talkmagic.co.uk

Linking Laces by Paul Harris, David Jockish and William Goodwin

Available from MagicTricks.co.uk

At A Cost Of £16.99

The Effect

"A BRAND NEW RELEASE FROM PAUL HARRIS - PERFORM THIS ANYWHERE!

PERMANENTLY LINK ANYONE’S LACES! NO GIMMICKS! NO PREPARATION!

A spectator rests her shoe-covered foot on your lap. You rub her tied laces to soften them up ...and her two loops suddenly link! You have to untie her laces to unlink them.

You gallantly re-tie her laces to make two more unlinked bunny ears. This time she pinches the two separate loops between her own fingers ...and again the two loops link! And they stay linked!

At your insistence she reluctantly takes her foot off your lap ...and wanders away with her impossibly linked laces. She can keep her laces linked forever ...or she can eventually untie them in a futile attempt to unravel the mystery.
Can be performed with or without a lap!

ALSO CONTAINS THE VERY POWERFUL BONUS EFFECT: The no-gimmick self-tying shoelace
Description:

No gimmicks – works with most types of laces
The loops are genuinely linked
The linked loops can be examined
Completely impromptu
Comes complete with 28 page, photo-illustrated instruction book and DVD."

The Review

Nowadays I tend to buy books or DVDs rather than these standalone pieces - but I'd heard so many good things about it - and, let's face it, we are talking about a Paul Harris effect here - that I thought I'd buy it...

First impressions? That's a large booklet! We're not talking about some A5 thing here, rather a proper A4(ish)-sized booklet which is very nicely produced (glossy paper and all that) with over fifty complementary photographs.

This is most definitely NOT an out-of-the-package miracle. You will need to invest some time (it varies from person to person, but I'd say the average would be a solid few days) in committing the mechanics to memory and working on it so that everything flows smoothly. How smooth you are with this and your presentation will determine whether this is perceived as a puzzle or a piece of magic. And as a piece of magic, it looks very good and seems impossible.

On the topic of presentations, two pages are given over to different approaches you could take in how you present it and with what you perform it, and there are some nice ideas presented here.

Now, onto the DVD! I myself would say that this is a 'Booklet with an accompanying DVD' as opposed to the other way around - the DVD is pretty good, but IMO it's most helpful once you've had a few reads through of the printed instructions. It's a comprehensive as it can be, but there are a few pauses where you'll most likely be wanting to zip on with the handling - it's at these times that it helps to have some understanding of the overall workings of the piece.

I can see this working with most laces, and there are some tips given on preparing for the effect, but this is entirely impromptu and gimmickless which is a big plus point. Your audience won't be able to deconstruct it and at the end of it they are left with a very impossible memento (I'm sure I don't need to say it, but the laces really are linked at the end).

Finally, the PH Self-Tying Shoelace is very nice. It substitutes the gimmick for some nice psychology and a very devious convincer. Can't really say too much, but it sure is a good bonus (not explained on the DVD, but then it's not really needing a visual explanation IMO).

So, in conclusion this is a very nicely produced package into which some great thinking - both mechanically and psychologically speaking - has gone in to from several people. If you're performing in the environments where this casual approach would be accepted and if you're willing to put in the necessary time (you won't be performing this later that evening) then I don't think you'll be disappointed. For a few pounds less this would be an absolute steal. As it is...

7/10

Recommended, but only if you know you will perform it.

Nice review!!

I've been looking into this trick, I love that its impromptu and that you can leave the laces for the spec to study and keep if you like.

How longs does it take to perform the trick (extra tying)?

Can you disguise the extra tying to the lace so that it doesn't look like your just performing some smart tying work?

Wills wrote:How longs does it take to perform the trick (extra tying)?

Can you disguise the extra tying to the lace so that it doesn't look like your just performing some smart tying work?

This is where practise comes in - once you get it down smooth, it all takes a few seconds. The first few times I saw it done, it completely flew past me. Your audience will see you untie the linked laces and retie the loops before going into the next phase of the effect.

There's some good advice given on this bit on your presentation here the DVD which will all help things along nicely. If you give it the time it deserves in practising then your audience won't suspsect a thing .

Nice! I think I'll order a copy of it, this seems to be a great effect to do in a bar or somewhere in a moments notice.

Just out of curiosity can you link laces of separate shoes?

If so you could do it on a heckler and push him over

Hehe... what you're looking at here really is a one-shoe piece