Back in December 2021, I wrote a three-part series about memorized decks. If you've been following my blog for a while, you might remember these:

• Can you remember it all?
• Pick a stack, any stack!
• Stacks and Songs About Them!

That last post explored several different approaches to memorizing a deck, from mnemonic systems and silly songs to good old-fashioned flashcards.

And if there's one thing all those methods have in common, it's repetition. Lots and lots of repetition.

I even talked about some of the digital tools available to help with the process. Well, nearly five years later, I decided it was time to make one of my own!

Introducing the Stack Trainer!

I've put together a new, completely free tool right here on The Babbit's Grimoire:

Try the Free Stack Trainer!

Whether you're just starting to learn your first memorized deck or you've already got Mnemonica down and want to sharpen your recall, the Stack Trainer is designed to help you practice.

No downloads, no accounts, no subscriptions. Just open the page, pick your stack, and start practicing.

Oh, and your progress is saved locally in your browser, so you can pick up where you left off on the same device. That's important to note though, since it's only on the "same device", your progress won't sync between your phone + computer.

Choose Your Stack

I've included three stacks to get things started:

• Mnemonica, by Juan Tamariz
• Aronson Stack, by Simon Aronson
• Si Stebbins, the classic sequential stack

These are some of the stacks I discussed in my original articles, and they're a great place to start. But, if you're interested in learning something else like your own stack or a different published one... no problem! You can enter your own custom 52-card stack, and the trainer will let you practice that one too.

Practice Makes Perfect (Or at Least Faster)

The whole point of a memorized deck is being able to recall any card's position, or the card at any position, without having to mentally count through the entire deck. You want to know it instantly.

Of course, getting to that point takes practice and that's where the trainer comes in.

I've included a handful of different ways to practice:

• Learn: Work through the deck in smaller chunks, one quarter (13 cards) at a time. There's no reason to tackle all 52 cards on day one.
• Flashcards: Practice both directions, card to position and position to card.
• Quizzes: Test yourself on card positions, identify cards at specific positions, or figure out which cards come immediately before or after another card.
• Neighbors: Practice identifying the cards on either side of a given card.
• Before or After: Similar to "Neighbors", but helps with speed-recall identifying the card immediately before or after it in the stack.
• Si Stebbins Rule Drill: Practice the underlying pattern that makes Si Stebbins work.

And because we all have those few cards that just refuse to stick in our heads, I've also added a "Weak Cards" mode. The trainer will keep track of the cards you're struggling with, allowing you to focus your practice on the ones that need the most attention.

You can view your accuracy, current streak, best streak, and individual card performance. It's a nice way to see how you're progressing rather than just hoping you've gotten better.

A Little at a Time

One of the things I mentioned in my original article was how difficult it can be to find an hour to sit down and memorize a deck. Between work, family, and everything else going on, dedicating a solid hour to singing the Mnemonica stack to yourself isn't always realistic.

And, let's be fair, your family might appreciate you not doing that.

That's another reason I wanted to build this. You can practice just a portion of the deck, whether that's the first 13 cards, the last 13 cards, or any range you want to work on.

Spend five minutes practicing over your morning coffee, run through a few flashcards during a break, or even quiz yourself on the cards you keep forgetting. The idea isn't to replace whatever memorization system you're using. It's to make the repetition part of learning a stack a little more convenient.

One Important Note

I designed the Stack Trainer to help learn and practice the order of a deck, not to teach memorized-deck magic. And there's a lot more to memorized-deck magic than remembering which card is at position 27.

If you're interested in what you can actually do with a memorized deck, I highly recommend checking out Mnemonica by Juan Tamariz, A Stack to Remember and Bound to Please by Simon Aronson, along with the many wonderful resources available on Si Stebbins.

There is a tremendous amount of fantastic magic in those books, and this little trainer isn't intended to replace any of it.

Give it a Try!

So, whether you've been using a memorized deck for years or you've been putting off learning one because memorizing 52 cards sounds like a nightmare, I hope you'll give the trainer a try.

Try the Stack Trainer here!

Again, it's free, works right in your browser, and you can start with as little as 13 cards.

I've been using it for a couple weeks now and I have noticed a considerable improvement in my recall accuracy and speed; I can't believe I haven't tried making this sooner.

And, since this is a new tool, I'd genuinely love to hear what you think! If you find a bug, have an idea for another practice mode, or think there's something I could improve, please let me know. After all, I built this to help make practicing a little easier, and there's always room to make it better.

Now go memorize some cards!

Are you new to card magic, or you have been doing a lot of "self working" tricks and want to add some harder sleights into your repertoire? Look no further because the double lift is one of the most foundational sleights in all of card magic.

Join me as I walk you through the most basic variation of the double lift, taught in books like The Royal Road to Card Magic and Card College, Vol. 1. We'll cover how to hold the deck, the "get ready", and being comfortable holding two cards as one.

This sleight will take practice, and you'll need to continue practicing even after you're good at it, but once you have it down you'll have expanded your reach in card magic beyond anything you've thought!

It's worth noting, and I do say this in the tutorial, that this is a very basic "get ready". Holding the deck and holding two cards as one are their own element, but how you "get ready" to lift the two cards is the primary focus of this specific tutorial. I, personally, do not use this method but it's worth teaching because it's more important for a beginner in card magic to become comfortable with a double lift, to perform with a double lift. Learning the basics quickly can help expand your repertoire and later on you can practice a more advanced "get ready", which I'll have tutorials for too!

