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Lloyd Barnes: Wallet Weapon Review

One DVD, one DIY gimmick, 59 Minutes and $30 bucks. Is it gem or is it rubble? Stay tuned to find out.

Effect/Method

Signed card to wallet . . . or blank paper to money . . . or T&R card . . . or . . . or . . . or . . .

What you're getting is the instructions on how to create a utility device that can do (supposedly) the above effects and others. The device is designed to show a card (or other object) in your wallet. Then for that object to vanish secretly while you bring into view a duplicate object. It's a switching device, as I'm sure you've guessed.

However — this is a big fat "however" — after following the instructions exactly, the gimmick does not work as claimed. In fact, during the DVD, Lloyd Barnes constructs the gimmick and has exactly the same problem with the gimmick that I had when I created mine. He then tells you (not shows you) how to "fix" this problem. However, because he doesn't show you how to fix it, it's unclear exactly how to do what he says.

That, however, did not stop me from trying. All it did was make things worse. Without exposing too much, part of this gimmick relies on tension. If you don't get the tension just right, the gimmick will not work. Either it will cause part of the gimmick to pop out of your wallet, or it will prevent the card in the wallet from going to its proper secret location.

Creating the gimmick requires you to cut a hole inside of one of the pockets of your wallet. One of the fixes for the above problem that he suggests is to cut another hole in a second pocket in your wallet. I did not try that, and he said that he's never had to use that method ever. I did, however, cut the one hole in my wallet exactly as he taught on the video.

Based on the gimmick and how it works, I think the problem is that the location of the hole in the one pocket is in the wrong place. I can imagine placing the hole in a different specific place — he never discusses this; I just figured it out — possibly making the gimmick work more accurately. However, I'm not going to cut anymore holes in my wallet to find out.

The materials needed to construct this are readily available. If you have an old credit card/loyalty card, etc., a rubber band and a pair of scissors, you've got everything that you need. However, as mentioned above, the gimmick just doesn't quite come together like it should.

Ad Copy Integrity

Other than the fact that the gimmick doesn't work out the way it should, the ad copy is accurate. The reset is nearly instant. One thing that needs clarity is the claim that it's a utility device that can "Switch playing cards, banknotes, predictions and even perform visual changes that leave you totally clean." This is all true (assuming you can get the gimmick to work properly), however, it can only be set up to do one item in the list above.

In other words, you can't do a card switch at one table and a bill switch at the next. You have to modify the gimmick so that it's no longer a card switching gimmick, but a bill switching gimmick. This modification takes a minute or two.

Product Quality

Well . . . the DVD is easy to navigate. However, much of the footage is hard to watch due to the camera constantly refocusing. Some of the footage was "lost" because the camera was out of focus. The lighting seemed to fade in and out quite a bit as well. That aside, the teaching was pretty solid for the main gimmick. However, when it came to alternate ideas for the gimmick, there was little to no teaching.

He mentions that this could be used for bill switches, predictions, "confabulations," torn and restored card, color changes and more. He shows how to use it for a color change and for a bill switch. However, he merely explains how to use it for predictions. It was extremely confusing and vague at best. He gave no information on how to use it for "confabulations" as he called it. I can sort of imagine how I might do this, but again, nothing was explained.

Regarding the T&R card, I have no idea how this would work. The way the gimmick is made, there is no obvious way that I could conceive of that would allow you to use this for a T&R effect, and he does not explain how to at all.

Final Thoughts

The concept of this gimmick is simple enough, and it might possibly work better if I build it slightly differently from what he taught on the DVD. However, as it is, the instructions on the DVD do not work at all. The vanishing object — the one being switched out — ends up not hidden and right in plain view. If you're willing to take that risk, go for it.

However, from where I'm sitting, what you're getting is $30 worth of instructions that, when followed exactly, leave you a gimmick that does not work. Further, you also get a few ideas that range from, "I kind of see what he's talking about" to "I have no idea how that would work at all." Most of these are not explained at all. If I'm going to take a risk and punch a hole in my wallet, it had better be worth the risk. It wasn't. Now all I have is $30 coaster and a hole in my wallet.

Final Verdict:
1.5 Stars with a Stone Status of Rubble.