As has become the "norm" in the magic industry, trailers for magic tricks are highly-produced and
highly-edited clips that give the sense of an effect without actually showing you the full
performance.
Sadly, when I received the effect, I understood why. The full-length
presentation (provided in the tutorial) is painful to watch. The handling is completely unnatural.
I lost count of the number of "moves" that have no motivation at all (other than making the trick
work). And, even then, the performance was still highly edited.
I'm giving it 2 stars
because the actual physical objects you receive are well-made and well-designed. Unfortunately,
mine will likely stay in a box with countless other unused magic tricks that turned out to be
grossly different from what was presented before the sale.
Maybe I'm naive but I expected
more with Paul Harris' name on it. Disappointing to say the least.
33 of 35 magicians found this helpful.
I luckily did not buy this but my friend did and he did the trick to me - the REAL trick, from start
to finish... and I figured it out. Which tells it all .. really...
He was pissed for buying this
trick and I will tell you what I told him - it's YOUR fault !
Why ? Because you can see the
trailer is fully edited - and you do NOT see the trick from start to finish - and that's always a NO
NO.
If you chose to buy a trick that is afraid to show a real full performance - from start to
finish - that's on you !
There's obviously a reason for that... they are afraid you're going to
figure it out if you see the entire performance. Now think, Sherlock... what does say about the
trick ?... exactly !! :)
19 of 21 magicians found this helpful.
As a fan of a lot of Paul Harris' effects, I bought this effect based upon the trailer, which shows
an astonishing, almost impossible reveal.
In actuality, the trailer omits most of the
moves that are necessary to pull this off. Quite frankly, most of the moves are quite unnatural and
lack proper motivation, and--if performed as explained in the tutorial--should be quite easy for
even a layperson to bust.
The biggest omission from the tutorial is that the whole kicker
is couched inside a fairly bland "pick a card" routine that doesn't really feel connected to the
reveal.
That said, it's not all bad. The gimmick is clever and well-constructed, and it
has the potential to be a real stunning reveal with a little work. You also get a lot of video and
printed material for this effect.
Contrary to what is suggested in the video, I do not
think this is strong enough to be performed as a stand-alone effect or as a closer by itself. Maybe
the kicker would have more impact if you ask someone to pick a word, do the pick-a-card routine,
insert some other effects in between, and then, as almost an afterthought, go back to the wallet
that's been sitting in full view throughout, and deliver the big reveal.
All in all, the
gimmick has potential if you're creative, but expect to put a little work into making it your own
before adding it to your routine.
15 of 15 magicians found this helpful.
I do not normally write bad reviews but I felt this one needed to be written. A major portion of the
effect/routine is completely missing from this trailer. If the supplied routine is that amazing why
not show it in all its glory? The effect actually taught is... I have a prediction here. Think of
any three or four letter word. Have one? Now select a card and we'll loose it in the deck. After a
drawn out sequence the card is found and then the prediction is revealed to be the thought of word.
Please take a moment and think about this as any performer should. What does thinking of a
three or four letter word have to do with finding a spectator's selected card? That's right...
absolutely nothing.
Even as a part time professional I want the material I perform to
matter, to have a premise and reason behind the things I say and the actions I use to create an
experience for those watching. In its current state this routine is simply disjointed, IMHO.
The supplied gimmick is of good quality and the prediction reveal can be made to be something
truly amazing and meaningful for your spectator, but be prepared to spend a lot of time
brainstorming and creating something new and original in the form of a routine to use it in. The one
taught to you will not bring about those results for you. I'm sorry, I'm just being completely
honest with you.
14 of 15 magicians found this helpful.
This gets two stars for the fairly clever nature of the gimmick. And it appears to be decently made.
But the full presentation and the teaching for this trick is nothing short of awful. Because of what
you have to go through to get to the reveal, the impact of the trick is greatly diminished. The
“trick” used as a means of getting setup for the true trick/reveal makes this trick convoluted to
say the least. This is poorly performed, poorly taught and impractical to say the least. Maybe I can
offload mine for half price so I’m not out the full price; because I definitely won’t be using this
one. My advice: Hard pass on this one.