What started out as a fidget move, just playing with Charlier Cuts and running cuts, turned out to be a deceptive and also flourishy false cut!

I noticed one day after I had been cutting and re-cutting a brand new deck, over and over again, that the cards were all still in perfect order. I broke down the one-handed cut I was doing and sure enough, it keeps the deck entirely intact! It looks like you're giving the deck multiple cuts, with one hand, but in fact not a single card changes place.

If you're looking for your next move, give this one a try:

When I first got into card magic, I wanted to learn a false cut and that led me down the path of one-handed cuts. They were flashy, they were fancy, they were awesome. They weren't, however, false. But, that was okay because they were the foundation of what would later become a collection of one-handed false cuts I still use to this day.

This tutorial contains the first three one-handed cuts I learned and I recommend any beginner to start with too. The Charlier Cut is the most basic, but also the best foundational one-handed cut. The Scissor Cut is a little flashier and will need more hand dexterity, but do it right and it'll hold it's own place in your repertoire. The Revolution Cut is the hardest of the three and while less useful in magic, it'll be a near-requirement for any more advanced cardistry cuts whether they need one or two hands.

I was introduced to the magic of Eddie Fechter only a few years ago. It was actually during an introduction to another magician, in real life, when we were noting our inspirations in magic. He mentioned Fechter, and my response was "... who?".

That was before I ever heard of the Forks Hotel or FFFF. As it's an invite-only convention, I've never been so the only details I have about it are only from other books and mentions from magicians here and there. Anyways, back to Fechter.

When I learned of Fechter, I watched one or two of the very limited number of videos of him on YouTube. His magic was bold. He was blunt. I liked it! I bought books on his magic, which included Magician Nitely: The Magic of Eddie Fechter.

Finally getting to it in my stack, I read all the way through it and wanted to share my thoughts!

Overview

This book was written in 1974 by Jerry Mentzer. The foreword is by none other than Dai Vernon and he has only great things to say about Fechter.

My copy is a bit dated, and by that I mean the cover is faded and slightly frayed, and the pages are yellowed. That's not really important though, just thought I'd mention it.

What is important to mention is the number of typos throughout the book. A noticeable number of works are spelled incorrectly, everything from just wrong spelling to the wrong character (like an `n` instead of an `r` ). It's to the point where I thought I was reading a bad bootleg copy of the book and not the original.

What's interesting, following the note about misspelled words, is the actual typography used throughout the book. Characters aren't aligned or sized equally, and some appear more bold than others. It could be a leading factor of some of the wrong characters in places, perhaps it was just the way it was printed? Not sure. It doesn't really take away from the reading of the book, but it's odd nonetheless.

Tricks, Sleights, Peeks, and more

There are five chapters in the book and they separate tricks, sleights, and miscellaneous topics between them, and there's even an entire chapter dedicated to peeks!

There are 16 tricks in the book. These include tricks with cards, coins, a torn and restored cigarette, and a goblin tube!

What even is a "goblin tube"?! ... and, how do you get water to stay in a thumbtip?!?!

Yes, these are some of the questions I have after reading the book =P

As mentioned though, in addition to the variety of tricks contained in the book there are also sleights and moves. However, subtle notes spread throughout the entire book -- typically at the end of a specific trick -- yield even better information than the tricks themselves! My favorite is the practice routine Fechter has for "outs". It's not only useful for his Fechter's Aces trick, but it's the entire premise of Vernon's Trick That Cannot be Explained. Not to mention, it's an incredibly useful skill to have overall!

Takeaways

I'm really into the material from this book. I didn't know it, but I've been performing a version of Be Honest, What is It for a long time.

I think the version I perform was made by David Blaine, or at least I saw him do a version of it a while back and figured out a way to perform it myself. Fechter's version, at least the way written in the book, is a little difficult to understand. Specifically how you get a break under the top three cards, then take off the top card, and then do a top change with the card you took off ... all while holding the original break? It could just be the way it's written; there's a good chance that the way Fechter performed it is the way I perform it and I'm just not understanding the printing all the way. In my version (from Blaine's performance), I slowly-and-deliberately let the spectator see that I'm switching the cards in my and their hand, whereas Fechter's version makes it appear like it might not have actually happened (on purpose, due to speed).

I won't actually perform the cigarette trick, and the goblin tube thing's just different to me. It's a good one, at face value -- it's a "magic prank", which I don't see a lot of, so I think there's really something to it. But, I'm not about to go buy a metal tube and special thumbtip to perform this silly gag once ever. Maybe if I was in a bar every night though...

As I mentioned up above when outlining the tricks in the book, I actually love the notes that are sprinkled throughout. They're from Mentzer, but each is an observation of, or from, Fechter. In any case, I've already started practicing my skill at "outs" via the method outlined in the book and it's been really fun so far!

This book, printed over 50 years ago and self published by Mentzer, doesn't appear to be available from any regular outlets anymore. Only secondhand copies show up when searching for them -- which is where I picked up mine from too.

If you like Eddie Fechter, card magic, closeup magic, or great magic overall, this is an amazing reference to add to your library!