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The Lady Travels by Kenton Knepper



The Effect
"A card is chosen and the corner is torn and given to a spectator to hold. You make a magical gesture and EACH AND EVERY card in the deck is shown to be whole. The selected card is clearly gone. You now point to an "impossible" location and have the spectator retrieve what he finds...

IT IS THE TORN CARD! Not just that, but the corner matches EXACTLY. And the best part - NO CORNER SWITCHING AND NO PALMING.

This truly is an impossible location with a torn card. Clean and easy to do - pure Kenton Wizardry as usual!"

Cost
£14.99
I purchased mine fromMagic Magic using the TM link to get a 5% discount.

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)

1
The Lady Travels (TLT) is quite straightforward to perform assuming you have basic card handling skills.

Review
Included in the package:
Instructional DVD
Three gaffed cards in an envelope

First off, I was pleasantly surprised to have received three gaff cards. As only one card is used during the performance and it is not actually torn, they should last you a long while. As usual, the cards are printed on standard Bicycle stock and are very realistic (but will not withstand close scrutiny!)

It seems to me like more and more effects are now coming with instructional DVDs. This is by no means a bad thing, I think, and the visual element does make it easier to learn certain tricks. And you can't argue with personal instruction from the originator of an effect. The DVD lasts fourteen minutes, broken down as follows:

Performance - 2 minutes
Explanation - 7 minutes
Bonus section - 5 minutes

Knepper performs TLT for a single spectator and he then goes on to explain the method. The bonus section contains some additional hints and insights, plus more handling tips which I found very useful. He also briefly goes into the history of the effect. Not a second is wasted - there is no padding here. Knepper's friendly style is concise and easy to understand.

Overall
I like this one very much. It's a nice card trick that has a strong effect on the spectator and is just slightly off the beaten track. For owners of Big Blind Media's 2wo Faced DVD, you can do a similar effect with one of the gaffs in that package; I particularly like Knepper's version because it offers the same impossible location as the 2wo Faced gaff, but with the added element of a torn card. I would recommend TLT if you're after something a bit different to the usual, but still gets good reactions.

Score: 8/10