This is a fantastic trick! These have got to be some of the best routines you could possibly show a
spectator. Its taught really well. You'll especially appreciate his tips on card to pocket and the
timed cut force. Its also really easy. Its so easy, you can easily be performing this trick within 5
minutes of learning it. You could make the gimmick the first time in under a minute and cut that
time in half by the third or fourth time, although each gimmick should last you hundreds of
performances (with just an occasional 2 second touch up every hundred performances.
That being
said, Dave tried too hard to make this a new gimmick. The current gimmick is sort of reminiscent of
a Piff the Magic Dragon idea, although a hundred times easier to make). He could've left out ALL of
the cutting and the trick would have been identical, making the gimmick would take under 2 seconds,
it would be far less detectable assuming the cards were in good condition (and even if they were in
bad condition it would still not be more detectable as the routine prevents issues so well) etc. The
only reason I could guess why he didn't is to make pretend he had invented a new gimmick when in
reality the core idea for the gimmick is about four hundred years old if I remember my magic history
correctly.
That one gripe aside, these tricks really are phenomenal, every one of them. I really
like the idea for the smoke mark appearing on the back of the card that they signed and saw the back
of.
You will need to figure out how to SUBTLY make sure they lock in their head that they saw
the back of the card before it changes otherwise you might as well be doing the original version.
The card to mouth idea he did in performance is a great way of doing that. Although it wasn't taught
in the explanation, if you know it you should probably do it.
I was worried about this trick
making a lot of noise in my pocket during performance. I've tried it a couple of times, its not
noticeable and in the versions where he does the move in the open he explains how to cover the tiny
amount of noise.
In summary:
Pros: Very, very strong magic
Multiple great tricks
taught
Utility prop, so no limit to number of tricks that can be done with it.
Easy to make
Easy to perform
Virtually no angle issues
Examinable
End completely clean (standard
version)
2 second reset
Cons:
Not a new gimmick
Will probably not fool
magicians as advertised.
Being as those two cons don't actually matter in the big picture
I say "Buy this trick, you'll love it, and more importantly, you'll use it."