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Mystery Solved by David Penn Reviewed

One clear box, 4 gimmicks, 1 DVD and $72 bucks. Is it gem or is it rubble? Stay tuned to find out.

Effect

Many effects are possible, but the standard foundation is the card to impossible location plot. A clear box on display from the beginning of a routine has a folded card inside of it. A card is selected and signed. The card vanishes from the deck. The card in the clear box is dumped out and unfolded. It is the selected card.

Method

You're getting, as the ad copy openly states, a switching device. The concept is that you have a card, dollar bill, "billet," etc. inside of a clear box. Then when you dump it out into your hand, you've actually switched it for a different card, bill, etc.

The box you're getting is customizable so that it can be used for various objects. However, the box must be dedicated to only one object (bill OR card OR billet, etc.). You can take the box back to your case and modify the gimmick to do bills instead of cards in about 3 minutes if you've done some one-time prep work in advance.

If you're strolling from table to table or group to group, you'll have to decide in advance what type of object you'll be switching out and stick to that for the night . . . or at least until you can take a trip to your case and swap out the gimmick.

Creating the gimmick is super easy and is a one-time effort. However, if you're going to use it for more than one thing, you'll need to make multiple gimmicks that can be swapped in and out of the box depending on what you're switching (card, bill, etc.).

Once the gimmick is place in the box, the operation of it is nearly self-working. It works very well, and the box really does appear empty. The only concern I have about the gimmick/method is that the gimmick for switching out a folded card is nearly twice the size of the actual card that you're switching in. So I'm not sure how convincing the illusion is with card gimmick being so much larger than what you end up handing out to the spectator. However, I think for switching dollar bills and billets, there will be no issues whatsoever.

The rest of the method depends on what effect you're doing. If you're doing card to impossible location, you may (depending on the handling) need to learn the Mercury Card Fold, which is taught on the DVD.

Overall, this gimmick is very easy to customize and use. There just may be some issues when performing card effects with it.

Ad Copy Integrity

The ad copy is accurate. In the ad copy you'll find several "testimonials" and endorsements from other magicians. Those statements are not considered ad copy in my book. They are simply endorsements to be taken as opinions of other magicians and nothing else.

Product Quality

The DVD is well shot, well lit, well mic'd, etc. It's easy to navigate as well. The gimmick itself is well made, solid and a clever concept. A fair amount of thought and design went into the box and the concept. The only problem with it is the above mentioned issue with the size of the card gimmick.

The teaching quality was decent, but a bit scattered and hard to follow in some places. The way the gimmick is designed, you can switch an item by apparently removing it from the box or apparently placing it in the box. There were plenty of handling tips on how to "remove" the item, but none on how to "insert" the item.

The teaching of David Penn's routine was pretty in depth and covered everything. However, the section with Peter Turner was a bit "messy." There are some excellent applications for mentalism, but they were very poorly explained. Some of them were so confusing that I was totally lost. Much of it relied on the viewer being familiar with Orville Meyer's classic effect, Tervil. If you're not familiar with that, you'll be lost a lot during the Peter Turner section of the DVD.

I've read the effect before and remember the basics of it, and I was still confused at this section of the DVD. Pretty much everything in this section was just talked through and very hard to follow. There were a few moments where some of the ideas clearer than others, but all in all, this section was very hard to watch and follow. Having said that, however, I think most mentalists will see the potential for this type of switching device — I certainly did — regardless of how confusingly taught Peter Turner's ideas were.

Final Thoughts

If you already have one of the other marketing switching boxes, the question you have to ask yourself is "how important is it that the switching box is clear and appears to be empty after the switch?" If that's important to you, then you'll likely be happy with this product. If you're not currently using a switching device and are considering one, this is a good choice, but you need to be very aware of the warning regarding the card gimmick mentioned earlier.

Final Verdict:
4 Stars with a Stone Status of Gem