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String Theory

Mendoza, Vince

Murphy's Magic Supplies, Inc.

(Based on 2 reviews)
String Theory by Vince Mendoza is a refreshingly new take on the Gypsy Thread concept that now allows that best moments to happen right in the spectator's hands.

When you take out a piece of string, your spectator cuts it into multiple pieces. They are in control. Pick up the pieces and place them in their hand. As you simply grab two of the ends and pull, the string visible heals itself in their hand. The pieces instantly mend IN THIER PALM.

This is what intimate magic is all about.

Over the course of 1.5 hour packed DVD, Vince Mendoza and Eric Jones will guide you through detailed performance explanations, simple setup, ins and outs, audience management, tips, tricks, troubleshooting & more. Magic happens in your spectator's hands. Great for strolling, close up or parlor. Spectator keeps amazing souvenir. Simple setup & pre-loading makes strolling & performing easy. Special string included to last many performances. Added bonus material, handlings and ideas from Eric Jones The healing of an object in a spectator's hands is one of the most powerful magic moments that you can share.

String Theory adds a new dimension to this striking moment that they will remember forever.

Reviews

Doc Johnson

Official Reviewer

Apr 03, 2015

PROS

This routine uses a very old method, but one that many magicians may not be aware of or may have forgotten. it uses the method in a unique way.

I personally found this DVD very inspiring. I love the visual of restoring the string right from the participant's hands.

The effect is not difficult to perform. it takes some setup beforehand, but you could set up for multiple performances. It takes very little pocket space. It can be done surrounded. The instruction quality was good.

CONS

I think this is a routine where you need to take the concepts that Vince presents and create your own routine to suit your character or style. in the Suggestions section I have included my idea for it's presentation.

VERDICT

I think this is a great option for the cut and restored or Gypsy thread type of routine. While this is not exactly like the Gypsy thread routine in method and handling, it lends itself to using a very inspiring storyline like Gypsy Thread.

Suggestions

I use three cut strings and a theme of "past, present, and future". You can create a very inspirational routine using this theme.

I also combine this with a strong card routine and then punch a hole in the card, write an inspirational quote on the card, sign and date it, tie the string to the hole and give it out to the participant as a souvenir that also doubles as an inspirational bookmark.
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Dr. J. M. Ayala De Cedoz

Official Reviewer

Mar 25, 2015

This product was really very frustrating to me, both as a performer and as a reviewer. They call it a version of the classic 'Gypsy Thread' but I challenge that idea. This effect is not really 'Gypsy Thread' at all as much as it is a 'Cut & Restored String'.

To get it out of the way, the production quality of this DVD was fantastic - great video and audio quality, the menu was easy to navigate and very well laid out. That said...

Some readers may not be familiar with either the classic 'Gypsy Thread' or a 'Cut & Restored String' so I will attempt to, briefly, explain the main differences.

GYPSY THREAD: Generally you remove a length of thread from a spool or some other sort of storage item/device, but not always. You generally use nothing but your hands and a single piece of thread. You break the thread with your bare hands, you separate all but one of the strands and roll them into a ball. The ball is then attached to the remaining single piece of thread where it hangs openly before you pull the ends apart and the thread restores visually and visibly, out in the open. In this classic effect, the restoration is done rather slowly.

CUT & RESTORED STRING: You generally use a thicker string for visibility that is usually too difficult to break with bare hands. Most performers will use scissors to cut (or allow the participants to cut) the string. Generally the strands are then gathered into a bunch and held by the performer, who then grabs two of the strands and quickly separates them to restore the string.

The method used here is not new, nor is it necessarily claimed to be new. It has appeared many times in print and two authors describing this immediately come to mind: U.F. Grant and Harry Blackstone Jr.

They claim that the setup for this effect is simple - far from it. The idea is simple, but actually doing it takes time and requires some extra "fingers" which just makes it complicated. Vince said that he can do a couple of complete setups for this method in 6 or 7 minutes and that only came with practice. For me, I can do almost triple the amount of Gypsy Thread setups in that amount of time, just to give you an idea.

