Magic Tricks

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.