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Promotion Review

One DVD, six little "thingies", $40 bucks and one Promotion Review. Is it gem or is it rubble? Stay tuned to find out.

Promotion Review: Effect

A borrowed bill is signed and changes to a different denomination while maintaining the signature. Before you run off and buy it based on the effect, we gots lots to talk about. Don't make any sudden moves.

Promotion Review: Method

The method is a gimmick that you have to construct by destroying (permanently) two bills. If you're changing from a $5 to a $20, you will have to destroy a $5 and a $20. The gimmick also is made up of the six aforementioned thingies. Once you've figured out how to make the gimmick — if you ever do — it's not entirely reliable, and the illusion is not very deceptive. The clean up is ugly and obvious to say the least. So the question, when it comes to method, is does the method work? Reliably? Deceptively? No, no, and no. As we dive into the Ad Copy Integrity and the Product Quality, things will become much clearer.

Promotion Review: Ad Copy Integrity

The ad copy is misleading at best. First, they constant refer to the signature being "across the bill." This is simply not true. It's on a very small folded up section of the bill. Next, it claims that the bill can be signed as long as you're using currency with similar colors. Nope. They have to be the same color, not similar. Maybe you think that's nit-picking. Fine. Ignore that "issue" and read on.

It claims that you can reuse the same bill for multiple performances. Let's pause and think about this. You borrow their $5 dollar bill. You have them (apparently) sign their own $5 dollar bill. You then change it into a $20 bill with their signature still on it. In order to reuse the same ($20) bill for future performances, here's what you have to do (as "taught" on the DVD). You put the $20 (theoretically their $20) with their signature in your pocket and say that they can't have it, but that you'll give them another $5 bill to replace the one they borrowed.

Lastly, to reuse the $20 for the next performance, you have to take it aside and erase the signature. Thus you need to have the bill signed with a Frixion pen or some other erase-able pen. So you have them sign their own money, change it, take it (ha-ha, you don't get the twenty even though it IS your bill because it's the one you signed) and give them another one from your pocket in the most un-magical way possible. Then you have to go hide in a corner and erase their signature.

Oh, and writing on a dollar bill with a Frixion pen is hard enough, but when you couple it with the cramped and awkward way you have to hold the bill while they sign it along with the fact that the gimmicks cause the bill to be all lumpy and bumpy, it's just not practical to have the bill signed.

Next claim: Immediately examinable. This one is sort of true. However, you have to unload the gimmick right in front of their face in the worst way at the worst possible time. It's obvious and, to put it lightly, audible. They will hear and see you remove the gimmick. Watch the video review, and I'll show you what I'm talking about.

Another claim is that there is "An ultimate transposition type of effect . . . " It's a two card transpo, and there is nothing ultimate about it, and yes, I know that ultimate means "last" as in "the last word in transpos" or "the last transpo you''ll ever need." Trust me. This ain't that. They claim that you'll learn a bill switch with any type of currency. Nope. He sloppily walks through one type of currency while saying that the gimmick is the same as used for the $5 to $20 change, but that you'll "need to slightly modify it." Yet he does not tell you how to modify it. In fact, for all of the variations (card changes, card to bill, bill to business card, etc.) he makes the same statement about having to slightly modify the gimmick but never shows you how.

They claim that you can use any size bills. Okay . . . show us how. He talked about it by telling us to imagine going from a $5 Euro (a small sized bill) to a $500 Euro (a physically very large bill), but he does not show us anything. Due to the nature of the gimmick, I have no idea how to modify it for two different sized bills.

The ad copy claims that a bill to card change is taught. Nope. There's a card to bill, but not bill to card. The ad copy claims that both exist. Only one does, and the gimmick is not reversible. A bill to card gimmick would be built differently from a card to bill gimmick. He "performs" the card to bill and kind of talks about the gimmick. However, he never shows a bill to card gimmick, never performs, etc.

The video trailer claims that 7 routines are taught. First, no routines. He barely walks through the operation of the gimmick applied in seven different ways. Second, in order to do the 7 different versions, you'd have to make 7 different gimmicks. You are only supplied enough stuff to make 1 gimmick. The video also left out some footage that would clearly reveal how less-than-clean this is. They also cut the audio and played music over the footage completely concealing the very loud noise made when the effect happens.

