Steven Blair`s blog of magic & life

Hello people of the interwebs its Steven back again with yet another blog post. This post is going to be 100% aimed at magicians so apologies in advance to my non magician readers.

So what exactly is this blog going to be about?Well when I started this blog I wanted to share stuff with magicians with that being performance videos of magicians I look up to, advice on making magic better or reviews of products I have bought recently.
Well today I will be doing a magic product review of a product that I was sent via email by the creator to review. This view will be 100% honest.

Name of product:
Easy to Execute card trickery four by J. JACK

Price: 
$8 or £5.50

Available from:
http://shufflethedeck.weebly.com/etect4.html

Quick Description:
SIX PRACTICAL AND IMPROMPTU CARD TRICK

Tralier: No trailer

Quality of the PDF: The quality of the PDF is really good however there is one or two minor spelling mistakes but thats not to bad that it makes the PDF unreadable. there are also a few photos and diagrams. These photos & diagrams that are used in the PDF are really well shot but there could be one or two more photos to make the PDF not only look better but make the learning of the effects a little easier. 7/10


What effects are in the PDF?:

The following section will be split into 4 sections for each trick.

1. Name of effect.

2. Description of effect

3. My honest opinion on the effect

4. Rating out of 10


Name of effect:
Impromptu Observation Test with Aces

Description of effect:
Two red aces transform into two black aces. Stunningly, the red aces then appear out of nowhere.

My honest opinion on the effect:
At first I wasn’t really a fan of this trick but after trying it out for a friend who I was hanging out with she seemed to enjoy it. I then tried this out for a group at a wedding and they seemed to like it. I am still unsure of this trick but laymen seem to enjoy it. I have since looked up Nick Trost`s version and I would say I do prefer this version of the nick Trost one but as I have said I am not sure if I like this one.

Rating out of 10:
5/10 laymen seem to like it but I am undecided



Name of effect:
Random Thot Expanded

Description of effect:
The spectator cuts off about half of the deck. He deals as many cards as he wants from the cut-off portion into a pile. He looks at the last card dealt, places the card back on the pile face down, and places the rest of the cut-off portion on top of the pile. While this is being done, the card expert turns away. After the spectator is finished, the card expert gives the pile several shuffles. When the card expert picks up the pile, he has no idea of where the noted card is. The noted card is then discovered in short order.

My honest opinion on the effect:
This trick is very procedural and anyone who knows my thought on magic will know that I can’t stand tricks with dealing, counting and loads of instructions. With that being said I performed this in a semi-formal close up show (you know like what you get at magic clubs but I was being paid) and I did this in a very comical manner and added a very theatrical presentation to the trick and everyone liked it. I showed this to a magician friend of mine on Skype and he said it fooled him. I am not sure why as the trick isn’t a magician fooler.

Rating out of 10:
8/10 I like this trick a lot but I feel if you’re going to do this well it needs a big theatrical presentation



Name of effect:
B+D Revisited

Description of effect:
The back of two cards are signed (each card with a different word). One card is placed in the card box. The other card is shuffled into the deck. The faces of the cards changes places. The backs of the two cards attach to the transposed faces.

My honest opinion on the effect:
I like this trick I did this as part my card to box routine at a bar because this is when I felt it would play best, the reactions it got was amazing. I also did this for a friend and he wasn’t impressed but think that was just because of the kind of spectator he is. Also I do a Paul Green trick (cant remember the name of the trick but its explained in his lecture notes “take a stroll with me” ) that is similar to this effect and I do however like Paul`s version better because I feel that is more personal to the spectator.

Rating out of 10:
I do like this trick and it got great reactions but I already have a similar effect that I do. 7/10



Name of effect:
Prediction and Change City (with two alternate endings)

Description of effect:
The card pro takes out three cards. Two cards are selected. One selection is shown to be the mate of the three cards taken out of the deck. The other selection is found at a surprising place. Two alternate endings are included.

My honest opinion on the effect:
had one or two problems with learning this but after reading a few times I managed to get the hang of it. I performed PREDICTION AND COUNTDOWN CITY because I liked that one best and it got some great reactions

Rating out of 10:
This is a nice trick and has lots of different variations. Really recommend it 9/10



Name of effect:
No Turn Away Overtime

Description of effect:
A selection is placed on top of the deck. Attemting to push the card into the deck, the cardician pushes down on the deck. The top card is turned over. It's not the selection. The spectator is asked how many cards do they think were turned over. Inexplicably, the top half of the deck is shown to be face-up. The selection is soon seen to be the only card reversed in the middle of the deck.


