The Effect Hitched by Andy Hurst, is another way to perform a single card version of the linking cards. The advertising blub boasts only one card used, nothing to add, nothing to steal away, and claims it as a practical method with minimal preparation time so it’s suitable for walk-around, etc.
Cost £10.50 as instant download (photo illustrated pdf document) or £12.95 for a hard copy booklet from http://www.instanttricks.com As I purchased the instant download rather than the booklet I am putting my review in the electronic media section.
Difficulty 2, No sleights but its going to take some practise. Most capable magicians will get this down in an hour.
Review
First of all I wondered if we even needed another way to link cards together, but as I’ve personally not been delighted with any method that already exists I decided to throw another £10 towards finding the perfect method... and I have to say I am glad I did.
This method really does live up to the claims that are made about it and with a little practise it looks even better than the video demo on YouTube.
The method is based on an idea that’s already been published, but at the same time it is different enough to warrant publishing in its own right. I have read the method that this is based on and I would never have made the massive leap forwards that has been made with Hitched.
There are two stages to learning Hitched, the first is how to do the necessary preparation before hand. The first couple of attempts I had were total disasters and just didn’t work at all, but another read of the instructions and I figured out where I was messing up. I have now made several prepared cards and although I still can’t one as fast as the author claims to be able to do, I can make one in about three minutes which I think is acceptable. No doubt with more practise this will get faster, but even if it didn’t, I don’t think that 30 minutes to make enough cards for ten performances is excessive, in fact compared to other methods this is minimal. But be warned, getting good at making these in Bicycle cards will take longer. I’ve experimented with various old cards I had laying about and some are just much easier and quicker to prepare than others. If you are a worker who uses nothing buy bikes then I’d suggest its going to take you 4 – 5 mins per prepared card, this may be a downside for some.
The second stage is to learn the actual performance of the effect. The most frustrating thing is that you’ll destroy a prepared card each time you practice. In the end I sat and made a bunch of them and then just practiced my way through them. It really doesn’t take too long to master.
The neat thing about the prepared cards is that you can have one or more sitting in your deck ready to go at any time. Even if someone selects a prepared card during another trick there is no worry about them noticing ‘the work’. This means, as the author points out that you can have several of these bad boys sat in your pack when working so the trick is always ready to go.
OK so let me give you the pros and cons of this method:
Pros...
Almost everything. In my mind the audience clearly see you make the frames, link them, show them clearly linked, unlink visually and then prove the frames are solid with no tears or rips. The handling is clean and no funny switches are necessary.
The preparation work is quick and easy and gets quicker the more you do it. In an ideal world we’d all be using Sixten Bemes linking cards but the preparation time makes it impractical to use several times a night. Hitched is a perfect balance of preparation time to overall effect.
The author even shows how he gives everything away to a spectator at the end to keep as a souvenir.
Cons...
It is initially frustrating that the cards you make will probably not work quite right. Although the instructions are super clear and photo-illustrated there are some points that you work out just by doing it. I don’t think there is anything more that could have been done in the instructions to make this process any easier; I think its just one of those things. I do wonder if maybe this trick would have been better represented as a DVD rather than in written form.
The method offered to enable the card frames to be given away may not suit everyone’s performance style but it’s much better than doing something fishy like making the pieces vanish for example. If you are a super-smooth Guy Hollingsworth type magician you won’t give the pieces away as suggested would be my guess. But having given that as a con, is it really necessary to give the pieces away at the end? Hitched does such a good job of proving the frames are what they claim to be that I doubt anyone would want to examine anything anyway.
Overall
I have bought several linking card tricks and this is by far one of the best, well thought out versions and is a big advance on the trick it was based on. I will be using Hitched on real people, which is more than I can say for some methods I have spent money on.
I still don’t think there is a super-perfect method on the market for linking card frames, but Hitched is one of the closest I’ve seen so far. It certainly gets the trade off between prep time and effect right.
Overall I give “Hitched” 9 out of 10.
P.S. Having bought Hitched and been pleased with it I've ordered Andy Hursts book and another trick he has out, I'll review them when I get them if they're not already reviewed on here. Hope you all found my 2nd review useful
