The Effect
Ask a spectator to wrap his own quarter in a plain napkin. The magician doesn't touch either the napkin or coin until the spectator finally hands it over for the magician to demonstrate the freezing. The napkin helps protect from the cold that will occur. [Note: there are no chemicals in the magician's mouth or on his hands]
Summoning a change in his body temperature, the magician begins to blow freezing air onto the napkin, causing the napkin to become ice cold. He unwraps the quarter and, leaving it sitting by itself on the napkin, without even touching it, he blows on the coin.
The quarter frosts over white and freezes visually. When picked up by a spectator the coin is bitter cold and still white from frost.
Frozen was generated by the mind of Adam Grace. It is workable and practical. Our team noticed that in every street performance the spectators had no answer except that Adam must have really changed his body temperature.
A new realm of magic has entered out of the cold. Harness it today, in download or DVD format.
Gimmick involves buying a couple of cheap items from a hardware store
Set up in 30 seconds for performance
Perform sleeveless
Cost
$29.95 from www.ellusionist.com
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)
about a 3 to perform I would suggest for the "napkin method", a 1-2 for the "other method"
Review
I saw the demo on E and was actually speechless. This looked like real magic to me. Personally, this was one effect that I watched being performed and loved the look of.
I purchased the effect, and watched the video. Here are my thoughts:
The effect is exactly as it says on the tin. 30 second set up. sleeveless. no chemicals in your mouth or on your hands. the coin actually does look like it freezes - in reality it frosts over. But that doesnt matter, it looks amazing, and it feels freezing cold. It looks just as it does in the demo, they havn't done any clever editing. What you see, in this context, is what you get.
I have performed it a few times, and the reactions are good. This is easy to do. There are two methods, the napkin method, and the non-napkin method.
The napkin method takes about 30 secons set-up, and you need nothing but a napkin, a coin, and the special ingredient shown on the video.
The non-napkin method takes a lot longer to set-up, but is a one time set-up and you can do it whenever. I personally havnt tried this one yet as I havnt set it up. However, all it does is allow you to set up in front of the spectator without them seeing you do the dirty work.
With the napkin method, the napkin does indeed get cold as well, and frosts over when you blow. You must have the napkin when you do the coin or the coin may end up freezing and sticking to your skin. This will hurt. So can you hold the coin whilst freezing it? The answer is yes, but you would be an idiot to try it without any cover between it and your hand.
Downsides:
The biggest downside to this is that the napkin method has to be done within 15-25 minutes of setting it up. Doesn't bother me, as being at uni I can easily set up and perform. However, for the worker this can be a downside unless you use "method 2". But then again, if you were a worker you would take teh time to set up for method 2. I, however, cannot be assed. Even though it is a one-time half hour set up, I just never did.
Downside 2 - the napkin method cannot be done with a signed coin. But the way the routine is structured this doesnt matter in the slightest. Trust me
Downside 3 - you don't need sleeves yes, but you do need pockets, the bigger the better. Jeans won't work well, although they do. The best is a jacket pocket - in essence, the bigger the better!
Overall
I really like this effect. It looks like you have ice breath! Smoke comes out of your mouth and freezes a coin! I tried this on a card, and it worked a little bit. It worked wonderfully on a chip. You can freeze many things. Though a 2 pence coin looks the best so far I have found.
This is somethign a worker could use, but only using method 2, unless he wnats to pop back to the toilet every 25 minutes.
You can set up and perform a good 3-4 times before you need to re-set up. As long as you perform them all within the time span, if using the napkin method.
Overall, easy to do, and looks amazing.
Out of ten?
I would say a good 7-8/10. One of the better releases E has done.
I like it.
