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Locked in a Room without Coins by Craig Petty - £15
World Magic Shop 2009

Review by Mark Waddington

LOCKED IN A ROOM WITHOUT COINS – available from www.worldmagicshop.com
Craig Petty is back and this time he’s left his coins at home. Featuring ten killer routines designed to be used in the real world to real people. Most of the routines require just a regular pack of cards and any moves required are fully covered in the ‘sleights section’. This is material that you WILL use; all routines have been tried, tested and perfected over the last ten years. Get ready to take your card magic to a new level.
The Lance Burton Appreciation Trick
An anytime anywhere miracle that combines a super visual wild card with a card under watch kicker. The best part is that all you need is a regular deck and you are good to go.

Double Sandwich
A KILLER version of the sandwich plot that combines multiple card revelations and transpositions in a flurry of magical moments

Essence Deal
This routine is pure eye candy combining super visual colour changes and flash paper. It has been described by many top pros as the perfect restaurant trick.

EZ Waltzer
An easy to do version of Doc Eason’s ‘Anniversary Waltz’ with a borrowed deck of cards – no gaffs required.

Pickpocket
A super commercial presentation for ‘Card In Wallet’. A signed card vanishes from a spectator’s wallet and appears in another spectator’s pocket.

Shoeperman
This routine is a master class in body loading. Three cards are selected and signed. The first card appears under a spectator’s watch. The second card appears in the spectator’s own pocket. The final card is found folded up in the spectator’s own shoe. An absolute reputation maker.

Monster Opener
A KILLER combination of Peter Kane’s ‘Wild Card’ and Dai Vernon’s ‘Travellers’ with a kicker that you have to see to believe. This routine has been one of the most talked about items in Craig’s lectures for years.

Sandwich With a Kick
A three part sandwich routine that gets more and more impossible with each phase. Features an ending that will literally stop the show.

The Marker
This routine has been a standout piece in Craig’s act for years. Combining the brilliance of Alex Elmsley’s ‘Between the Palms’ with a hilarious super commercial presentation this effect is one you are guaranteed to love.

BONUS ROUTINE – PHOTOGENIC
This routine was in Craig’s Award Winning Competition Act. Originally due to be released as a stand alone product we have chosen to include it on this DVD as an added bonus. A signed selected card is found using a ‘magical camera’. As a result the remainder of the pack becomes completely blank and is given to the audience to examine.



Review
Wow, what a great DVD. This, by far has to be Craig’s most commercial DVD to date – a fantastic DVD for the professional worker. Everything on the DVD is relatively simple in plot and presentation, and uses little more than a regular deck of cards (with the exception of a blank faced card or two), and best of all, there is hardly any previous set up to the routines meaning you can jump straight into the effect should the right situation arise.

All of the necessary sleights used are explained in full on the DVD, meaning you don’t have to go trawling through your library to find that one little move – however there isn’t that much knuckle busting stuff on here! (a DL, a card fold, side steal etc is what most of the routines use).

All of the routines on the DVD have been properly thought through, and refined over many thousands of performances to ensure you can go out into the trenches with the material on this DVD, knowing that you are fully armed with magic that is guaranteed to get great reactions, every time.

A couple of effects that stand out on the DVD to me are “Shoeperman” and “Double sandwich”. Shoeperman is a fantastic “put-pocket” type of effect, with the fantastic phase of a chosen card appearing inside the SPECTATORS shoe!! Double sandwich is exactly as it sounds – 2 different cards are found in 2 separate card sandwiches at the same time. Great thinking, and easy to do.

The bonus on the DVD, “Photogenic” is a great commercial routine which was set to be released on its own (they should have released it separately I think!). The beauty with this routine is that the majority of the work is done before you even start performing the effect!

My favourite routine off the DVD has to be “Essence Deal”. You will have to purchase something else for the routine, but WMS sell them so you won’t have any problems sourcing the extras. The routine combines super visual card magic with fire in a way that’s bound to get gasps. It’s EASY to do, and I was out working this within days of learning it- and getting killer reactions. The visual aspect of actually taking the ink off a selected card is great. This will definitely be appearing regularly in my working set.

Overall this is a great DVD for the commercial Walk-around Magician; I’m almost certain anyone who watches this DVD will find at least a couple of routines that they will want to introduce into their set.

I would score this DVD as a 9/10. It only loses a point because I feel that the production quality itself wasn’t brilliant – at points the recording was grainy and the sound was slightly hit and miss at times, however I feel in general this is a small point and I only include it in this review to be complete.


Mark Waddington
November 2009