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S.C-A.R-E.D Jamie Daws

This is my first review so hope its ok people.

And hope it makes sense ive had a couple of vodka's

I picked this up at the magic shop as an instant download so thought id do a quick review as i couldn't find anything on it.

www.magicshop.co.uk

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=9NxvMf0lWok

COST: Instant download £4.99

WHAT IT SAYS:

For Many years, the "Haunted Deck" effect has been favored and loved by all magicians. The old methods to create this fantastic effect were fiddly and sometimes tricky to perform easily. As of late, Brand new versions of it have been released, however, all have used a gimmick that would have to be carried with you. But what if? What if you had the effect on you all the time as long as you carried a deck of cards? What if there was no gimmick in your deck to begin with? What if you brought S.C-A.R-E.D by Jamie Daws?


EFFECT:

You tell the story of when you and your friends were young, up on a hill was an old haunted house. However, this never S.C-A.R-E.D you because you had a haunted deck. The haunted deck would help you when you went Trick or Treating at Halloween. The haunted deck would tell you which house had the most candy. You use the deck to reveal a thought of card that you could have never known. The only way to have known it, was the spirits in the deck. You remove the card from your deck and explain the sometimes your deck would move on it's own. You place the card inside the deck and place the deck on the table. you rest your hand to the side of the deck and the deck mysteriously begins to cut itself! The card that the deck cut at is removed and it is in fact the selected card! Incredible!

No Strings or wires!

No Magnets!

No Glue, Tape or Scissors!

No Crimps!

Easy to do!

Nothing Added or Taken From the Deck!

Start Completely Clean with NO Gimmicks in your deck!


THE LOWDOWN:

This is one of those effects i wish i had of thought of myself, does exactly what it says on the tin, very practiclal and very clean.

It has some nice reviews by some good names in the magic world (cameron fracis, David forrest ect) and for good reason.

I have always been a fan of the haunted deck idea, (lets be honest things that move by themselves are cool and are going to get good reactions) but i hate using gimmicks and props that use a set up and take time, and i always work with a regular deck, so with that in mind i saw this and thought id sounded different, so i got the dowload and loved the method straight away, the set up (if there really is one) is very simple and can be done infront of the spectator.

You get a pdf with a few ideas on how perform the effect and to set up what you need infront of the spectators.

As this uses just a pack of cards you will be ready to go straight away.

I performed this at a magic club tonight and it fry'd everyone its pretty funny watching a bunch of magicians looking for a hook up that isn't there. It fools magicians which is one thing but it really gets a wow and puzzled look when you perfom this on laymen.

There is not a great deal to say about the pdf, its easy to follow and well put together with some nice ideas, some easy handlings and some a bit more difficult tho nothing out of reach for anyone who peforms on a regular basis. There is a nice idea of using the drawing of a ghost on the back of a signed card.

Overall this is def worth getting if you like these type of effects, i will be using this in my act alot. Start clean, and end clean enough to give the deck out and perform your next effect, the more i use this the more i like it.

You cant go wrong at this price and thats good enough for me.

I SAY:

9.5/10


Check it out.

Lee.

I've not played with this yet, but I agree - it's a simple method, and is almost as gimickless as it gets (though Peter Harrison has a sleight-based deck levitation in Magic in the Real World that is worthy of investigation).

One thing I would like to say, and this is in no way aimed at the ideas in the manuscript, or even particular to Jamie - the English is awful. The pedant in me winced constantly over the there/their/they're and it's/its confusions, or gaffs such as: "this version can be performed completely surrounded and even on the spectators hands like the majority of the other haunted deck effects that are similar tot his."

As I say, this is a great method for the Haunted Deck, and shows what can be achieved when usual avenues aren't possible, but when your ideas are good, you really don't want to be clouding them in poor writing. People will assume that the lack of work put in in developing the manuscript reflects a lack of effort made in developing the effect itself, or worse that it reflects in a way more honest than the marketing what the creator thinks of his own product. I'm sure neither of those assumptions are true; if I wasn't, I wouldn't bother posting this. The "sell" doesn't end when the PayPal transaction goes through.

And as a PS, I will sub-edit for manuscripts.

I would be interested in seeing peters idea, gotta be worth checking out.

This is rather clever and really fun to do!

Heya Guys,

I'm very glad you enjoyed the effect magicskiski! I'm also glad to hear about the effect it had on the other magicians.

Hello Mr_Grue,
I do appologise for the poor grammer that seems to be there in some places. I was very upset when I realised the mistakes. I had actually spent just over a month developing the PDF as a document. Non of the magicians that I sent the pdf to had realised the grammer mistakes either. I did spell Check it many times but clearly some things slipt through the net.

To be honest, I didn't think it would be as popular as it has been.

