Random I-Tunes Song of The Moment: I Saw Red by Warrant

$25 gets you 11 minutes, 6 cards and 1 gimmick. Is it worth it?

Effect

This is a bit of an odd effect. Basically, you hand the spectator a few cards that are shown very clearly to be all different cards. She takes the cards behind her back and picks one, looks at it, and then puts it back behind her back. She brings the cards forward and shuffles them. You then look through the cards and put in your pocket what you think is the selected card (after reading her mind a little). Your "guess" proves to be correct. Then, however, when she looks at the cards in her hand again, they've all changed into her selected card.

Method

The method uses a smart and simple gimmick that allows you to perform the effect without switching the packet of cards. Getting the gimmick properly set up is a bit awkward and even more so if they're watching too closely. In fact, in the DVD the only time you see the set up move done is during the explanation, and even then it's done as an expose and not an actual performance of it.

In the one actual performance on the DVD, Will Tsai starts with the cards already set up with the gimmick in place. Yet he claims that you can set it up during the actual presentation of the routine. If that were true, then why was there no actual performance of him doing the set up during the routine? It's awkward to get the gimmick aligned "just so" and not the easiest thing to do in the heat of a performance.

I'm not saying it's impossible. I'm just saying it's a little tricky and the fact that you never see Will Tsai do it on the DVD is evidence that I'm right. It's totally doable, but it's a lot more finicky than you're led to believe in the explanation. Basically, when you spread the cards in preparation for displaying them, you have to very meticulously spread them. With some practice, personality and presentation, you'll be able to pull it off.

Once the gimmick is in place, the rest is super easy and very effective. The gimmick does all the work for you, and you're 100% clean at the end. The gimmick is very well made and very deceptive. You'll find a version of this gimmick in any "Universal Deck." However, this one has a few nice subtleties that you won't find in a Universal Deck. These extra subtleties make a big difference in the illusion.

Ad Copy Integrity

The ad copy's pretty solid and accurate. The only thing I would challenge is the "angle proof." It's not 100% angle proof during the "set up" of the gimmick, but it's close. Also, the ad claims that the spectators can keep the cards at the end. While that's true - they are not gimmicked - you won't be able to perform it again unless you go round up 6 more Kings of Spades (or whatever your set comes with). Also, you don't have to use the 6 duplicates that come with your DVD; you can use any 6 duplicate cards, so if you want to buy a one way force deck (i.e., all 52 cards are the same), then you could do the effect ten times and give the cards away each time.

Product Quality

The DVD is short and sour rather than short and sweet. Eleven minutes. They could've spent 10 more minutes giving some in depth pointers on properly setting up the gimmick during the performance and actually showing a full presentation where the magician gets ready in real time.

The gimmick quality is excellent as mentioned above, and this gimmick can be used for other effects, which is another thing they missed the boat on. They should have taken a few more minutes to offer some suggestions on how to use this gimmick in other effects.

Final Thoughts

After fiddling around with the handling, I was able to get set up relatively smoothly, but it's still awkward. You'll have to put in a little extra time (nothing wrong with that) to make sure you can really handle getting set up in real time smoothly. You have to decide if you like the effect enough to put in the time. I imagine there are scenarios where you could perform this where you wouldn't have to set up in front of the audience, but generally speaking, you have to do it in their presence.

So they weren't thorough; the method is very solid once you get set up. The gimmick is well made, and the whole thing is only $25 bucks.

Final Verdict:
3 Stars with a Stone Status of gem.