talkmagic.co.uk

The effect:

The performer fills a glass or tumbler with water. He then dunks a tissue into the glass and stirs it around. The tissue is pulled out soaking wet. The performer then crumples the tissue in his hand, and thousands of tiny, dry flakes of paper fall out of his fist and float around the room.

Cost:
Usually between $8-20 (sorry, American currency). Also, usually 10 uses.

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)
1.5- some deceptive moves, but not truly difficult

What I say:
Almost everybody who has seen a magic show of some kind has seen this effect. It is one of the classic finales for any stage performance. It is a very easy effect, and it gets amazing responses. If you are comfortable with concealing objects slightly larger than a quarter, this wouldn't make a bad close-up magic trick, either. It is very straightfoward, and the directions are almost unnecessary.

Final:
9/10
The sound of jaws hitting the floor is slightly annoying .

Thanks for the review on this, MysteryMan.

I've often considered buying this, but have qualms over the fact that I've heard it sometimes doesn't work properly every time. Is there a knack of getting it right, or does it always work as expected?

I don't know how much I can write without getting edited, but I'll try my best. If you need a little more info, PM me.

This trick is primarily stage for a reason. It takes some pretty "gutsy" (not entirely hard, though) concealing movements. Closeup is pretty difficult, unless you are extremely confident with your sleight of hand.

As for the "not working all the time," I think I know what you are talking about. The dry flakes number over 10,000, so to produce them in a small enough size to conceal requires a fair amount of pressure. They are extremely tightly packed together. Usually a little "massaging" of the flakes in your hand (usually you see the performers rubbing their fingers back and forth across their palm), will get them loose so that they float to the ground in a snowstorm pattern.

No problem writing the review; it was my first and I was kinda excited .

This is a great effect. I bought a version of this from Davenports years ago which came in a nice gold box but the fan broke after a while and I haven't got round to repairing it.
Fiddly to make, well the method I used was, and you need pure confidence to perform it, but a wonderful, classic effect.