Ever since I saw Michael Ammar on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, I've been in love with the idea of producing cards from an empty box. (I know, that' not exactly what Michael did, but it still got the ball rolling).

David Real has done some excellent work in this area with his Sudden Deck and Sudden Deck2 , and the accompanying Disposable Deck.

Postcards comes from Herman Macagno of Argenina. It is a very workable deck production. A flattened card case is removed from an envelope. It is assembled and a full deck is dropped out. Watch the video.


Thanks to the gimmicks, the handling is not terribly difficult. If you've ever used a Mullica wallet, the moves will be second nature. It's pretty angle-proof; you just don't want anyone to see below the envelope. If you're standing and working for a seated audience, you can easily cheat the whole thing up a bit and get around any angle problems. You will need to find a pocket in which to carry the envelope containing the flattened card case. An outside jacket pocket should do, but pants pockets might be too small and could mangle the envelope and card case.

All of the work is in the case, so you can use any deck. Besides, what's the point of producing a deck if you can't use it?

For packaging purposes, the card case comes flattened. You'll need to assemble some of it, but that's no harder than peeling off a few pieces of tape-covering and pressing bits together.

There's a lot going on with the gimmicks. They're pretty well made, but I had to fiddle with mine a bit to get it to work correctly. Once you've go it, no further adjusting should be necessary.

The only drawback, if this matters to you, is that the card box is not examinable. If you want to do this in a set where you're using the case for something (card to card box, for instance), just produce the deck, put the case away while you do your first routine or two and then bring out an ungimmicked box for the rest of your set.