by seige » Apr 24th, '03, 10:38
Zero Gravity:
Bought this effect a year ago. Only 2 criticisms:
one
The actual purchase is just a set of instructions to construct a gimmick, which involves killing a pair of 'converse' style shoes, buying some metal and stuff and hacking around with a big sharp knife. After about a month after I'd received this instruction manual, I decided to build. A bit of leg-excercising soon got me to a reasonable level off the ground.
two
It is a tad more angle-proof than the Balducci (which was around LONG before Blaine did it) and is OK as an impromptu. You can actually stroll around and levitate SURROUNDED at quite a close distance (in fact, the closer the better), with a 360 degree audience. BUT... because you'll be wearing GAFFED shoes, it's not really practical to use this as a street trick, as it's quite uncomfortable. If you're doing table strolling, it's fine, as the shoes look quite good with shorts! But it's quite easy to forget you're footing sometimes, and you tend to walk oddly. The gimmick is TOTALLY revealed if you're not careful after the performance, too. Advice is to have 2 pairs of similar shoes, and swap into and out of the gaffed pair.
[general]
If you're looking for a clean(er) Blaine-style levitation than the Balducci has to offer (remember, of course that David 'packet trick' Blaine used camera trickery, too) then Zero Gravity is a good choice.
Be prepared, however, that the construction is a little tricky, and you will probably end up spending about £50-60 on top of the trick price if you really want to do this properly.
Hope that's a help!