Magic Tricks

This is a tough review to write. I can describe this trick simply as "Impromptu Osterlind's Design Duplication System," and those of you who are familiar with ODDS will know what this thing is about and how it works. For those of you who aren't, Richard Osterlind's routine is an old one from his repertoire. He taught it on one of his Penguin Live lectures. Essentially, it's a completely unusual design dupe that doesn't rely on the usual methods.

Messina completely acknowledges that his routine is a variation on Osterlind's. Well, is it an improvement? Yes and no. The pro is that you can do it completely impromptu. The cons are that the impromptu version is much more scary to perform and will require a lot of practice if you are not good with the underlying method. The other con is that Osterlind limited the universe of possible drawings so that the drawings would be closer in detail. Messina's wide-open approach leaves that to chance.

Overall, this is some good thinking and certainly worth your time, especially if you are someone like me who loves and does ODDS all the time. For someone who knows ODDS, however, this isn't worth $29.95, more like $10. And for someone who doesn't know ODDS, you really should try that out first.