Product description : The anniversary waltz is a well known routine among magicians, the idea is to make 2 people sign 2 cards and at the end, both signatures are on the same card but not on the same side. It was an impossible souvenir but Matthew found that it was hard to keep in a photo album since one side would be hidden. So it adapted the routine with only the face of a card, the 2 of hearts in the version 1 and you get some 4 of hearts (which is the only difference from version 1 apparently) in the 2.0. Let’s find out if it’s good or not !
Price and where to buy it : This is sold at $40 and you can find it in nearly every Murphy's magic « partner » shop !
What you get : You get a cardboard little DVD sleeve, nice packaging but nothing fancy about it, a small cardboard box like the one in “Whiplash” would have been better. Anyway, inside, you can find the refill cards, 10 2 of hearts and 10 4 of hearts as well as a few “gimmicks” which have been cut so you can directly use it. The link provided is for the explanation video, you get the full video of version 1 plus some new ideas and subtleties that have been collected over the years. Overall, I find this to be very expensive for what it is, It’s like $2 per card, which is quite high considering you’ll need one card per performance. For a trick like Regeneration, considering how the gimmicks have been made, I could understand. Here, they’re just printed.
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 :
[if !supportLists]– [endif]This is very expensive, as I said, considering each card costs $2, this is more something paid magician would use (if they’re paid for their performance) because you will need a card for each performance.
[if !supportLists]– [endif]The setup card can move and “unsetup”, which is doesn’t really matter but you’ll have to setup again and you may have lost the gimmick.
THE PROS :
[if !supportLists]– [endif]I do find this to be better than the anniversary waltz routine for a few reasons, the main one would be that the magic happens on the face of the card.
[if !supportLists]– [endif]You leave the card to the spectator (because you can’t use it again) so it’s an impossible souvenir for them and they can put it in a frame.
[if !supportLists]– [endif]There is a visual moment in the routine, which is not the case in all anniversary waltz routine, so people can enjoy the magic.
[if !supportLists]– [endif]You get a lot of gimmicks so even if you loose one, you can still take another one quickly.
[if !supportLists]– [endif]The reset is pretty simple because you just have to take another gimmicked card and put it in your deck, which means you don’t have a gimmick in your deck except from the card you will give away at the end.
[if !supportLists]– [endif]They do give you 2 kinds of cards, the two of hearts and the four of hearts, so you can perform this at two different table and without having the same selected card.
[if !supportLists]– [endif]I do like Justin Miller’s handling a lot, it looks more impossible !
[if !supportLists]– [endif]The cards are now available on Bicycle Rider back which is a great thing so it matches my regular deck of cards.
Overall rating : It’s a nice trick, the visual moment is cool but I do find it to be too expensive for what it is, 3/4 hearts.
As for the difficulty level, there is no difficulty at all, just learn how to do it and you’re pretty good to go, I would say 2/5 stars.
Similar products : They are a lot of anniversary waltz routine out there, just find the one which suits you the best !