The Effect
"Three sweet effects that pack small but play big.
Trick Tac is a simple routine in nature that packs a big punch. You introduce a packet of tic tac's, then you ask the spectator to pour some of the mints out into their open hand but restrict how many they take from your view. What ever they do, they MUST NOT allow you to see in their hand. The spectator keeps this in mind and keeps every single tic tac they have taken in a tight fist. However, you are able to tell them EXACTLY how many they have in there down to the last mint!
* No gimmicks are used what so ever.
* Get the right answer 100% of the time.
* Super easy to master.
* Sets up in seconds.
* The spectator pours out the mints in their own hand.
* The spectator has a truly free choice of how many to take.
* resets instantly
Tic Tac Transpo is a perplexing transposition effect. One box of tic tacs is introduced with the sweet little mints still inside along with one empty box. You empty the contents of the full box into the spectators hand and ask them to choose a mint. They do so and they slip this mint into what ever empty box they choose. With a simple shake, the selected mint vanishes from one box to instantly appear in the other.
* 100% Impromptu
* Super visual
* Did we mention it is ungimmicked
* Very easy to do
* You end clean
* Resets instantly
A fresh new out of this world Out of this World is a classic in card magic. Now it has been given the Alan Rorrison treatment and brought into an impromptu new age. You take a packet of lime and orange tic tacs and you perform out of this world.
The spectator gives each hand a colour (green or orange) and makes a fist with each. You pick a tic tac out the box and hide the colour from their view and ask them to guess what they think it may be. As they name the colour you slip it into what ever fist they allocated that colour to. You run through about 10 mints and stop. "Do you want to see how you are doing? how many would you guess you got right?" astoundingly, when they open their hands they will find that they didn't just get a few right. They got every single one right.
* 100% Impromptu
* No gimmicks what so ever
* Different presentations given
* resets instantly "
Cost
US$15/£10-11
Available from Lybrary ebook Store. Trick Tac comes as a video download in either MPEG or WMV format. The download is about 330MB in size and lasts 29 minutes.
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)
I would rate all three effects to be a...
1
Review
I rarely go for effects of this nature, but something about Alan Rorrison's Trick Tac stood out for me, so I thought, "what the hell" and took the plunge. What you get for your money are three effects that you can do with one or two packs of normal Tic Tacs. Let's take each effect in turn:
Trick Tac
This is a very nice effect and plays out exactly as it reads above. The spectator has a genuine free choice of the number of Tic Tacs they decide to take and it all looks very fair and straightforward in presentation. I don't know about "super easy to master", but with a little practice it is not at all difficult to get down. Alan states that Trick Tac can only be performed with a standard Tic Tac container and will not work with the larger, 100 capacity packs. Although I have yet to try it with the larger packs, I don't think it would be too difficult to adapt the method to work with them and I'm going to give it a go once I get more confidence. Alan gives some handling advice in this segment, one aspect of which would be ideal for working with the larger Tic Tac containers. I like this one a lot.
Tic Tac Transpo
Excellent thinking on this one! Again, this plays exactly as it reads (which is a nice change from the usual, inaccurate hype which is all too common). Out of the three effects, TTT is the one that will take the most practice to get right, but I think it's well worth the minor effort. It's a fabulous transposition effect which is highly visual. Some very clever thinking on this one; each step in the method makes sense, all the moves look perfectly natural and lead on smoothly to the next step. Give it the practice it deserves (it really isn't difficult at all) and you will have a cracker on your hands. This is great.
A Fresh New Out of This World
For me, this was possibly the weakest of the three. That's not to say it's a weak effect; on the contrary, I think it's a novel presentation for the classic OOTW effect that I'm hoping will go down well with my audience. I say "hoping" because it is the only one of the three that I have yet to perform. To be honest, I haven't performed it yet because I'm a little apprehensive about the possible reaction it will get. When I first read the above description for this effect, I immediately figured out a method for it and it turns out that my method was the same as Alan's. I guess a part of me suspects the audience will come to the same conclusion. Perhaps I just need to get out there and perform this to see how it plays in the real world.
Overall
To conclude, Trick Tac is something I would recommend not only because it is original and a refreshing change to your average card or coin trick, but also because all three effects are fairly easy to perform (none of them require the use of knuckle-busting sleights or gimmicks). Tic Tac Transpo and A Fresh New Out of This World are truely impromptu, with Trick Tac requiring a minimal setup. Alan's explanations are clear and easy-to-follow. I was particularly impressed for the method used in Tic Tac Transpo; nothing earth-shattering, granted, but very nice nonetheless and not something I would have come up with myself. Alan advises against treating these effects as jokes and I agree. While I think they are particularly suited to children (especially Tic Tac Transpo and the OOTW effect), they also play well for adults.
One thing I will say, however, is that the video suffered a little from being too bright; the explanation for Tic Tac Transpo had a lot of glare and it was sometimes difficult to see what was going on in Alan's hands. Also, it would have been nice to see Alan perform these effects in the real world as opposed to seeing him sit down and explain them to the camera (as good as his explanations were). This minor issues aside, the video was adequately shot and did the job.
So, go get yourself some Tic Tacs and give this one a go. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Score: 8/10
