Random I-Tunes Song of The Moment: Turn The Cards Slowly by Patsy Cline

Well There's a Magic Review song title if I ever heard one . . .

The gimmick's pretty decent, and when you consider that you're getting the gimmick and the DVD for only $12.50, it's hard to bash this one too much, but I'll do my best:

Don't Blink or else you'll miss the DVD.

DO Blink so that you don't see the secret to this effect . . . and if you do blink, make sure you plug your ears too so you won't hear the trick.

The visuals on this effect are ok if you realize that you can't quite do it as openly as shown on the DVD. Secondly, if you're not careful, the gimmick will - literally - leap off the pack of cards. Thirdly, the gimmick talks. Finally, right at the magic moment when the card visibly changes from the Queen of Hearts to the Jack of Clubs you cannot let the spectator look too closely at the deck or the card.

The DVD quality is pretty poor . . . it's a 'burned' DVD rather than a 'pressed' DVD. This often causes problems with certain DVD players. I had to try it out on two players before it worked. Additionally, the menu was a pain in the neck. There are five sections with no 'Play All' button.

The segments are super short and go right back to the main menu after playing. So after each segment, you have to navigate the menu and click the play button. After watching each of the five segments one at a time and realizing that the entire DVD (including my navigation time) was only about 10 minutes, I was feeling a bit disappointed at how little material was on the DVD, but I noticed the 'sixth segment' called 'Other Effects.' I thought that maybe I'd get my money's worth by watching this section . . . maybe more ideas for the gimmick . . . nope . . . it was ads for other products.

Mr. Mason talks about how this product has been sold world-wide and that people constantly ask him if he's ever going to release a DVD about the gimmick. So finally he broke down and made this DVD. With that kind of a back story, I would have expected this DVD to be a comprehensive study of the gimmick, but nope . . . just basically two tricks . . . and tricks that are performed in the dryest manner possible with little more in plot than demonstrated how the gimmick works.

Just seeing the gimmick, I thought of a couple of ideas that I felt were better than what was shown on the DVD . . . ideas that used the gimmick in a different sort of way. My point is that with just a little bit of thought Mr. Mason could have given us a bit more meat.

However, if you like the effect on the preview and you perform in noisier environments and you don't mind that you can't easily let the deck or the card be examined, then this might be worth the $12.50 risk.

Final Status:
2 stars with a Stone Status of grubble (mostly rubble . . . teeniest bit of gem maybe lurking inside).