Like many, I marveled at Eric Chien's FISM act, and so I was very excited at the prospect of
purchasing one of the gimmicks that made his act famous. Yes, I would get a cool gimmick, but above
all, I was really looking forward to some of his insights in the tutorial. What I received is
technically what is advertised, but for $55, I don't think the value adds up.
First off, in
the box, you get a single gimmick, fairly well-made, as well as materials if you want to make
another similar card.
The included tutorial link doesn't work. As in, it takes you to a
404 page. I had to scrub the forums on another site just to find the link (it's password-protected,
so you can't just stumble upon the actual video).
The tutorial itself is very
disappointing. It's nearly an hour, but that entire hour consists of a brief description of the
gimmick, and then 45 minutes on how to construct a new one. Only at the end does he give some
pointers on presentation, and there's not much beyond discussing lighting and angles.
He
then demonstrates briefly how to activate the gimmick in the hands or on the table, but there is
very little else in terms of how to make practical use of the gimmick. I wasn't necessarily
expecting a ready-made act, but I would have appreciated some more insights into using this in a
performance.
A few more things to consider. This is not appropriate for strolling or
close-up. You will need to manage your audience to a certain degree, and the lighting and angles to
a great degree. This is also very similar to a DIY color change gimmick that Shin Lim described a
while ago, but I do think this one potentially looks less suspect. It should also be said that this
will not allow you to COMPLETELY change the color of the card in full view, so you will still need
to do some sort of move if you want to complete the effect.
All in all, this is a decent
gimmick, and I think it could have some nice utility when added to some of your other routines.
But, for me, it's something I may play with now and then, but I can't see tempting fate by trying to
do this with my audience right on top of me.
Very cool, but...
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