“Whatever your situation is, I hope you get out, I hope you perform, and I hope that when you see a mic open that, you get up to it and start singing your song”.

The above ending statement by Carl Irwin pretty much sums up this project. This routine is not filled with earth-shattering ideas, but rather has simple -and hence, very good – tricks, added up to a routine for you to perform ready “out of the box”.

The selling points of the routine, to my mind:
- All the tricks -and indeed, whole routine- can be done a shuffled deck in use, of any condition.

- Selections are made in non-classical ways (naming a card openly or thinking of one).

- No overt sleights beyond basic false shuffles. In other words, the routine will work with a deck of any condition, even if not full.

- Its quite modular. No matter where you finish, you will finish strong and better than where you left off.
- You can change into sleights that you’re comfortable with, deck allowing.

Things to note:
- To perform as explained, you will need a surface of some kind (no close-up pad needed). Except for the closer “Hay Stack”, all the routines can be adopted in some fashion to be in the hands or just a very small surface. You can adopt all of them, depending on how much card magic you have experience with.

- As you can tell from the ad copy, the tricks and routine is based on impossible coincidences, It feels more cerebral magic rather than visual. Not that is a good thing or a bad thing, just something I’m noting for you.

- The ACAAN’s here follow what Carl names as an ACAAN. In other words, these are not “named then dealt to” per-say but are Carl believes they effectively (and I agree) perceived as any card that could be anywhere in the deck. Deja-Vu may fool magicians.


Finally, I believe I need to emphasize this: This is a routine that is cerebral in nature where the entertainment value really comes from live spectators do all sort of impossible coincidences themselves without an overt influence from the performer. No matter how much the performer tries -Carl Irwin in this case-, routines like this simply don’t translate well to the screen. Performing magicians know this, however, the demographic the project aims to help motivate to perform may not. I worry they may discard the routine quickly upon viewing it, particularly since the performance section is done without spectators or magic-trailer-like explosions. I highly suggest trying it at least a couple of times before you do, even if to yourself.




Review summary:
Effect: A routine of coincidences that progresses from a single simple chosen card, to multiple, then named ones, then finally to a thought of card.

Method: Solid simple methods that are time-tested and process-free, with some added twists that you may already be familiar with, depending on your knowledge of card magic.

Ad copy integrity: 100% true, though keep the ACAAN description in mind as above.

Product quality: Well-shot video by Carl Irwin, with time-stamps (THANK YOU).

Final thoughts:
- If you are a performer: this a real-world routine with non-classic material (i.e. ACR or “pick a card”), feels hands-off (though isn’t, in a good way), done under any condition, plays well to enough people that can view cards. In other words, this is a card “a Guerrilla-act” -to use a Jeff Mcbride term- as long as you have a deck of cards & a small surface. And it's for 10$. Honestly, a no-brainer.

- If you are someone who wants to perform, I very highly recommend this. This is a safe & atypical routine that gets your feet wet into performing to people.

- If you are someone who’s interested in ideas and quirky twists more so than straightforward forward performable material, then I won’t recommend this.

5 stars.

I've followed Thew common Magician on YouTube for years now and this guy is a hidden gem. Selfishly, I hope he remains hidden on Youtube because he is a mine of wonderful methods that we who are not professional can access and utilise. My other hero is Dani DaOrtiz. The best review I can give for Open Mic is that it wouldn't be out of place in anything that DaOrtiz would release. You don't need finger busting methods to perform entertaining magic. Simple sleights performed in the open with the right psychology can be wonderful. This is a steal.

Intelligently constructed and clearly explained. A celebration of discrepant moves.