Random I-Tunes Song of The Moment: Freightliner Fever By Ferlin Husky

Wow . . . So for forty bucks, here's what you get: A very cleverly designed gimmick, a weird piece of plastic that is never explained in the instructions, and a DVD with a handful of cool ideas. Just for clarity, when I refer to the Wow gimmick, what I'm referring to is a piece of plastic that is see through, yet a card can magically and visually appear to appear beneath the plastic. Hopefully you've watched the trailer already so you can get a sense of the effect. There's some good news and bad news, however. The good news is that the effect and the effects possible with the Wow gimmick are amazing. They make for some very visual magic. I'll get to the bad news in a moment. First, let me explain the product and packaging. It's a bit strange.

There is a face up and a face down version of the Wow gimmick. What they've done here is combined the face up effects and the face down effects onto one DVD. That way, no matter which gimmick you order, you get the same DVD. Secondly, the DVD casing - believe it or not - is reversible. Depending on which version you order (face up or face down), your package will be displayed accordingly. Thus the only thing unique in each package is the gimmick itself.

That's where the bad news comes in. If you only have the face up or only have the face down, you'll be bummed that you don't have the other one. The DVD teaches both gimmicks; thus you'll see the potential of the one you own and the one you don't own. As far as I can tell, the only way to get the one you don't have is to spend another forty clams and get a second copy of the DVD with the inverted packaging that contains the Wow gimmick that you don't have.

Further more a fair number of effects taught on the DVD use a second un-gimmicked Wow gimmick (forgive the oxymoron, but that's the best way I can think of to explain it). Of course, the DVD does not come with said un-gimmicked gimmick. That's another thirteen bucks.

In my less-than-humble opinion, I would have just included all three (face up, face down and un-gimmicked) and bumped the price up a few bucks. I definitely think it would be worth it.

So with that said, as I stated in the beginning, the range of effects possible with these gimmicks are killer. It's the closest looking thing to real magic that I've seen in a long time. The only thing that's a little weird is the gimmick itself. It has no meaning. It's a weird plastic thing that you put on the deck for no apparent reason. However, Paul Gertner has a great concept that gives the prop meaning if you're using the face up gimmick. Basically a card is 'selected.' Then the spectator is given the Wow gimmick. She can see through it. However, she holds the plastic up to her face; then, using her cell phone, you take a picture of her and the plastic. When she looks at the picture, it is a picture of her holding her selection.

As for the quality, the product is solid, well made, and very much worth the investment if you don't mind using a strange prop that has no explanation. Odds are, you'll want to spend the extra dough and at least get the un-gimmicked gimmick. Most of the effects that suggest using the un-gimmicked gimmick are effects that use the face down Wow gimmick. Thus if you purchase the face up gimmick, then you likely won't need to the un-gimmicked gimmick. Of the two, I think that I like the face up version better. It seems to have the broader range of effects and also seems to be much more visual.

All in all, this is a solid product. However, for the un-included props, the high cost to get the extra props, so the best I can do is . . .

Final Verdict:
3.5 stars with a Stone Status of Gem