Random I-Tunes Song of The Moment: All Nightmare Long by Metallica

D'Puk M'Shra and Oliver Smith: Walletrix Reviewed

One video download, six effects and $10 bucks. Is it gem or is it rubble. Stay tuned to find out.

Effect

What you're getting is six effects that can be done with a regular wallet. You get two changing bill effects, a rising bill(s) effect, a business card changing to a playing card, a business card jumping from one credit card pocket to another, and a credit card jumping out of the wallet effect.

Method

The methods, in general, rely on either a gimmicked item or gimmicking your wallet. All gimmicks are easy to construct. However, they are not all as easy to operate as you may think.

Medusa Change

In this effect, a bill sticking out of your wallet changes to another bill in the blink of an eye as you close and open your wallet. In order to do this, you have to set up your wallet in advance, and the set up is such that you can't really use your wallet as a normal wallet without un-setting the gimmick. Further, the gimmick is extremely angle-sensitive. The only good angle requires you to have your spectator practically standing over your shoulder.

Even then, the method is not very reliable. Sometimes the change doesn't happen. Sometimes the change is exposed, and other times, the spectators will see where the first bill went. The clean up is a little bit messy. Overall, this is not a very practical method.

Portal

Of all the effects on this project, this one has the cleanest and most practical method. The effect is that you show a business card sticking out of your closed wallet. You open the wallet and instantly and visually the business card becomes the selected card. This relies on a simple to construct gimmick that will require you to purchase 2 small very commonly used "things" in world of magic gimmicks.

Once you've made the gimmick, you can keep it in your wallet and use it any time that you have a deck of cards around. This method is also angle-proof. As I mentioned, the method is super clean, but once the card appears, it is not examinable without doing a switch. A simple switch is taught, so you end pretty darn clean. If you don't mind that, you'll be very happy with this method.

iRise

As you open your wallet and shake it, the cash in your wallet rises out of the bill fold pocket. This effect can be done any time and anywhere. However, unless you have fingers as slim as an 11 year old girl, the method looks pretty obvious. There is a suggested method for the rest of the world with normal sized fingers. However, this method is very impractical, and looks very awkward and makes the method relatively obvious.

Jump

In this effect, a business card in a credit card pocket penetrates the pocket it's in and ends up in the pocket below it. Then, again, it penetrates that pocket and ends up in the bottom pocket. The method for this relies on a gimmicked business card. This is another one that can just be in your wallet and ready to go at any time. However, there is still an issue or two. First, the trailer shows this effect both with vertical credit card slots and without. But the DVD only teaches how to do it with vertical credit card slots. Due to the method, there are a couple of handling points that need to be addressed if you don't have vertical credit card slots, but these points were not addressed.

Also, after performing the effect D'Puk M'Shra says to show the wallet empty and say that the business card is normal. Sure you can say that to your spectator, but the card is not normal and cannot be examined. Further, since you're using a business card, it would make sense to give the spectator your business card when you're done. If you do that, you'll have to give them a different one, not the one you just did the effect with.

On top of all that, you have to dedicate at least two credit card slots to this effect. You cannot have anything else in those pockets. Again, not exactly a practical effect.

Wrong Cash

This effect is similar to the Medusa Change in that a bill sticking out of your wallet changes to a different bill. However, in this case, the first bill magically appears; then it changes to the other bill. This method is even less practical than the Medusa Change. Again, it leaves your wallet in an unusable state until you do the effect. Secondly, unless you have a specific type of wallet (a kind I've never seen before this video), then you won't be able to do this. He teaches a method for the most ideal type of wallet (the one I've never seen before).

Then he shows you how to do it with another kind of wallet that I've also never seen. Then he shows how to do it if you have a wallet that has neither of the features in the aforementioned wallets. I tried it with my wallet, and the results were unreliable at best. The gimmick would for making the first bill appear worked okay. But when it came time for that bill to vanish and the new one to appear, good luck. The first bill would just never make it to its hiding place.

Further, in the explanation, when he was teaching the method for the second type of wallet and the third type of wallet (the kind I have), he never really got a good shot of it working correctly. Many times, however, he said "oops" because the first bill rarely vanished properly.

Copy Cat

The final effect was an effect where a credit card jumps out of the credit card slot and flies into the air into your hand. The card slowly rises from the slot, then ultimately jumps out of the wallet into your hand. The angles on this are terrible. Even in the section where he was showing you how to cover your angles, it was still totally exposed. The only way to do this so that the method isn't exposed is to turn your hand in such a way that they cannot see the card actually flying out of the wallet. It looks like you just grabbed it from the wallet. Further, you must have vertical credit cards slots for this to work.

