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Of Cabbages and Kings Review

One book, 42 pages, 12 effects, $20 bucks and one "Of Cabbages and Kings Review." Is it gem or is it rubble? Stay tuned to find out.

Of Cabbages and Kings Review: Effect

Here we go . . . a dozen effects. This is what you get.

Hobo Travelers: Take collector's routine and do it in reverse, and I think that's what you've got here. Five blue-backed cards are fanned face down. Then four red-backed "selections" are interlaced between each of the five blue-backed cards. Square up . . . no funny business. Then instantly produce the four "selections" from any four locations you want — Kyle does it from his pockets. You can then immediately fan out the blue-backed cards to show that the red-backed cards have vanished from between them.

Area of Influence: A blue-backed deck is spread and shown. Then a face down red-backed card is added (identity unknown to the spectator) to the blue-backed deck. The deck is shown face up, and the spectator names any card they see in the deck. It is the only red card in the deck.

Card Cleave: A card stab with a fun presentation and where the spectator does not know the identity of the card. She freely picks any card and signs the back. Then buries it in the pack. She then shuffles the deck face up (all the while you are across the room if you want to be). You then stab the cards on the table with your knife and end up stabbing the one card she signed on the back.

Pilloried: A prediction is written on the face of a blank card. It matches a card that the spectator names after the prediction is written.

Burden of Proof and the 313 Prediction Deck: Two decks are shown. Any named (freely named) card is found to be missing from one deck and reversed in the other deck just as you predicted. It's about as clean as you can get. You have a deck that has a sticker on it that says "one card missing" and another deck that says "one card reversed." Whatever card is freely named by the spectator is shown by you to be missing from the deck that says "one card missing." Next the spectator can open the deck that says "one card reversed." She opens the box, removes the deck, and she spread the deck to find that her named card is reversed.

Occam's Razor: Two cards are selected and reversed in the deck. Then the deck is shuffled (by the spectator) face up into face down. Yet you are able to easily divine the spectator's two selections.

Ultimo Transpo: This is a pretty standard two card transpo that happens with one card in the spectator's hands and one in your hands.

4321: A one at a time four coin vanish.

The Kennedy Compound: A thought of card is found to be in a box that has been sitting on the table the entire time.

Peer Pressure: Your contact information is magically printed on your spectator's business card in place of her contact information.

Everything but the Pen: This is a quasi-numerological reading that ends with a kicker prediction where you predicted what card the spectator would think of and what position in the deck each of its mates would be (e.g., she thinks of the King of Hearts and you predicted that she would think of that card and the location of the other three Kings in the deck).

Of Cabbages and Kings Review: Method

The methods range from "super simple" to a "buttload of work to pull it off" and everything in between. Let's take a quick look at each one.

Hobo Travelers: This one requires some gimmicked cards that you can make. You'll likely have to buy a little extra something to make this gimmick. However the effect that you get is so clean and impossible looking that it's worth the effort if you like the effect. Just note that it requires the use of two decks, one of which is gaffed . . . examinable, but gaffed. If you don't mind carrying around the extra deck and a few extra cards, this one is totally legitimate and doable.

Area of Influence: A gaffed deck is used here. Again, this is something you can make up, but you may have to buy the same little extra something that was required in Hobo Travelers, but don't worry, one "package" of this extra something is more than enough for both effects. This routine is one complete deck that is gaffed. You can actually uses cards from this deck to perform Hobo Travelers if you'd like. Also, Kyle sells pre-made Area of Influence decks for $10 if you don't want to bother making one.

Card Cleave: The method for this is devilish and simple and very practical and super easy to do. If you're looking for a good, easy and impact-ful card stab, you may have just found what you're looking for.

Pilloried: Here's another one that requires a gaffed deck, and a blank face deck. The blank face deck is to replenish the blank card you use up every time you do the trick. This is a deck that you won't be able to make. It's a standard gaffed deck that you can buy for about $8 or so bucks. If you get this deck and the blank face deck, you'll have 52 performances of a very clean prediction effect.

Burden of Proof and the 313 Prediction Deck: This uses two normal decks of cards which have had something added to the card box. However, the something does not prevent you from using the deck for other effects after you've done this one. Also, for the final reveal, the spectator can open the box and remove the cards herself. Also, included with this is a page that you can photo copy to make that extra something you need for the box. The method is super simple and doesn't get much cleaner than this.

