Random I-Tunes Song of The Moment: Sister by The Nixons
Four Effects:
- Earfun
- Sharing is Caring
- Pb
- Flavorless
I'll cover each effect in a moment. First, let's address the overall product. This is an instant download for only $10 bucks. For those $10 bucks you get four effects with every day items. The instructions are clear and well taught by Jeff Prace who comes across very likable (as with all of his products I've seen) and very funny. There's no doubt he's a clever and funny guy for sure.
The video certainly lives up to its claim that these are organic items that you'll find in natural settings. This effects are not meant to be pieces you put in your show. They are meant to be more casual type of effects. They're more like what Jay Sankey as coined, "bends." They're moments in social settings where you do something weird or magical with something that's laying around in the environment.
So let's take a look at the effects.
Earfun (4.5 Stars)
Simple: the cord of your earphones suspends straight out like the old "stiff rope trick."
I think this is the essence of simplicity in effect and a good example of a modern day version of a classic. The illusion is perfect, and the method is very simple. You do have to provide your own earphones. This cannot be done with borrowed ones. But I don't see that as much of a problem. And true to the goal of the project, this is very organic for sure.
Sharing is Caring (4.5 Stars)
Simple: you magically extract a listerine breath strip from the pack of a borrowed listerine strips.
This one is 100% impromptu and can be done with literally no preparation. The only thing to consider is that it should be a pack that is fresh and the strips aren't older or stale. Also, due to the make up of some of the other flavors, this works best with the traditional blue colored ones. The other ones are doable as well, but are sometimes a bit more brittle and break due to the method employed.
Either way you slice it however, the method is simple and very clever and again very organic.
Pb (2 Stars)
Simple: you magically transport pencil lead from one mechanical pencil to another.
Though the name of this effect is a clever chemical creation, the method is not quite as clean. I will say this, however, this is a good attempt at updating/modernizing another classic, the rattle wands effect. The one major flaw in the method is that it's very obvious that the lead should not be rattling around in the pencil due to the way it is openly loaded during performance.
The first thing I thought when he picked up the pencil and shook it to prove the lead was there was that it should not be rattling because the lead is not loose in the chamber. This is not me thinking like a magician; this is me thinking like a person who has used mechanical pencils. Frankly I don't think anyone's dumb enough to believe that the lead should be rattling around based on the way this effect is performed. I can't prove this, but based on the way Jeff explained this effect, it seemed as though he hasn't really field tested this one. I could be wrong, but if I'm not, it would make sense, because I highly doubt that the illusion will be convincing.
It'll just raise questions like "Why is it rattling if it's pinched in the tip of the pencil?" or "Is there another piece of lead in there that's rattling around?" I will say that if you didn't openly load the lead and just told the audience that one of the pencils had lead in it, then proved it by rattling it . . . then you'd have a much more believable effect in my opinion. But . . . it's still organic . . . pencils and lead.
Flavorless (3.5 Stars)
Simple: Your chewed piece of gum turns into a regular unchewed piece of gum.
Jeff is obsessed, it would seem, with this plot. Those of you who've been following my reviews for a while may remember that I gave some pretty heavy criticism to Jeff's project Gum. The biggest problem I had with it was that the handling of gum (i.e., stretching a chewed piece of gum between your fingers and then balling it up) was tacky, gross. However, I also made a point of mentioning that if your venues fit that kind of stuff then those effects were clever and well constructed.
This version (Flavorless) is a much better handling of the effect. It's not as disgusting, and further, this was specifically meant to be in a setting where you're hanging out with friends, not in a restaurant where people are eating as was demonstrated on Gum.
Because of all that, I have much less of an issue with this effect. It's still gross to take a piece of gum out of your mouth and show it to people, but this is much less gross than Jeff's previous iterations. The method for this is clean and simple and very easy to do. The only complaint I have is that the wad of chewed gum doesn't really look like a wad of chewed gum, so the illusion isn't as good as it could be. But it's definitely organic.
Final Thoughts
Overall this is a solid product. Even if you only used one or two effects, it's a pretty decent deal. The effects truly are organic, and they only take a minimal amount of one time prep to be able to perform them anytime anywhere.
The average trick rating is 3.6 stars. When you factor in the low price, instant access and fun teaching method, it's very easy to give this . . .
Final Verdict:
4 Stars with a Stone Status of Gem.