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ichange project - mini reviewette

PostPosted: Sep 24th, '09, 21:54
by IAIN


Im surprised no one has reviewed this properly yet...

i can't as i've not performed it in anger for the norms...

but, i did buy it and watched it (well most of it) - and all i can say is - visually, its absolutely cracking...

the standard alakazam quality of explanation, variants and hints and tips - theres even a signed version for those of you who like that kinda thing...

its mr nardi doing the explanations, with mr spelmann, and a guy i cant remember the name of (sorry monsieur je suis desole)....

if you've not seen the demo, I'm sure you're more than capable of googling for it...

it does EXACTLY what it says on the blurb, and what you see in the demo is what you get...angles are great, reset is great, sleights/set up very, very minimal considering what happens...well done to mr. nardi...8/10 - i think the downside is, people will be rushing this presentation - which could well be its downfall...do it slow, enjoy the magical moments...


PostPosted: Sep 24th, '09, 22:16
by FRK
I don’t like it, it’s odd because I normally like Peters stuff. To me there is no magic, you could have a pocket full of cards for one part of the effect and all you are left with is a 4 card change. Not exactly NFW is it.


PostPosted: Sep 25th, '09, 07:04
by RobMagic
God Darn it Iain, that's because I wanted to do a full review of this after I took it out this weekend! I thought I would be the first :)

I love it by the way and I will do a full review next week once its been road tested a whole lot more (saturday)


PostPosted: Sep 25th, '09, 10:27
by cactus mx
I've been thinking about getting this as well, I think it's a great opener. Thanks for the reviewette, now I'm looking forward to the review :)


PostPosted: Sep 25th, '09, 10:39
by Replicant
FRK wrote:I don’t like it, it’s odd because I normally like Peters stuff. To me there is no magic, you could have a pocket full of cards for one part of the effect and all you are left with is a 4 card change. Not exactly NFW is it.


Having watched the demo, I tend to agree. I'm underwhelmed but it would be interesting to hear Agecroft's experience of this in the real world.


PostPosted: Sep 27th, '09, 19:43
by Cameron Francis
I totally disagree. It'd highly magical. You clearly put four Aces into separate pockets. The Kings are clearly left in your hands. They then instantly change to Aces and you pull the Kings out of your pockets.

Then the Aces disappear and reappear in your pockets. The spectators can even remove the cards themselves (well, they can't touch one pocket but that's it).

Oh, and all of the cards in your hands are examinable at the end of the effect.

How is that not magical?!?

There are also loads of other tricks taught on the dvd. Very good stuff.


PostPosted: Sep 27th, '09, 21:04
by Replicant
I've just watched the demo again and I'm still not that impressed. As FRK said, there are parts of the routine where you could simply have a pocket full of cards. If I was a spectator, this would certainly be my first thought. The pocket thing just doesn't do it for me and I don't find it convincing. But the in-the-hand changes are quite nice and very visual. It's OK. I wouldn't buy it, though. I think Peter has come up with better effects.

Again, I'd be interested to hear about real world experiences from Iain, Agecroft and anyone else who owns this.


PostPosted: Sep 28th, '09, 04:14
by Cameron Francis
Well, I disagree.

The highly visual change
The final revelation
The fact that the specs can examine all but one pocket
And the fact that all of the cards are examinable completely cancel out any theory of "loads of cards in the pockets" that the spectator might have.


PostPosted: Sep 28th, '09, 13:16
by RobMagic
Ok I said I'd drop a review in here on this product after road testing it for real at the weekened

The Effect

Is basically (basically doesn't really cover it though so please don't take offence) a magician takes 8 cards from the deck and puts four of them into the pocket, the instantly switch places with the four cards held in the hand before. The spectator names a set of cards from the 8 in hand and 4 of the cards jump to the magicians pockets once again. You end clean



Cost

£19.99 from magicbox where I bought mine from

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 bit tricky to rate, I picked this up in 5 minutes and felt comfortable to perform it not long after.



Review

Ok a lot has been said about this product already and I've stated that I love the effect. This still holds true after road testing it but..... and I'll get to the but later.

The actual quality of cards that you get are excellent and they allow you to carry out this stunning effect with the minimum of sleight of hand. They come on bicycle quality stock with red backs only I believe. I use red cards so it's not a problem for me but red is your only choice. They'll last as long as your normal cards do but I rather suspect that due to the price you'll take better care of them.

The DVD is very good as well with all details and some alternatives covered in more than enough detail to get you performing this effect in no time at all. Amazingly, there is very little exaplantion required for this effect.

Ok I chose to use this effect as a card opener as I could then happily keep the gimmicks in my deck to start with and at the end I would be left with a full deck to carry on with what ever else I fancied after. My personal thoughts were that is where it best fit for me. I didn't follow up with a reset routine though that would have been very logical to do. The setting was a bar/night club quite classy venue (can't say the same for the people in the club mind) so surrounded on all angles and big groups getting interested in what was going on.

The trick gets great reactions, there is a slight angle problem on one of the moves but it's well covered with misdirection and not once was I busted but it's there to consider all the same. It's definatly a trick that works better with talking rather than the music on the video and it clears things up for the spectators. I was sure to perform it in nearly every set that I did and I performed a lot that night as I really wanted to road test a whole host of new (to me) material. It does go down really well and I can recommend it on that basis alone.

Here's the BUT though. I won't be using this in my paid gigs or actually using it very often from now on. This is just a personal thing but I feel a lot of others who work will have the same problem in that it becomes hard to manage the cards in your pocket with your other items you will have in there. The DVD explains brilliantly well how to not mix up your cards etc so that's not the issue but with other stuff in your pocket I found my self taking longer in the pocket than I would have liked to on occasion as things do move around. In fact its crucial to the effect I feel to just reach in and drop the card off or reach in and pick out the card. I found this wasn't so easy when my pockets had other things in there.

I don't want to take away from what is a great effect it just has that one draw back. it's the sort of thing I can see my carrying around, always ready to perform, when I'm not actually out to perform magic as my pockets would be clutter free.

It's striking, it gets great reactions but for me is better suited to the above occasions, those magicians that carry around only a pack of cards and some rubber bands and coins etc or in a competition act. You'll floor fellow magi with it I'm sure especially if you do a signed card version.


Overall

As a stand alone effect I want to give this a 8 in that its well packaged, well explained and does get good reactions.

For a workers trick (well this worker anyway) 6, This will be higher for those without other stuff in their pockets


PostPosted: Oct 1st, '09, 20:27
by Cameron Francis
I would agree with that review. As much as I love the effect, this is not something I would use for strolling. There is a variation taught on the dvd that is excellent for strolling but it's more of a Ricochet kind of effect.

The main effect is one I'd do for a more formal show or reserve it for a special occasion where I don't have my pockets loaded up with stuff.


PostPosted: Oct 3rd, '09, 17:18
by Le Petit Bateleur
Just looking at the demo, it reminds me of Iain Morran's card highway from covert magic.

In his version the transposition (e.g. 4 kings to 4 aces) to 4 different pockets happens with four signed cards and the cards are openly displayed. There is also no gimmick involved.

http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic17561.php

LP


PostPosted: Oct 7th, '09, 23:26
by Cameron Francis
Iain's Effect and the ichange effect are both based on Jerry Sadowitz's "The More Things Change".