by RobMagic » Sep 28th, '09, 13:16
Ok I said I'd drop a review in here on this product after road testing it for real at the weekened
The Effect
Is basically (basically doesn't really cover it though so please don't take offence) a magician takes 8 cards from the deck and puts four of them into the pocket, the instantly switch places with the four cards held in the hand before. The spectator names a set of cards from the 8 in hand and 4 of the cards jump to the magicians pockets once again. You end clean
Cost
£19.99 from magicbox where I bought mine from
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 bit tricky to rate, I picked this up in 5 minutes and felt comfortable to perform it not long after.
Review
Ok a lot has been said about this product already and I've stated that I love the effect. This still holds true after road testing it but..... and I'll get to the but later.
The actual quality of cards that you get are excellent and they allow you to carry out this stunning effect with the minimum of sleight of hand. They come on bicycle quality stock with red backs only I believe. I use red cards so it's not a problem for me but red is your only choice. They'll last as long as your normal cards do but I rather suspect that due to the price you'll take better care of them.
The DVD is very good as well with all details and some alternatives covered in more than enough detail to get you performing this effect in no time at all. Amazingly, there is very little exaplantion required for this effect.
Ok I chose to use this effect as a card opener as I could then happily keep the gimmicks in my deck to start with and at the end I would be left with a full deck to carry on with what ever else I fancied after. My personal thoughts were that is where it best fit for me. I didn't follow up with a reset routine though that would have been very logical to do. The setting was a bar/night club quite classy venue (can't say the same for the people in the club mind) so surrounded on all angles and big groups getting interested in what was going on.
The trick gets great reactions, there is a slight angle problem on one of the moves but it's well covered with misdirection and not once was I busted but it's there to consider all the same. It's definatly a trick that works better with talking rather than the music on the video and it clears things up for the spectators. I was sure to perform it in nearly every set that I did and I performed a lot that night as I really wanted to road test a whole host of new (to me) material. It does go down really well and I can recommend it on that basis alone.
Here's the BUT though. I won't be using this in my paid gigs or actually using it very often from now on. This is just a personal thing but I feel a lot of others who work will have the same problem in that it becomes hard to manage the cards in your pocket with your other items you will have in there. The DVD explains brilliantly well how to not mix up your cards etc so that's not the issue but with other stuff in your pocket I found my self taking longer in the pocket than I would have liked to on occasion as things do move around. In fact its crucial to the effect I feel to just reach in and drop the card off or reach in and pick out the card. I found this wasn't so easy when my pockets had other things in there.
I don't want to take away from what is a great effect it just has that one draw back. it's the sort of thing I can see my carrying around, always ready to perform, when I'm not actually out to perform magic as my pockets would be clutter free.
It's striking, it gets great reactions but for me is better suited to the above occasions, those magicians that carry around only a pack of cards and some rubber bands and coins etc or in a competition act. You'll floor fellow magi with it I'm sure especially if you do a signed card version.
Overall
As a stand alone effect I want to give this a 8 in that its well packaged, well explained and does get good reactions.
For a workers trick (well this worker anyway) 6, This will be higher for those without other stuff in their pockets