My honest opinion on the effect:
I am a big fan of David Acer and I do own his great book “Random Acts of Magic” and I think it is a great book and everyone should read it. With that being said when I originally read overtime it didn’t really blow me away and this version doesn’t either. It’s a nice trick don’t get me wrong but it’s just not something I like.

Rating out of 10:
This is a nice wee trick it just doesn’t do much for me. If however you like David Acer`s version I am sure you will like this one.3/10




Name of effect:
From Nowhere to Here

Description of effect:
A quick location of four selections

My honest opinion on the effect:
Before I start I want to say this is based on a Peter Duffie trick called “From Nowhere which can be found in  Peter's amazing book Effortless Card Magic. Now I  just want to start off by saying I love Peter Duffie and his work not only cause hes Scottish and I think Scotland has the best underground magic scene in the world (Idon't say this because I stay in Scotland but because I have read some AMAZING magic from unknown Scottish magicians) but because I think he is one of the most creative card magicians out there. Now I really like this trick and I think that it’s a little procedural and has some dealing and as you know I don’t like dealing tricks that much but this is one trick that has dealing that I like. I performed this for a magician and he said he was fooled. I performed this routine for a group of friends and one of my friends said that this was one of the best tricks I had even shown her.

Rating out of 10:
Really great trick, people seemed to enjoy this and it is growing on me a lot. 9/10


Overall rating: This is a nice PDF and has a wide verity of tricks and I think although some of the tricks aren`t great the ones that are good make up for it. Over all for £5.50 this is worth the money. 8/10

CONTEST TIME:

I recently received an email from J.JACK the author of Easy to Execute Card Trickery Four and he says he would like to give away 3 copys of the PDF I have reviewed above. So if you want a copy then contact me and I will let you know how to go about getting a copy.




Well guys thats it from me I will be back soon with another post.


Thanks
Steven Blair :)

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Hey people of the interwebs Steven back again with yet another blog post. This post is going to be 100% aimed at magicians so apologies in advance to my non magician readers.

Well in today’s post I am going to be reviewing a PDF that has recently came to the market for magicians and that PDF is called Think Tank By Jamie Daws.

In case you don’t know who Jamie Daws is then let me tell you. Jamie is a magician and actor from England who has released effects to the magic community including Gathering, Scared and Phantasm. These were released with big magic producers such as Dave Forrest and his Full 52 Productions and also Alakazam magic with Peter Nardi. As well as these popular releases, he has also released PDFs though his own website www.jamiedaws.co.uk.

Before I start I want to say a few things. Jamie is one of my good friends in magic and he kindly sent me a pre-release copy of his latest PDF that is coming out in the next few days and is available on pre-order. I just want to state that although Jamie’s a friend, I will not be nicer about his product. If it’s rubbish I will tell him it’s rubbish. With that being said let’s get into the review.


Name of product: THINK TANK by Jamie Daws

Price: £10.00


Available from:


http://www.jamiedaws.co.uk/Shop_ThinkTank.html

Quick Description: Think Tank is the first multi effect project from Jamie Daws. Over the years, Jamie has shared his single greatest effects but has never released a collection of effects to fit the modern day magician. This PDF is packed with effects that Jamie has been working on for the past five years. Some are simple quick hitters and some are full blown killers!


12 Effects - Over 100 HD Photos, 40 Pages of Magic


Trailer:



Quality of the PDF:
The tricks are explained very well and as well as the text, there is over 100 high quality photos. Some of which have arrows pointing to certain parts to help make the learning of these effects a lot easier. As well as explanations on how to do the tricks, there are also photos/ art work included that are required so you can perform some of the effects. The quality is outstanding and is one of the nicest produced PDFs I have seen in a long time. I would love for this to be printed and bound into a little booklet.

What effects are in this PDF?
The following section will be split into 4 sections for each trick.

1. Name of effect.
2. Description of effect
3. My honest opinion on the effect
4. Rating out of 10



Name of effect: Simple Mix

Description of effect: Jamie’s elegant handling of the classic Triumph Routine which is flourishy enough to look impressive but simple enough to cater for any performance.

