Product description : This another card revelation but not something you're used to see every day. The nice part here is that it's very very visual ! The idea is simple, you let a spectator select a card, then lost it in the deck. You bring out a pad, and try to draw the card the spectator is thinking of. When you show your drawing, you only drew the back of a card ! But, with a magical pass, the drawing is turning into a real card, the spectator's card ! As I said, it's very visual en very good, let me describe a little bit more why I find this amazing.
Price and where to buy it : This is sold at $39.95 and you can find it in nearly every Murphy's magic « partner » shop !
What you get : It seems that Joao have updraged his packaging, it was already the case with Rejoined, you get a very nice printed box with inside everything in order to perform the effect. You get a link for a Youtube video, quite quick, less than 10 minutes but you understand everything about the effect. I don't find the need of doing a 1h30 DVD when you can simply explain the effect in a small amount of time. In the package, you also get the pad. It's not a simple pad, it has been carefully crafted so you can use it over and over. You also get the gimmick, it's really well made even if I think it will need repair over time but I will go more in depth for that in the cons. Overall, you won't be disappointed with what you receive, the whole thing feels quality, as usual with Joao's releases !
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 :
The gimmick is really well made but you will need to take care of it and repair it if needed (after a few hundred performance). It's not difficult at all but I wished they included a section on how to repair your gimmick.
You have to be careful about the lights condition as well, gimmick can flash.
THE PROS :
The gimmick is really well made and works very well, they could have rushed the production but I think this one is handmade so kudos to them.
The effect is amzingly visual, it's a dream of every child to make their drawing come true, you can do that with Sketch and it really looks like the drawing is morphing into a card.
Since the pad was custom made, it has some velleda pages so you can write on it with a dry earse marker and erase it very easily ! So you don't have to use a page per performance.
You can draw on the gimmick, it had so much to the visual side of the trick, they feel you're drawing on the page while you're setting up for the transformation.
There is aversion taught so you can do this trick with a signed card ! This technique can also be used in order to change the face of the card you want to reveal !
The release system is brilliantly simple ! All 5 fingers can be seen around the pad when the drawing is morphing, the système they thought is one of the simplest and the best I've seen for this kind of product.
The reset takes only a few seconds and it's very easy to do. You don't need a gimmick in your deck so you can even borrow one if you want.
Overall rating : This is good ! It's a very nice card revelation, very visual. I don't see myself carrying the pad just for this effect but you can use it to reveal other things such as words from a booktest routine, 3.5/4 hearts.
As for the difficulty level, it's very simple, you'll need a force, the activation of the gimmick is easy, I would say 2/5 stars.
Similar products : Pop Art by Mark Southworth is in the same mood, you show a deck printed on a pad, then make it appears. 3D Advertising is a nice trick too.