by Ollivanders_382 » Sep 12th, '05, 05:59
After stumbling across this site a few weeks ago I have quietly been reading reviews from the wings, picking out, based on reviews, which tricks I would like to learn. I was worried however that perhaps the reviews were being made from the point of view of someone who has some skill in Magic. Since I have no such skill to speak of, over the next little while I’ll be putting forth a series of “Rookie Reviews” from the point of view of someone just starting out so that perhaps others in my situation will feel well informed. So without further ado, my first post on the site:
The Effect
Ask a spectator to select a card, you then remove their selected card and the other three cards in that group (i.e. 7 of clubs, spades, hearts, diamonds). You then hand the four cards to the spectator and ask them to shuffle them and place them face down on the table, then using only the power of your mind you select their card AND turn the other three over to reveal that they’re blank, not only that but upon inspection the entire deck is shown to be blank, save for the selected card.
Cost
$12.78 (us) + $4.00 shipping
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)
1.
This is the FIRST trick I’ve ever performed, minus a simple yet effective card trick I learned when I was a child. I found this trick to be a breeze, within perhaps 15 minutes of learning the details and having a few practice runs I was able to smoothly perform the trick for someone.
Review
Is the first always the best? This being my first successful foray into the world of magic I am, of course, quite enamored with it. I’ve only had ONE crummy reaction to this trick and that was due to the person who viewed it, most people are blown away, As mentioned in other reviews it can be a bit risky to perform it more that once in a short period of time because there is a move that requires some confidence to pull off. This move made me feel a bit cheated when I first learned it because I thought “there’s no way that will ever work” as it turns out once you perform it a few times it becomes so second-nature that you won’t even worry about it. I’ve had the effect be discovered ONCE and that was because something went wrong after the trick and not due to someone picking up on the move.
Overall
10/10 Great trick, easy to do, wonderful reaction.