Random I-Tunes Song of The Moment: Unchained Melody by The Righteous Brothers

This is joke, right? That's the questions I kept asking myself while I was watching the DVD. I really was having a hard time believing that someone would put this on the market. For your $35 bucks you get an extremely gaffed deck that cannot be examined . . . along with a gaffed card box, that might (but probably not) be examinable, 8 minutes and 41 seconds long instructional DVD. Yes; I timed it. By the way, included in that 8 minutes and 41 seconds is a 2 minute and 8 second long teaser for the product that you already purchased. Also, you get 50 seconds of credits rolling at the end. So of the 8 minutes and 41 seconds, nearly a full 3 minutes is credits and trailers, leaving you with just over five and half minutes of "useful" DVD time.

"Useful" is very subjective here. First, this deck can only do one trick . . . "you pick a card, and I'll tell you what it is." Um . . . I can do that with a borrowed deck. Oh . . . and did I mention that half of the cards are totally gaffed and therefore cannot be chosen by the spectator. So the spectator doesn't even have the freedom of picking ANY card like they would with a borrowed deck.

Further, The ad copy says, "In the fairest way, while your back is turned, the spectator selects a card." . . . nope . . . your head is turned - not your back, and you still have to handle the deck. In my mind, if it were "the fairest way," the spectator would be able to handle the deck or use their own deck. This is one of those deals where you'll likely fool your magician friends for a few seconds until they say, "let me see the deck." If you're even a half way decent performer, you can accomplish the exact same effect with a completely normal, borrowed, shuffled deck of cards.

This is the effect that everyone knows . . . the spectator picks a card and the magician tells him what it is. Sure the method is sneaky, but so are the the 10,000 other ways that this has been written up in as many magic books. Plus you're not stuck carrying around an extra deck that can't do anything else but one effect. Amongst the ad copy you'll find this "selling points:"

• No Force
• No Magnets
• No Markings
• No Memorized Deck
• No Stacked Deck

Magnets? Really . . . for a pick a card trick!?

As for the other things listed, No Force, No Marked Decks, No Memorized Decks, No Stacked Decks . . . it's too bad it doesn't use any of those because all of those are superior methods to the one you'll waste your $35 bucks on if you get this effect. Everyone one of those methods can be examined, handled by a spectator and be used for thousands of other things.

Final Verdict:
half star with a Stone Status of total rubble.