Crook Lock
Cost
Davenports £25.00
US website $64.33
Difficulty
No sleight of hand required but requires some audience control. Pretty easy to perform if you're confident in presentation and can control your spectators.
Review
Crook Lock consists of a rectangle of perspex that can be locked at one end with a padlock. Inside the perspex you can put any banknote. There are 5 keys and only one opens the lock. Whoever pick the right key gets to keep the money.
I bought this expecting it to be a 7 keys to Baldpate style effect (7K2BP). The £25 price tag put me off a tad, considering that I could buy what I needed from a hardware store to peform 7K2BP. However once I'd mucked around putting it all together then the saving would be quite insubstantial so why not just get Crook Lock I thought.
What attracted me to the effect is the perspex 'frame' (can think of a better word) that locks up the money. It looks so tantalizing to see the bank note inside. All spectators know that tricks can go wrong and if this one does, someone might be £20 richer. (In never use £50s in magic because of their rarity they don't look as 'real' as a £20). Because it's an interesting thing to look at, the Crook Lock is nice to have on display while you perform a couple of effects.
Knowing how 7K2BP works I wondered how the Crook Lock worked. Lot's of ideas floated through my head - although I try not to think about effects before I read the method, I always find myself daring to think the amazing and end up disappointed.
My biggest fear was that the padlock was going to be obviously gimmicked - a great big button on the lock or something - but to my relief this wasn't the case. There is a gimmick involved but only someone very knowledgable would notice it - and only if they were looking.
There are no difficult switches or strange looking moves. You offer 4 spectators a choice of 5 keys and if things go well, none of them will be able to open the lock and get the money.
Overall
I'm very pleased with it. There is a chance that a spectator will be able to open the lock so will will need to control your audience. Fortunately, this isn't difficult. As long as you don't let anyone sit with the thing for half an hour trying to open it, you should be alright. But then again, there is always that bizarre spectator who does strange things with your props but they are what makes magic exciting.
8.5/10