“Heirloom” by Jamie Badman and Colin Miller.
The performer tells a story about hid Great Uncle Charlie, an inveterate gambler, and of how he got himself into a high stakes card game.
The spectator is invited to make a prediction, which is correct. The performer proves it by opening his wallet, which was in plain sight before the spectator revealed his choice, and removing a photograph of Great Uncle Charlie.
I’m not going to say much about the working of this effect, but as you can see from the link, it utilises Kenton Knepper’s wonderful “Kolossal Killer“ principle.
Cost
It’s available from Alakazam: http://alakazam.co.uk/acatalog/Card_Magic_38.html
They made it, so it seems to be exclusive to them. It costs £19.99
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’d put this as a 2. There are no sleights and in many respects it’s foolproof. However, you could mess it up, I suppose. It also needs a bit of thought as to presentation, to achieve maximum impact.
Review
I make no bones about being a huge fan of Kenton’s original effect and this is a nice variation on it. The prop photograph is a nice touch and the accompanying booklet is very good. It solves one problem of the original version (although I regard it as a very slight difficulty), but adds a replacement “wrinkle”. I am not yet convinced the change is for the better.
Overall
I’m giving this 10/10. The original version is mind-blowing and this is a very nice variation. It has a built-in story and interesting, ready-made props, so that might suit your style. Of course, these factors can actually count against you sometimes! As mentioned above, I am far from certain "Heirloom" is an improvement on the normal version of “Kolossal Killer“, but then it’s not easy to improve on perfection.
