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The Effect

Fandango Part 2 by Dave Forrest


Cost

£10 from full52.com

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

Review

To most people here Dave Forrest will need no introduction, check out his website at www.full52.com for more info.

This is his latest installment of close up magic for the real world series. Which I have to say from the outset that I like a lot. I am a big fan of Dave Forrest and his material so it wasn’t hard to coax me into buying this ebook. There are several effects which have been shown and reviewed below (first description is Dave’s words):

Four Found Fast - An extremely visual yet relatively easy production
of four of a kind.

Pretty much does what it says on the tin to be honest; it’s a nice easy production. My only problem is that it is a little too similar to his opening card effect on the Trickery DVD. Still a nice effect but I much prefer the ace production with a picked card kicker ending in Part 1 of the series.

No Hassle Hof- An eye-popping handling of ‘The Hofzinser Ace
Problem’. This is cool, visual card magic that you’ll start using immediately!

This was pretty much the reason why I bought this booklet, very visual and must admit that it is rather easy and also very clever. It’s impromptu and can be done with a borrowed deck. This has made into my show me a trick section but I’m currently trying to include it into a routine. There is demo on Dave’s website if you are interested in seeing it.

Carrots, Ok?- A close up ‘psychometry’ routine - you always know
who holds the odd coin. This is an almost impromptu miniature mental-
ism act in and of itself.

I must admit that I haven’t really bothered with this effect as I’m not a coin worker or mentalist. Having said that I is practically self-working and will require an extra piece of equipment that a lot of close guys will have (even though I don’t). Nonetheless it is a nice effect that you will probably kick yourself for not thinking of already.

A Pack of Lies- A very weird effect! During the course of an
‘expose’, you somehow cause a large hole in the card case to com-
pletely disappear! The clever gimmick makes it practically self working!

This is another very clever effect which also lets the spec’s think you are giving them a secret only to finally confuse them. I’ve looked into combining this with a T&R effect but I think it works much better with a ‘tell me how to do a trick’ vibe.

No. Way- A card vanishes and reappears at a position in the deck
named by the spectator. The reactions are out of this world. A good
example of card magic designed with real people in mind.

This effect annoyed and embarrassed me a bit. It’s a lovely effect but there was one move I couldn’t do due to learning another sleight. I don’t want to give any workings a way but the move required is easier than a well known move most know. But due to habit or muscle memory I couldn’t do this move and was scared of ruining my learning’s of the sleight I’m talking about. So it got left alone but is still another impromptu effect from a borrowed deck.

Trans-four- Four Kings appear in a spectators own hands. An
absolute stunner that can stand alone as a dynamite card effect or is
the perfect lead in to a more involved routine.

This is a sort of combined transpose and sandwich effect (terrible description I know). Requires a small setup but can be hidden in opening patter so no real problems there. Two aces are picked, a card is placed in between them and given to the spec to hold. The spec calls out a king of their choice, which switches place with the cards in their hands so that the sandwich ends up in the deck. All four kings are then found in the spec’s hand. I was worried that the four kings instead of one would weaken the effect but I like using the patter of transposing all the kings to ‘cover my back’. My thoughts being that surely transposing four cards are harder than one to a layman.

Overall

As stated before I really like Dave’s material and this booklet didn’t disappoint. If your familiar with his work and would like more of the same then this could be for you. If your not familiar with Dave’s material, this booklet will certainly give you an insight into his work. All but one of the effects are cards so some may want to steer clear due to this.

Bottom line- This booklet is a no nonsense script with some strong effects which require little to no preparation (not considering sleights).

I’d give this a 9/10