The Inside Job v Aperture, by Cameron Francis
The Effect
2 Effects even!
Here's what the advertising says...
Two fantastic gaff card tricks. Comes with TWO handmade Bicycle Card Gimmicks!
THE INSIDE JOB
•Your spectator selects a card for you and a card for themselves. Both are lost in the deck.
•You offer to find your card and after a shuffle or two you dramatically turn over the top card of the deck. IT'S WRONG - it's not your selection (or even their selection!).
•Embarrassed you take it and put it inside the empty card case. Then cleanly, and in full view you open the card case and slide out a single playing card. IT'S YOUR SELECTED CARD! You have miraculously changed the random card into your own selection.
•You slide it back into the box and then reach into your pocket to reveal that a card has jumped into your pocket. Sliding it out you flip it face up to show... YOUR SELECTED CARD?!? Wasn't that in the card case?
•The card case is opened and ONE CARD is seen inside. It's the SPECTATOR'S SELECTION!!!
•Special gimmick supplied. Incredibly easy to do. Instant reset.
APERTURE
•A card is selected and lost in the deck.
•You then reach into your pocket and remove a Joker with a hole cut in it and slide it halfway into the pack. The spectator pulls the Joker back out to discover that the hole has healed!!
•The deck is spread and the selection is found WITH A HOLE IN IT! THE HOLE HAS JUMPED FROM THE JOKER TO THE SELECTION.
•Expressing concern that this selected card is now useless (it's got a HOLE in it!!), you shake it a little and before the spectators very eyes the hole jumps back to the Joker. Everything can be handed out for examination!
•Easy to do. Incredible reactions. Gimmick supplied. Instant reset.
PLUS TWO BONUS TRICKS - HOLY CTE and 2RN
Cost: I got mine from Dude thats cool magic for £14.99
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 ... no major sleights, the odd DL and a couple of other bits, but Camerons teaching is pretty good, and he talks you through it all rather well
Review
This isn't the sort of trick I'd normally go for! I decided that I'd try and get a couple of things that are very different for me, to broaden my range a bit, and to learn a few new things. This seemed ideal! I like Camerons stuff, he seems like a decent bloke, and the Omega Mutation has some excellent things on it.
Firstly, the packaging on this set is really nice! I like the design style, a slightly dated almost karnival look! It's a card gatefold cd style case, not a dvd box, with the dvd in one side and the gaff cards in the other.
The Inside job is the trick on here I've put most work into, and in truth, while I like the trick a lot, it just isn't for me! My style of trick is more OOTW or The trick that fooled Einstein, or with set gimmicks, an ID, Cataclysm or Strange travellers. Like I said, I wanted to diversify a bit... So, as far as the trick goes, I really like the tranformations in the box for this, and the gimmick can sit passively and invisibly in the card box, allowing you to do pretty much anything you like before and after. If you chose to do the trick, the gimmick is there waiting, otherwise it just sits there and no one is any the wiser! But I find this hard to perform! Not the actual trick, that's pretty easy, but to "sell" it... It's a little to "stop/start" for my style. There's a "Is this your card? No! Oh! well, we'll put it in the box anyway..." bit and a "Is this your card? No! Oh it's mine (again) Well, in that case..." moment that I find really hard to do naturally. In Camerons performance demos (There's two, one in a bar, and one in the studio) he does it so smoothly. I've tried this out on a few people now, and generally been told it seems like two tricks glued together. (I'm not critising the trick here, just the performer!)
On the up side, it's pretty easy to actually do the trick itself, and I do think that if it's your style, it's a pretty strong trick. Maybe not the center piece of your card routine, but a nice and fun thing to throw in...
So on to Aperture...
This is the trick I actually wanted to try the most. And (I hate to be so negative! Really, I do!) but I was a bit dissapointed with this! It seems like, well, just not great! I could see it being used for a childrens show maybe, because it's simple and visual (and there are a couple of nice changes in there) but to me it seems like an idea in progress rather than a finished thing (Sorry Cameron!) Plus the gimmick itself doesn't lay flat... I don't want to give things away, but cards naturaly want bend one way, and this seems to be a bit of an indicator that somethings afoot...
Let's do the other negative bit, then finish on the positive then...
The two bonus tricks.
C.T.E ... I don't think I even want to talk about this...
That's the negative out of the way...
2RN ... this is a torn and restored signed card routine, and this should have been one of the two lead tricks in this package! It's really good! (The sort of pearl in the shell of this DVD) It's got the disks trickiest slight, but it's taught well, and with a bit of practice... I'm surprised it's hidden away here! I could see this being built up into a very strong peice of magic
I should also mention that, as it's a BBM product, and a Cameron Francis thing, the whole package is very nicely put together, well filmed, and well taught. Cameron (and Liam) and thorough and carefull teachers, plus they seem to be enjoying it too! I like watching their stuff. (Cameron has a DVD coming out soon of ungaffed stuff using an unprepared whole deck that is definately on my shopping list!)
Overall
This for me is just an OK release... I'm happy enough with it, but probably won't get to much use from it. If you're a more "magic" person than me (My magic tends to be more in style of the other M word...) this could well be for you! I think it needs a sort of chirpy approach to carry it off... But it's not bad, just there's better things out there...
However (and this may well sway you!) Dude that's cool magic currently have an offer on this! It comes with a very decent freebie! They give you Camerons excellent "Killer Close Up Magic" DVD for free! There is some great stuff on here! (One I use a lot that's a little hidden away on the disc and has certainly gone down well to a couple of the guys at the London TM Meets!) I like this DVD a lot, and can see myself taking Scorched away on holiday with me... (Tropical bar awaits!)
Hope this all helps... it's only my second review, so still a bit new to it all...
