talkmagic.co.uk

Crystal Card

Available from http://www.magicshop.co.uk/product_info ... ts_id=1755

Price: £29.99

Close up Card Magic

Difficulty: 1.5 - 2 out of 5

They say:
"Very mysterious, weird and unusual! I rubbed the Crystal Card on the table cloth to reveal the thoughts of the spectator. A thin slice of natural stone revealing thoughts? The possibilities are endless! More mysterious and more practical than a crystal ball!" Tommy Wonder


"With his brilliant invention Crystal Card, Pieras Fitikides introduces a completely new tool in magic with enormous potential. With this prop you have Aladdins lamp in your hands and you are able to create wonders. Crystal Card will be a key to a new surreal field in our wonderful world of magic." Lennart Green

Crystal Card is a revolutionary idea based on a new principle. It can be used to perform a wide variety of surprisingly visual effects including:

Crystal Card
Two cards thought of by two spectators are magically revealed on a piece of green crystal right before the very eyes of the audience!

Past and Future
A card selected by a spectator materialises on the performer's crystal. The performer claims that he saw the selected card through his crystal before the card was actually selected and proves it!

Bizarre Revelation
The performer rests his palm over a green crystal - a card, thought of by a member of the audience, magically appears on the crystal!

X-Ray ScreenA card is selected and returned to the deck which is then wrapped in a silk. A spectator looks at the wrapped deck through a crystal and sees the selected card!

Supreme Exposure
A prediction mysteriously materialises on a sealed piece of crystal. A card previously selected by a member of the audience is turned face up. It's a match!

Crosswise Illusion
A card selected by a member of the audience magically appears on a special crystal inserted crosswise in a deck of cards!

Palm Reader
A card is selected and rubbed on a spectator's palm. The spectator brings her palm over a green crystal and the selected card mysteriously appears on the crystal!

Difficulty level 1 (Basic sleights/self working)

"Crystal Card is wonderfully unique and completely mystifying. The possibilities are limitless! The concept opens doors for creative performers to create their own mind-numbing routines. The instructions and routines supplies with the effect are clear, complete and powerful. I recommend this to anyone looking for something visually unique and dramatically powerful." Thomas Baxter

Invented, handcrafted and routined by Pieras Fitikides

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Is this the same as Ghost Glass?
NOPE! Crystal Card takes the visual prediction of a card to a whole new level. no Glass, no breath, no chemicals required!. The image appears to move as it comes together on the crystal. It's VERY VISUAL! 'The crystal card is credit card size and fits perfectly in your wallet.

What's your favourite way to present this?
Here at The Merchant of Magic shop we demo Crystal Card using a tabletop reveleation! With a little practice you can have a spectator select a card, then you just throw the Crystal Card down onto the tablecloth infront of them. As it hits the tablecloth, the image appears on the card! This really does drop jaws!

Can the selected card be kept as a souvenir?
YES! We recommend it! The spectators card is ungimmicked!

Do I need to switch in gimmicked props?
NO! The Crystal Card system does all the hard work for you. No switching spectators cards, no complex sleight of hand!

Can more than one card be predicted?
Yes! have two spectators choose cards and the Crystal Card will instantly and visually predict each spectators card!

Is Crystal Card repeatable?
Yes! Have a prediction appear then instantly perform it again, predicting a completely different card. Because of this unique feature, it's easy to perform more than one of the many professional quality routines included.


I say:
I want to like this and in a way I do but I have a HUGE gripe…to start with….

“A thin slice of natural stone revealing thoughts…”
“…revealed on a piece of green crystal …”
“…materialises on the performer's crystal…”
“…rests his palm over a green crystal …”
“…appears on a special crystal …”

What does this (and many other such phrases) suggest you will get? Are you thinking of a thin film of green “paper-like” material sealed within a piece of credit card size and shape, heat laminated plastic? I hope it does because that is exactly what you get. That’s a little disappointing for me. I was hoping to get something a teeny tiny bit more enigmatic. Mine also have two fairly prominent scratches across the face of it and the edges are a bit rough.

“Do I need to switch in gimmicked props? NO! The Crystal Card system does all the hard work for you.”

Ummm…well, if by “system” you mean the “crystal” AND one or two of the "somethings" you get with the trick that are "incorporated", then technically, no, there are no switches needed. In terms of presentation I would prefer to use the tabletop reveal as mentioned by the distributor for that very reason, I suspect they themselves do this as it is less “contrived” looking. You will need to include one or two of the gaffs to achieve the effect and you will need to f**** a card or two. The f***** cards can be examined and kept by the spectator if you wish. You DON”T want to lose the gaffs!!!

The “crystal” is examinable but as I mentioned before, it does not resemble anything like what I would think of when the word crystal is mentioned to me. I suspect the make up of the special material is crystalline in nature but lets not fence with “techno-words” here. The gaffs are not examinable. Visually they look OK but the spectator handling them is a “no-no”.

The instructions are very clear and address every technical and handling issue reasonably well. The routines really are variations on the one thing the “crystal” does (and does very eerily indeed). They are mostly presentation variants and seem to have the same introduction description of the “crystal” printed each time with slight variations in wording. I found this very wearisome to read especially given that the basic effect was the same every time. Very few of the routines had much in the way of “narrative logic” for my tastes. There will be heat on the “crystal” during and after the effect and that’s to be expected and not a problem as the “crystal” itself will give nothing away. The instructions give you a number of ways to deal with this curiosity and suspicion but it still remains that there is heat, and a lot of it. I’m not sure I’m comfortable with 80% of the routine variations ways of “removing the heat” as it were.

The way the “crystal” must be handled to achieve the proper reveal is (due to its scientific workings) fairly limited but the effect is pretty cool to watch and when practiced with…REALLY practiced with.. could be quite a freaky looking for the spectator.

What it comes down to is that “The Crystal Card” is a very novel and interesting way to visually reveal a spectators “choice” of a card but it is a “one trick pony” and a novelty at that. This is not to say many performers won’t have a grand old time “wowing” people with it but I find it very limiting and offering little in the way of options that make any big difference. Finally I think the £29.99 price tag WAAAYYYY to high for what one actually receives, no matter how technically clever it is or how thick the booklet feels.

Overall: 6/10

A very ingenious and cool looking novelty but lacking in any substantial scope and suffering from very tight handling restrictions.

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Excellent review with lots of info.

A very enjoyable and informative read. Thank you

Alex

i was sure i was going to get this but now yoou have said what it looks like im a bit put off. is it really that naff looking?

Hold on...don't get me wrong...this isn't bad per say...it simply isn't what I thought it was going to be nor is it (IMHO) the most versatile gimmick but it does work well in what it does and it does look cool.

Maybe I'm just stuck in a rut with this one.

If anyone is curious about "Crystal Card" I will trade my copy for a new Set of "Beyond ESP 2" cards, then you can try it for yourself...save a bundle as well. PM me if you are interested and let's see what you think.

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Excellent review, thanks!
Interesting routine too.