Cataclysm

For an "impromptu" prediction routine using playing cards, this is one incredible little effect. I would venture to say any laymen you perform this for would be completely blown away (though magicians might figure it out in a few minutes). This effect is versatile in that it allows you to play it either as a light-hearted routine, or a deeper Derrin Brown type mental effect.

Showing a perfectly shuffled deck, you show how each card has a different number on it. Ask three spectators to each choose a different card (or one spectator can choose all three, of course). As they choose the cards--no force on your part at all...they really are randomly and fairly chosen--you pull them out of the deck and lay them face up on the table. When you're finished, you show them a photograph from your pocket showing three facedown cards with numbers on them. As you flip the cards the spectators chose over, they show to be the same three numbers.

The routine is incredibly easy to perform with zero sleight of hand on your part. It resets in two seconds. It comes with the photographs and a DVD teaching you how to do everything. It also includes two other kickers if you already own a B.I.P. Book. The only thing you have to do is supply your own red-back Bicycle deck and number the cards with a Sharpie.

The only thing that keeps this from being the perfect effect is that you can't let them examine the deck afterward. I don't think anyone would think to though since you show the different numbered cards so freely.

With two minutes of practice, you are ready to perform this wonderful little miracle. It's a nice way for a card performer to introduce a little mentalism, or vice versa.

Til Death Do Us Part

I have a policy of never purchasing an effect that the creator refuses to show any part of it in the demo video. While they may tout the effect as "The most powerful effect you'll ever perform" or "The closer you've been waiting for", if they don't show it in the video that usually means it's so easy to figure out you can't even watch it once and be amazed. When I saw "Til Death Do Us Part", the demo video showed nothing more than glowing praise for how powerful it was. I went against my policy and bought it anyway.

I should have stuck with policy.

Even the back of the box doesn't tell you anything about the effect other than how incredibly powerful it is. Inside you find 10 old photographs of married couples, an envelope, the teaching DVD and the "gimmick". The routine takes about 5 minutes to perform from start to finish, and if you amaze anyone with it you've found the perfect audience for a D'Lite performance as a closer.

Hand the spectator a black envelope to keep for later. Then you show the spectator the photographs while letting them decide which one "gives off strong negative emotions". If they can't pick the right one, then do what they do on the video and magician's force them into it (it's so painfully obvious too). Tell this spooky tale about how the wife killed the husband and ask them to tear the photograph in half. She ripped out his throat, so tell them to tear the husband's photo in half again. Have them arrange the pieces on the table and then tell them to open the envelope.

The pieces match! Kind of.

Even in the demo video, the pieces do not match perfectly. They're close, but it's not like "Holy cow! It's the same!" It's more like "Yep, that's pretty much how you'd tear a photograph twice". This isn't amazing to anyone, and the storyline isn't compelling enough to make it seem remotely spooky. They call this a mentalism routine, but there's nothing mental about it. I think even Derrin Brown would flop with this one.

If you're doing this at a Halloween party with the right ambiance you might get a "Huh, that was weird" kind of reaction, but it's not "an effect that will stay with the spectator long after it's over" or anything.

I will give Alakazam points for including the PDF files here so you can make as many "gimmicks" as you need later on, but it's a minor thing for an effect of this price. I can pretty much guarantee you've already figured out how to do this and create this effect on your own just from reading my description. And now you know why they wouldn't show any of the performance online. Save your money and skip this one.

Freak!

This has to fall under the category of "Geek Magic" more than anything else, but if you're a fan of that sort of thing it works. In essence, you are making your finger do things it was never intended to do, and if you practice enough even those with strong stomachs will cringe.

I could only find one thing that I saw he could have instantly improved upon but chose not to for some reason. Meir Yedid's "Finger Fantasies" is credited here for the beginning of the routine (making the pinky finger appear to disappear into the hand), but Will takes the second part of the routine (a complete pinky vanish) into material that he created for the move. Unfortunately, it's the weakest part of the entire thing because it's instantly obvious to everyone what you're doing. Instead, he should have followed through with Yedid's second move in "FF" to accomplish the same thing in a much cleaner way. It can actually give a shock and awe moment just before you make it reappear. From that point on the routine is superb and very nice for a time when you don't have any magic on you and folks want to see something. If you want to really turn this into something that can go about five minutes or more, I would suggest getting "Finger Fantasies" and combining it with this. The combination is a natural. Finish this off with the "Arm Twist Illusion" (also available from Meir) and you can have a lot of fun with a spectator using no props whatsoever.

