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Details

Trick Photography

Gore, Steve

(Based on 2 reviews)
There are lots of i-Phone tricks out there, mainly apps, but we think we have the best trick ever!

This trick is perfect for all magicians, equally at home on the street or as a stand-alone close-up routine for mix and mingle performers. This DVD features 5 routines using freely selected playing cards, bank notes, credit cards and even a borrowed driving license! All are easy to do and explained in intricate detail by the creator Steve Gore. Alongside is magician Shaun McCree asking all the right questions to ensure you learn this superb piece of magic almost immediately.

Best of all, you don't even need to own an i-phone to perform this trick... just borrow one! (Works on all i-phone models).

CONTENTS INCLUDE:

Stick em Up
Imagine having a card selected from a regular deck, signed and then ripped in two, one piece to be kept by the spectator. A sticker is now stuck to the back of the playing card and the name of the card is written on the it for all to see. The magician now BORROWS ANY I-PHONE and takes a photo of the selected card on the SPECTATOR'S HAND, captured forever in their phone.

NOW FOR THE AMAZING PART!
The magician takes the card and shows the back containing the sticker. He now places a lighter flame over the card and magically the letters now morph into the word gone. When the card is turned around it is now BLANK. The card really has vanished!

The magician explains that the only proof their card ever existed is inside their phone on the photograph taken a minute earlier. Taking the phone he rips the card from the photo into 3 dimensional reality, leaving just an empty hand on their phone! They match the card with the piece that was torn from it and it matches! The magician now gives then their phone back with a lasting and memorable souvenir!

Killer presentation, little pocket space needed, no need for envelopes. Re-usable gimmicks!

Gone with the Force
The original knockout presentation. A card is chosen, signed, torn, photographed on a borrowed i-phone and then cleanly placed into a small envelope. The name of the chosen card is written clearly on the front of the envelope and then sealed inside. A lighter is now waved over the card name on the front of the envelope and mysteriously the name changes to the word GONE! The envelope is opened by the spectator and the card has indeed vanished!

The magician now picks up the borrowed phone and magically rips the photographed card out into 3 dimensional reality. The card and phone are given back to the spectator to keep as a memorable souvenir.

A knockout, original presentation with east reset. The force really is strong!

Freely Gone
Any card, not forced, signed and torn with an added spooky vanish!

Cashed out
Using borrowed signed bill, banknote, credit card or even driving license, who needs cards!

When I'm calling you
Using a stack of your business cards, a pen and a lighter...That's it... And a spectators phone, who will be calling you afterward!

Comes with full instructional DVD with 5 routines, Envelopes, blank Bicycle Playing Card, Labels and a special pen.

Running Time Approximately: 1hr 28min

Reviews

Joe Diamond

Official Reviewer

Apr 30, 2012

While this effect has a lot going for it, there are so many hinky moments in the routine, that is seems more like an early version of a much better routine. There is also so much going on with this effect, that it’s next to impossible to explain what the effect is later. I know because I tried explaining it to a friend after watching the DVD, and I could not remember the exact series of events.

The amount of unnatural moments in this routine is staggering. This ranges from the obvious moment of taking a second picture of their hand, to tearing the card for no reason, to a sloppy shuttle pass of the torn card, and the transparent move of him loading the card under the phone. While I’m sure many lay audiences won’t catch all these moves, there are just too many of them in this routine.

People also know about the technology and properties of the iPhone used to create the magic moment, so I’m sure most people will perceive this as you being clever with an iPhone, and not a magic effect.

Finally, the performance is less than compelling, and the explanation is dry, so it doesn’t make you care to learn this at all. I’m sure there is a clear, impossible effect with an iPhone out there somewhere, but this is sadly not it.

One Star
(Top ▲)

Jeff Stone

Official Reviewer

Dec 19, 2011

It looks like I've been heard again . . . or it's just an amazing coincidence. For $30.00 you get:

  • A DVD with 90 minutes of performance and Instruction (5 routines)

  • Envelopes

  • Blank Faced Card

  • Labels

  • Frixion Pen



So the price is good, but is the effect? In a word, yes. In many words:

The basic concept is that part of a digital photograph on a borrowed iPhone is magically removed from the iPhone. Imagine you take a picture of the spectator holding her credit card using her iPhone. Then you make her physical credit card vanish. Then you show the picture on her iPhone of the credit card in her hand. Grab the iPhone and remove the credit from the image leaving behind only a picture of her empty hand. Remember, this is her iPhone.

It cannot be performed surrounded, and some of the effect require quite a bit of stuff to carry around. In some cases it almost seemed like the effect was all about how many extra props could be added to the effect. Personally, I would drastically streamline the handling and performance and props needed. However, one of the more prop-intensive effects does facilitate a really cool visual vanish of the playing card, so it might be worth it to carry around the extra stuff, but my guess is that I would still leave out most of the props.

The only other thing I would critique on this is the lack of crediting. The Frixion pen has been used quite a bit now (and had been as of the date on Gore's DVD - October 2010). Many, many magicians have used this pen. A handful (including myself) have published books and/or DVDs that are dedicated entirely to the Frixion pen. In my offering alone, there is a pretty comprehensive (though not complete) history of the Frixion pens magical background. That was published almost 2 years before this DVD, and most of the other works were published long before that, so even just a nod to a few other magi who've used this concept would've been appropriate. In any case, my book and DVD would have been a good resource to use for background or even just a quick query on the magic forums would have turned up something.

That aside, this is a solid effect, and it doesn't have to use the Frixion pen. There are many ways to apply this idea; Gore merely scratches the surface. The explanations and performances are well done and very clear and thorough. The nice thing about this is that you can truly have nothing on you, and borrow a dollar bill and an iPhone and do this effect. The only thing you'd have to have is a good bill vanish. Gore teaches a good bill vanish using an envelope. So if you wanted to carry some envelopes - they require some pre-show prep - then you can do the vanish taught on the DVD, but if you already can vanish a bill with no special props, then you can do this effect 100% impromptu with borrowed objects . . . that's killer.

You can do it totally impromptu with just about any small object that you can vanish and that will fit in the palm of the spectator's hand:

  • Coin

  • Dollar Bill

  • Credit Card

  • A Stick of Gum

  • A Recently Detached Lizard Tail

  • You Get The Idea



Final Verdict: 3.5 Stars with a Stone Status of Gem.
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