"Wallet Weapon" by Lloyd Barnes // Enigma Ltd

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"Wallet Weapon" by Lloyd Barnes // Enigma Ltd

Postby TheStoner » Mar 1st, '14, 16:55



The Effect

Various, but typically a signed folded playing card appears in your wallet, which can have been in full view from before the card was signed

Cost

Available from the usual magic shops or direct from Owain for £18.49 (inc P&P) via this website - http://enigmaltd.com/product/wallet-weapon/

Difficulty

Easy - once you can do a Mercury Fold

Review

The Wallet Weapon is a DVD that explains how to gimmick pretty much any wallet for use in a card to wallet routine. The card to be revealed has been folded into quarters and is seen clearly being removed from the wallet before being handed to the spectator – and it is their signed card that was returned to a pack of cards just a few seconds before (unfolded!). The DVD clearly explains how this is all achieved and it is something that will be of use to magicians of all levels, but well within the capabilities of all but the most inexperienced beginner. To perform this you will need to do a little “arts and crafts” DIY, but this is very simple and will only take a few minutes. It uses materials that you will definitely have around the house. The techniques need to perform this CTW are also simple, but you will need to be able to do a Mercury Fold. This is taught clearly on the DVD and is one of the moves that most magicians already know anyway. If you don’t know it then it is well worth adding to your arsenal and the Wallet Weapon gives you a great reason to learn it. The DVD itself is well presented and produced, although it would have been nice to see some more live performances. In addition to the basic routines there are some bonuses using material other than playing cards and, for once, these DVD bonuses are worth watching rather than just filler as on many other DVD releases. Overall this is a great idea, well presented, simple to prepare and perform that I can see becoming a standard part of many magicians close-up act. If you want a simple powerful CTW that can be done with any wallet then this is perfect.

Overall

9/10 - highly recommended!

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Re: "Wallet Weapon" by Lloyd Barnes // Enigma Ltd

Postby FTHO » Mar 2nd, '14, 18:39

TheStoner - you just beat me to it! Here is my review:

The Effect

“Weapon wallet is extremely deceptive and very devious! A must for all close up performers!”
– James Brown //Professional Opportunist.


The Wallet Weapon is a powerful, unique and dynamic utility device that you’ll carry with you at all times.
Specifically designed to be built in to your wallet with materials you almost certainly have at home right now.
Switch playing cards, banknotes, predictions and even perform visual changes that leave you totally clean. The possibilities for this are only limited by your own imagination.
Easy to construct. One second reset. Perfect for walk around performers.
As with every Enigma Ltd product, this DVD comes in beautifully designed luxury packaging.


Cost
£18.49 from http://enigmaltd.com/product/wallet-weapon/" target="_blank" target="_blank
£24.99 from http://www.alakazam.co.uk/product-Walle ... s-DVD.html" target="_blank" target="_blank


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)

The hard part is getting it set up in the first place - the DIY part. Once you've got it working it is very easy.


Review

Firstly I have never met Lloyd Barnes... that being said, this review is still totally biased. I lived in wales for a few years, and I’m a sucker for a welsh accent!
Joking aside... I have never met Lloyd, I responded to the request for reviewers and I hope someone will find my review useful.

Performances – the performances had me slightly fooled, I could take a guess about parts of it, but the unique part of the method had me stumped. In my mind I connected this to The Wallet Transformer by Cameron Francis and I couldn’t see how this worked in relation to the Transformer. The visual illusion (of both this and the Transformer) is fantastic.

Instruction – The instruction starts with an overview of the whole method before moving on into each section in smaller detail. I think this is the best way to do it because you can keep the overall picture in mind while you are working through the individual parts.
First up is the construction of the gimmick, this is described in extreme detail.
Next comes the full explanation of the performance which includes a basic explanation of any techniques involved. This is followed by some additional routines and ideas.
Additional Routines
1) Blank Paper to Money – does what it says on the tin, you remove a piece of blank paper from your wallet and it transforms into cash. This is fully explained. I can imagine performing this for my favourite bar tender, “oh sorry buddy I don’t have any money on me... do you take emergency cash?” This would be perfectly logical, you already have your wallet out to pay when you discover your lack of cash!
2) Prediction Effect – not fully explained, but some detail of possible effects are given, by this point it is easy to figure out how to set the wallet up for this effect. The same is true for each of the following ideas.
3) Confabulation
4) Torn and Restored Card
5) Colour Change
6) Switches
7) Lloyd refers to the Wallet Weapon as “a completely organic switching device” and claims that many routines which require a switch (of a single card like object) can be adapted for use with the wallet weapon.

Method – This will involve you doing some permanent “damage” to your wallet for the sake of the method. In order to give a thorough review I decided to make this up and see how easy it is. I’ll say that making the gimmick is really easy, it took maybe 5 minutes to get it ready. The hard part is getting the gimmick to work correctly, this takes some refinement and is quite fiddly, I haven’t quite got to a point I am happy with – I would not perform this yet, I need to get it 100% first. Currently the gaff is exposed by about 5 millimeters about half of the time. I think this will just take a little more refinement.

Quality – The video is high quality, however the cameras are mostly static – including the focus. This means some of the footage is out of focus. This was particularly noticeable with the performances. During the explanations the focus would occasionally shift in and out. This didn’t impact the learning process at all but as a photographer I found it quite annoying

I really liked The Wallet Transformer, but I never used it... I currently utilise every space in my wallet, I couldn’t get rid of anything in order to install The Wallet Transformer. I couldn’t lose a credit card slot for the sake of the method, I decided to look out for a new wallet that would have an extra slot. The Wallet Weapon requires the loss of 2 credit card slots, however it is potentially more versatile – I already have a routine which ends with me producing a folded blank business card from my pocket with a prediction on it, I’m now asking myself if the effect would be stronger to remove the prediction from my wallet (which has possibly been on full view the whole time).

Lloyd claims that he came up with this method because he didn’t want to mess around with the gaffed wallets, however I am 99% sure that he is using a Real Man’s Wallet in the performance (but possibly one that is almost identical to the Real Man) – It is worth pointing out that you do not require a gimmicked wallet for this. You can install this into almost any wallet, it is taught with horizontal credit card slots, but I am pretty sure you could easily adapt this to a wallet with vertical slots, in fact I think it might actually work better with vertical slots.


Overall
I really like this, if i can get the mechanics to be 100% reliable then i think i'd be very tempted to use it regularly. I think it would be great for the end of my prediction routine.
I would also worry that the gaff could break during performance - I would be very curious to hear Lloyd's thoughts on this.

On the occasions that i can get this to work I would give it a 9/10 - the idea of using this as a way of closing my prediction routine excites me more then the card to wallet aspect.
The visual illusion is fantastic.

If you want to perform a card to wallet, but you don't want to load the card into the wallet using a palm etc, then this is a very good option.

FTHO
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