talkmagic.co.uk

Lord of the Bling by Wayne Goodman

This is only half a review because I haven't tried this out on a proper punter yet, and it annoys me when people rate or slate things when it's still only seen bedroom use. Still, I do have some "out of the packet" thoughts so I'll get them down now.


The Effect
"The Last Word in Ring Flights", the effect is that you borrow a ring, vanish a ring after some comedy byplay, you offer to replace the "lost" ring with of the many you carry around, clipped to your inside jacket like some Del-Boy type. Amusingly, their ring is pinned right in the the centre.


Cost
£39.99, exclusively from MagicBox. So that's just one penny short of getting free courier postage!



Difficulty
I would say 2-3. It works on "the normal" ring flight principle, so in many ways it is self-working, however there are subtleties and misdirection involved to perform this perfectly so a beginner may feel intimidated by it.


Review

First things first, this is a great idea. There seems to be a ring flight marketed every week, but all they seem to do is claim superior quality of the r**l and how the keycase looks so normal - the former is always reflected in the price, and the latter, well, who carries a keycase nowadays?! So hat's off to Wayne for coming up with a new presentation, instead of just re-inventing the wheel.

In terms of the actual product, I was in little doubt as to what I was receiving, so no surprises there - the gimmick is fairly obvious to those familiar with Ring Flight. One reassuring point about it is that the clip that the ring ends up on is the same as all the other clips - not so on my last ring flight, which annoyed me intensely! The r**l itself is sealed into the back of the gimmick, but peering through the stitches it seems to be good enough quality, although be aware it isn't locking.

At this point I would like to mention the "bullet points" MagicBox use for this product:

MagicBox Website wrote:This routine comes complete with everything you need to perform the effect:

A professionally tailored gimmick
Assortment of joke finger rings
Full instructional booklet
Gags and comedy patter suggestions

...and I'm going to explain why I was very slightly disappointed with regard to some of those, specifically in reference to the price.
The least important one was the "professional tailoring". I'm actually happy enough with this; the gimmick is quite well made although my only suggestion would be that they just take the extra 2 seconds it would take to pick off the loose thread from around the edges because out of the packet, first appearances made it look a little shoddy. Once the yarns had been cleared however, the gimmick is well constructed and they've provided what I think is the best option for anchoring it to the inside of your jacket.

"Assortment of joke finger rings" - this is more of an issue for me. You don't really get an "assortment", you get 15 of pretty much the same ring in 3 different metallic colours. The booklet itself suggests that you buy other unique rings to "make your own style", but I feel this is a bit of a cop out. It's not really a matter of "style" - the gag (that you are wheeler dealer or a magician who steals peoples rings) is obvious, the style of each ring is unimportant. But the imperative feature of the gag is that you have a range of rings - possibly for sale, possibly stolen of other people - pinned to your coat. To have variations of the same ring I think really takes the wind out of the effect, and I certainly won't be performing this until I get some different rings, which means I can't perform it immediately, and I have incurred an extra expense which I think really should have been incurred by MagicBox/Wayne/whoever put it together, certainly for £40. Spending time hunting round shops for rings that are cheap enough etc. is something I was really hoping not to have to do when I ordered this effect, and when the website bills them as "over a dozen rings of all different sizes and colours", I think that's what you should get.

OK, next - "Full Instructional Booklet". What you get is a double page of A4 with a coversheet, folded in half and stapled in the middle. The first A5 page is an intro with history/props/fitting notes, the second is the instructions, the 3rd is the gags you might use and the 4th contains 5 small black and white illustrations, two of which simply show the gaff on it's own and in situ and the last of which shows you picking the ring off the clip at the end. For the numerically challenged, that leaves a grand total of 2 illustrations describing the "moves" themselves. The promo video suggests that the routine is packed with comedy from start to finish - unfortunately, this is not reflected in the gags which include the good old "what's your name? ...Sorry... no, I heard you, I'm just sorry"

I will admit two things here: the first is that the effect is pretty straight forward and obvious, so pages and pages would probably be unnecessary. The second is that I overlooked the details on the site, so I kind of was hoping for at least a basic instructional DVD with it, and was a bit disappointed by the lack of one even though there is none advertised. But I do honestly feel that because of the misdirectional nature, even a short video with a couple of performances and a run down of the technique from Wayne would be really helpful, and surely not too expensive given the props have certainly not cost £40.


