TITLE: Ten by Richard Sanders
Effect: Two jokers are placed in a spectators hands. Two
jokers are kept in the magician's hands. With a simple wave of the hand all four cards change into
10s.
Price: $11.25
Teaching: The manual that comes with the trick is very
well put together. The instructions are clear and to the point and at no point in time while
learning the trick did I feel that anything could have been done better. I read through the manual
once and was doing the trick in no time. Within only a few minutes after that I was showing the
trick to my wife. It's really that simple to learn. I was a bit surprised to see that this effect
does NOT come with a Penguin how-to video. It seems like a trick that would be perfect for one of
those, as it wouldn't be a very long video and the visual learners might have a better time watching
Oz or Jay perform the trick than reading about how to do it in a manual. With that said, I still
think the manual is easy enough to follow that even someone that prefers to learn through videos
wouldn't have any problems with the manual.
Quality of materials: The cards are good. They
look like every other card. The one that is gaffed is very nice, as well. It is printed well and the
actual gimmick is very hard to notice even when you are looking directly at it. The trick also comes
with one of those standard packet trick case things. It's black plastic with the inside
compartments. I like keeping my packet tricks in these when I'm not using them, so the fact that it
comes with one is nice.
Difficulty: Performing this trick is extremely simple. There
aren't any difficult sleights that are required and the trick is pretty much self working. I was
literally doing the trick within a few minutes of opening the package. I think that pretty much any
magician would be able to perform this trick. It's 99% angle proof. Basically unless you are
performing it where people could look up at the bottom of the cards, you're not going to have to
worry about angles.
Applications: Being that it's a card trick it's obviously best used
for close up situations. Restaurants would be good, street work, busking...pretty much anywhere that
you can do close up. You do not need a table to be able to do this trick, it can be done entirely in
your hands and the spectator's hands. The trick's reset does require a few seconds and it would be
best done out of sight. I don't think it's absolutely necessary to do it out of sight, but I do feel
that it would be for the best. Also, I have to say this, the trick is nearly impossible to keep in a
situation where it is ready to go right out of the packet case or right out of a deck of cards. I am
finding with this trick that it's best to have it all set up and ready to go before you get started
because of the fact that the trick can't store in a state that is ready to go.
In Closing:
I feel that this trick is one that, like many tricks, relies very heavily on your presentation. I
will be honest, I found the reveal at the end of the instructions to be incredibly boring. I tried
the trick a few times with that reveal and got just ho-hum reactions. It's like people KNOW that the
cards are going to do something, so just tapping the cards together and revealing that the jokers
have changed to tens doesn't seem very amazing at all. I found that people were just kind of like
"Oh, okay...that was neat."
So what I've been doing with the trick is working a different
reveal. After the entire routine up to the point where I'm just about to reveal that the four cards
are tens I use this patter: "Now, magic is supposed to be fun. It's supposed to make people smile.
That's why I've handed you those jokers and why I've kept two for myself. But what a lot of people
don't know about magic is that half of the performance is all in the hands of the spectators. And as
far as spectators go, on a scale of 1-10, I think you guys are a good solid..." and as I say that I
reveal the two cards that I have in a different and more visual manner than what is given in the
book, and they are both tens. I then tell them to go ahead and look at their cards, and they see
that they have two tens as well.
I then take all four cards, and even though they can't be
given to a spectator for inspection, I SHOW them both the front and back of each card. Done
correctly, it is virtually impossible to spot the trick and everyone I have done it for has been
satisfied that the four cards I have left are in fact four tens.
This reveal has gotten
MUCH better reactions than the one that was demonstrated in the manual, and I think it plays better
especially with my personality and the way I perform. Obviously, for you it might be completely
different.
With all of this said, I feel that Ten by Richard Sanders is a fairly solid
effect. For $11 it's a good trick, and I am getting more out of it now that I have come up with
my own reveal. It's not my favorite packet trick...I still enjoy Strange Travelers and Twisted
Sisters more...but it's a good effect. Not a perfect ten (har har, get it??? ), mind you, but good.
1 of 1 magicians found this helpful.
I wouldn't say this is quite a 10, but it is definitely an 8. This is a highly visual little packet
trick. You won't be disappointed in your purchase. If you really like this or think you might, then
go ahead and skip this and buy Richard's Super Cards DVD. This trick is on that DVD. If you perform
this quite a bit then the gimmick will wear out. The Super cards DVD shows you how to make your own
gimmick, so I would recommend that DVD rather than getting the trick