talkmagic.co.uk

Frequent Flyer by Evan Beaugard
Manufacturer – Royal Magic

The Effect
“A playing card is selected from the deck. The card is shown front and back before being placed in the magician’s outstretched palm. On command, the card rises up slowly, floating above the magician's outstretched palm as if buoyed on a cushion of air. The magician then pushes the card back down onto his hand. Finally, he hands the selected card out for examination. It's a simple, direct and startling piece of "impromptu" magic. Remember these points: there is nothing added or taken away. The trick is entirely self-contained. There are no funny moves, no sleights, and nothing is attached to the floating card. The card can be show from both sides before and after it floats off of your hand.”

Cost (The cheapest prices I have found):
Penguinmagic.com aprox. £4.40 (including explanation video)
Themagicgadget.co.uk £5.40

What you get:
The gimmick (In both red and blue back bike stock playing card)
A4 page double sided of instructions including 2 diagrams

My opinions on the advertisement text:
Overall quite honest, apart from when it says that the card rises up slowly. You could do this but I feel it can quite easily give away the secret. But I would definetly agree that there are no sleights, no funny moves and the card can be shown on both sides, but not handed out. However the instructions do show you a way of swapping the gimmick for a normal card. I would also say that they make it seem as if the effect is almost self-working, and I believe if you want to make this trick effective, you need to put the effort in to make sure the levitation looks just right.

What I Liked:
- That the idea was unique, it steers away from that of IT, and is very effective because it means you can perform the effect anytime, however strong the light is, which can not be said for lots of handheld levitations.

- The price, for such a piece of magic that can be extremely hard hitting if performed right, the price is incedible,

-The information page is detailed, and talks about forcing of the gimmick, how the levitation is best performed and how to clean-up at the end.

- That you can make the gimmick for your specific cards, so you are not just limited to using red and blue backed bikes.

- Even if someone, (and you know some people do) tries to grab at the card, if you are quick-thinking you could ensure that it seems as if there is no gimmick, but again, you wouldn’t be able to let them properly look at the card.

- You can put your outspread hand underneath the card to prove there are no threads.

What I didn’t like:

- The card can only rise about 2 cm but to be honest, not much else. You can’t complain too much about spending a fiver on a trick, and the information is detailed, the gimmick is well made and the effect with a little practise packs flat and plays big!

Difficulty rating out of 5 (1=Self Working, 5=Experienced magicians only)
To do the effect 1/5
But I would recommend making the levitation look just right so overall I would say 2-3/5

Review of the Penguin Magic Explanation Video:
Very good quality, Jay Noblezada breaks down the trick, from start to end and includes some great tips. But to be perfectly honest it is not needed and all he really does is go through everything in the information, nothing else! However it is nice for people who live in Britain and have to wait a week or more for the trick to arrive as it means they can find out the secret immediately!


Oh and by the way, I checked and made sure that I was allowed to reveal the gimmick is in the card, because in themagicgadget.co.uk they put the trick under the gimmicked card section!

Thanks for an honest and thorough review. We need more of this type of review.

personlay i cannot stand this trick. i believe for what you get it is overpriced and cheesy. those of you who know it know the gimmick I'm talking about. you can make one yourself in 3 minutes. the only good thing about it is that the gimmick looks just like a normal card

elemental conjurer wrote:personlay i cannot stand this trick. i believe for what you get it is overpriced and cheesy. those of you who know it know the gimmick I'm talking about. you can make one yourself in 3 minutes. the only good thing about it is that the gimmick looks just like a normal card

Yes, you can make the gimmick for yourself, but ultimatley your paying for the secret. I believe it is a good trick because thread is not involved, so people are free to wave their hands above the card without exposing the secret. Some people may like the 'hovercard' by Ellusionist but 1. that is a hell of a lot more expensive and 2. spectators will think it is just a gimmicked deck - due to the fact that the card is hovering from the deck, where as with Frequent Flyer you are levitating the card from your hand, so this makes the whole effect more magical. All in all I still believe it is a worthwile purchase.