Overall As mentioned, I have not performed this for specs yet, and because of the ring issue it will be a while before I do, so I don't want totally make my bed just yet. The presentation and the idea is so good that I am still pretty positive about the effect, but I do think a few aspects of the product itself have let them down slightly. At £40, this is a significant outlay - OK, it might be middle to low cost in terms of other ring flights, but it should be judged on it's own merits I feel.

If this plays out as strongly as I think it will, I'm giving it a 7/10, because:

1) The duplicate rings are a disappointment
2) A simple instructional DVD would be very helpful
3) For a "full instructional booklet", it's pretty darn brief


One last niggle I can't blame on the effect is that MagicBox are giving free gifts with orders over £30 and I didn't get one

That said, I'll try to track down those rings and get performing ASAP because I'm still pleased with the effect as a whole.

Hi Farlsy, I don't know whether my legs are safe or not but I'll take the plunge and post anyway

In regards to the concern of the rings, does it matter whether or not all of the rings are the same as the rest?
You are a dodgy dealer selling cheap and tacky rings to people.
Therefore the rings should look as cheap and tacky as possible, and it's not unreasonable that you might have more than one of a certain type of ring that you got from a particularly cheap and tacky place.

The second point on the quality of the rings is that no one is looking at the cheap rings - it runs like this:

Ring is taken. Ring disappears. Ring re-appears in impossible place with a lot of humorous by-play.
When their ring disappears they go "wha?? Hang on! How did he do that?!". When their ring re-appears, they go "no way!" not "Oh, how sad - he could only be bothered to get three different types of ring for this wonderful bit of magic".

As for the conerns of the full instructional booklet - I haven't actually seen the instructions as Wayne explained it all to me himself (and that took all of 30 seconds) I do find myself wondering how much explanation one can need for the workings of this effect.

You are entitled to your opinion and certainly your review is fair and honest, but having seen this performed on various people all to absolutely killer reactions - I think the small facts you're bought up here will all be washed away when you take it out and try it on someone.

So, let us know when you're had a spin - and tell us what you think of it in performance

Your legs are safe, don't worry


I'm aware that it might be a bit of a harsh review so far, and I think you're right, when I get out performing I'll let you know. With regard to the rings, I personally felt that because they are so similar, the eyes might be too quickly drawn to the central one, revealing the effect too quickly and reducing the amount of fun you could have pretending to sell them something else, but we'll see.

I think it was more the feeling that though it is perhaps (or even probably) a minor issue it is nevertheless one they have already identified (the instructions themselves suggest changing the rings), and when you're paying a good amount for a single effect, it would have been the icing on the cake for them to go to that trouble for you. Had this one detail been sorted, I think I'd have been "wowed" a lot more by the effect as a whole, and probably less inclined to be nit-picking elsewhere!

I feel the most objective thing to do is to compare it to something like Interlace, which is also an innovative new presentation on the ring flight, with a new method too. It is almost exactly the same price (in fact if you cut out the middle man, Interlace would be cheaper), yet with Interlace you get several different styles of gimmick for difference performing clothes plus totally exhaustive performance instructions, in DVD and 24 page booklet-with-photos form.

However good the idea/routine is, I feel obliged to review the "product" as well, in terms of quality and value. It's a slightly weird thing to do - like when people rate a DVD with 3 stars - "Amazing film, my absolute favourite... but no bonus features!" - but it seems the only fair way. Sometimes it's the other way round - the production value is incredible, but the routine just sucks! I'd rather have it this way to be honest

Farlsborough wrote:Lord of the Bling by Wayne Goodman

who carries a keycase nowadays?!

ME! If I don't, the bloody things keep jabbing me in the leg!

I hope you have had a chance to perform this by now, its my no1 effect and every table gets it

with regard to the rings i sold the rights to magicbox so they deal with all of that however when i made my 1st one up i went on ebay and got an assortment of cheap rings to put on the hooks, cost me about £5 and i got some big, small, bling, glitzy rings, ok that does add to the cost of the effect but it is worth it.
i find the vanish is so strong and once you start using it you will never leave it out again.

as to your review and score i thank you for taking the time to put it all down on here.

if anyone has any questions please pm me