talkmagic.co.uk

The Effect

The magician explains how he makes money while travelling the world by taking advantage of currency exchange rates in various countries.

Starting with a US one dollar bill (green), he folds it in half to reveal an Australian note (bright green). Folds it in half again to reveal a 20 Euro note (blue). One more fold reveals a 100 Yen note (red). Finally when the bill is unfolded it has now transformed into a $100 bill - which can be thoroughly examined.

Cost

£14.99 from www.alakazam.co.uk

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 I suppose.

Review

I saw Greg dem this at his recent lecture and was very impressed, unfortunately he'd sold out at the time so I waited for Alakazam to get 'em in.

For your money you get a nicely made gaffed bill which should last forever with sensible usage, and a six page leaflet on the routine. Needless to say it's a billswitch in the traditional way but the visual aspects of the colour change as the bill is folded make it particularly impressive, the first two got 'ah!'s from the audience at the lecture. In fact after the Yen you can change it into a south American note but at this point it's folded into sixteenths and the colour change isn't very radical so the audience might not notice, but it's a handy little extra.

In the leaflet Greg details the bill switch, with plenty of credit where it's due, and adds ways to ditch the gimmick afterwards. Most magicians will be aware of all that's contained here but it's nicely set out and clear and he's certainly put the effort into making the package an all-round deal so you shouldn't be left wondering about patter etc. I've personally never bothered to learn a bill switch before so there's a few frustrating hours in front of the mirror ahead of me before this sees the light of day but I'm very pleased with what I' ve got so far. Plus Peter Nardi gave it to me on tick out of the goodness of his heart when I didn't have enough cash on me! I'll be walking in cement shoes if he's not paid back by Saturday though...

Overall

A good 8, that little bit better than your average billswitch.

Thanks for the Review!

I ordered mine off Penguin, then got emailled that it was sold out and that it would be three weeks + 1-2 weeks for postage! I suppose I can try to perfect my bill switch in the mean time!

Good idea, if you can do a competent switch by the time the effect arrives you'll be able to perform it straight out of the bag. Having practiced for the best part of a week I'm quite happy with the way my switch is coming along, it seems that the move is one of those things no magician does exactly the same, kind of like a dl. I'm traditionally cack handed at anything involving folding paper into little packets so the fact that I've actually managed to successfully pull it off in front of a couple of 'real people' is immensely encouraging.

I got one of these off Greg and I really like it. It helps explain how I ended up in the UK as an American and then I launch into my navigator world geography mentalism routine.

The prop is excellent and Greg's handling will fool the best of them.

i use this trick all the time. at first as they are watching the bill change, i get decent reactions. however what really gets them is at the end when the bill can be examined!!!!! so cool and visual

it sold for £3.20 off ebay a few days ago.. somehow I got out bid by 20p.. I misentered by maximum bid

looks neat

I've finally got mine! In my patter I talk about whether people know about the exchange rate between countiries, people say yes and then I say well do you know about the exchange fold. This then gives me a reason for having a $1 note in my hand for us UK people!

I've encountered a problem however, people always say 'oh wow a dollar! let me have a look?' Not because they think its gimmicked but because its a dollar.

Is this the same trick thats on one of his in action dvds?

Jim

bronz wrote: Plus Peter Nardi gave it to me on tick out of the goodness of his heart when I didn't have enough cash on me! I'll be walking in cement shoes if he's not paid back by Saturday though...

The wierd thing is Bronz has not been heard of since this....Gulp!!

Magic1Jim wrote:Is this the same trick thats on one of his in action dvds?

Jim

Yes but its cheaper than what he says to do in that DVD! Also some of the changes are different. I know in that one it turns into a £10 first, where as in this one it turns to an australian note first. The purchaseable (is that a word!) version doesn't have any english money in it, well until the end switch so that makes it better than the version on the In Action Vol.3 (I think) DVD.

Is there a video of someone performing this that I can watch as I'm interested in getting it and would like to see how it looks like?

Cheers.