talkmagic.co.uk

by **kartoffelngeist** » Thu Mar 04, 2010 7:52 pm

Feels a bit strange to be reviewing this, it's probably not really a proper trick, but I think it's pretty cool, so I thought I'd go for it...

The Effect

The spectator is shown a three cards, one with a picture of a rather frightened looking lady, one with a picture of a cockroach (presumably the source of said fright), and another with a picture of a magician who'll hopefully sort it all out.

After some magical waves and whatnot, the cockroach has disappeared from the card. To see what happens next, the spectator is told to wave her hand over the cards. When she does this, she's shocked to find a cockroach on the back of her hand.

Cost

£1.99 from Hawkin's Bazaar

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)

2, no sleights, just some misdirection.

Review

I saw this at work (work part time in Hawkin's Bazaar, I'm assuming that doesn't make me biased, I've no interest in selling these whatsoever...) and thought it looked pretty similar to an effect I'd bought not long ago for about 5 times the price, The Web by Jim Pace.
It is. Essentially the same idea: stuff happens with cards, spec finds something on their hand and gets a fright.

Obviously, for two quid you don't get the same quality as The Web, but it's by no means bad, just feels cheaper. The Web is printed on Bicycle stock, this is essentially just pieces of card with a design on the back. Which I think is ok, given that it's not presented as a card trick at all.
The bit with the cards is done differently (and this at least tells you how to do it, rather than giving you the name of a count you might not even have heard of) and is probably a bit obvious, but it's pretty secondary to the appearance of the plastic cockroach.

The other thing I like about this is that cockroaches are pretty icky, but I've never met anyone with a pathological fear of them, which I know has been a worry/problem for people performing the web.
You get plenty of spare sticky tab bits too.

As with the Web, it takes a fair bit of misdirection, but this is so natural that it's barely an issue...

Overall

It's a two quid trick from a toy shop. It's probably too cheap feeling/looking for the working pro, but for a bit of fun I reckon it's pretty decent. I like the idea of it not being a spider, but still being creepy enough to give someone a bit of a fright. For the price, you can't go wrong...