So, it can take a while to set up but at the end of the day, does the method work? Yes, with a BIG caveat: You have to get the setup just right for it to work. No, this does not require precision in the same way a machinist would require it, but you do have to be careful because if just one of your loops, for lack of better term in trying not to give away too much, is out of place, it can screw up the whole restoration.

The other thing that bugs me is, due to the nature of the setup, you have to fiddle with the string a bit after the restoration to get it to lay flat or straight.

The string that comes with the DVD is good quality but for the life of me I cannot figure out who was possessed by the idea to keep it in a bundle with a sticker around its middle. I lost a bunch of the string just getting it out of the bundle because both ends were stuck firmly in a jungle of string to the sticker, as was a bunch of the string. I tried for over 20 minutes to carefully untangle the bundle before I had to just cut around the sticker in sections.

The string that they were using in the video looked just a bit different from what was included in the DVD case, but for all intents and purposes it was pretty much the same as far as structure. In the video they said that the string you receive with the DVD is too hard to break with your bare hands, but I had no difficulty doing that whatsoever.

There were a few issues I had with the ad copy. First as I already mentioned, they refer to this as a variation on the 'Gypsy Thread' but because there are so many elements of the classic effect missing from this one, I challenge that statement.

Second, they say that a spectator "...the string visibly heals itself in their hand." They must have a different definition of 'visibly' (which is misspelled in the ad copy as 'visible') because the bulk of the string is held inside their closed fist with only the ends sticking out of the fist. Even when you pull the ends of the threads for the restoration, it still happens inside their fist, NOT 'on their palm'.

The above point is the visibility part that I was talking about in comparing this effect with the standard Gypsy Thread and in my opinion, this is where it loses out to the Gypsy Thread. That is a personal opinion which will not affect the star rating because I already said that I do not consider this product to be a form of the 'Gypsy Thread'.

Lastly, I already mentioned the 'simple setup' issue. Again, it is anything but simple, but yes, it does work if you get it right.

They say that the special string included will last you for several performances but I am not sure that is the case - you are bound to waste a good chunk of it just getting the sticker off of it and if you to manage to save it all, you will certainly use quite a bit in setting up the effect for your first half a dozen tries. They make no mention of where to get replacement string when you do run out and at the time of this writing (March 24th, 2015) I have yet to see any major dealer offering replacement string for this effect.

There are some restrictions on where and when you can perform this effect because if you are using it for parlor or on a 3/4 surrounded stage, you are fine. For close-up you really have to watch your angles and if you intended to try this for strolling magic, you will have the same angle restrictions. It can be done if you think it out, but they "standard method" as discussed on the DVD will not work for the close-up and strolling performers all that easily.

There was something else that I just thought I would mention and it is just some sort of annoyance rather than anything critical of the product: A few times throughout the DVD Eric keeps saying to Vince Mendoza, "Phrasing..." after which the sentence stops or changes direction. Perhaps it was something I missed, but they say it to each other a few times and it had nothing to do with the effect or the script, but I had not a clue what they were talking about. At any rate, during those moments I almost felt like I was not "in" on a joke or something like that as I watched the explanations.

The last really big issue I have with this DVD is that the scripting that was used by Mr. Mendoza sounds oddly familiar as almost exactly the same script used by Shawn Farquhar in his "Thread of Life" presentation of the classic 'Gypsy Thread'. I cannot recall seeing or hearing any mention of credit to or permission from Shawn for this. If someone in the future can point me to it in case I missed it in the DVD, I will gladly retract this statement.

If you like what you see in the video trailer as far as the effect goes, you will like this. You may or may not be particularly enchanted with the method BUT it does work if you set it up right.

If you are looking for a take on the classic 'Gypsy Thread' effect, this is NOT it and the handling is quite different.

Final rating of 3 stars.

Suggestions

If you are looking for the classic Gypsy Thread effect, check out the World's Greatest Magic series of DVDs for the 'Gypsy Thread' DVD. There are some other non-L&L DVDs with some great handlings of it such as the Peter Samelson 'Heartstrings' (available from Bill Abbott or your favorite Murphy's dealer). Also, the 'Alien Concepts' DVD set by Anthony Asimov has a great variation (a variation in which he TRULY added something new to the effect) on the Gypsy Thread.
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