Random I-Tunes Song of The Moment: The Story Of Us By Taylor Swift . . . Yes, Taylor Swift . . .

For $35 bucks, you get a lot . . . two gimmicks a routine that has a lot of potential, a well produced DVD that teaches the effect very thoroughly from a really nice guy (Craig Petty). It's a great value. Plus one of the gimmicks that you get can be used in other contexts outside of the a cups and balls routine.

Essentially, you're paying for a gimmick that converts any paper cup into a chop cup. There are other ways to do this, but the method here is very effective and gives you so much more flexibility than a traditional chop cup. The routine is a pretty standard one cup routine with some extra niceties that normally can't be done in a standard one cup routine. From the beginning you borrow a dollar bill from the audience. The bill is balled up and used as the the ball in the routine. Then there's the surprise appearance of a lemon that can be examined at the end. Of course, after the lemon is examined by the audience, you cut it open and inside you find the spectator's balled up signed dollar bill.

There are a lot of magical moments in the routine and in the right hands, this can be a really solid performance piece. I say "in the right hands" because as good as Petty was at delivering the moves, I really felt he was terrible at delivering the effect/presentation. If you've been reading my reviews lately, you'll notice that I've been criticizing this very thing quite a bit. I think the effect and method of Chop is solid . . . solid as a rock, so the product will be recommended. However, I feel it important to continue to critique poor performances. I do this for two reasons. One, hopefully Mr. Petty will take to heart my advice and work to improve his performance. However, secondly and I think more importantly, I want to make sure that any of you who purchase this - and you should purchase this - realize that performing the way Craig Petty does is not a good thing. Please do not mimic his "style."

First, Petty comes across as very pushy in his performance. He basically just walks right up to a table and starts bossing people around . . . Do this; Do that; Put this here; hold out your hand; look over here; do this.

In many cases, the spectator's were confused and even appeared to feel a little stupid. He did too many cheese lines, gags and non-entertaining stuff before the routine even started. I was bored before he ever did anything magical. Much of what he was doing is better saved for an audience that you've spent the time connecting with. On the bright side - sort of - we are shown several live performances of the effect. If the presentation were good, then this would be more valuable. Further, I found it insightful that on more than one occasion, Petty asked his audience member to hold her hands out a certain way, and in each case, the audience member had no idea what he meant.

There were several moments where the magical impact of the effect was lost because of Petty's flurry-like presentation. He needs to slow down and allow people to realize that something magical just happened. At the same time I found it interesting that even though more than one person got lost in the same part of the routine that he did not make changes to the routine to clarify.

It's clear to me that he's performed this effect probably hundreds of times, maybe even thousands. Therein lies the catch 22. Doing it a lot gives your performance time to improve. He's not fully taken advantage of that yet. In fact, the multiple performances seems to have slipped him into a rut. This happens to all of us . . . we reach a point where we think we're a 9 or 10 on a scale from 1 to 10. The problem is that like Mr. Petty, most of us not only don't realize that we're really a 3 or a 4, but we also fail to realize that the scale goes to a hundred, not ten. So even if we think we're a ten, we still are nowhere near where we need to be.

Oh, and by the way, when you reach 99, you'll realize that the scale goes to a thousand, not a hundred.

Enough pickin' on the guy. I really like him and from the few email correspondences we've had, he seems like a super nice guy and even a teachable guy. Might I recommend that he read Larry Hass's book, Transformations (Creating Magic out of Tricks).

The effect: SOLID.

The method: SOLID.

The teaching: SOLID.

The product quality: SOLID.

The performance: WEAK.

The performance, however, is not enough to hurt my recommendation. It's more of a warning for you.

If you like cups and balls or chop cup routines, etc, this is one of the most organic ways of doing this effect. Borrowed dollar bill and borrowed paper cup . . . smooth. One issue I do have is the loading of the bill into the lemon. You have to perform a messy operation while in front of the audience . . . it's well hidden, but your hand gets all lemony, and your pocket gets all juicy. Petty's solution was to wipe your hands off on your pants. Um . . . no . . . when I perform, I'm wearing a $300 wool suit that will never have a lemon in its pocket nor will it ever have lemon juice laden hands wiped upon it.

So if you wear levi's and don't mind getting a little messy, then you can overlook this unfortunate component.

Final Verdict:
3.5 stars with a Stone Status of Gem