Product description : What if you could predict a thought of card from the spectator's mind ? You lay down a little piece of paper which is folded, you can place it in a wine glass, in a coffee cup or just on the table. You ask a spectator to name a card, and when they unfold the paper, the card they just named is written on it ! But you can do much more with this little and clever gimmick.
Price and where to buy it : This is sold at $70 and you can find it in nearly every Murphy's magic « partner » shop !
What you get : You get a small cardboard box with inside, the small papers (which I thought was really nice for them to include!) and another box with the gimmicks inside. There is the main gimmick which is really well built and should last quite a long time. I do think you can use the main part to « remake » part of the gimmick in case it wears out. Anyway, very well made gimmick and it works perfectly ! You do get other gimmicks, small ones, every magician should have them, they're useful if you want to use the wine glass or the cofee cup presentation. You also get a link to watch the explanations online, they're clear and to the point, once you get the idea of the working, it's very easy to use. Overall, very happy with what I'm getting, the gimmick was custom made for the trick and I never saw anything like this before.
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 :
I find the papers to be a little bit too small, not that people can't read what's written on but they're very easy to conceal and people may think you can hide them easily in your hands.
Once you're set up for a presentation (which should take you less than minuts), you can't switch for another one quickly. If you're doing a thought of card, you can't do the roulette routine just after this one, you need to « change » everything which should take you less than 2 minutes (if you prepared everything for the roulette routine).
THE PROS :
It's easy to do, almost self working and you can do it everywhere, you just need a small place on a table or a glass. I do like the presentation with the wine glass a lot because, in my opinion, it adds clarity and elegance to it. Even though you can't let the spectators examine the glass but they wouldn't do it because they just saw a paper fall from it.
The gimmick is awesome, this kind of gimmick does exist, many mentalists use it but I never saw built in something like this. It's hidden in plain sight, inside a tool every magician have when he is performing !
Your hands never leave the view of the spectator. You don't have to go near your body or your pocket, you could even do it naked if you want to ! Everything is self contained and should last a long time.
The reset is really quick, I wouldn't do it in front of the spectators but it's just a matter of walking between 2 tables, nobody will notice it.
This is a gimmick which is only limited by your imagination, you can adapt it to the routine you want to do ! You have 48 outs in your hands, that's a lot and you can see the potential of this.
Overall rating : Bottom line, if you want this kind of gimmick with 48 outs and you don't mind having small papers, this is for you ! You can't go wrong for that price, the quality is there, you won't be disappointed ! 3.5/4 hearts.
As for the difficulty level, nothing really hard, maybe getting used to how the things are “placed” for an easy and quick access to them, 2/5 stars.
Similar products : I'm not very aware of those kind of gimmick, I just know they exist. I never saw something like this though, it does the work very well and is really well disguise in an everyday magician object.