Much like many of the other effects, when this is set up, it leaves your wallet in an less-than-practical-for-everyday-use state of being. Finally, however, if you are only doing the rising credit card without it jumping out, then you have no angle issues. But you'll still have a wallet set up such that it's not very practical for everyday use.

General Considerations

Other than the specifics mentioned above, there are a few other issues to consider. First, for the effects where a bill changes to another bill, you'll really need to be using money that has a contrasting color. In America, all of our money is the same color, so the changes (if you can get them to work) won't be very visual. You could, of course, use foreign currency and change it to American (or your Country's) currency for the contrast. However, just keep in mind the other issues mentioned.

Another consideration is that all but two of these effects require that your wallet be a billfold style, not a checkbook style wallet. It will also need to have a hole at the bottom of the fold in your wallet — most billfold wallets have this.

Additionally, you'll notice that all the effects in the ad trailer are performed with an empty wallet. Having an empty wallet makes some stuff a little easier. The problem is that if you're going to use this stuff with an empty wallet, you'll need six wallets, one for each effect. Plus you'll need your regular wallet. I tested these effects in my regular wallet with my regular contents, and having stuff in the wallet is definitely a hindrance to some of these effects, particularly the bill changing effects.

Three of the effects, namely: the Medusa Change, Copy Cat and Wrong Cash require setups that make is so you can only have one of those three set up. You won't be able to set up all three of them or even two of them, just one. Further, as mentioned, they hinder your wallet from functioning like a normal wallet when you are set up with any of these three effects.

For the other three effects (Jump, iRise and Portal), you could actually have all three of them in your wallet ready to go. Just keep in mind that iRise is not very clean looking, especially if you have average to large sized fingers. The other two (Jump and Portal), however, can be done anytime, anywhere and are very solid methods as long as you don't mind the fact that the playing card for Portal and the business card for Jump cannot be examined. And as long as you don't mind that you'll need a deck of cards for Portal, you'll be fine.

Ad Copy Integrity

The written ad copy has a few issues. First, there are 3 testimonials. We'll deal with them in a moment. Second, let's look at the ad copy itself. The first line says, "Walletrix is first ever project which includes 6 amazing effects that can be done using a normal ordinary ungimmicked Wallet." This is true. You will be sort of gimmicking your wallet for four of the six effects, but it is a normal wallet.

Next we have 5 bullet points in the ad copy

1. 6 amazing super visual effects
2. No special skill required
3. Can be done with most everyday wallets
4. Gimmick/setup/method super easy.
5. Wallet is fully examinable at the end.

The first four points are accurate, though I might have left out the word "super" in the fourth bullet point.

The fifth point, however is simply not true for all of the effects. Wrong Cash and Copy Cat leave the wallet "dirty" and totally not examinable.

Next, in the effect description section for the description of Portal the following statement is made: "Let them examine everything at the end and keep your business card as a souvenir." This is mostly accurate. They cannot examine the deck. But everything else (assuming you've switched out the gimmick) is examinable.

Let's look at the testimonials. Justin Miller says, "This is a very sexy method and utility device that doesn't just create miracles, instead it gives that moment of astonishment we as magicians desire." I'm not sure I understand this statement. You're not buying a utility device at all. You're buying 6 effects each with their own different way of gimmicking either your wallet or the prop at hand (e.g., business card, playing card, credit card, etc.).

Lloyd Barnes said, "This project is packed with brilliantly creative and practical material. Anyone watching this will be itching to test out the routines within." This one is mostly opinion, so I can't really dispute it. However, I would definitely argue that most of the material is not "practical" as he claims.

Then, Kevin Schaller claims that "Walletrix can only be defined as a stroke of genius!" Again, opinion is opinion, but I thing this is a bit hyberolic.

Finally, let's address the video trailer. It's accurate (assuming you can get the gimmicks to properly work). You'll notice in the first effect shown, Medusa Change, the bill change that the effect is shown from over the shoulder. That's because that, as I mentioned, is the only good angle. You'll see the same issue with the rising credit card that jumps out of the wallet. The rise is pretty angle proof, but the jump is only good from one angle, and that angle, as you'll see in the trailer is so extreme that it hides the actual jumping of the card. They had to put a text note on the screen to tell you that it jumped out.

Product Quality

Oddly enough, there's nothing bad to say about the product quality itself. It's an hour long video download that is well produced, has excellent teaching, good camera angles, etc. The problems are all found in the methods.

Final Thoughts

For the price of $9.99, it may be worth it to you to get this for Jump and Portal, and possibly Copy Cat — get Copy Cat for the rising credit card portion of the effect, not the jumping credit card. It may actually be worth it for those effects if you don't mind all the above "caveats" and problems. However, with the problems in the ad copy, the issues with the gimmicks and methods, it's hard to give this product a good rating.

Final Verdict:
2 Stars with a Stone Status of grubble.