talkmagic.co.uk

The Effect
Card At Named Number Amongst Blanks Is Selected (see if you can spot how they came up with the name )

You show a blank deck of cards and ask the spectator to think of any card. As they do this you remove one of the blanks, place it on the table and ask them to focus on their chosen card and try and imagine it printed on the blank card. You then replace the blank into the middle of the deck. The spec is asked to think of a number between 1 and 20. You count down to that number, and lo and behold, at the number they said there is the only printed card in the deck, and what do you know, it is their card.


Cost
£20.00


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)
2, only one real sleight and relatively technically easy


Review
Well it is my birthday tomorrow, and I received this as an early present from one of my friends. She is friends with a couple of the guys involved and was recommended this for me. With it you get a DVD with the performance, along with a couple of live performances, explanation and presentation tips, a smokers tin with the deck inside and a one page instructional sheet to go with the DVD.

I was slightly worried that this would be beyond my capabilities when I first saw it, but the trick is incredibly easy to do with regards to sleights and difficult techniques. The most difficult (and only real) sleight is the tilt. However, there are a couple of quite ballsy moves you have to pull off under the specs nose, but due to the nature of the deck, and with some of the presentation tips given, this are generally well covered and unlikely to be picked up on. It's a very nice effect and says what it does on a tin, the spec merely thinks of any card, then gives you a number, you count down to that number and there is their card, the only printed card in the whole deck. However, neither the deck nor the chosen card is in anyway examinable. You can show the chosen card, flick it and throw it about a bit, but I would definitely NOT let them handle it, unless they are very simple . This is the biggest downfall to the trick, because they are unable to handle their chosen card, there wouldn't even be any opportunity for a deck switch on the rest of the cards (if you even had a spare blank deck).

The presenttion they use on the dvd seems a bit weak in my opinion, but it's horses for courses. You shouldn't be looking to copy a presenation anyway, but you can clearly take ideas and bits and pieces and form your own unique presentation.




Overall

Pros:
-does what it says on the tin, killer effect
-very easy to do with no major technical know how
-quickly resets in about 30 seconds

cons:
-not examinable in the slightest
-the name is clearly contrived for marketing purposes, but I wouldn't let this put you off the trick itself.

I'd give it a solid 8/10
this would maybe be a 9 or even more if it weren't for the fact that neither the deck nor chosen card can be handled. However, if you think you could work around this, this is an excellent effect and would be a killer if used well.

as a quick note, I believe this is available only through http://www.magiccave.co.uk/inside or through Murphys Magic in the USA

You can also buy it from that magic market stall in Covent Garden, London.

Hi Schwen,

I am Lee Hathaway the co-creator of this effect. Thanks muchly for reviewing it and really glad you liked it.

First of all the Magic Stall in Covent Garden is the same as the website www.magiccave.co.uk/inside both owned by me and Neil Henry my business partner.

With regards to the point of examination may i say that we created the presentation on the DVD with this in mind. Altho you say you're not keen on the presentation, i would strongly suggest using the reality/perception/creative visualation line as this gives a psuedo-explanation to the volunteer. In a similar way Derren Brown often does, for instance when he convinces people that he can influence the Tote at the dog track when infact having a surefire method.

By giving your audience a pseudo-explanation, no matter how far fetched it will satisfy their desire to try and work out the effect and thus examination at the end becomes uneccesary in their mind. Hence you draw them into an experiment type environment rather that the confrontational aspect of a "look what I can do" scenario.

To give an example, let me cite the ID, possibly the greatest card trick ever conceived which again is not examinable before or after. If you presented this as a "I've turned one card over in this pack and I'll bet it the card you're going to name" then chances are, they'll want to inspect the pack. However, if you go with the age old presentation where they take the ID and pretend to take a card etc, you effectively draw them into the game and the whole thing becomes more entertaining, magical and less confrontational.

Finally, the world magic champion Hayashi has created the most fantabidoozy wonderful switch out at the end of the Cannabis Effect which leaves it examinable. It fooled the pants off me and i've been begging him to let me post it on the website www.thecannabiseffect.com

.....I'm still sending the bribes, but i'll keep you posted!

Nice review, Schwen. The effect does look great, but I have a few personal reservations about it.

Mr. Hathaway - a pleasure to see you here on TM. Your post actually points out one of the problems I have with the effect. While I can see the point you're making with the ID, I can't help but get past the notion that the ID has the slight advantage that the cards are normal. The effect is in the one card that was face down.

With CANNABIS, the cards are blank, bringing attention back to the rest of the deck. The blanks are unusual for a layman. In my experience, "unusual" brings a heightened degree of reaction, but it also brings more desire to get touchy. Granted, audience management and presentation will diminish this, and cover the possibility - but (at least for me), the fact remains that the ID is a little easier to manage, as the cards themselves don't become a focal point.

Mind you, I don't think this should put anyone off the effect - from the demo, it certainly looks like it will play well.

ahhh that stall in covent garden was the first physical place i ever bought magic...memories of a tall australian woman demo-ing the old brass box/10p transpo thing...

i did quite like the demo...i've been tempted by cannabis on many an occasion

South African

I didn't want to come across as though the presentation was rubbish, as it clearly wasn't from the section of the dvd with you showing it to people, but it's not for me, although I do like the basis for it and will definitely work around it.

I still think it's a problem that the cards aren't examinable, and I don't think it's ok to say that the spec just won't try and examine the cards, not even their selected one. I think this will take good audience management skills, or be done in a setting where they can't get at the cards. Basically I won't be doing this without some kind of plan in my mind, whether it's something as simple as moving straight on to another effect, or something a bit more involved. I will be using this effect though as I very much like it.

Keep us updated on the switch out though, that sounds very interesting

I have been performing this now with a different handling that gets away from some of the problems and makes reset a whole lot easier.

I can ribbon spread the cards and achieve the full effect without some of the original limitations. I think this is a powerful effect and plays well in the right context.

I have to say that after seeing this performed a few weeks back - from a spectator point of view it is one of (if not the) strongest acaan effects I have ever seen.

I did buy it and haven't performed it much yet - but I am going to have fun with it. There are no difficult moves and in fact it was much simpler to perform than I suspected it would be. That serves me right for looking for method.

I had the pleasure of meeting Neil, James James and a few other magicians in Covent Garden last November. We were two Icelanders enjoying the magic performance there and one of the magicians that was performing, spotted our International Magic carrier bags. When he had finished his show he led us to The Magic Cave, where Neil was actually struggling with a Russian man that had just bought sponge balls and wanted Neil to show him the trick... and repeated again and again: "Please use my balls! Show me the magic and hold my balls!"

Neil was absolutely wonderful when it was our turn - super friendly and a great performer.
(I learned the night after, at Novotel, that he can perform just as well, weather he's sober or plastered! )

Well, I bought the CANNABIS effect at the Magic Cave and I have tried it out on several occasions and it always gets a great reaction.

I don't find it odd to show "unusual" items to people. I just ask: "Have you ever seen a deck of cards BEFORE anything is printed on the front or the back?" No... and it is smooth from there all the way to the finish. I have never had anyone turn "suspicious"... people just enjoy a nice magic trick! And this is sooooo much different effect than ID... totally different, like day and night.

One of the beauties about this trick is that the spectator has a free choice of cards. Just thinks of any card and THAT card becomes the ONLY card "printed". The other beauty is that the spectator names any number, up to 52 and the card appears AT THAT NUMBER in the deck. Then you just put the cards back in the box and in the tin. You can't show a magic trick with a bunch of blank cards...

Highly reccomended!