talkmagic.co.uk

HEAT by Carl De Rome

[EDIT: Well, I should have emailed Merchant of Magic and tell them I don't like the product rather than post a mean review. They've now offered me a refund. I stand by my opinion of the product as I think it's way too easy to end up with chemical powder stuff on the spec's fingers, or to end up with just nothing happening, but I certainly regret posting such a stroppy review. Remind me not to post while drunk...]


I really don't have the heart to fill in a review template. Instead I will offer the following transcript, which is typical of the experiences I've had performing this effect (and yes I have tried using different amounts, not rolling the foil tightly etc etc):

* "Hold this scrunched up ball of tinfoil, blah blah..."
* "Umm... Nothing's happening..."
* [various routine relevant concepts, convincers, whatever, maybe regarding passion]
* "OH MY GOD!!! IT'S HEATING UP!!! WELL, A BIT........"
* [performer gutted that spectator doesn't drop the tin foil as stated in the blurb]
* spectator: "Why is my hand covered in white powder?" [thinks] "Oh, it was just some chemical thing. I thought it was like, um, magic, or..." [spectator runs off to wash hands]

Thank-god, at last a review where I don't feel the need to spend any money

Yes. I remember Carl De Rome well. Some time ago I made a mistaken apology to him which I am going to retract now that my brain is in working order. A few decades ago Paul Daniels had a museum in Blackpool and I had a concession in there selling magic tricks. I couldn't be there since I was travelling at the time. I hired a young magician (who is no longer young any more) named Mark Haslam to sell the tricks for me and gave him a commission. Sales were lower than they should have been but I just put that down to the usual incompetence of demonstators who were not as good as me.

Anyway he finished up and went back to the Lake District where he lived. I returned to Blackpool and was infuriated to find out that there had been some serious fiddling going on. The old saying, "When the cat's away the mice will play" is relevant here. The late Murray and David Davis told me what had been happening. Although I checked the stock to see if the sales matched up with sold merchandise I hadn't realised what a little scam was going on behind my back. Bear in mind that I was paying the Paul Daniels museum a rent for the space. It seemed that young (at the time) Carl De Rome and Mark Haslam hatched a scheme together to defraud me. Carl supplied Haslam with merchandise that De Rome had obtained from other sources. Svengali Decks and other items which were exactly the same products that Haslam was supposed to be selling for me.

Naturally I was furious since I was the one who owned the concession and was not happy they were selling their own merchandise on the site that I was paying rent on and of course this cut into my sales very badly since they were selling their stuff and not mine.

I then bumped into Carl De Rome in Murray's Magic shop and confronted him on the matter. He admitted what had happened and tried to defend it on the grounds that it was not my merchandise so it couldn't be stealing. Murray disagreed with this and told Carl straight out that it was theft since any revenue taken on my site belonged to me since I was paying rent for the space and they weren't. Carl went red with embarrasment and departed in a rather scurried manner from the shop.

However, I was still furious and hatched a plot to teach Mark Haslam a lesson. I phoned him and offered him a vast sum of money to travel by boat to Ireland and work for me in an exhibition there. Like a dummy he fell for it. I told him that he had to pay his own fair and I would reimburse him when he arrived. I told him that I was over there working the show. Of course it was a complete fabrication on my part and after he agreed to take the trip I travelled to Canada. He then paid his fare and endured the rather long and awful boat ride to Ireland from where he lived. I told him to take the night boat in order to arrive in time and I knew it would be overcrowded and unpleasant. Of course when he arrived he went to the non existent venue and found that neither I nor the venue existed. Serves the b***** right. Never let it be said that I do not have a vindictive nature. I found out later he wanted to wreck havoc upon me.

But I never did get even with his partner in crime Carl De Rome. However the opportunity came up a couple of years ago and I laid into him publicly over the matter. The only trouble was I got completely confused over his name and started to doubt my original identification. Somehow my aged brain thought his real name was Kevin and he had red hair. I got confused and thought his stage name was Carl De Rome. He responded that his name had never been Kevin and his real name was Carl De Rome and it always had been. He also said he had light brown hair rather than red. And then some magician or other on the Genii Forum mentioned another magician in Blackpool of years ago who had red hair and suggested that he was the guilty party. I then thought that perhaps I had been mistaken and apologised publicly.

However, one thing still bothered me. I came across a photo of Carl when he was young and I KNEW that this was the guy that I had argued with in Murrays Magic Shop. And in fact I knew him as an acquaintance around Blackpool and he in fact admitted this bit a couple of years ago saying on a forum that I found it difficult to cross the street as a pedestrian and this in fact is quite true. But I figured out that I must have made a mistake somewhere and apologised. But then perhaps a year ago I met a Canadian magician in Toronto that I had known years ago. His name was Kevin and HE had red hair! I then realised that my apology was incorrect and that Carl De Rome was the culprit all along. I know for sure that the photo of him when young was the culprit who arranged with young Mark Haslam the thieving deception perpetrated on my about 30 years ago. I am proud that I gave Mark Haslam his first cruising experience and in fact he has done many more profitable cruises since.

I cannot send Carl De Rome on a cruise but at least I can expose him once again for the dishonourable person he was all those years ago. As for his rip off product I can't say that it surprises me. In any event the idea is as old as the hills. And I don't recommend it. You have to use a dangerous and harmful toxic chemical.

This effect was banned at Blackpool, a bit of Googling will show that several methods using aluminium foil and chemicals to produce heat are easily available. However, as with using the a spec's hand in a risky smash & stab routine, dumping a heated ball of tin foil into their hand is rather questionable.

Jon Tremaine got good mileage out of this years ago in cabaret and it was sold widely as "hot spot" but was discontinued years ago by dealers because of the safety aspects. Ormond Mc'Gill recommended it as a way to control hecklers. I like the trick and did it when I was a kid. I wouldn't do it now though. Poisonous chemicals and magic don't mix very well.

Not only is the effect banned from Blackpool, the odious man himself is too.
I personally wouldn't buy a thing off someone like De Rome. He's a hugely unpleasant little man.

Well, I should have emailed Merchant of Magic and tell them I don't like the product rather than post a mean review. They've now offered me a refund. I stand by my opinion of the product as I think it's way too easy to end up with chemical powder stuff on the spec's fingers, or to end up with just nothing happening, but I certainly regret posting such a stroppy review. Remind me not to post while drunk...

Mr Grumpypants

Merchant of Magic are an honest, decent company. Carl De Rome is neither honest nor decent.

I'm about as likely to buy an effect from Carl De Rome as I am a used laptop from Gary Glitter.

Lord Freddie wrote:Merchant of Magic are an honest, decent company..

Absolutely.

*hangs head in shame*

I'm about as likely to buy an effect from Carl De Rome as I am a used laptop from Gary Glitter

I think it was a good review. There's a lot of stuff out there that doesn't live up to the claims, or quite often I've found the image they use to sell the stuff has little to do with the product at all. I've even bought things with big claims that turned out to be the sort of thing you might find in a Christmas cracker if you got the worst cracker in the box.