by TheLondonI » Mar 20th, '07, 18:37
XL by Jay Sankey
Pricing: £9.99 - £19.99
$15.00 - $20.00
What the manufacturers say:
““XL”- The incredible card illusion that BECOMES REAL!
The spectator shuffles the pack, touches any card and the selected card is closely examined. You remove two Jokers from your pocket and both Jokers are also examined. The selected card is slowly sandwiched between the two Jokers and that's when some VERY strange stuff starts to happen. First, one end of the face up selection VISIBLY STRETCHES! Then the other end VISIBLY STRETCHES! For the jaw-dropping climax the two Jokers and the STILL STRETCHED selected card are all handed out to be thoroughly examined! You have turned the selected card into an honest-to-goodness holy relic! Comes complete with extremely cool gimmicks for both red and blue Bicycle decks plus an exciting instructional DVD featuring 8 killer handlings including "The Classic Handling," "Stand-Up Stretch," "Spanish Inquisition," "Guerilla Warfare," "Not A Levitation," "Seated Stretch," "Don't Blink," "In Their Own Hands" and the "Holy Relic: Bonus Handling!"
In the DVD box:
-The DVD
-Necessary gimmicks
I noticed that there are no instructions on the other side of the DVD casing, unlike some other Jay Sankey products, which is a shame.
What I liked:
-How the effect is something very new and original. To the people I have already performed this to, practically all have admitted ‘WelI, I never thought that was going to happen!’
- As always Jays teaching is top class. Even if I was a complete novice I would be able to complete most of the handlings with just a little practice.
- The handling can suit your ability. Different handlings are harder than others. Therefore you can tailor make your performance that suits your ability.
- You end the effect clean. I feel that this is so crucial in close up effects and most of the work that you have to do in this trick is over before the audience ever knows it has begun.
- How the DVD is set up, with clear menu sections for Performance and Explanations. It was one of the best laid out magic DVDs I’ve seen.
- How a new force is explained in each handling, I especially liked the ‘Topper Force’ by Frank Garcia, which is used in the Holy Relic Handling. For everyone who saw Jay Sankey’s lecture in Blackpool, it was that very popular force that he explained, which I seemed to see everyone practice during the weekend. I found it hard to grasp just from that lecture and he goes in to a lot more detail on the DVD.
-How he kept his comedy to a minimum. I love some Jay Sankey comedy but in some of his DVDs he goes a little overboard, (revolutionary coin magic springs to mind!) But with this DVD it is kept to a nice level.
What I didn’t like:
- Sadly I can’t go much in to this point, due to fear of exposure. I feel the gimmick does not match what it is meant to completely correctly. I’m afraid I can’t go much further than this. This isn’t much of a problem however as people will rarely notice.
- When the description says ‘the card visibly stretches’ in capital letters I imagined you could see this card completely stretch in full view. This is not what you get. Have a look at the demo video for more information.
Overall View and Conclusion
All in all I feel this is a very good DVD and trick. The very small amount of bad points is more than made up for with the amount of good points and I was struggling to find more than one bad point, forcing me to be really picky with the title description.
Difficulty rating 2-3/5 (depends on handling)
Value for money 4/5 (depends on where you shop but as lots of forces and variations are included, it is definitely worth the money.
By the way, this is my first review and I would love to hear your comments, both positive and negative.