Product description : Let your cards and coin at home because this is a trick which only uses a key and a borrowed ring ! The routine is simple, you let the spectator check out your key, then you ask them to borrow their ring. Magically, you can link the ring with the key, leaving them seeing an impossible object. Just shake the key to liberate the ring and you can hand out ring and key. It's an highly visual trick, with an impossible object. Is it that good ? Let's check it out !
Price and where to buy it : This is sold at $80 and you can find it in some shops that carry it, it is not supplied by Murphys though.
What you get : You get a small metallic box with inside the link for the explanation video. The video is really well made and shows how to handle the gimmick as well as a routine to do with it. You also get a red velvet bag with inside 2 keys, a regular one and a matching gimmicked one. The gimmick is really well made, maybe a little bit visible at a close range but invisible if you perform in close-up. The 2 keys are identical so you can easily switch one out for the other, meaning you can have the public examine the key. Very happy with the quality if the whole thing, very well made.
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 :
It's quite expensive considering what it is. I know there is a lot of work in order to make the gimmick but still, $80 for a key is too expensive for me.
The key will tarnish over time which means that you have to carry both gimmicked and ungimmicked key together. If you don't do that, they won't match anymore !
THE PROS :
It changes a bit from all the routines we're use to do with cards and coins, it brings a little bit of impromptu and organic things (key and ring). The fact you can borrow the ring implies the spectator a little bit more into the routine.
You modify the proper structure of an object during the course of the routine, meaning people will see something different from reality. It's not a routine where something happened and you just see the result of it. Here, you can see the ring linked on the key. And without cover, you can unlink the ring !
The spectator can examine the key before and after the trick so they won't have any clue on how this can work.
During the routine, the one with the tissue paper (or the napkin), the spectator actuallyholds and feels the key, magic is always stronger when it's done in the spectator's hands.
I wouldn't carry the gimmick on my keyring because of how it's made, I would be too afraid of loosing it.
Overall rating : It's a good routine, it changes from classical ones but I do think it's too expensive, 3/4 hearts.
As for the difficulty level, quite easy to do, you can concentrate on your presentation, 2/5 stars.
Similar products : There is UniKey I think, it's the gimmick Wayne used on TV. There is also a trick with a key and a rubber band put out by Alan Rorrison.