Random I-Tunes Song of The Moment: Aces High by Iron Maiden

Pieces Review

One 47 minute streaming video, one set of gimmicks, $30 bucks and a one Pieces Review. Is it gem or is it rubble? Stay tuned to find out.

Pieces Review: Effect

Dai Vernon's Triumph . . . with extra stuff to fool the magician. What's the extra stuff? Spread the deck to show that the cards are clearly face up and face down mixed. Then square up the deck, and immediately re-spread to show that the cards have all righted themselves (all but the selected card).

Pieces Review: Method

The method relies on a set of gimmicks that you are provided, the ability to do a perfect incomplete Faro, a venue where you are seating and a buttload of patience. The gimmicks are very clever and will do the job they're supposed to if you can properly operate them. That's the key. I've been working with these things for hours, and I've re-watched the video multiple times, and I've yet to get them to work correctly even one time.

I understand that it takes practice, but at this point, I've seen very little progress. Part of the problem has to do with the instructions (more on that in the product quality section). Also, as clever as these gimmicks are, there's a simply design modification that could have been made that would make it so much easier to operate. Assuming that you can get the mechanics of this down — I do believe that it's possible — then the method is solid. This ain't for beginners folks. It's definitely for you advanced card folk out there.

Pieces Review: Ad Copy Integrity

The ad copy has some pretty heavy issues. On the video trailer, the first thing they show is a Christian Engblom spreading a deck face up showing that it's clearly mixed. Then he squares the deck and instantly re-spreads showing that the deck is now in new deck order. That effect is never taught on the video, and I have not sure how it was accomplished using the supplied gimmicks. He performs it on the teaching video, but never explains it.

Secondly, when he has Patrick take a card from the spread, they cheated a little bit. The spectator needs to pick a card from a certain half of the deck. During the teaching segment, Engblom makes it clear that you need to position the spectator such that he'll reach for the correct section of the deck (the top half), so he makes a point of teaching us that you want the spectator on your right because it's less of a reach for them to grab from the top than the bottom (the part they can't touch). Well in the ad trailer, Patrick clearly knew to avoid the lower portion of the deck as he went out of his way to reach for the top (safe) part of the deck. It's minor, but it's deceptive enough that it might lead you to believe that they can choose any card. However, they cannot.

Next, the version of the trick shown in the ad trailer where the selected card and its mate turn face up is also not taught on the included video. Further, the method used, in the trailer, for showing the cards to be mixed face up and face down and then to be instantly restored can only be accomplished by permanently altering your supplied gimmicks (more on that in the product quality section).

Lastly, at the end of the video trailer he talks about how this was his solution to a challenge from Tamariz to create an effect with a borrowed shuffled deck. Well . . . it can be done with a borrowed shuffled deck, but even Engblom admits that it's a "bit of a process" to do so (more on that in the product quality section). Further, if the borrowed deck does not have the same back design as your gimmick, there are limitations to the handling. Your gimmick has to blend in with their deck.

The claim that the deck is examinable at the end is true, but it depends on the method you use. The one shown in the trailer where he shows the two twos is not clean at that point. You will have to square up the deck and unload the gimmick. Other variations end with the deck spread on the table and you are clean at that point.

The big sin here to me is that the two effects performed in the ad trailer are not taught on the video that you purchase. That's a big hit.

Pieces Review: Product Quality

During the "history" section of the video, he talks about another version of the gimmicks that used to use. He shows you how to modify your gimmicks to work like the "old" version. There are pros and cons to each version of the gimmick. One of the problems that I'm having with the supplied gimmicks would be, I think, solved by modifying my gimmicks to be like the old version. The problem is that once you make the modification, you can't go back. So what happens if I decide I prefer the current version of the gimmick after I've permanently altered my gimmicks to "try out" the other version?

The clean up is super easy and super clean with the current gimmick, and I'm afraid that the clean up with the older gimmick would be harder and less clean, but at the same time, it seems from the training video that the older version is easier to handle during the performance and would give you some better displays. The problem is that I can't compare the two. I have to choose one, and hope that I'm right. The reason this is a product quality problem is because they should have supplied both styles of gimmick.

The quality of the gimmick itself is good. It's well made, and does what it's supposed to do if you can figure out how to operate it. That's the key though . . . it's gonna be a long road for sure.

The production quality of the video was decent. However, the teaching was unclear at best. As already mentioned, there are several things not even taught on the video. Further, the explanation of how to load the gimmick into a borrowed deck was so unclear, that I still haven't (after watching it over a dozen times) figured out how to correctly do it. He tells you one thing, but if you do it, the deck does not end up in the same configuration as his. On top of that, every time I've tried to do it, I ended up with cards in the wrong place or the wrong orientation. I've still not been able to figure out this part.

As if that weren't enough, there are pieces of the explanation that he never addresses. For example, knowing where to split the deck when he does the face up and face down shuffle is not covered. It's very unclear what's happening there. The explanations were extremely rushed through, and in many cases I had to rewind multiple times. Even after multiple rewinds, too often, I was still lost and confused and could not follow what he was doing.

This is the kind of thing where slowing it down and using multiple camera angles would have made a world of differnece. Additionally, some "let's stop and check the orientation of everything" moments would have been nice. To my recollection, there was only one case where he actually did a position check. However, even in that case, I have no idea how he got in that position. The instructions for getting there were absolutely unclear.

I've certainly seen training videos that were worse, but not many. Learning what you need to perform this effect will be very difficult with the provided training.

On a positive note, there are two bonus ideas that you can use this gimmick to accomplish. One of them relies on being able to operate the gimmick in the exact same manner as the Triumph effect, so until you can master that extremely difficult task, you won't be able to do that bonus idea.

However, the second one requires no special "operation" of the gimmick. It allows you to instantly know the identity of a card peeked at. You are able to do this without looking at the face of the card they're peeking at, and the cards are not marked. It's a very clever usage for this principle. The best part is that removing the gimmick from the deck is easy, so after you get the identity of the card they peeked, you can remove the gimmick and you're left with a clean deck. Or if you prefer, leave the gimmick in the deck at all times and use a deck switch to ring it in when you have a card peeked.

Pieces Review: Final Thoughts

This is two projects in a row where the concept/effect has merit and potential, but the ad copy and the training left way too much to be desired. None of the effects shown in the ad trailer are taught on the video you paid $30 bucks for. The method is very good, if you can figure out how to use the gimmick, and how to set up the deck properly which is extremely difficult due to the poor instructional quality. Advanced card workers will figure out their own way to get everything into position once they understand how the gimmick works. However, even that's a little tricky because the instructions are very confusing.

So if you can look past all that, the gimmick is very clever and can be easily removed from the deck when you're done with it. But just like yesterday's review of Tab Test, if you learn this effectively it'll be through trial and error and not from the person you paid $30 bucks to teach you. That said, however, this one does have slightly more "value" than yesterday's product, so it would have possibly had a higher rating, but the fact that the two tricks advertised weren't even taught is a BIG hit. You've got all the information you need to make an educated decision, but in case you care, here's my decision:

Pieces Review - Final Verdict:
2.5 Stars with a Stone Status of grubble. Gem of a gimmick and gem concept with rubble ad copy and grubble training.

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