8 of 8 magicians found this helpful.
First I’ll start with the good. The actual gimmick is fantastic and loaded with potential beyond the
effect provided. A little imagination and creativity and there are a lot of directions you could
take this one.
Now the bad; the routine provided is in my opinion, embarrassingly bad. I
can’t imagine ever performing this as presented. Don’t get me wrong, I think the idea of having the
spectator name a word is great, it’s just the steps you have to take to prepare as provided in the
tutorial are terrible and I would never use them. Also I find it rather annoying that although the
promo shows the reactions of some real world performances, those uncut real world performances are
not included in the tutorial. Instead we get a single performance for an off-screen spectator (who
is probably doubling as the cameraman) in what looks to be a semi-finished basement. Baffled as to
why those real world performances were not included since so much value can be gathered from that.
Bottom line this one loses a star because I disliked the tutorial and set-up trick so much.
It still gets 4 stars though because it’s a great prop which I have no doubt will be fantastic after
applying some of my own creativity toward it. Had Penguin had the go-ahead to give their own
tutorial (with maybe some thinking from let's say….Rick Lax) under the MyPenguinMagic section for
those who purchased this, my guess is I would’ve given this the full 5 stars.
8 of 9 magicians found this helpful.
The overall concept was intriguing. However, the routine as it is taught in the video was very
unsatisfying. I would have to create a different routine around this effect if it is going to work
in live performance. The video quality was poor. My gimmick was also very poorly made. It is
frustrating when you spend good money on a bad trick.
4 of 4 magicians found this helpful.
1-video trailer is fake 2-quality Gimmick is poor 3-you can not do this if you are surrounded by
people 4-idea to push the card from the spectators is stupid 5-what you receive is nothing
special...and this trick remind me Tool by David stone which is 10 time much better...
4 of 4 magicians found this helpful.
It took me a Long time to locate the link and password for instructions, which was printed INSIDE
the box the props came in. I had to destroy the box eventually to find it. They had a slip of paper
which told me to 'discard the half card.' Why couldn't they tell me where to look for the password,
or getter yet, just put the info needed on the slip or paper so I wouldn't have to destroy the box?
The biggest beef was with the wallet. It was so shoddily made for the price. The Joker was
glued into the sleeve. It took me 10 minutes with a small screwdriver to release the card. There is
no much excess glue that the Joker will not slide easily (not even less easily) in and out of the
sleeve. This completely defeats the purpose for which the prop was intended.
Paul Harris'
"Anything Deck' is a brilliant concept, and I have been through every iteration and "improvement."
This would be a nice way to perform it in a less formal setting, but for me, the best version by far
is still "Say Anything" by Matt Baker, which is on his Penguin LIVE ACT download. I have used it in
dozens and dozens of formal close-up shows in clubs and cruise ships.
I can use Deep Clear
with my alternate handling where the cards appear inside the card case which has been on the table
the whole time. Unless I get a replacement wallet, it's pretty much garbage.
I would give
this a very high rating if not for the extremely poor quality control.
2 of 2 magicians found this helpful.
Don't know why I bought it. I'm a sucker for falling for the trailer and lesson is learned. I love
paul harris but this is honestly one of the worst effects I have ever bought, if not the worst... I
can't see myself ever performing this in the real world, absolutely horrible for angles, nothing is
examinable, the gimmick is the only good thing but without a solid effect to go with it, it is
useless to me. The whole presentation of the effect taught is counter intuitive to the gimmick, it's
a mess of a presentation and I think any spectator with a brain will be able to figure it out by
just thinking about it for a minute. The plunger move is pointless and the " finding your finger
print" doesn't make enough sense to why your doing this whole complicated and unimpressive plunger
move. I just had to express my honest feelings regarding this because I felt cheated and I don't
want someone that thinks the trailer is amazing to feel the same way... Still love PH and all he has
done for magic but this was just simply... disappointing.
2 of 2 magicians found this helpful.