Win all of these!
Drawing on April 1st, 2024
Details

Hustle

Marcos, Juan

Murphy's Magic Supplies, Inc.

(Based on 1 review)
The 'monte' routine has been the preferred weapon of street hustlers for ages. Now, comes the ultimate card hustle with a twist that no one ever sees coming.

Juan Marcos brings you a packet routine in which the spectator must simply follow their selected card amongst a face down ring of seven cards. To make it simple, you turn their selected card face up to make it crazy-easy to follow. In a massive, unexpected twist, EVERY OTHER CARD has now turned to their selected card, and their original selection is now the only losing card in the game.

With only 7 cards in play, they are in full view of the cards face up and down before and after the performance. Audiences have NOTHING when they try to figure this out.

It's a can't-lose, diabolical swindle that will shock every audience you perform for Easy to learn, easy to do Instant reset No sleight of hand Live performances included Custom Bicycle gimmicked red Rider back cards includedYour ultimate hustle awaits. It's time to turn the monte routine inside out.

Reviews

Dr. J. M. Ayala De Cedoz

Official Reviewer

Feb 19, 2016

I have no idea what it is with Murphy's lately and their one-trick DVDs. They are falling into that trap of releasing things that are not particularly strong effects as a one-trick pony when it should have been included on a DVD (or in a book – remember those?) with other effects.

The production quality, the lighting, the sound and all that jazz are the usual top-notch quality, but that is all there really is to judge on this disc. There is no menu, there are no chapters and the whole shebang is only 15 minutes and 27 seconds long, and that includes "two" live performances. The trailer for this product shows you exactly what the effect is and nothing more, because there is nothing more. You also get the necessary cards for this effect which are typical Bicycle quality and you will need to supply a bit of something that you may already have and if not, most stores these days carry it for less than $3/USD.

The ad copy is not quite 100% accurate – they are not being deceptive but they took some bit of liberty with the wording. It states that there is "No sleight of hand" and "Instant reset". Neither one of those is true, although the sleights used are quite basic and even a practiced beginner should be able to do them, they are sleights nonetheless. As for the "instant reset", it is not instant; it does require you to do (actually, undo) something in order to reset it for the next performance, but it will only take two or three seconds to do.

That said the effect itself is not difficult to do in reality. Even beginners will find they can perform this (with proper presentation, of course) with relative ease. There is one move that is not angle-proof, but Chris Oberle teaches an angle-proof handling of the effect, albeit a tad discrepant. That discrepancy, with proper presentational skills, will fly by most people.

There is one slight nit-pick I have about the point where Chris is teaching the Buckle. He at one point called it "self-working" – it is not exactly self-working. It requires you to do something to cause it to happen, and it is one of those moves where the thing you do to make the buckle happen is not always covered properly (which Chris shows you how to do in this instance). I am not saying it is a hard move, but it is not "self-working".

Now I come to the point where I have a bit of a bone to pick with this effect. In the trailer, the "two" live performances and in the ad copy, they relate it to the classic street con called the Monte, which is usually performed with three cards, thus its common name of the Three Card Monte. This effect in no way actually resembles a Monte effect. In fact, this more closely resembles the Wild Card plot. They are using the Gypsy Curse (Wild Card) plot to play a game in the style (or under the guise) of a Three Card Monte. You show six Jokers and one Queen of Hearts and at the end, you have one Joker and six Queens of Hearts.

In a Wild Card effect, multiple cards change to match a leader card, of sorts. In a Monte effect, cards do not physically change; they merely change places and the odd card turns up where you least expect it. This is not a misleading thing, but it is something that I felt should be cleared up. Personally I feel that they could have given you a few other ideas for which to use these gaffs because the way I see it, the one (and the only one) that they teach is not the strongest thing you can do with the included cards.

Overall if you like what you see in the ad trailer you will probably not be disappointed. I would suggest looking into various handlings of the Wild Card plot to see where you could put the included cards to better use.

3.5 stars.
(Top ▲)