talkmagic.co.uk

The Effect

A card is freely chosen by the spectator and signed. It is lost in the middle of the deck and the deck is shuffled. The deck is then secured by a rubber band. Then deck is thrown against the ceiling and the spectators card sticks while the secured deck falls back to the ground.

Cost

$12.95 - Palmer Magic

Difficulty
(1=easy to do, 2=No sleights, but not so easy, 3=Some sleights used,
4=Advanced sleights used, 5=Suitable for experienced magicians only)

Anywhere from 1-4. See Below.

Review

This is really a nice simple trick. It gets good reactions but the documentation has a lot to be desired. His explanations are brief and some of his meathods he describes are weak. 90% of the trick is executing 1 move. There are many ways to do this move, but the better you execute this move the better the trick will be. He recommends a specific sleight in his docs BUT DOESN'T MENTION HOW TO DO IT. Instead he offers a very basic way to perform the move, but it is so weak it would really hurt the presentation. You would be better of to create your own patter.... again I find it weak. I have found by changing the patter sleightly that I add enough misdirection to give the trick an entirely different feel and more of a surprise ending.

The docs include a variation for putting the deck in the box instead of securing it with a rubber band, and tossing a coin to the ceiling.

Other than that it is priced well and it is a quality product.

Overall

7 w/o seights and standard patter
8.5 with good slight and different patter (not included)

The book may not be good (I haven't read it) but Michael Ammars routine for the card on ceiling is one of the strongest around. I saw him do this some time in the mid to late 80's and I still haven't seen a better presentation. Having been using his presentation and method for the best part of the last 20 years I can safely say that far from being weak it is extremely strong. All you need is a good cull and you are basically set. The book may not be very good but he did a lecture at Davenports in the 80's and I'm fairly sure they made a video of the lecture. It would be well worth getting hold of the lecture video if Davenports still sell it as it contains his card on the ceiling, $100 bill switch, Cups and Balls and some other great stuff. Not sure what they will be charging for the vid if they still do it but I can safely say that it will be worth every penny.

Mark

This IS a great trick. There are no two ways about it. The reactions it gets are a pure joy to behold.

However, I wouldn't buy it as a one off trick in this format, I would buy (and indeed did) Easy To Master Card Miracles Vol.5 where it is very well explained and demonstarted along with all the other ETMCM on the same DVD.

This is good to know. The docs that came with this trick were only 2 photocopied sheets. With a video or a more in depth presentation in ETMCM5 this could be fabulous. I have not seen the DVD nor that volume so I cannot say, however. But this trick does get great reactions. I would love to see the DVD or book to get some more great ideas.

Cheers,
WT