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Got this for xmas and thought I'd give you a review

The Effect
An old key visibly turns over in your hand.

Cost
around £8

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

Review

A very visual effect where by an old key is seen to turn over in your hand. This trick is very easy to perform, took me no longer than 5 minutes to get it looking good. The reset is instant and the key can be fully examined by the spectator.

This is one of those effect that can either be performed brilliantly or very poorly. When done well and with good patter I think it could be quite a stunner. But for maximum effect it would need to be incorporated into the right sort of routine.

I was disapointed that the version I have includes no tips for patter or routine which would have been very useful.

Overall

7-10 A nice, simple effect but does need to be performed well.

Lady of Mystery wrote:the key can be fully examined by the spectator.

The trick is to try not to place too much emphasis on the key itself, but on what the key is actually doing (if you catch my drift ). When I first got this I let people play around with the key waaaaaay too much and as a result I got rumbled once or twice, so I've gotta disagree and say that the key is not 100% examinable.
Agreed, you can hand it out for examination and it will stand up to quite rigorous testing - just be careful though

This is a lovely little effect that's always on my keyring.

I do my HK routine without any patter at all, and as a PK effect. I tap it on a table, hand it briefly to someone, take it back and place it on my palm. The focus is then placed on the middle finger of my other hand, which produces the 'fluence. At "the top", I pause, rub the tip of this finger with my thumb and continue. Then I give the key out again. It creates a lovely false cause and effect chain. People will actually go through the motions to see if they can replicate it.

AS discussed elsewhere, 'aging' the key slightly also makes it look a little less like a gimmick, and gives more credibility to ghostly stories it seems!

For tips and routining:

http://www.nothingupmysleeve.co.uk/mark ... oklet.html

A nice review there Lady and as suggested by Siege, check out the other threads on the HK. They're well worth it.

I have two versions of this, one silver and one gold. The silver version came with a decent set of instructions (in a black box) that contained a suggested routine.

I got my Key from Seige and the little book of routines. Very nice effect, I do think if you use the key it should be aged.

In my job I get to use a huge bunch of keys. And the master key on the ring is the same length but not weight has the key you get (I think I am right in saying the secret is more important then the actual key here) Any how one of the cleaners she belives in well err Joojoo wich is an African form of black magic. Anyhoot i poped the master of the bunch and showed her my joojoo key. She run out the room.

Great little effect, I find no lead up sells the trick better then again most of you probley wont be able to get there hands on a bunch of keys like I can. But play around with diffrent keys not just the one you get in the set.

i love this. i did this on the folks at christmas and told a story how the key belonged to scrooge. the key belonged to one of his safes where he stored all his money and every christmas eve the key takes on strange unnatural powers. ncould it be the key, or scrooge himself coming back from the dead trying to reclaim his key !!!

There are some great routines for this, one of the ones in the book that I like is simply "I've got a new job - training keys to turn in locks"!

As for examinability, I have to agree that you can't let people play too much. The trick is to major on handing it out beforehand; tap it on the table, guide people towards attempting to slide one part or unscrew another - after all, they've no idea what you're going to do! After the effect, a cursory examination is more acceptable, just to prove no threads etc. were used (although if I were going to use IT for this, I'd know how to get round that )

I have used this for a while and with the right build up and atmosphere it's really effective.
I usually start my patter by asking whether people believe in ghosts and then go on to say that they are memories that buildings preserve and objects can do the same, replaying an action. I then tell one of two stories, gruesome and one that's just spooky (depending on the spectator) and do the turning.
It's good to follow this one up with Andrew Mayne's Ghost Vision whilst you are on the subject of spirits. These two combined are very powerful!

It is fully inspectable, you know... If you hand it out before you go into your patter, the spec can handle it safely. Just prime them to see what you want them to see by instructing them to make sure it's a real key, without telling them why. They'll naturally think about the metal, its rigidity, the pattern of the teeth, the length, and so on, but not about what it's about to do. Hand it out afterwards and they'll only ever be able to make it flop over because that's what normal keys do, but they'll never be able to make it do what it just did in your hand. Anyone can make it flop over, as you can demonstrate too.

Er, yes - that's the detail I should have gone into!

Any tips on aging the key folks? I've got the booklet but it's in Leeds at the moment, and surely how to make a key look old doesn't class as magical exposure...! Not even sure it's in the booklet.

Farlsborough wrote:Er, yes - that's the detail I should have gone into!

Any tips on aging the key folks? I've got the booklet but it's in Leeds at the moment, and surely how to make a key look old doesn't class as magical exposure...! Not even sure it's in the booklet.

Put it in a box with a few stone's and bash it about for a bit Bath it with used teabags too

Sir_Digby_Chicken_Ceaser wrote:

Farlsborough wrote:Er, yes - that's the detail I should have gone into!

Any tips on aging the key folks? I've got the booklet but it's in Leeds at the moment, and surely how to make a key look old doesn't class as magical exposure...! Not even sure it's in the booklet.

Put it in a box with a few stone's and bash it about for a bit Bath it with used teabags too

Or you could just put it in a box and leave it for a 1000 years or so - that should do the trick (Sorry - I just couldn't resist )

Sir_Digby_Chicken_Ceaser wrote:Put it in a box with a few stone's and bash it about for a bit Bath it with used teabags too

Please don't do it!!! The key may lose some of it's 'special' properties if you smash it about, I don't think teabags will do much either. There is a VERY comprehensive thread on this subject that I started a while back (with pictures), just here:

http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic10200. ... key+ageing

Flash wrote:

Sir_Digby_Chicken_Ceaser wrote:Put it in a box with a few stone's and bash it about for a bit Bath it with used teabags too

Please don't do it!!! The key may lose some of it's 'special' properties if you smash it about, I don't think teabags will do much either. There is a VERY comprehensive thread on this subject that I started a while back (with pictures), just here:

http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic10200. ... key+ageing

Maybe, how about just rubbing it with a rock or maybe even a pan scubber although that might just make it nice and shiny