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Skyline by Danny Weiser Review

One DVD, one hand-made gimmick and $25 bucks. Is it gem or is it rubble? Stay tuned to find out.

Effect

A torn corner of a playing card visually restores itself.

Method

A gimmick and some basic sleight of hand and a little bit of distance from your spectator makes this happen. The gimmick is self-contained and virtually self-working. However, it will take some practice when handling the gimmick to make sure it works properly. I'd say it's about 98% reliable. There are occasions where it doesn't quite work the way it's supposed to. In fact even during the DVD performance and explanations it didn't quite work as cleanly as it should, but for the most part it's solid.

Where it gets tricky is if you're going to hand out the card to the spectator. You'll have to do a switch. The method taught is a DL. However, due to the nature of the gimmick, it's very awkward to smoothly and cleanly pull it off. In fact, in the entire DVD, not once did Danny Weiser do it cleanly. Its was always awkward and clunky. A better method (which was not taught) in my opinion would be a top ch****.

If you're doing this on a platform or parlor setting, then you've got nothing to worry about since you don't really need to hand out the card. When you're performing close-up, you'll need to make sure you practice some sort of switching technique.

Also, you'll need to be able to force a card. The method taught on the DVD is not the best for this gimmick. When doing so, the gimmick is kind of right in their face. There are better methods of forcing the card for this particular gimmick. Frankly, I'm not sure a force is even needed. Just grab the card and do the effect. But if you're going to force the card, you'll have to come up with something better than the method on the DVD.

Lastly, as you see in the trailer, the "torn off" corner is very straight which is not how it would look if you really tore the card in front of the spectator. However, if that didn't look weird to you in the video trailer or if you don't mind the straight "tear" then there's nothing to worry about there.

Ad Copy Integrity

The written ad copy is very accurate. However, I'm very disappointed in the video trailer. It was very misleading in 2 places, and slightly misleading in one place. First, at about :35 seconds in, it shows a card being freely selected from a spread deck and then used for the Torn and Restored (T&R) effect. This is completely false. It cannot be done that way. Or if it can, I don't see how it's possible, and it was not covered in the DVD.

Secondly, here's the "slightly" misleading portion: at about 1:09 in the video trailer it shows the card being handed out. The editing was such that it looked as though you were able to hand out the gimmicked card. You are not. However, I'm giving a little bit of benefit of doubt that they were just trying to protect the method. However, this next one is extremely misleading..

At about 1:38 there is a shot of Danny Weiser holding a 3 of Diamonds that's had the corner torn off. It's clearly NOT the gimmick. It's a regular card. Then the next shot is him placing a face down card under his foot. The card visually restores itself (obviously using the gimmick). While the effect can be done under the foot, the use of the non-gimmicked card in the demo makes it appear that you can handle the torn card much more freely than you really can.

The torn card shown in this case was actually from a bonus effect on the DVD that uses just a regular torn card, but slipping it in the demo where they did suddenly dropped the credibility of the video trailer quite significantly.

Also, there was at least one way (possible one or two more) that he handled the gimmick in the trailer that was not covered in the DVD. It's pretty straightforward and you'll likely be able to figure it out once you understand how the gimmick works, but if it's in the trailer, it should be in the DVD.

Product Quality

The DVD is produced well enough. There were a few points where the camera never came down to his hands so you couldn't quite see what he was doing. Other than that, there are no real issues that I found. However, there were no chapters in the menu. It just had "play all", "explanations" and "bonus" but nothing else. When you clicked "explanation" it just ran through the whole video minus the trailer. It's a small point; I know. But it would have been helpful to have chapters for each version of the handling.

There were several handling ideas covered and they were taught well enough for you to be able to learn it. However, oftentimes the explanations and performance walk throughs were clunky and awkward and not very "clean" at all.

With a gimmick like this, someone who has used it many times should have several pointers, tips, trouble-shooting techniques and finer points that make using the gimmick easier and smoother. Nothing like that was covered. The problem with that is that there are a few times my gimmick got "hung up" and I wasn't exactly sure how to prevent it or "un-hang it up." Until I figure this out, I'd be uncomfortable using this in a performance.

98% of the time, however, the gimmick works fine and in order to use it, I just have to be careful and practice, practice, practice, and hope that the 2%'s don't creep into my performances.

Final Thoughts

Watch the trailer again. The moments where Danny Weiser is holding the card at face level with the corner "torn" off and the corner magically reappears are the real effect. That's what you really get. Getting to that point in the routine is pretty easy for the most part. You'll have to be able to force the card if you want the spectator to "select" a card. You'll have to do a switch if you want to hand the card out. The force and switch taught on the DVD are not the best for this particular gimmick.

Just keep in mind that any handling where a card is "selected" is going to be awkward. If you don't mind that, then you'll likely be happy with your purchase. However, this product, to me felt very incomplete, and the ad trailer was too misleading to give this product a super great rating.

Is the gimmick well made? Yes. Does it do a clean visual restore? Yes. Is ringing it in and out of play easy? Yes, but not super clean. Is the method reliable? Yes, 98% of the time. Is the restoration as "clean" as the ad trailer? Yes. Is the "tearing" of the card clean? No. It's not very natural looking or clean looking at all. Are the moments before the tear as clean as the ad copy shows? Nope. Most cases in the ad trailer the moments before getting the gimmick into play are very misleading.

With the minor issues on the DVD, I could feel pretty good with a 4 star rating. Even adding in the 2% of the time that the gimmick was "hesitant," I'd be okay with 4 Stars, but the misleading ad trailer is too much to overlook.

Final Verdict:
2.5 Stars with a Stone Status of Grubble - almost a gem with a small 'g'