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Asier Kidam and David Blanco: Phoenix Ashes Review

One DVD, two gimmicks and $45 bucks. Is it gem or is it rubble? Stay tuned to find out.

Effect

Make sure you watch the video trailer. That's the effect. Burn half of a "selected" card. Rub the ashes on your arm, and the half of the card appears on your arm.

Method

The method uses the same concept that you may be familiar with if you've done ashes on the arm. What's been added is a special gimmick that allows you to reveal a card (half) rather than written text. The method works. It requires one thing that is not supplied. However, I guarantee that you have this in your house. They said that they tested it with several different brands of "stuff" and that it worked on every brand they tested. The brand I happened to have is one of the most common and popular brands available, and it worked.

However, there were some minor issues. First, I had to use waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more of the "stuff" than the showed in the video. Even then, the reveal of the card was much lighter than it showed on the DVD. It took me three tries to get a good reveal. In the video he says that it will take practice and experimentation to get the right amount of "stuff" and the right "touch" for applying the stuff.

I would agree with that. After three tries, it got better with each one. I imagine that a little bit more experimenting would get me a better reveal. The risk, of course, is that if you don't get a good "set up," you won't know until performance time. The best advice I could probably give you on this is to use a whole lot more of the "stuff" than they suggest.

Ad Copy Integrity

The video ad is perfectly accurate. Both the written and the video say that the arm can be examined before and after the effect. This is, surprisingly, true. As claimed, the reset is easy.. You have to clean off the ashes on your arm. Then you have to go (secretly) reset and make sure you have a bunch of the "stuff" you'll need to make it all work. None of this is "hard." It just takes a few minutes.

Product Quality

The DVD is very short. It's lit well, and the DVD is super easy to navigate. However, if you watch it in English, it's very difficult to hear. Asier Kidam is speaking in Spanish with a translator talking over the top of him. First, Kidam's voice is almost louder than the translator. Second, the translator has a super thick accent making him hard to understand and hard to hear (due to the volume of Kidam's voice in Spanish). This made it difficult in a few spots where he was explaining a couple of things, and I have no idea what he was saying.

Final Thoughts

If you like the effect as it looks in the trailer and you don't mind putting in some extra work to figure out the right balance of "stuff" then you'll probably be happy with your purchase.

Final Verdict:
3.5 Stars with a Stone Status of gem.