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The Effect
The Magician shows two packets of 4 red backed Queens of Hearts. He/She then turns one packet face down on the table, and holds the other face up in his/her hand. He/She deals one of the queens from his hand, face up on the table to the right of the pile of face down queens. The magician then takes 1 of the face down queens from the pile and places it on top of the queens in his/her hand. Instantly every queen in his/her hand has turned face down. He/She then deals the top (face down) queen from his hand face down onto the table to the left of the (now) central pile.
Next he/she turns the pile face up, and takes one of the queens and places it on top of those (face down) queens in his/her hand. Instantly they have all turned face up. He/She then proceeds to deal one of the queens onto the right hand (face up pile) and replaces it with the next queen from the centre (and places it face down). Yet again, all the cards have instantly turned face down.
The magician then deals one of the face down queens on to the left hand (face down pile), and (you guessed it), takes the last queen and places it face up on the ones in his/her hand. Yet again, the cards have turned face up again. He/She then deals a face up queen on to the pile of face up queens on the table.
You would think that now that he has run out of the central stack of cards, that the trick would be over. Oh no, the magician takes an "invisible" card from the table and places it again onto the ones in his hand - he then shows that there are still 4 cards in his hand, but that one has turned face down. The magician deals the face down card onto the left hand (face down) pile, and repeats the gesture of taking an "invisible" card from the table onto his hand. Once again, he/she shows that there are 4 cards in his hand, and that one has turned face down – he/she lays this on the table face down with the others. By now, everyone is getting bored, so it is with relief that the magician shows that he/she only has two face up queens left, which he/she lays down with the other face up queens.
Just as everyone thinks the trick is over, the magician reveals that the 4 face down cards are not even queens - they are jokers. Next he instantly changes a joker back into a queen, and finally for the ultimate kick, he shows that none of the 5 face up queens on the table are not even red backed - they each have a different colored back!


Cost
US$19.95 (about £11.20)


Difficulty
3=Some sleights used,


Review
I am well aware about the controversy surrounding the Penguin Magic/Magic Makers issue, so please don't rip my head off for not boycotting penguin. Fact is that I have ordered items from them 3-4 times now, and always received excellent customer service and prompt delivery.

OK, when I watched the demo video, I instantly realized that this trick involved the E*****y Count (a lot). I have recently learnt the, and as the trick does look really cool, I decided to order it. A few days later, and it arrived on my doorstep.
You get a DVD, and a set of cards. Unlike some other packet tricks, this trick is completely examinable as the cards are not gaffed in any way - although some have different colored backs. The trick is taught on the DVD by Gerry Griffin, who, although having a sleep-inducing monotonous tone of voice, is actually quite a good teacher. He teaches the E******y Count, and then proceeds to work through the routine.
Like all good tricks, the actual routine is really simple (assuming you are proficient at the above sleight). If you are not, then get this trick anyway, as it is the only sleight involved in the trick, and you do it a lot - 9 times in all, which is possibly the world record for the number of E*******y Counts in a single trick – and hence excellent practice.

Those of you more experienced at magic can probably watch the video demo and figure out how to do it - you can sort out your own cards, although you will have to use 6 decks of cards to provide the necessary cards.


Overall
Overall, I have docked 1.5 points for this trick as follows:
-0.5 points, because the cards that come with the trick are not bicycles. I plan to justify this to the spectators by explaining that bicycles (which I use for most of my tricks) are very expensive, and since you need to 8 decks of cards to produce 8 queens of hearts (which I have just shown the spectators), I went for the cheapest cards I could find
-0.5 points because although the fact that a packet of face up queens turns instantly turns face up/down looks cool. This is repeated so many times, that towards the end it does get a bit boring. However, the final kicks do blow the spectator away (well they really “blew me away”, and I was pretty sure I knew how to do the trick just from the demo video.
-0.5 because I do find Gerry Griffin to lack the enthusiasm of Sankey or Pearlman.

Anyway, if you are learning the E******y Count, get this trick as you will get plenty of practise. This sleight is one of the most important ones for a card magician to learn, and once you can do this well, it is worth looking at Twisting the Aces and Twisted sisters - two of the best packet tricks around, as well as many other mind-blowing effects.

Sorry if this review has the overall clarity of mud, but it is only my second attempt at a review on here, and the description is so repetitive that it was never going to win any awards for creative writing.

Cheers
Bcfaigg

Just got this trick the other day myself. Know what you mean by the monotonous voice, but it's a nice touch to have an instructional CD included.

I love the fact that despite all the different phases, the cards are completely examinable at the end leaving you clean

I also have this trick, and spectators love it. Its one of the effects they always ask to see again.
I have never been questioned about the cards not being bicycle cards, as they can be examined at the end anyway. So I have never had to find an excuse for them. Although saying that you have used the cheapest decks available does give an explanation, I personally wouldn't say anything unless they asked, as you may just be bringing something to the specs attention that had passed them by.
I would recommend this trick to anyone, as the ending really knocks the specs for six.