Magic Tricks

First let me say that I really liked this trick because of the presentational concept and knew what I was getting when I bought I. Pre-purchase, I even googled the type of top used for the effect and saw that just with the price of the Dream Totem on Penguin, it was within close range to buying the top alone - making the top, high quality plastic card and ricks's video instruction a good value. (even more so if you used as part of the 5 for $99).

Now for those considering buying this trick you need to be aware that this is not an instant, no skill immediately works 100% of the time miracle like Under Wraps, Panic, etc, where all the effort is in the presentation for those tricks and not in the effects. And unless you're brain-dead, the presentation for those effects are super simple. That really is not the case for Dream Totem. Both the effect and presentation are going to take some effort.

Spinning a top seems simple, right? Wrong. Getting a top to spin in a very confined area, on different types of surfaces to spin the way you want with confident consistency will take lots of practice.

Like most tricks you will need to tailor make the presentation to your style and in this case, your audience's movie knowledge. Inception was a great movie, but not a culture defining one like Star Wars or the Matrix.

Be aware of the following:

1) You cannot hand the Dream Totem out afterwards. And, in casual settings, spectator's want to play with it. And, why not? It's a top! It would have been super cool if someone created a version of the top that just worked like a normal top, that could be swapped out afterward.

2) I do not consider this a pocket trick. A pocket trick is a deck of cards, a hot rod, Powerball 60 that can be used impromptu under all conditions. Dream Totem requires a table, and one that will require a large surface area if you can't control the spin. Also, the top does not spin well on certain surfaces, like plastic or cloth tablecloths.

3) You're going to really need to sell this trick with presentation. What makes this trick special are the props PLUS presentation. This is different than Matchbox Mystery where if you didn't say squat it's still pretty cool.

4) The top itself is not completely an unusual item exclusively used for magic. The spectator is half a google a way from learning about the top's secret.