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Zero Matrix by Jay Review:
Ten gimmicked coins, 12 plastic cards, 10 replacement gimmicks, 6 effects, 1 vinyl wallet, 1 DVD and $65 bucks. Is it gem or is it rubble? Stay tuned to find out.
Effect
Four of the effects are supposed to be a matrix style effect with transparent cards. Then there is one effect where you pluck a coin from a picture of a coin on a translucent card, and finally an effect where four regular Aces instantly become translucent Aces.
Method
For the matrix routines, the method is gimmicked coins and some sleight of hand. For the coin from card and transparent Aces routine, pure sleight of hand and, of course, the supplied translucent cards. For the latter two routines, the method is totally legitimate.They both use a relatively standard (yet advanced) card sleight to accomplish the effects.
The other four routines - the matrix routines - rely on the gimmicked coins. A gimmick that, theoretically, causes the coins to be invisible and hidden in plain sight until you want them to appear. Well . . . like I said, theoretically.
First, the gimmicked coins are plastic, but they actually look pretty good and handle well, so that's not too much of an issue. However, the principle - a very old principle - that "hides" the coins, just doesn't work, with one exception I'll cover in a moment. Basically, if you are doing a coin matrix, the odds are you are doing close up magic. If, on the other hand, you're doing this effect on a stage with a camera pointed at your table, then you might be able to do this effect. It's all about the lighting.
In fact, the principle used is a stage illusion principle that's not meant for close up. So in that venue, or maybe on TV or a YouTube video, this would likely work just fine. However, for a casual performance or a close up performance, three of the four matrix routines will not work.
The fourth matrix effect, however, will work. It's called Joker Game, and due to the nature of the translucent Joker cards supplied, the special coin hiding principle works just fine even in close up settings. However, you have to be very accurate and very careful with the handling of the cards and the coins. If you're off by a quarter of an inch, you just might expose the gimmick.
Ad Copy Integrity
The written ad copy really makes no specific claims. The DVD, however, is misleading in some spots and bordering on dishonest on other parts. The first misleading part is the effect where a blank translucent card changes into a Joker translucent card with the wave of a hand. This effect is not taught on the DVD. However, most magicians will likely know how to do this. The second misleading part is the barehanded production of a coin shown in the trailer. That is also not taught on the DVD.
The borderline dishonest parts are the matrix effects shown in the trailer. They don't look that good in real life. I imagine that with some good lighting and camera it could look that good, but not in person close up.
Product Quality
The DVD is Chinese. There is no option for English. However, you can turn on closed captioning and it will give you English subtitles. The problem with that, of course, is that if you don't speak Chinese, you have to read the English text. When reading, you can't see what he's doing, and when watching him, you can't read. It's very difficult to follow along.
However, before I realized that the closed captioning (CC) would work, I watched a portion of the DVD without it, only hearing him speak Chinese. The camera work was such that it was relatively easy to follow along. The CC made it harder to follow along. That said, however, there were plenty of places where a bit more depth was needed, and it just wasn't there due to the CC/Chinese barrier.
The gimmicks are well made and the principle used in the gimmicks is a solid principle. The problem is that it's not meant for close up work. The plastic translucent cards you get are very well made. You get 4 Aces, 2 Jokers, 4 blank cards and 2 cards with coins printed on them; one heads and one tails.
Final Thoughts
With the DVD, you also get replacement gimmicks. Though it doesn't cover this in the DVD, you could use them to turn regular coins into gimmicked coins very easily. However, keep in mind that the gimmick isn't the problem with this product, per se. It's the nature of the principle. It does not work close up. Putting that aside for a moment, for $65 bucks you're getting a lot of stuff, and all of it is pretty solid. It's just the fact that you can't do three of the routines included on the DVD unless you've got a TV spot or a situation where you can control the lighting.
If you're going to do a TV spot, I think the investment might be worth it. Also, the principle will work if you're using the Joker cards and you're careful. Further, you do get a couple of other effects you can do with the included cards, that don't rely on the gimmicked coins. All in all, this one is hard to call. There's a lot of rubble-ish material when you consider the strict performance conditions. But at the same time, there are very strict performance conditions for a Zig Zag illusion. That doesn't mean it's a bad method.
Final Verdict:
2.5 Stars with a Stone Status of Grubble.