My honest opinion on the effect:
As many of you may know, I am a huge fan of triumph and I have a few that I perform regularly. This is one that I really like and I can see myself performing in the near future. One of the things I like about this triumph is the “control”. It’s a great move. I’ve played with it a lot and it fools lots of magicians just doing the move. Another thing I like about this version is the display procedure. I like this because it really looks like the cards are mixed as you see many faces and backs. However, some magicians may argue that this is a bad thing and could be classed as over proving but this is not the case.

Rating out of 10: I really like this effect. It is simple and to the point. 7/10




Name of effect: Bottoms Up

Description of effect: A cute and quick effect in which two lost selections are found by a master Joker! But the spectators find that he doesn't work alone...


My honest opinion on the effect:
This is a lovely effect. Jamie showed me this one night via webcam and at the time I loved it. This effect has a really nice ending which I really enjoyed. The only thing I didn’t like about this was the method Jamie used to “control” the cards but I have played about with this and found a way that I am happy with. If you like tricks in which the Jokers find 2 selections, then I think you will enjoy this one and with the bonus “kicker” you’re in for a treat!

Rating out of 10: I really like this trick and I think it’s one of the highlights of the PDF 9/10




Name of effect: Ping



Description of effect: Ping has been available for two years as a single download. I am pleased to include it in this PDF! This is a true favourite of mine. Being able to visually penetrate a bottle of water with an elastic band is a magicians dream. But being able to visually pass the corner of a playing card through the bottle is something even cooler!

My honest opinion on the effect:
This is an effect I have seen on Jamies site for a while and have heard people talk about but I never really looked into it. So when I saw it was in this PDF I thought it was time I looked it up. So I sat down and read this one night that I had nothing to do and I honestly wasn’t impressed with it. I honestly don’t know why? Maybe I expected something different. However once I worked on the handling a little and it started to look good I started to enjoy it a little more. I performed it for a friend and they enjoyed it. I honestly wish I did like this trick as the method is really simple, direct and strong. But for some reason I just don’t like this effect and I can’t work out why.

Rating out of 10:
If you wish to perform a trick where a rubber band penetrates a water bottle then this is the effect for you but as I don’t like this effect I would give it a 4/10




Name of effect: Colouring

Description of effect:
Colouring is my overlooked Colour Changing Deck effect. Buried as an extra on the GatheRing DVD, I felt like it should be brought back to the magic community. This is a killer Colour Changing deck effect that has a killer ending and leaves the deck examinable!

My honest opinion on the effect:
This effect is a nice little trick that uses a gimmicked deck. If you are one of the people who is a purest and believe all magic should be done with a regular deck of cards, then you will hate this trick as it uses a few gaff cards, a few different coloured cards and some blank cards. However if you don’t mind using a gaff deck then you will love this trick. In order to perform this trick you will need to do a little arts and crafts to make this deck up. However, this will only need to be done once as this deck would last you a long time. It will only take you about 15 minutes at most to make up the deck. I am kind of going off topic but this effect is worth making the deck up as it is a really strong bit of magic.

Rating out of 10: Although this will take you a while to make up, I think it is a lovely trick and feel it is worth the effort! 7/10




Name of effect: Rebel Aces

Description of effect: A one off production of Four Aces using some very sneaky sleight of hand. Not the easiest trick in the book, but totally fooling to magicians and spectators alike!

My honest opinion on the effect:
First off I want to say that Rebel Aces is not explained in text form. It is however explained in a video which in the PDF Jamie explains how to get access. I think that this trick would be easier to learn in video than it would be in text. The video is explained very well and is also shot in HD quality. This trick is a nice way to produce the four aces and I really like this trick. In the video explanation Jamie teaches a move called the Rebel Cut and it is very difficult to get down so all the move monkeys out there will like this routine also.

Rating out of 10: I like this routine and once I get the Rebel Cut down I will start doing this effect. 8/10





Name of effect: INSTNASE
Description of effect: This is a very small adjustment to the Erdnase Colour Change which is so widely used. Whilst being a slight adjustment, it is this change that led to my effect Phantasm to be created.

My honest opinion on the effect:
This is a nice touch to the Erdnase change which is from the book “The Expert At The Card Table”. I feel it makes the change look more visual and it won’t take too much work to get down if you have a good Erdnase change. However I have an Erdnase change that I am happy with and I won’t change it. Sorry Jamie

Rating out of 10: This is a great touch to the Erdnase change if you don’t have too much work on it you will like this. 7/10





Name of effect: Flip Top Control

Description of effect: This is simply a cute control which with its quirky nature, can hopefully open up a world of effects and creativity.

