talkmagic.co.uk

Misprint by Luke Dancy

Available from Alakazam

Costs £8.99

Difficulty 1

Effect

"An astonishing visual animation!

A card is shown to have a white border which is clearly misprinted. Most people would toss the card away, but you can fix it, you're a magician after all! Slowly, you wave the card and the border visibly begins to correct itself!

This looks like real magic! Once the border has been fixed, the card is immediately handed out for examination.

The audience sees the border change

The card is freely selected and signed

You can master this in moments

Resets instantly

Comes with one red-backed and one blue-backed specially printed Bicycle card which can easily be added or taken away from the pack."

The Review

First off, let's look at what may be the first question you might have having read the description.

"Is it really visual?"

Well? Is it?

Yes.

The description is in no way misleading (except for the 'resets instantly' part - ever so slight reset). As you take the card and wave it the border is seen to slowly and visually fix itself. It truly does look magical. Is it hard to do? No. It will take some practice to get used to the effect, but then what doesn't?

One real beauty is the fact that you don't need patter. Ideally you'd treat this not as a main effect but almost as a 'sub-effect', one leading in to something that uses the chosen card. A simple "watch" is all it takes. The card is obviously misprinted at the start, anybody can see that so you don't need to point it out. Speaking over the magic would be foolish in this effect; they'll be too busy picking their jaws up off the floor to listen to you anyway.

There's not really much I can say about this. You have to treat it as if you didn't know there was a misprinted card in the deck otherwise people may suspect something. It's often good to wait until somebody points it out for you, but that's not essential. With the right acting this is what I like to think of as a 'convincer' of your magical abilities; you notice an 'unintended' problem and fix it with your magical abilities. A bit of 'unplanned' magic that makes it seem as if maybe, just maybe...

So, to conclude: this is visual. Leap for joy, the border fixes itself right in front of them as you slowly wave it. It is relatively simple to master, but practice with it is needed. You can go minimalist with the presentation but a nice simple one is included in the instructions. Good value for money, diabolically simple and you are left relatively clean at the end. As I'm sure you're aware, it is quite short. You could stretch it out a little if you act as if you're straining your magical abilities, testing them to the limit and all that, but typically it's a few seconds. I just find it a really fun piece of magic to perform because for all it's lack of cuts, shuffles and shifts it's so magical. I know I'm raving about this, but that's because there's a lot to rave about.

Animation effects are so good because they seem so impossible. The right animation can look like real magic, and to me, this does look like real magic. It's quite subtle, but noticeable. Recommended to fans of animation effects, card workers who are not abject to the odd special card now and again and generally anyone who likes a brilliant piece of magic.

There's no real downsides to this at all.

Overall Rating 9.5/10 - okay, so maybe it's not the most magical effect in the world, but for what it does, well, it's damn close to perfect.

Great review,
and sounds *really* nice !

Any angle issues ? How near/far can a spec. be ?

Best,

Piers.

Thanks!

Yes, it is really nice. I've performed this close-up, spectator right in front of me. Angle issues? Depends how you perform it. There may be a slight problem if someone stands right behind you, but this is easily over come by either holding the card parallel to the ground or by angling it back slightly. Nothing major at all. Worth getting, definitely.

Anyway, off to watch Derren Brown now!

Wow this sounds great. It is now on my list. What a great opener with out being an obvious opener.