talkmagic.co.uk

The Effect

"People ask me about the nail ring ALL THE TIME. I can choose to show them some incredible magic, or not, it's totally up to me. Talk about a secret weapon. When they ask, sometimes I mention finding the round nail on the sidewalk near a construction site. I ask them to consider 'the incredible pressure it must've taken to bend the nail into a perfect circle.' To me, the props are like cups and balls, linking rings, etc. The effects, handlings and presentations are unlimited. Most of the time, when starting a close-up set, I begin by casually removing the ring and either putting it on a nearby table or I hand it to someone to hold onto. Then I slip a deck of cards or some other small prop out of my pocket and go into a strong opening effect like 'Untorn' or something else.I remove the ring as if to 'totally free up' my hands. This looks a little dramatic and really focuses people's attention on what I'm doing WITHOUT ME HAVING TO SAY A WORD. It also does a perfect job of drawing attention to the ring, but in an INDIRECT way. Another big plus. And from there, people ALWAYS ask about the ring!"-Jay Sankey

Basically, it's a nail that bends in to a ring, and vice versa...

Cost

£16.99 from Merchant of Magic

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)

It's in the intermediate section of Sankey's site, and I'd probably agree. Nothing super hard, but not easy by any means. The sleights used are simple vanishes etc, but doing them with two things can be tricky. I'd say a 3, maybe 4.

Review

As the site says, it's not a routine so much as a prop for use in a routine. The instructions are brief and to the point (again a reason it's not so much for beginners, it assumes a reasonable standard of knowledge) and explain a few methods to bend and straighten the nail. There are also a few other ideas, which I suspect are mostly there to encourage people to come up with their own ways of transposing other techniques for use with hell bent (ring and wand stuff, cigarette vanishes, etc). There are even a few bits of card stuff!

He explains it all quite clearly and there are some hand drawn pictures too. I wouldn't always say this, but in this instance, I think a video would have been very helpful.

The props are the standard you'd expect from Sankey. They seem solid enough. They're also made of steel (nickel plated), which is nice if you're a fan of magnets. No need to say what you actually get, sure you can guess. The ring is quite big, fits nicely on my fingers or my thumb, and I reckon it would fit most people, unless their hands are particularly slender I guess.

I'm not really a jewellery kinda guy, but I think the ring actually looks pretty cool.

Overall

Fiddly. Doing two sleights at once with unusual objects takes a bit of getting used to. If I was to wear the ring (I might) I wouldn't even attempt any effects with it for a while. Having said that, I might just be c*** (not the best). I think it would benefit from good routining, rather than just bending and straightening. With the necessary practice and preparation I reckon it would be an ace effect. I also quite like the idea of the ring drawing attention to itself. I'm looking forward to getting the hang of it.

Unfortunately, having experienced Sankey Magic's 'customer service', first hand over the past few days, in relation to an issue I had with one of his effects, I'd never again be tempted to buy any of his stuff (no matter how badly I was CUPSing!!)

Jay used to provide a fairly personal service, but it's obvious that he's become totally business/profit oriented, and doesn't seem to give two hoots about customer satisfaction....not to mention customer retention.

Very sad

TBH, I've never ordered direct from Sankey. Got Hell Bent through magicshop.co.uk. Their customer service was excellent.

robstanley1 wrote:Unfortunately, having experienced Sankey Magic's 'customer service', first hand over the past few days, in relation to an issue I had with one of his effects, I'd never again be tempted to buy any of his stuff (no matter how badly I was CUPSing!!)

Jay used to provide a fairly personal service, but it's obvious that he's become totally business/profit oriented, and doesn't seem to give two hoots about customer satisfaction....not to mention customer retention.

Very sad

On a similar note, though not quite the same thing, one effect I bought of his is a complete and blatant rip off. Marketed as a gimmicked object with a DVD, you actually just get perfectly normal ungimmicked objects that likes of which you already have around the house and a DVD that teaches a luricriously difficult sleight. I'd never by a Skanky product after this blatant rip off.