talkmagic.co.uk

I picked this up in Blackpool yesterday and I did a search and found no reviews on here, so here goes:


The Effect

A card is selected and returned to the deck.

There is fun and mayhem as the performer tries and fails to locate the spectators card.

What adds to the excitement is that a small wager has been made on the successful location of the chosen card.

After failing to locate the card, the magician removes a credit card from his wallet to settle the bill.

The card is shown back and front and then tossed into the air where it visually changes to the selected card!


Cost

I paid £12 from JBMagic in Blackpool, but I found it for a tenner from:
http://www.alakazam.co.uk/acatalog/Card_Magic_53.html


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)

The only thing you need to do, is to force a certain card onto the spec. You don't need to have to control it - the spec can shuffle it back into the deck if they want - so I'd give this a difficulty rating of 2/5.


Review

When I got this, I certainly under-estimated the reactions I'd get. I must have performed this about 15 times last night and EVERY reaction was one of stunned disbelief. No-one asks to examine the card (it obviously can't be examined) - people just shake their heads and swear at me .

I certainly like the patter where you offer to pay them the wager with your credit card (which you show front and back), which they decline - so you ask them if they'd prefer the change instead. They always say yes - at which point you toss the credit card into the air and it visually changes into their card. You show them both sides of the card and say, "that's the change, that's your card and that's quits".


Overall

The only minus point is the fact that the card cannot be examined - but what do you expect for a tenner. I've used this loads already (I only bought it yesterday) and no-one's asked to examine the card yet. I simply show it to them, front and back and put it back into my wallet where the credit card was.

I really love this and I just know I'm gonna get alot of mileage out of it.

9/10 from me .

Yeah, this is a good one. But it works best when still quite new. I used to use it a lot but after a while the gimmick lost some of its "magic" and the change was no longer as crisp, if you catch my drift. Still, for that price you can't go wrong. And it's original, too.

Mine was an American Express card - is that still the case?

Bicycle808 wrote:Mine was an American Express card - is that still the case?

Mine is an American Express card too and I notice that the one on the Alakazam site is also an American Express card.

When storing this card in the wallet - it recomends that:

don't put the card in your wallet, all prepared, and leave it there for weeks! You will strain the ******.

It only takes a second to set up, so I'm gonna leave the card in my wallet unprepared and just set it up when I need it. This will hopefully extend its life expectancy .

Sounds like a novel reveal; out of interest (Bicycle808
) how long did you have it/use it before it lost its springiness or whatever?

moonbeam wrote:When storing this card in the wallet - it recomends that:

don't put the card in your wallet, all prepared, and leave it there for weeks! You will strain the ******.

It only takes a second to set up, so I'm gonna leave the card in my wallet unprepared and just set it up when I need it. This will hopefully extend its life expectancy .

I would definitely recommend you do just that as it will prolong the "magic".

Palmer Eldritch wrote:Sounds like a novel reveal; out of interest (Bicycle808) how long did you have it/use it before it lost its springiness or whatever?

Hmm, lets see... I haven't performed this in well over a year now. I used to keep it in my wallet, unprepared, and set it up when required. I guess it lasted a few months before I noticed any wear and tear taking its toll. But that was me performing it quite a lot, and not just to spectators but in front of the mirror to myself (just to see the visual change, which is quite impressive even when you know how it's done!) Yes, I should go outside more often....

Just another tip for anyone that has this, or is thinking of getting it:

I showed this to my brother-in-law on Sat night. I forced a card on him, then got him to shuffle the deck - it really was lost in the deck.

I went on with the routine, saying that if I couldn't find his card I'd pay him a quid, but if I did find his card, he'd owe me nothing - he was on a no-lose bet. So I fanned the cards and pulled a card out (completely random) and turned it over - WHAM, it was his card lol. Well the trick ended there and then and he was surprised to say the least (not as surprised as me lol ). I now had to wait a lil' while before I could actually show the credit card trick in full (I needed to force the same card) so from now on I use one of 2 methods:

1. Pull cards out, but look at them before you reveal them - if you're unlucky (or lucky) enough to actually find their card, mis-call it and don't reveal its face before you put it back in the deck.

OR:

2. When you take the deck back, look through the faces - making an excuse like you're either checking for jokers or you want to make sure that there are 52 cards, etc. Find their card and cut the deck so that their card is in, say, the top third of the deck. You can now pull cards out of the bottom half of the deck, turning them over as you pull them out, safe in the knowledge that you're not going to find their card .

WHAM, it was his card

I had a similar thing happen with a variation i created of the chicago opener. It really is an anti-climax, they thought it was prettty good, but not as good as what would have happened!

This trick wouldnt be so good for me i guess, not many 16 year old magicians carry American Express cards I guess.

Yeah, looks pretty sweet. Shame it's American Express I suppose you could control the card, then if they said "hey, let me shuffle" you could, but if not, the card is ready on top to be top-changed for examination.

I've noticed a lot of retail outlets and shops won't take Amex cards any more - something to do with their fees being far higher than other cards. On that basis, Amex cards in the UK may be a bit rare....

Amex cards in the UK may be a bit rare....

Spot on. Wherever i go now i see signs saying NO american express and so on. Im sure whatever outlet produce these will soon twig on.

They were selling a similar trick in Davenports and its the most ridiculous card i have ever seen. Its gold and says something along the lines of "Bank Of World" with a silly cheesy logo. Not fooling anyone!