That being said, Dominic Reyes felt that S.C-A.R-E.D should be extended further then the PDF. We wanted to give ALOT for the money. So i would to welcome the owners of S.C-A.R-E.D to StreetSleights.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adr7JWUy4O8

I've played around with hundreds of new idea's but one of them played brilliantly. I thought i'd give it as an extra handling. Go to StreetSleights, Register for free and post your own idea's on scared also.

S.C-A.R-E.D stiff is probably my favorate version of S.C-A.R-E.D so check it out guyes!

Again, I'm glad you enjoyed S.C-A.R-E.D and hope it lasts you well.

Best Wishes,

Jamie Daws

Cheers jamie,

I will check out the forum.

Thanks

Lee.

I bought this a couple of days ago and I have to say it is brilliant. It's the best haunted deck effect I have ever come across and I will be using it a lot. The effect is so easy to do and so effective it's unbelievable.

I would seriously recommend this to anyone who wants a haunted deck effect and for £4.99 it's a steal.

I ordered SCARED this morning (after reading this review!), downloaded and read the PDF. I think this is very good indeed for the price. Fairly simple to perform (after a little practice, as always) and very effective. I just showed my neighbour, who probably thinks I worship the devil now; she was, however, suitably impressed.

I agree with Mr_Grue that the PDF is poorly written throughout. However, the photos are very helpful and numerous. I don't know what the proof readers were reading, but it can't have been the same PDF that I've just read! It's easy enough to read though, if a little sloppily written. But this is not an English thesis, it's magic instruction, so it's no big deal.

For your fiver, you get a 31-page PDF document that explains it all and includes some extra ideas and handlings from other magicians. This really is an impressive effect to witness; SCARED is one of those tricks that you perform to yourself, over and over again, just because it looks so good. Or is it just me that does that?

I always perform Haunted Deck with a loop, which has served me well for a while now. While I will continue to use a loop, I will now also be performing SCARED, too. I like Jamie's version very much. Well done.

Just got it here, myself. I agree that the grammar/spelling is terrible in places, but I get the overall idea of the trick.

Not sure on anyone else, Replicant - however, I will be doing this one over and over just to make sure I'm not screwing it up! I hope it's still enjoyable to do by that point.

I struggled with it to begin with but that was down to my own craft skills rather than the concept itself. It's one of those techniques that is so simple that there is an impressive scope of different ways to apply it, which also suggests its a technique that will be around for a while.

I've been practicing the advanced handling (Slightly SCARED) and it is excellent. I even fool myself.

Replicant wrote:I've been practicing the advanced handling (Slightly SCARED) and it is excellent. I even fool myself.

I have been using this its great.

Replicant wrote:I've been practicing the advanced handling (Slightly SCARED) and it is excellent. I even fool myself.

I actually find the advanced handling a lot easier than the easy handling, probably because the self-cutting deck moves better and is easier to control.

By the way make sure you take a look at the forum that Jamie mentioned above as the Halloween version of the effect (S.C-A.R-E.D Stiff) is really good.

Heya guys,

Replicant, I do appologise once more for the quality of the pdf. Thank you very much for your comments on the effect and am very glad you like it! I also used a loop version of The Haunted deck but again, After to many experiances of people swooping there hands over the deck to see if anything is attactched and the loop snapping, I thought there should be another version.... just in case

Mr_Grue, It is a bit tricky to get used to at first. I think the pioveting card is a wierd thing to get used to. after knowing that usually the deck is wired up in someway, to know that the deck hasnt got anything attached to it and yet it's cutting itself.... well, it freaked me the hell out at first!

Palfince, Thank you for drawing attention to Streetsleights. unfortunatly, were having lots of people regestering to the forum but not letting us know of there experiances which is a shame. I have a few new idea's with scared which ill share on here soon including another way to use the gimmick for a different effect.

As for the spelling and grammer, I'm currently editing the origional pdf to make sure it's spell proof. If anyone would like a copy of the new version then feel free to email me. I will ask one of 2 questions first to confirm that you already own the pdf.

Also, if anyone has any other idea's, comments or problems with it, feel free to email me also.

jamie@jamiedaws.co.uk

I will get back to any enquiries as soon as i can.

Best Wishes,

Jamie

Palfince wrote:I actually find the advanced handling a lot easier than the easy handling, probably because the self-cutting deck moves better and is easier to control.

Funny you should say that, because so do I. I also like the fact that the advanced handling is completely angle proof, which is always nice. It really does look very good. Incidentally, how do other performers justify the fact that you have to hold the deck with thumb and finger as it cuts itself?

By the way make sure you take a look at the forum that Jamie mentioned above as the Halloween version of the effect (S.C-A.R-E.D Stiff) is really good.

I'm at work right now, but will register when I get home.

Jamie, thanks for your input; it's always good to see the creator getting involved in these threads.