The Effect
HOLEY SH*T by Pete Firman and Anthony Owen
The spectator selects a card, this card is slid into the centre of the deck by the spectator. With no fishy moves it rises to the top of the deck. The card is immediately taken away from the deck (no weird or extra flips or moves), the deck is set down out of reach.
"The selected card (shown back and front) is openly placed between two cards with large holes in the centre of each (they too are shown front and back). The selected card is visible through the holes in the outer cards (it REALLY is). Now, with a flick of the fingers the centre card, up until this point still seen through the holes, vanishes. It was there and in a micro second there is air. This really is something to see, it looks like magic…not the fake kind…the real stuff…Oh, you know what I mean! POP! It's gone…fantastic.
"The two outer cards are now taken apart right in front of the spectators eyes and openly showing them, front and back, there is clearly NOTHING in between them. Now…you guessed it…the selection has moved back to the deck, what's more it is the only card that is face up!...
Cost
£16.99 plus p&p from tvmagic.co.uk
http://tvmagic.co.uk/tvmagicshop/produc ... c2621e20fa
Difficulty
3
(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)
Review
After watching cheeky Pete Firman demonstrating this effect in the promo vid, i knew i had to have it. I am a huge fan of high impact card effects such as this, and since i was totally fooled by the method, i went straight to purchase.
Upon recieving the trick i was pleasantly suprised with the method. Yes it does use gimmicks, and ooohhhhh how sneaky those gimmicks are! everything is very precisely made and of a high quality, my set came in blue backed bikes.
The instruction dvd, shot by TV's Anthony Owen, and presented by monkey man Pete Birman is of a good standard too. First Pete takes you through the history of the effect, carefully crediting everybody who inspired the effect and the method, and takes the time to reccomend some excellent reading materials to further your studies into close-up.
He does a good job teaching the effect, going through the handling, offering variations on the sleights, to suit different skill levels and styles.
so to the trick itself- its good....very good. Once you have got the hang of the slightly knacky handling, i.e the flick vanish, it is a joy to perform. Pete shares his thoughts on misdirection , and these are very useful when performing, people are left with no explanation for what they have just seen. I like the fact that it starts with a small ambitious card trick, which is very nice and works well psychologically, as i think it lowers the spectators expectations "oh its just gonna keep coming to the top- nice"...but then you hit them with the impossible vanish- flick, now you see-now you dont, and the card has reapeared in the center of the deck face up. i have got very good reactions from my first few performances, and i imagine this would make a great start to a full card routine, as you are left totally clean at the end of the effect. im already thinking about trying to integrate this into my little routine with masuda's WOW, but thats another idea altogether.
so in conclusion, dont be afraid of gimmicked cards, when the effect is this strong , and so well structured , you have nothing to worry about. well done Pete & Anthony- excellent trick, very clever indeed!!!
Overall
effect 9/10 i love it, so does everyone i've showed it to
value 9/10 good price for such a strong effect, and everything is well made.