talkmagic.co.uk

Lips

Available from http://www.magictricks.co.uk/prodshow.asp?code=329

Cost £4.99

Difficulty 2

Review

This is not the most incredible thing you will ever perform. It’s cute, yes, but a use of a principle rather than an entirely new effect. The idea is novel and commercial and it’s a nice piece of quick magic and is quite wonderful in it’s simplicity in my opinion. The plot is simple, interesting and a bit of fun. How impressive this is depends on your...abiltities, shall we say, and knowledge of magic. As you’ve probably guessed, the ladies do like this effect. I’ve heard of people doing this effect for men, and I’d love to see the reactions!

Really, I suppose, there’s not much to review without giving anything away. All I will do is confirm the reviews of others and say that this is a great effect if someone approaches you and asks you to do some magic and you can’t get away with or just don’t feel like performing some knuckle-buster of a routine. From a non-magi’s pov it is quite magical I suppose. For the price I recommend it. Simple set-up/reset taking about ten to fifteen seconds but does need to be done in private.

I would like to see the device mentioned made more readily available and if anyone knows of any places that have it then please post them here. That or a bulk supply of the item required would be good as they’ll probably remember you for this one. I can't see them figuring it out either.

Simply beautiful effect and highly

Recommended.

Would you like to add a bit about what the trick actually involves? Perhaps the effect description off the website would tell as much as anyone needs to know.

It's a trick that's based on an idea by Tony Binarelli, billed as Italy's Master of Magic

It's a rather dated routine by today's standard. You start by spreading the deck to show the backs are all blue. Turn over the deck and ribbon spread the cards to show that they are all different. You need to take care when spreading the cards as you'll appreciate in a moment.

You force a card which is then lost in the deck and the deck is shuffled. The female (or male as mentionned) is asked to blow a kiss at the magician who then blurbs on about the cards having a personality etc.

Ribbon spread the deck again to reveal that there is a single red backed card which when turned over is the card chosen by the spec but it has a pair of red lips printed on the face.

Perhaps OK for learning forces etc. but I think that you would be hard pushed to get away with this one even on valentines day

marks from 5

for ease - 1
value - 3 (only because it's £4)
wow factor - 1


Persoannly, I'd be embarrassed performing this but I have to admit that it was one of the first card tricks that I bought . Never used it after reading the instructions and a definate case of CUPS at the time.

Arrghh! It seems every effect I review is critically panned here on TM!

Let me clarify a few things then: Mandrake, sorry for not putting the effect description up, slipped my mind.

dat: the ladies do like it! It plays well! I do play it (excuse the unintended pun) tongue in cheek though, it's not something I would do completely seriously. Like I said, it's not the most amazing thing you can perform but it is well received! I know of other people who have performed it to good reactions. It's a bit of fun.

Oh well...

I think I'm going to start reviewing the more knuckle-busting sleight of hand effects soon...

I think everyone needs to be a little more creative. You have an interesting card with (as you say) a poor routine.
So think outside the box and come up with something new.

I do not have the trick but just playing around with some cards, imagining that one was the kiss card I have come up with something different and which I believe could be an improvement to the original effect.
I will PM dat with my idea and see if it makes him want to keep his lips

Just had another idea. How about using this for a snap change. All you would need is the normal duplicate of the kiss card. The lips would just appear as a kiss is blown towards the normal card.

It must be me, but I like this trick !

Easy, simple, effective...

Piers.

Nice idea Hodgkinson - and Piers, finally, someone who agrees with me on Lips!

Hurrah!

Nothing personal here Cardza

The routine posted by Hodkinson is an improvement but personally, I think that the kiss card when produced just doesn't get strong enough reactions. It's OK for getting a few giggles from the girlies after they've had a glass or two of Lambrini but that's about it, even with an improved routine. You see, I think that it's the card with the lips that spoils the routine as it just doesn't lend itself to a spontaneous piece of magic in my opinion. The imprint of the lips are far too small for a start and it might just play better if you were to actually have a card with some real lip prints on it using real lip stick that you can then smudge. It might make the card a little sticky but I'm sure that you could find a work around.

I do agree with the post that suggests that you need to think outside of the box and be a little more creative with this one, and perhaps one or two other similar tricks. However, many reading this post / review need to know what they are getting as they may not be experiecned enough to achieve better results.

At the end of the day, as long as you're happy with it Cardza then this is what counts and I'm pleased that you're getting results with it that you find worthwhile.

That's quite ok dat . In the end it does all come down to the reactions you get and how well people receive it and in my opinion there can never be a totally fair review - there's always going to be bias.

I was trying to skirt around the secret as it's fairly basic but now it's been pretty much revealed I will say that if anybody does like the effect I recommend buying it and not just making up a version yourself as the creator deserves his share. It can be built upon as dat and Hodgkinson have said and the instructions describe it as an opener more than anything.

Well. There we go then.

Cardza, I will PM you the routine I came up with to see what you think.

..... but also....

simple it may be, but afterwards the remaining cards are just a standard deck - almost.

And the girles, and children like it !

Piers.

I suppose that through the posts in this thread the secret has sort of been revealed. Sorry for any part in this

Cardza wrote:

I will say that if anybody does like the effect I recommend buying it and not just making up a version yourself as the creator deserves his share.

I totally agree with this statement - for £4, don't be a skinflint!

Hi Cardza,

You said you would be trying my routine out on real people today.
What were the reactions like compared to the original handling ?

I have bought dat's lips from him so when I recieve it I will play around some more and see what else I can come up with.

Hodgkinson wrote:I have bought dat's lips from him

It got great reactions - I remember trying out the original routine some time ago on them and they were impressed but your version got stronger reactions, they really liked it and I'll be doing it some more this week.

Thanks for sharing it, it's great.