Ok, so here I am trying to avoid card tricks at the moment as I've had my fill over the last 9 months and I'm really trying to get to grips with coins at the moment (which I'm finding frustratingly hard). I'm also attempting to avoid anything involving gimmicks as I want to concentrate on pure sleight of hand stuff. So why was it that when Alakazam did a dealer demo at magic club on monday I had to go and buy a gimmicked card trick, purely on the basis that I'd been told it would fit nicely on the end of an ACR? If anyone knows the answer please inform me. Otherwise here's the review.....
The Effect
The packet says:
Phase one - Two picture cards are shown and placed face up on the table. A card is chosen freely froma face-up deck, signed and placed between the two kings. With a snap of the fingers the chosen signed card vanishes from between the kings and is now face down in the middle of the face up deck!
Phase two - The two picture cards are once again placed face up on the table. The signed card is now shown going into the middle of the deck. The deck is squared and cut. The picture cards are now fanned to show a face down card between them. The spectator removes the card himself and yes it's the signed selection!
Cost
10 pounds on Monday but that was a special price, probably about 13 quid normally.
Difficulty
(1=easy to do, 2=No sleights, but not so easy, 3=Some sleights used,
4=Advanced sleights used, 5=Suitable for experienced magicians only)
3, you'll have to have the ability to control cards and hold and transfer breaks.
Review
Well I'm quite pleased with this, even though it is a gimmick. In the pack you get the gimmick and written instructions as well as a DVD of Peter Nardi performing and explaining the routine. It plays as per the description, the only niggle I'd have is that you do have to place the kings back on top of the pack before fanning them to show the card in the second phase. You might think from above that the signed card reappears between them while they're on the table, which it doesn't.
However, the second revelation is very clean, you place the kings clearly on top then without any funny moves, SLOWLY, CLEARLY, VISUALLY (
) the slection is between them. You'll have to have a good working knowledge of basic sleights to pull this routine off and practice will be required to make it look natural but it is a nice two phase trick. you could even do the phases independently of each other but they do flow well together.
The gimmick itself is on Bicycle stock and is extremely well made (by hand apparently, Pete says of the guy who makes them "I don't know how he does it, but he does") and will stand up to scrutiny from an average performance distance. It's not examinable but there shouldn't be any heat on it at any point if you do the trick right, and the instructions do include an optional clean-up procedure. It's definitely NOT a case of the gaff doing all the work for you but it does add to a nice clean looking effect.
Overall
A good 7/10, I'll be including this on the end of my ACR once I've polished it enough to perform.