M.I.N.D. (Mentalism In New Directions)

If you're into mentalism, "M.I.N.D." is a great book to work with. It is a collection of Lee Earle's writings, along with a bonus CD that has a lot of nice extras on it. Lee does a nice job here of presenting a lot of different effects, and also of explaining the motivation behind them and updating some of his earlier stuff with a sentence or two of new handlings or thoughts.

Unfortunately, if you're not using a special clipboard prop Lee describes, the first section of the book might not mean a lot to you. It can be adapted to other types of readers that use carbon paper or the like, but the beginning of the book is geared that direction. Stick with it though, as there are a lot of great effects still to come in those pages.

Lee goes into detail about his billet work, and he makes an excellent case for its importance in mental magic. One effect he uses involving his photographs and different ladies from the audience leaving a kiss on them as he figures out who is who is particularly nice. The method isn't brand new, but his handling is great and I can honestly say I probably would never have caught it (he includes a couple of the photos in the text so you can see how it's done). His reasoning behind choosing this method rather than gathering items from the audience is especially sound in today's litigious society.

Earle's earlier work is actually some of his most versatile for the average performer. There are several headline prediction variations, and they each have a strength and weakness. I think this allows the individual performer to figure out what's best for him. Earle also includes everything you'll need to print out for some great performances involving fake stock certificates, headline predictions matching a seemingly innocent photograph, and handwriting samples.

The price is a little steep, but for the vast range of material it's a good investment, even for the beginning mentalist.

Frozen

If you watch the demo video for this, you're going to immediately freak out and think this is real magic. Hey, it's about as real as you could hope for! You borrow a spectator's quarter, and proceed to freeze it with your breath like Superman.

In theory this is one awesome effect. It's a lot better than the other "Frozen" effect out there that came out years ago (the signed coin appears in a block of ice in the magician's hand), but both fall victim to the same problem: impractical set-up.

This is not an effect you are going to do impromptu. As a matter of fact, there is a very tight window between setup and performance of the effect. You can't leave home thinking you'll do that trick today and wait an hour to actually try it. You've got at most 15 minutes to get it done after you set up, and that's pushing it. Adam Grace does give some pointers on packing it to go, but it's going to require fairly roomy pockets.

There is another setup he shows you that does allow you to do this the trick impromptu. Truthfully, I doubt he ever does this himself though. You might love the idea, but it didn't seem practical to me.

And finally the biggest problem: I've never gotten the effect to work. I use the exact same items he does on the video, I set them up the exact way he describes, and I've never had the effect work once. Forget 15 minutes, I'm trying it within 2 minutes of the set up and it still won't work. That may be just me, but I can't remember the last time I couldn't get an effect to work at all no matter what I tried.

You may get it and you may love it, but for me it's just too limited to be practical. I have to say though that if it works for you like it did on the video, you'll blow the spectator's mind.

Ghost Vision

I've been brutal to Andrew Mayne in the past, but as I've said before when he's made something good, it's really good. "Ghost Vision" is that "really good" effect. You borrow someone's cellphone and ask them to put it in video mode. With them watching with you, suddenly they see a ghostly form move across the screen. The beauty is that they have recorded it so they can show it to friends and others to prove what a supernatural time they had with you.

As you expect, this is an effect that will require a good deal of showmanship on your part. If you just say, "Hey, watch this!" it's going to be useless to you. If you incorporate it into a mysterious evening or spooky environment, you're going to do some serious damage to the spectator's sense of reality. This effect is easy to perform and it leaves the spectator with a lasting souvenir of the performance. It uses something perfectly normal--the spectator's cell phone--and gives them a moment of the surreal. There is only about 2 seconds of set-up you have to do, and it can be done while you're talking about the ghostly experiences you've had or heard of or whatever.

The effect also comes with ways to make a chosen card show up, and just a ghostly face if you want to go that direction. Whichever way you choose, this is definitely something that will set you apart from any other magicians your spectators may have seen before.

Pyro Perception

While the "make a blister on your finger" trick may be a little old, this effect puts a new twist in it. The spectator chooses a card, you bring out a lighter and proceed to light it up, "grab" the flame, and then show your fingertips to show them their chosen card.

The nice thing about this trick is that you can repeat it four times with different results. In truth, if the setup is right you can actually switch around the pips to get more combinations, but that will require a little more wiggle room when the spectator isn't watching you closely.

The gimmick is very well made and fits reasonably well in your pocket. You're better off putting this in your jacket pocket as it gives you more room to "do the magic", but if you wear loose pants you can make it work in your pants pocket as well. There is something special about the gimmick that allows you to pick the right card to blister simply by touch.

You need to be able to force a card, and above everything else you need to be able to sell what you're doing. Performance is key here. You're trying to push some supernatural event, so this needs to be a bit mysterious.

For the price, this is a nice effect that offers something different than the usual card trick.