talkmagic.co.uk

The Effect
Borrow any two bills from a spectator's wallet and visually melt them through each other right in front of their eyes.
Phase One:
The magician borrows two bills from a spectator. The bills are folded, and one bill is placed inside of the other. The bills are then caused to visually pass through one another.
Phase Two:
One bill is placed on top of the other bill. The bill on the bottom jumps to the middle of the folded bill on top.
Phase Three:
The spectator holds on to the ends of a folded bill, with the other bill cradled inside. The magician pulls the bill through the spectator’s bill, just inches in front of their eyes.

· Everything can be inspected
· The banknotes can be borrowed
· Use any denomination of banknote
· The effect can be performed surrounded
· You end totally clean - with no gimmicks to hide




Cost

£8.99

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

Review

I got this as I love tricks with notes/bills and liked the sound of this as it uses no gimmicks and is totally impromtu.The DVD is very good,it lasts for about 25-30mins. It starts of with Andrew showing a demo of the effect, he then procedes to tell you the secrets of the trick step by step. His teaching methods are exellent and very easy to grasp. He then tells you some tips on handling and the performance and even a way to do it if you are surrounded. Then he does of a walk through version where you then follow his moves to make sure you are doing it right.
The effect is very good and the DVD is very good value for money

Overall

This effect is very clever and my hat goes off to Andrew for coming up with it, as the description says it is totally impromtu, good if you didn't have any stuff on you and someone wanted to see a trick.
The main problem I found with it is that I dont think it works very well with UK notes, I cant say to much without giving away the secret but it is to do with the complex patterns on UK notes and a couple of other things, I am gonna keep working at it to see if I can get it sorted and make it look good. However this is my fault for buying it I guess as it is called Ghostbills and not Ghostnotes, if I cant get it sussed I will just have to wait until I go on holiday to the states I guess!
To sum up, even though I am finding probs doing it with UK money I dont regret buying it as it was cheap in the first place and worth the money just to find out how it was done, just bear in mind what I have said when you watch the demo video i.e the prob with our money before you buy it.
If any one else has it I would like to hear how you find the handling with UK money.

Regards John

Thanks for the review

I'm considering getting this - I was impressed with the demo video and all round it seems to be getting good reviews. Do you have any idea if it would work better with South African currency (without giving anything away)?
Here's an example:




I'd appreciate the help. Thanks

And what about euros? have you tried with euro nots, does that work any better?

thanks

Without giving too much away (hopefully) it will work better with notes where most of the note looks the same (i.e. where one part is not easily distinguished from another). US notes are good because the colour is the same across the entire note and they are quite busy. Notes where there is an image on one part and it is plain on the rest are probably a bit trickier to work with. That said it is not really a problem using UK notes (IMO) provided you are careful. The same would apply to the SA notes and Euros are probably ok.

One other point is that for UK notes (and SA notes as well) it is probably a lot better to use one side of the note than the other.

It does work with UK notes,just not very well, you have to be very carefull when performing the trick, this I would think would apply to the SA notes aswell. As for Euros IMHO I think they are to small to do the trick,but it might be worth giving it a go.

I must say that having bought this DVD just after it was released and despite practice, practice,practice I have not been impressed with the results when performing this with UK notes. Those I perform to don't tend to give a 'wow' reaction or anything near it.

Even the guy in the magic shop had difficulties with this one and asked me to come back in a week and demo it to him!

I usually use a £20 and a £10 but Euro's DO work slightly better. I've found the 100 and the 50 to be the best (orange and blue I think) and it is worth trying out both sides of the note to see what works best for you.

Cheap but one I do regret buying I have to say

excuse my ignorance,but if this effect is built around US dollars,which are all the same size,what stops you from using any two notes the same?p.s. I'm not looking to expose this effect in any reply

Since the bills are completely examinable and this is fully impromptu, there is nothing that says you can't tack a strong presentation onto this using US bills. Considering the present condition of the US economy, you could easily purchase 2 one dollar bills for a pound. You could then do a presentation based on a story line of US money.

One way to go would be to point out why the US economy is in such trouble, I mean, look at these bills. Easily copied on your home computer and, besides that, they aren't even solid...Here, I'll show you...

Another would be in explanation of how "flaky" Americans are...Look at these bills that they use - even their money is strange.

You could develope a story line about your travel to the US to go to Vegas or Disney World, when you noted some real problems with their money. You could easily start with a half dollar coin routine, then to point up your argument, you could finish off with the ghost bills.

Let's face it, if one prop works better than another (in this case, the different bills) then all you need do is develope a story line around why you are using a specific prop.

Mike.

Sorry to revive an old thread but I have just been looking at the demo video for this and was going to purchase it as it looks good.
I thought about currency compatability problems though so I thought I should check for reviews first. I like to perform with UK currency as people (here in the UK anyway) can relate to it and the use of foreign currency seems to arouse suspicion.


Is there any reason that it has to be money which is used in the routine,
could you use cheques, lottery (sorry "Lotto") tickets or maybe even Monopoly money to produce the same effect ?


I would just like some guidance before purchasing as it seems silly to buy something which I would be unable to use.

I see no reason why this cannot be done with paper other than currency. There will obviously be a required amount of experimantation but bank notes are the most obvious as they are everyday items that can be borrowed where as other paper objects will not be as readily available, if at all and people will naturally be sceptical of you bringing your own along (although you can hand out for inspection).

Without giving anything away and you may have picked up on this through the discussions about which are the best notes to use, the trick works best when there is a lot of contrast between the two bank notes, or pieces of paper. Not only contrast in colour but also in pattern too.

Another benefit of bank notes is that they are rarely brand new and this helps, although you also don't want notes that are too worn out. Using fresh crisp pieces of paper MAY reveal the secret when inspected afterwards.

I think that this is worth the money, not that you will probably use the effect as part of a routine but it is of more use in my opinion for impromptu magic where someone says 'show me a trick'. This is where this trick comes into it's own.

I just bought this DVD....one thing is that it's kind of strange when performing with Japanese bills (longer height, shorter width than US bills), though it's pointed in the leture that one should never show two bills side to side.

Having said that though, this trick is another favourite gem added to my repertoire. Perfect anytime-anywhere effect.

That "secret move" is indeed tricky though.