This is my first review so please tell me if I have made a mistake or missed something out.
DRIFT by Mark Lee: Review
The Effect
“A deck is freely shown face up and down. A card is freely named; the spectator can change their mind if they wish. The card is returned to the deck. The magician states that he is not going to find the selected card but loose the rest?! With this he begins to show all the cards to be completely blank, first one by one then in clumps, each and every card is blank except one……the selection!! All of a sudden the selection also turns blank leaving the magician with 52 blank cards.” From the Merlin’s of Wakefield website.
Cost
£17.95 From Merlin's of Wakefield
http://www.merlinswakefield.com/shop?product_id=1011&page=shop.product_details&category_id=1&flypage=flypage-ask.tpl (I believe it is currently exclusive to them)
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)
I’d say an easy 3, but it will take practice to get it perfect and you need to have control of your audience.
Review
Firstly, the effect is short, snappy and gets a cracking reaction (I’ve not got round to a performance yet as I am saving it for a particular routine, so I am judging from the reactions of my family who are laypeople when they saw it demoed in the shop). The reset is relatively quick (can be done discreetly and in under about 10 seconds with practice), but you can only do the above effect with the gimmicked bicycle deck provided. But if you really want to do other effects as well then you can just switch it in or out, so it’s not much of an issue.
I did at first wonder whether due to the climax being a blank deck, the audience might naturally suspect gimmicked cards but when I think about it the audience will be so focussed on the one unusual aspect of the deck (the blank faces) and still surprised at the effect that it probably won’t even cross their mind as long as you don’t hold the cards in their faces all day.
The instructional material (either 1 side of A4 or a DVD) is ok, but the written instructions I had (cannot comment on DVD) weren’t particularly detailed. The gimmicked bicycle deck provided is well made, and more can easily be made up with a little outlay. Value for money wise it is okay.
You can perform this with a table (better) or in the hands and surrounded although you won’t want anyone being able to see underneath the deck, and for one move you will need to misdirect your spectator’s attention. This is great for close up.
Overall
I like this effect, and will hopefully be using it often. If you are looking for a strong closer for your card routine and don’t mind switching, or just want one card trick in your act then you will probably enjoy this effect. It is unfortunately a one trick pony, but it’s a good one!
7/10
P.S: If anyone has the trick and is running into difficultys regarding reset, just PM me and I will see if i can help out.