her to play along, eventually, she’ll take a card out.
5. Remove her card from your half of the pack (you already know its identity, remember?) and put it on the table, face down. Eventually, she will put a card down, too. Read its back.
6. Now all you have to do is announce the card you “selected” and the name of her card. Of course, the card you “selected” is the one she just placed on the table. Name both cards and have the spectator flip them over. A miracle!

Final Thoughts

You’ll find this trick not only fools your spectators entirely, but gives them a sense of astonishment that other effects can’t. It empowers them in a way they don’t think possible. It’s not very often that a spectator accomplishes something so seemingly impossible in the course of a magic trick.

Special Note

This trick is one of over 25 described in the book Hidden in Plain Sight: A Manual for Marked Cards published by FUN Incorporated. The book is a complete guide to marked decks and magic that can be performed with any marked deck. But best of all, Hidden in Plain Sight is the ideal companion to your Boris Wild Marked Deck; it includes a detailed section on the working of the BWMD (written by Boris Wild), professional tips, and several stunning feats that can be performed with it. Ask your magic dealer for Hidden in Plain Sight.