Here's the biggest offender. The ad copy claims, "The DVD includes detailed instructions on making the gimmick and how to use it in performance . . . " The DVD does nothing of the sort. There is NOTHING . . . I mean NOTHING . . . detailed about any single part of this DVD. Maurice Kim, the "teacher" barely walks through creating the gimmick. Not only that, but NOWHERE . . . I mean NOWHERE on the DVD does he show you how to attach the gimmick to the $20. More on this in the Product Quality section below.

Promotion Review

Promotion Review: Product Quality

The product quality is crap to put it nicely. They even prove it by having a trick called Visual Transpoo. It's spelled that way on the main menu and on the text overlay graphic before the trick is "taught" on the DVD. I get that Maurice Kim doesn't speak English as his first language, but this is Kyle Purnell's product. Didn't he look at it? Yes, that alone doesn't impact the star rating, but it's a sign of things to come.

First, the video doesn't even fill up the screen. You watch it with the "black bars" on the vertical and the horizontal sides of the screen. Second, the camera was too far back to see anything useful. Several times, stuff was being "taught" off screen, therefore nothing could be seen, regardless of the lighting or audio, both of which were also terrible. After watching the DVD twice and then clicking around to re-watch parts multiple times, I was barely able to get the gimmick made correctly. It took me forever to figure out how to attach it to the real $20 — I used a million dollar bill instead of a $20.

Once I did get it attached, the gimmick does not look very good or deceptive. Further, the operation of the gimmick/the handling is NOT taught, so I'm actually unclear how to get the visual change shown in the performances.

On top of all that, there were dogs barking in the background and furniture being moved (or something making a loud dragging sound). It was clear that Maurice Kim did not prepare for this video shoot. It was the epitome of winging it. The teaching was non-existent. Further, there's an effect where he "shows" you how to change a playing card to a dollar bill. First, he does not show you how to make the gimmick. Second, he tells you that you can use this for a trick where you show a dollar bill as a bet. Claim that if you don't guess the spectator's card, they'll get the dollar. Then you magically change the dollar to their thought of card. Do you see the problem? The gimmick is made to change from a card to a dollar bill. He never shows you anything about how to make a bill change to a card.

Promotion Review: Final Thoughts

If you're looking for some crap, you've come to the right place. You'll be very happy with your purchase. If, however, you're looking for some semblance of a decent bill change or product of any sort, run away.

Final Verdict:
1 Star with a Stone Status of Rubble.

Available at your Favorite Magic Dealer. Dealer's see Murphy's Magic For Details.

5 Comments

  • Steve Black says:

    Hi Jeff,

    WOW !! Sounds like you have saved people from wasting their hard earned cash.(Again!!!) An even greater concern for me is that yet again magicians (Rus Andrews and Dan Hauss) have enthusiastically endorsed a product that is so egregiously unfit for market. I feel it goes beyond an issue of integrity to one false representation. Trailers and statements on them should be subject to the same legal test as any other product sold to the public.

    • Paul Kresky says:

      Amen! to what Steve said. There are so many “famous” magicians who endorse each other’s, quite often, crappy product releases. It’s hard to know who or what to trust anymore when certain products come to market. I do have a guess however, that many of the people who endorse a new product are giving their endorsements based on seeing it done live. Long before the finished product reaches the market. Hence, they really aren’t endorsing the final product sold to magicians.

      • Jeff Stone says:

        @Paul – Agreed. Often they’re commenting on the fact(?) that the trick fooled them. Frankly, this product (Promotion) has the potential to be great. Using different "secret thingies" that are thinner, you can get a much quieter change. Further, with the right handling (nothing that was taught in the DVD), there are some possible ways you might be able to more cleanly remove the gimmick.

        Forget about the signature stuff. If they would have just spent time focusing on the "change the bill then hand it out" feature and worked out a better handling for removing the gimmick, then we would have something worth talking about. Next step would be a video that you could actually see, and a teaching segment that actually taught. 🙂

    • Jeff Stone says:

      @Steve – Yep. I’ve had several producers send me a link to the video trailer of a product and ask for a quote for when the product hits the market. I tell them all the same thing. Until I’ve got the product in my hand and I’ve looked at it and tested, I will NOT give a quote. Even if it’s a friend, no quote unless I’ve got the physical product in my hand.

  • Emad says:

    when they lie about the product, you should show the gimmick

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