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The Effect

The performer places a small wallet on the table, stating it has a prediction of a Queen.
A spectator is asked to call out the name of his favourite Queen. The four cards are removed from the wallet, and spread backs up. One of the four cards is seen to be reversed face up, and it is the same queen named by the spectator.
When this card is turned over, it is found to have a different colored (sic) back to the other three. Finally the other three cards are turned over, and found to be completely blank.

Cost
Around £5 (at least, I hope it was no more than that!), but I can't remember where I bought it from now. Sorry.

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)

1 - It's very easy to perform with bicycle cards, but hard to perform with the supplied stock (see below)!

Review
I bought this effect ages ago and have never really bothered looking at it until now. I do like the effect, but the supplied card stock is truly awful and the reason it hasn't seen the light of day since the purchase.

There are two slightly different wallets supplied, along with a few alleged bicycle cards. One of the wallets is gimmicked, the other plain. Both are made of cheap plastic and even before trying to use it, there is a slight split on the edge of one. I've tried to find a replacement wallet of better quality online, but so far (not knowing a thing about gimmicked wallets) I can't. The one in the pack won't last long and looks pretty amateurish.

On to the cards. Well, they certainly are NOT bicycle stock, despite being printed as such. They are punched card, printed in the style of bicycle cards, but the colours are a little off (the red back has a yellow tint). Each one is the same length as a standard bicycle card, but for some reason I can't fathom, approx 1mm wider than poker stock. There is no explanation for this and it has no bearing on the effect. The card used is slightly thicker than bicycle and with no plastic coating and obviously punched as the edges are slightly raised. As such, you (I) cannot fan the cards as they just stick together. There's too much friction between them for them to slide properly. Fanning the cards is an essential part of the effect, so this does spoil it somewhat!

Good points? Well, the effect itself looks really nice and with the right wallet and cards, could be very strong as a prediction. The instructions are printed on a single side of A4 paper and that's pretty much what you're paying for.

As I said, the wallet may or may not be replaceable with something better - I don't know enough to comment (cards4magic didn't have anything that looked remotely like this wallet). Having said that, I've got a homemade gaffed envelope I made ages ago from a design used by Richard Osterlind and another by Max Maven which would work very well with this effect. In the absence of a decent wallet, the envelope would be perfect. So, all is not lost.

The cards are available in true bicycle stock and although you only need a few, you'll have to buy some "specially prepared" cards in order to use the effect. You can't use normal bicycle cards from any deck. Having quickly priced the replacements up from cards4magic, you're looking at £10 for them all (with some left over). The Osterlind style envelope could be made with any standard sized (WHSmith DL) type with a triangular flap. The Maven one can be made from wage envelopes easily.

Overall
Overall, a potentially very nice effect spoiled by the bl**dy horrible supplied kit. I'd much rather have paid more money for the effect, a decent wallet and bicycle cards than a fiver for an effect that I can't really use out of the packet.
The effect itself: 7.5/10
The pack contents: 1/10

This sounds a bit like one half of a Twisted Sister ?

Discombobulator wrote:This sounds a bit like one half of a Twisted Sister ?

Yes, it's very similar in many ways. Although you only need one spec for this and the wallet is just an addition/variation.

I still think it would work better with the cards as a prediction in a sealed envelope than the wallets.

EDIT: If you have Twisted Sisters already, don't bother buying this effect. You could adapt the Twisted Sisters setup with a bit of thought to match this.