Childsplay by Chris Congreave

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Childsplay by Chris Congreave

Postby magikmax » Jul 20th, '12, 19:15



Childsplay by Chirs Congreave

The Effect:
The magician shows the audience a photo of a small child holding a playing card, introducing their son/daughter/grandson/neice etc. The magician removes an ordinary deck of cards, and has a card selected, and also asks another spectator to name any other card, which is a completely free choice. The magician reveals the card on the photograph, which is the card chosen by the first spectator, and pulls a hand-drawn card from his wallet which matches the second spectator's completely free choice.

The Blurb:
Welcome to the brilliant new trick from Chris Congreave "Childsplay". This really is a workers dream that has an emotional hook that most other magic lacks. Childsplay comes with a full instructional DVD, Bicycle Cards an all photographs supplied on a PDF for you to print out. This is magic that you will feature in all your shows.

Featured on the Childsplay DVD are five different versions for presenting Childplay:

The Basic Childsplay Routine: Using no gaffs and just your pockets, this routine packs a punch!

The Wallet Routine: Childsplay using the revelations from a wallet. If you own ANY type of card in wallet, this routine will work for you!

Lee Smith's iPhone Childsplay: Using your iphone to display your photograph, makes this an even more personal effect to your audience. Can be combined with the above two routines.

Business Card Fooler : Using your business card as part of the predictions, this will make sure your contact details get kept by your audience. Brilliant stuff!

The Magic Picture Frame: The go-to routine for Chris Congreave and Gary Jones!


Cost: I bought mine from Dude That's Cool Magic for £22.99,
http://www.dudethatscoolmagic.co.uk/aca ... -E515.html" target="_blank
the DVD has been released by, and is also available from RSVP Magic for the same price: http://www.rsvpmagic.com/copy-of-childsplay/" target="_blank

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) 3



Review:
Having enjoyed the product trailer, being in the market for a new card-to-wallet effect, and having 6 year old twin girls of my own, I thought this would be the ideal routine to add to my close-up set. The teaching on the DVD is of a very high standard, the trick is fully explained, and several different reveals/handlings etc are taught in full, you also receive PDFs to print out if you don't have any children of your own, and enough blank faced bicycle cards to make up the required hand-drawn cards.

What appealled to me initially was the fact that the trick could be customised to you - and that the reveals could be done in several different ways, whether it would be via wallet, mobile phone, business card etc.

While the trick itself is very easy to perform, if you can perform any sort of card to wallet effect you can perform this trick, you will not be able to perform this out of the box, as there is a bit of preperation involved. You'll need a few red or black sharpies, either a photo printer or access to a local photo shop, and a p**m or no-p**m card to wallet to reveal the final card in. If you're feeling particularly flush, both RSVP and Mark Leveridge are currently selling the Utopia Card Frame which can also be used for the final reveal. Without giving too much away, you may wish to invest in an additional pack of blank faced cards too.

Personally, I've taken a lot of care and attention making the props up for this, I knew the minute I watched the DVD exactly how this was going to fit into my act, and what props I was going to use. Obviously, everyone will have their own favourite wallet, reveal etc. I own a few, and use the Mark Leveridge/El Duco Wallet Combo wallet that Mark released at Blackpool in February (£75 from MLM http://www.markleveridge.co.uk/walcb.php" target="_blank), obviously, if you already have any card-to-wallet effect in your box of tricks, you can use this. I think it's explained on the DVD with a standard JOL wallet.

I have also had photos of my daughters holding the cards made up using Photobox, who make up plastic credit card sized prints, that fit perfectly into the credit card slots inside the wallet. This way, I don't need to worry about photos getting crumpled or getting beer spilled on them during strolling performances (£4.10 for 2 http://www.photobox.co.uk/shop/cards-an ... llet-cards" target="_blank).

The great thing about Childsplay is that you can scale this as you see fit. If you do parlour shows, you can easily have a much larger poster picture or a banner made up for the first reveal, or you could even do away with the poster or photo altogether and simply use a photograph on your mobile phone.

The trick does indeed have an emotional hook, and while the first reveal is cute, the second is just impossible. Having a hand-drawn card matching the card they have randomly chosen in your wallet is mind-blowing. Considering you'll need at most 2 basic sleights to perform the trick, you're getting a fantastic routine for very little physical effort, most of your thought can be put into the presentation.

Overall
Simply brilliant. Chris Congreave has released a trick in the past with a similar method, but the premise here has clearly been well thought out and worked in the real world. The combination of the two different reveals makes for a fantastic trick. The DVD itself has been well produced and explained. You will need to put a bit of effort into making up the props, but do this correctly and you'll have a very powerful card-to-wallet effect that'll touch anyone who sees it. 10/10.

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Re: Childsplay by Chris Congreave

Postby Mandrake » Jul 20th, '12, 19:34

Excellent review!

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