Magic Tricks

Wow.

This just be my most favorite Triumph yet. Yvan blew my mind with this as it’s a chaotically beautiful trick. It’s elegant yet so simple/hard/simple to do!

I love it. Oh, and I hate it.

Let me explain. No wait. No time. Let me sum up. (10 points to whoever gets the reference and places it in a comment)

First, what’s not to love? This is truly a mind blowing trick. To the spectator, the deck is a clear as day mixed up. It looks utterly impossible. For the magician, this is a nice Triumph for strolling as it can be done at chest height with no table. This will blow the mind of the most eagle eyed spectator. I love it!

Now... the hate. You have your work cut out for you. If you have intermediate skills with sleights or at least willing to practice, this certainly is doable. It’s not a knuckle buster. However, you need to practice. Quite a bit. No moves are terribly complicated... but oh need to be very familiar with the moves so that you can perform the entire sequence without missing a step or seeming too obvious. Ironically, for such a visibly sloppy looking presentation, there is a great deal of precision and deliberate control required. When you first start, you’re very likely to have to think and concentrate. This is not a trick that you wing. You need to practice until you can do it without staring at your cards or have to slow down your patter. Don’t show this trick until you are that comfortable. If you want to just get out there, this isn’t the trick for you. If you don’t mind putting in the effort, this brings me around to my original question: what’s not to love?

Ok, now for some q and a:

- Is this hard? Yes and no. See above.
- How is the teaching? It’s good. Not awesome, but good. Don’t get me wrong... Yvan is a freakin’ genius and it shows. But imagine trying to learn to paint from DaVinci. He would take for granted skills and talents that might not come so naturally to you. Unfortunately, this is the case with Yvan. He goes through the steps quickly. Yes, you can rewind it and yes, it’s worth the effort. But I do wish he slowed down a little instead of assuming that you were at least an intermediate level sleight of hand artist. When people say “just use your favorite x move”, I think that they should always at show one move for those who don’t know any moves. He does go through all the moves, but not in enough detail in my opinion for a beginner and even an intermediate possible. But again, even so, he does teach it sufficiently and you can indeed back it up over and over. I just wish he slowed down, maybe showed some other angles, etc.
- Gaffs, gimmicks, prep work, arts and crafts? Nope. You can do this with any borrowed deck instantly, on the spot.
- Do you end clean? You are slightly dirty just upon showing the triumphed deck. But clean up is quick and easy. The likelihood of being caught is very slim.
- Is this trick a keeper? Absolutely. Unless you’re lazy.
- Is this trick worth the price? Absolutely. Unless you’re lazy.

Take your time and learn this. You will be a better magician once you’ve mastered this and you will always have an impossible impromptu trick to do as long as there’s a deck of cards around.

What’s not to love/hate/love? 4.5 stars for a beautifully messy Triumph!

By the way, I always try to be honest and straightforward in my reviews, while being respectful to the magician. If you appreciate my reviews, can you please click the "Yes" button below beside the question, "Did this review help you?" It's not like I actually benefit in any way by your clicking it... but it would be nice to see if my reviews are helpful or not. I hope they are. If you ever have suggestions or comments or questions about my reviews, please feel free to leave me a constructive comment. I'm just trying to be helpful. I love the Penguin community and hope that I can someday contribute my own product. :-) Thanks for reading and for any (hopefully positive, but either way, at least kind) feedback.