The Switchless Switch: This is a clever ploy that I've seen used by Dave Forrest and others. It's a very smart way to openly set up a deck right in front of the audience for an impossible moment to come. It has many possibilities. It's used in Burden of Proof but has so many more potential uses.

Occam's Razor: One single, normal, un-gimmicked, but simply stacked deck is used. It's super easy to do, and you can go right into any effect after performing this one. It seems impossible.

Ultimo Transpo: The method for this is pretty much the same method all two card transpos use. The difference here is that one extra addition allows you to repeat the effect using two different cards. It's a simple idea that works, and the addition of a repeat can make the effect more deceptive. Legit, practical, doable.

4321: This uses normal unprepared coins and some standard sleights as well as a couple of moves created by Kyle P. Merck. I'm not sure how easy, doable, practical this on it, however. More on that in the product quality section.

The Kennedy Compound: This requires the purchase of John Kennedy's The Mind Power Deck and his The Mystery Box. Neither is a cheap investment, but they are both very powerful tools and allow for some very clean effects.

Peer Pressure: The subtitle to this effect is a.k.a. The Greatest Trick You Will Never Do. The reason for this is that the prep work to do this is huge, and it's certainly not the kind of thing that you'll be able to do strolling. This is the kind of thing where you have to target a few people and do some work well in advance of the time you're going to perform the effect. This is good for landing a client, or a corporate gig where you want to fry the CEO with the CEO's own business card.

Everything but the Pen: This uses a completely gaffed deck that you'll have to purchase — the same deck from The Kennedy Compound. It also uses some other basic sleight of hand. However, the method write up was incomplete/unclear (more on that in the product quality section).

Of Cabbages and Kings Review: Ad Copy Integrity

This one's easy. The ad copy is plain and simple and explains what you get with no hype. Solid.

Of Cabbages and Kings Review: Product Quality

Here's where there were a few problems. First, this book is riddled typos and grammar errors and spelling errors. I normally don't let that affect the star rating unless it makes learning the effects too hard. In this case, it just became a bit of a distraction as I read. Further, in many of the descriptions rather than saying "left hand" or "right hand" he would say "one hand" then the "other hand." At first it felt like an attempt to make it hand neutral (i.e., neither left-handed, nor right-handed). However a sentence or two later he would start using left/right, but then a moment later it was back to one/other. It was very confusing and hard to follow in a few cases.

In particular, 4321 was extremely difficult to follow. I had to re-read it several times. I think I finally understood what he meant, but I'm not 100% sure. There were parts in this effect that he just glossed over, did not explain well and had far too few photographs. A similar problem occurred in Everything But The Pen. During the effect, you are using a notepad that has a secret something on it that you're supposed to access during the routine. However, nowhere in the explanation does he tell you how to hide this secret something. Based on the instructions, I see absolutely no way to hide it and still access it based on the way you're supposed to handle the notepad.

I have no doubt that Kyle has a way of doing it and that he really does this in his repertoire. He just didn't do a good job imparting the technique to his readers. The rest of the book reads well, for the most part. However, a very odd thing seems to happen in the book. There are parts of the book that I would be money were written by a different person. It really seemed to be two different people writing. It was very weird.

The production quality, design, layout, etc. of the book is very good, and generally, the teaching is good. There are just a few things (already mentioned) where the instructions fell short.

Of Cabbages and Kings Review: Final Thoughts

This book is available from Kyle Directly as a print book or from Lybrary.com as an ebook. There are a lot of smart, clever and just plain good methods found in this book for some very deceptive and innovative effects. If you don't mind that for many of the effects you'll need to buy things like specialty decks or other marketed items to do some of these effects and if you liked the effects described (and you can overlook the two descriptions that were unclear), then you'll be happy with your purchase.

I'm torn on this one . . . 3.5 stars seems too low, but 4 seems too high, so here we are with yet another case for 3.75 stars. I feel that because 15% of the material (i.e., 2 out of 12) is not use-able due to the lack of clarity in the write up that the rating should be docked. On top of that, you will have to spend more money to do many of the effects. However, that's not necessarily a problem for some, so it's hard to say if that's a hit to the star rating.

Since, however, overall, there is a lot of great stuff in here that is innovative and clever and will spark creativity I'm going to err in their "favor." Thus . . .

Of Cabbages and Kings Review - Final Verdict:
4 Stars with a Stone Status of gem.

Available at Lybrary.com