This work is something special, something completely unique. It is the product of a several decades long love affair of Benedykt Krajdener and the pasteboards. If you are truly in love you will sometimes do things that for an outsider appear as irrational, unbelievable, or outright insane. I am sure Benedykt is not insane, but finding and memorizing about 2700 words for every possible pair of cards from a deck of 52 might be considered irrational or perhaps unbelievable. Yes, love can do that to a grown man.
But before you assume this book is simply a list of those 2700 words, or that you have to memorize them, let me describe what you will be able to read in this one of a kind ebook.
Imagine you could take a borrowed and shuffled deck, and using only some casual byplay (similar to a Lennart Green red-black color separation) stack the deck into any stack or order you would like. So say you are using the Tamariz stack for an effect you would like to perform, but you have not brought your prepared deck of cards. A spectator hands you a shuffled deck. With Benedykt Krajdener's system you can very quickly and naturally get it into the Tamariz stack order. Keep in mind that the Tamariz stack is just an example. It works just the same for any other stack you are using, be it the Aronson, DaOrtiz one or Si Stebbins, or whatever. Obviously if you can go from shuffled to a particular stack you can also go from one stack to another if that is what you need to do.
You don't even need a table. It can be done in your hands without having to create a fan. Once mastered you can do it while you patter and lead into your effect with an introductory story. But that is not all...
Benedykt Krajdener also teaches you his memory system which allows you to
- Remember cards
- Put the deck in any desired order
- Separate suits, red cards from black cards, odd from even, etc.
- And everything on the spot – under fire.
The real power of this system is that it can be done casually, under fire while you are performing. This is not easy stuff. It is difficult, but once mastered it is an extremely powerful weapon for card magic. And in case you have forgotten about the 2700 words mentioned above, you will get Benedykt's words in Polish (sorry no English word list included - you will have to come up with your own). You will see the exact position of letters – which will help you create your own system in whatever language you prefer.
You can understand that this is not something you will be able to do 'before breakfast'. To fully master this system you will need to dedicate many hours, days and weeks to study and rehearse, but the possibilities are limitless. In Benedykt's own words:
I offer you my creation, my brainchild - "the language of cards" - one of the most powerful weapons in card magic. My dream is to see one day someone else who can use my "language of cards" to create miracles.
And here in the words of math and magic expert Tom Ransom:
If you can remember two simple phone numbers, you can bring any borrowed, shuffled deck, even missing a card or two, into "new deck" order (or "Si Stebbins" or "Eight Kings" order) while chatting about, say, fortune telling, gambling, or the nature of "chance". Once happy with your new ability, you enter the next level of skill - to convert a deck in known order (a "Basic Stack") into any other order desired, such as "Aronson", "Tamariz", or your own particular sequence. Each requires you to learn three sentences each with thirteen words to be composed by yourself using standard letter/numeral conversion. Putting your own words together guarantees that you will never forget them! I have watched the author run through these conversions smoothly and perfectly. I believe his ingenious method of data compression here is unique and valuable. And
well within the reach of the "cardician".
The author, my old friend Benedykt Krajdener, is an expert magician with a lifetime love of conjuring. When thirteen he was taking formal lessons in Warsaw from "Remerbi" (Tadeusz Grabowski), a professional manipulator in caberet and circus, who taught all the classic principles and sleights.
A fond recollection: Benedykt's father made him an audience-proof set of stage size Linking Rings of wrought iron! Why? When "examining the rings" his spectators of those days would hold the rings to the floor with one foot while pulling up mightily with both hands to test if they were faked to open up!
A day-long session with "Salvano" (Tomasz Chetwinski), well known magician who traveled a large illusion show but also lectured, brought Benedykt to focus on creating "magic" for the "inner child" of each spectator rather than merely exhibiting his skill in doing "tricks".
Benedykt's third level of accomplishment is the creation and use of a vocabulary of about 2700 words to represent every combination of two playing cards! His dictionary, in Polish, is included here "for the record" and as inspiration for the like-minded.
1st edition 2012, 215 pages.
word count: 25758 which is equivalent to 103 standard pages of text
