Product description : Gum tricks have always been something I like, I do find them to be impromptu and cool looking for the spectator. Unfortunately, most gum tricks are irrelevant in France since we don’t have the same kind of packaging. Anyway, Flash Gum is a routine which will allow you to visually transform a gum packet into 3 selected cards ! The routine is very visual, especially when the pack of gum is thrown from one hand to the other and that it morphs into cards ! But is it worth the asked price and is it worth your money ? Let’s find out !
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 and also on the website of the creator, João Miranda : http://www.joaomiranda.com/store/index.php?route=product/product&path=59&product_id=91 !
What you get : You get the standard packaging from João Miranda which is a very nice cardboard box, fully printed with an amazing artwork. I must say that if all creators put as much effort in the packaging as João does, receiving magic trick would be much more exciting. Inside, you’ll find a card to access the explanation video, which is about 35 minutes long. João covers everything you need to know, from the transformation of the packet to the disappearance of the selected cards. You also receive quite a few gimmicks, the main ones which will allow to do the trick and some other stuff in case something goes wrong. The gimmicks are really well made, they’re quite known in the magical world but still, they’re made with special cards which makes everything looks very good. You also get the chewing gum tab, which is a very nice thing since those don’t exist in my country.
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]Unfortunately, we don’t have gum sold in such packaging where I live (in France) so people thought at first that I was holding a pill box. But this con is a small cone, once you explain those are gums, people don’t seem to pay much attention.
[if !supportLists]– [endif]Even though the gimmicks are well made, they’re still quite thick which can be a problem during your routine, you can’t freely show the 3 cards, you’ll have to be careful about your positioning and the lights.
THE PROS :
[if !supportLists]– [endif]The visuals on this are insane ! The thing I like the most is the fact it’s not a card turning into another card, it’s a 3 dimension object which turns into 2 flat cards, I really like this kind of effect.
[if !supportLists]– [endif]The gimmicks are really well made, they took time and work to produce the best cards possible and I think they did a great job. Especially having a gimmick with parts of a gum pack on it, I wouldn’t have been able to make it.
[if !supportLists]– [endif]They included everything so you can do this trick directly out of the box ! No need to go to the sotre in order to buy gums or anything else.
[if !supportLists]– [endif]In the video, they do teach you several ways to make the selected cards disappear from the pack, which is a very nice attention. The even teach you how to make a gimmicked card to do so (different from the gimmicked card you receive).
[if !supportLists]– [endif]While the transformation is easy to do, making the cards disappear will require a little bit more of practice if you want to go to the sleight of hand way. There is also a gimmicked way which nearly does all the work for you.
[if !supportLists]– [endif]I think this would be the perfect trick in a show reel. Not that you can’t perform it live (Julio Montoro does it in the streets) but I wouldn’t be comfortable doing it live, there are too many things in play. But for a video, this is one the best thing you can do.
Overall rating : As I said, I wouldn’t be comfortable doing it live but this is something that has its place, whether it’s on a show reel or a video. The visuals are insane and I really like the way they made the gimmicks, 3/4 hearts.
As for the difficulty level, you’ll need to get used to the gimmicks but once you are, this will be easy ! Making the cards disappear from the deck will require a little bit more work, I would say 3/5 stars.
Similar products : I don’t know routines in which a pack of gum turns into some cards but object into cards have been around for ages, whether it’s a condom, a bill or something else.