Product description : A new version of the card to ceiling, with all the cards being in the box and the box secured by an elastic. Yet, with a throw, you can stick the selected and signed card to the ceiling with ease. The gimmick, as with the famous "Tool" David brought to the market a few years ago, has other features and you can do a lot more than just the card to ceiling (even if it's the standard trick on the DVD). Is it good ? Is Zenith worth your attention even if you're doing the classic card to ceiling trick ? Let's find out.
Price and where to buy it : This is sold at $34.95 and you can find it in nearly every Murphy's Partner !
What you get : You get a very well shot DVD which has some live performances of the routine, in the street but also in a park with a tree. You do get the standard explanation of the card to ceiling but also 10 completely different routines using balloon, watches, phones, rubberbands. So you're not stuck to only one routine and you can use the gimmick the way you want. Let's talk about the gimmicks because this is what excites people ! You do get one premade gimmick in red bicycle so you can use it directly and you get 2 more gimmicks which can be adapted to any brand of cards you want. Adapting the gimmick to a specific brand would take less than 5 minutes, maybe 2 to 3 minutes. You're also supplied with a little bit of the thing which is used to make the card stuck on the ceiling, it's from Dave Bonsal but the one by Mr. Ammar will work fine too. For the price, considering the gimmick is very durable, that you get 3 of them, I was very happy when I opened the package.
The pros and the cons : Here is the core of my review, let's begin with the cons, as I will usually be doing, I prefer to keep the good things for the end.
THE CONS :
You will need to have a gimmick on your box, this can be perceived as a con for some purists that don't wan't to use any gimmick. But the gimmick is not in your deck so you're quite free about the routines you want to do and you can decide to perform Zenith or not.
The box you will be using need to have the back of a playing card printed on it (like the phoenix and the old bicycle box). However, you can stick or place a card under the cellophane to solve this problem if you're using a box which doesn't have this particularity.
I would have liked that David spent a little bit more time to explain the amount of stuff used to stick the card to the ceiling. I've failed my first attemps because of this.
THE PROS :
All the cards are inside the box, which couldn't be done with the classic technique. I find this to be an improvement because it adds a layer of impossibility and people were saying when I performed it "How could it get out of the box ?" so definately a plus for me.
Gimmick is not stuck to the box and can be removed while you're taking the cards out of the box, meaning you can completely give the box out for examination. I know this will happend maybe once in 1000 performances but having the ability to give the box out for examination is a big plus. This means that you can easily change boxes if you need to and you don't have to buy a new set if your box wears out.
The whole routine is quite easy to do, however the throw and sticking the card to the ceiling will need some practice. Nothing very hard but you will have to get the knack.
It's cheap when you consider the amount of stuff and gimmicks provided along with the number of routines provided.
Because of the way the gimmick is made, the cards won't come out of the box and fall on the floor. This could be a problem of the classic version.
With a little bit of imagination, I'm sure new routines will be found using this utility device.
Overall rating : I think this has the same potential as his previous "Tool" and could lead to wonderful routines. The card on ceiling is the one I will be performing the most, as David says, it's a reputation maker and Zenith makes it cleaner, easier and better in my opinion. This is definately something I'm working on right now and I'm sure I will get a lot of uses out of it, 4/4 hearts without any hesitation.
As for the difficulty level, the "loads" would be the most difficult parts of the routine (card and w**) but with a little practice, you should be fine, I succeeded only after 3 attemps which isn't that much when you consider I've never done any card on ceiling routine before. 2/5 stars.
Similar products : Make sure to check the classic "Card on ceiling" routine by the master Michael Ammar, it's a very good routine too. The fact you can place the cards in the box here makes me more enclined to use Zenith. Both are great routines.