talkmagic.co.uk

Birthday Card by Wayne Dobson

Price £12.95 plus P&P

Available from: D'Trik @ http://www.waynedobson.co.uk/ and/or JB Magic @ http://www.jbtv.co.uk/

Description/What it says on the Can:
If you love ‘Card at Any Number’ then look no further. Many have said that this is the most commercial version they have ever seen.
An incredible card at ANY number using ANY DECK AND ANYONE'S BIRTHDAY. A brilliant comedy Card at Any Number, with a mind blowing climax. Yes, the rumours are true the spectator really does count down to ANY number in ANY deck and arrive at the ONLY CARD with the words HAPPY BIRTHDAY printed across the back. What's more a previously shown mini calendar is flipped over and printed on the other side is the EXACT SAME PLAYING CARD. ANY BIRTHDAY, ANY DECK, NO MEMORY WORK, NO OUTS, NO SWITCHES, EASY TO DO, WORKS EVERY TIME.

Comes complete with 2 sets of specially printed bicycle gimmicks and an instructional DVD

Difficulty: 1
(1=A Mandrake could do it, 2=No sleights, but not so easy, 3=Some sleights used,
4=Advanced sleights used, 5=Suitable for experienced magicians only)

Review:
The blurb says just about everything you need to know, you need to provide your own deck of Bikes, the DVD shows the 2 alternative sets of cards which are red backed but in my set I had one set blue and the other red so either deck colour can be used. Once you buy this effect you can easily make your own and vary the message if required. There's some preparation work in advance, not much and it's all clearly explained on the (non-regional) DVD by Mark Mason direct from the counter of his JB Magic shop in Blackpool. The basic routine is shown and at the end Mark shows a 'bonus handling' suggested by Wayne. It's probably better described as a minor variation but it's one of those simple things which adds a different perspective and allows easy reset for the next performance so is well worth including.

As this routine relies on asking a stranger the day and month of their birthday, it's not something you could do for family and friends as you're likely to already know that information. The spec actually does do all the dealing and counting so there's nothing for them to accuse you of! The thing I like about Wayne's magic is that he takes the difficult knuckle crunching stuff out of all his routines which means even a card klutz like me can do them with all the concentration on presentation.

With all due apologies to Wayne and Mark, my warped mind has now started thinking that this nice, happy and fun routine could take on a completely different complexion if the theme were changed completely using a deck of 'ancient' or fortune telling cards and the message changed to something gory or grisly. On that basis it would fit in very well for those darker performances where scary rather than happy is the key note. Out of a deck of 52 cards, just one will inevitably be selected by the spec and it's all because of the date of their birth - cursed from the day they were born type of thing. Obviously I must stop eating cheese late at night.

Overall Rating: Effect/Item: 9/10 for being an easy routine, Quality of goods: 10/10, Value for money: 10/10
The bottom line... I like it. A lot.

Great review

I do quite like the sound of this...

Personally I'm not a great fan of Dobson's effects.

Whats the reset time like and is there a lot of memorising to be done? if you understand my meaning

If you use Wayne's version it's automatic reset, just gather up the deck and away you go, if you don't use it then about 20 seconds in private is all that's required. There's very little memorisation involved otherwise I wouldn't be able to do it It takes a few minutes to prepare for the first time and after that you've done all the hard work, it's almost self working but not quite. If you were table hopping then you wouldn't be able to do this for the people at an adjacent table without making a few changes but for that situation not only are there alternate special cards included so you could have a spare deck ready, you could make your own 'specials' and prepare as many sets as you like.

Sounds good!!

Hi All

I picked this up last week and was really impressed by it.

The method is so cheeky & the reset is almost instant.

The only downside is that you need 2 people to perform this on, its a great routine for table hopping though.

I have also made some more calendars up so that the card named can be a different one at other tables!

Cheers

I attended a Wayne Dobson lecture at the Cardiff Magic Society, and he finished with this trick. It was ok...not really my cup of tea, but his presentation was very funny and cheeky.

As a comparison, you can see Mark Mason's perfomance on JBTV.co.uk - it's straight from the DVD.

Wayne is a wonderful person who despite his illness still continues to develop and produce great effects.... this isn't exactly for me but having seen it demo'd I feel it is a good effect worthy of many a performer.

It's just sucha shame that Wayne can't perform much anymore himself as I'm sure we would have some great performances from his finely tuned mind!!