Random I-Tunes Song of The Moment: Teardrops on My Guitar by Taylor Swift

For $35 bucks you get a very clever utility gimmick that allows you to perform some incredibly visual magic

Watch the demo. It's NOT camera a trick. It looks that good in real life. The ad copy is 100% honest (a rare thing these days). The gimmick is very portable and relatively easy to use. I do, however, have a few complaints. First, the DVD seemed to be organized in a bit of a random or chaotic order. There were plenty of cases where the instructors (Chris Turchi and Brandon David) would make statements like "do the flap move" here, but nowhere have they told you what the heck a "flap move" is.

This happened on more than one occasion. Additionally, in some cases, they never do actually explain what the move that they're referring to is. This made for some confusing moments in the explanation. Additionally, for most of the effects, you have to modify your gimmick, but they don't really explain it. Then later in a different explanation, they kind of brush over a particular modification of the gimmick for one trick. You then, on your own, kind of backward interpret this to apply it to the other effects.

It's not a deal killer, but it was just not as well thought out and as clear as it should be. Additionally, you must keep in mind that when you modify your gimmick, it then becomes only usable for one effect. In other words, you have to choose how you're going to use the gimmick. Are you going to use it to shrink the card box; are you going to use it to make the box vanish; are you going to cause the box to change colors; are you going to cause the box to turn inside out?

Whichever one you choose will determine how you modify your gimmick. Then from there, you can only use the gimmick for that one effect. So if you later decide that you no longer want to perform the shrinking deck, you have to slightly and very carefully disassemble the gimmick and re-modify it for the new effect that you're going to do. This is not something you can do between tables. You pretty much are "stuck" with the gimmick until you can go home and take the time to re-modify it. None of this is discussed on the DVD. There may even be a clever way to more easily re-modify the gimmick, but they just don't discuss it at all. They don't even really discuss the initial modification. You just kind of have to figure it out on your own.

Finally, in the instructions, they mention a particular way you have to prepare a certain card with a magnet on it. Brandon David tells you to put the sticky tape on a particular side of the magnet and stick it to a card. However, if you do it that way, the polarity will be wrong, and you'll have to reconstruct that part of the gimmick. Just be aware during that part of the explanation.

So that's a lot of negative, I know. However, the trick is still very learn-able from the provided instructions. Additionally, the price is reasonable considering the fact that you're getting an hour long DVD with several ideas on it. Plus the gimmick is very well made and can be used for many different effects (as long as you're willing to pick one of those effects and stick with it).

When you consider that the ad copy is legit, the demo is legit and the product is well made (barring the confusion in the explanations). Though I think the effect is solid and the gimmick is well made, and I might even actually do this effect, my job is to review the actual product as a whole. Because of that, it took a fair hit due to the lack of clarity for the budding student who may watch this video and the one-trick-only nature of the gimmick.

Final Verdict:
3 Stars with a Stone Status of gem (with a little g)