My honest opinion on the effect:
This is a nice little control that I can see a lot of the young flourishers doing. I do like this control a lot but honestly, do we need another way to get a card to the top? In this case yes, it is needed! It has a few subtlety’s that make this control a good one.

Rating out of 10: This is a great control and you should learn it. 8/10


As well as having the Flip Top Control also included is an effect called “Flip Transpo” and this is a nice quick effect that uses the Flip Control. I like this effect and it’s another one I can see all the young flourishers doing.





Name of effect: Spinning Wheel Change

Description of effect: This is a very simple but visually stunning colour change. When perfected, you can cause the card on the face of the deck to continuously change one after the other in rapid timing.

My honest opinion on the effect:
This is a nice little colour change that is done with a little spin of the deck. I have been playing around with this for a few months as Jamie explained to me how this was done a while back. If you are one of they people who like to learn colour changes, then you will like this one.
Rating out of 10:This is a lovely change. One of the highlights of the PDF 9/10





Name of effect: Moving Business

Description of effect: This is my signature business card effect. A quick moving hole effect that is so visual, you would believe there is far more to the method then there is. What’s more, all you need is a stack of business cards and a black marker!

My honest opinion on the effect:
I saw Jamie lecture this back in 2011 and ever since then I have been meaning to learn this trick and add it into my working repertoire but I have never got round to it. This is a great effect and it gets your business card into their hand so what’s not to like?

Rating out of 10: I LOVE IT. Do I need to say more? 10/10

The contents page

Name of effect: The Burial

Description of effect: I taught this effect in a lecture held on line in 2011 and I had tons of requests asking for the artwork. Well here it is, included with the psychological insights to pull off a truly creepy effect. Sometimes the simple effects create a huge impact! Art Work Provided!

My honest opinion on the effect:
This is another effect that was taught in the lecture I saw back in 2011 and it made me feel creeped out. However that being said, if you have a dark side to performing such as a Dan Sperry style then this would be perfect for you. Also, if you perform it to the patter Jamie provides then you can creep people out but not come across as a dark style performer. This trick is perfect for Halloween.

Rating out of 10:I really like this trick 8/10





Name of effect: CUT IT OUT

Description of effect: A cig box is displayed to the audience and the Warning sign is pointed out. The magician explains that, whilst his friends got into smoking, he got into magic. A card is selected and lost in the deck. The cig box is then turned over and suddenly, the Warning sign is the selected card! Then the box is opened and every cig that was inside is seen to have vanished. Lastly, one card is found folded up inside the box, the selection! Art Work Provided!

My honest opinion on the effect:
Jamie showed me this effect one night while we were chatting online and the vanish of the cigarettes fooled the hell out of me! Then he continued to explain it and I was so shocked that the method was so simple. This is a great trick and would be the perfect trick to do if you were a smoker. It is easy to carry this with you and if you are standing out side having a cigarette and someone asks you to do a trick, you could do this. However if you’re a non-smoker then you also present this as an anti-smoking effect for friends who smoke too many cigarettes. I think this is a great trick and with the right type of patter, you would have a little miracle on your hands.

Rating out of 10: This is a great trick I really like it 9/10




Name of effect: X-PENCE

Description of effect: Four coins are displayed and shown front and back. One of the coins has a black X drawn on it. It rests on top of the stack. The magician closes his hand and instantly opens it. In that nano second, the X coin is now second from top. He does it again, it jumps down to the third position and the last time, it is found at the bottom of the stack! For a final kicker, the magician shows the coins one last time and every coin is seen to have an X on the back! NO GIMMICKS NEEDED!

My honest opinion on the effect:
This is another trick Jamie showed me while chatting online and it fooled me! Then he explained it and I was so glad it was so simple. I have been carrying around this trick with me everywhere I go and I really like it. It is almost self-working which is an added bonus!

Rating out of 10: I love it! 15/10 yes it really is that good!





Overall rating:This is a great PDF and it has something for everyone 9/10



Well guys that’s it from me for this post. If you have any questions regarding the PDF, be sure to contact me by commenting below or sending me a message via any of the ways listed below.




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