Product description : I always carry a Sharpie with me, whether it’s for the work or for magic, having a marker on you at all time could save your life (maybe not literally). Platt Magic has come up with a very cool routine, a quick effect you can do whenever you want in your magic set. For example, if you do a pen routine by Greg Wilson, you could easily include Sharpie Quickie at any time. The effect is simple and quick, you show a Sharpie, you break the little part on the cap, show it and then put it back and let the spectators look at it ! It’s quick, fun and easy to do, let’s find out if it’s worth your money.
Price and where to buy it : This is sold at $29.95 and you can find it on Platt Magic website : http://shop.plattmagic.com/.
What you get : You get a ziplock bag with inside a printed cardboard with the visuals on it, it’s simple but quite good and elegant. You’ll find a link for the explanation video you can watch online, you get to know a little bit more of history about the gimmick and several ways to perform the effect. The video is not the best one in terms of editing but the information are here, you learn everything in order to perform Sharpie Quickie. You also get a Sharpie and the gimmick, to be honest, Platt Magic contacted me to know if I wanted a preview at their new trick, so I said yes. I had no idea about the trick, nor the gimmick. So when I opened the package, I did not spot the gimmick, I thought they send you a regular Sharpie and that’s all ! I love being “fooled” by a product like this, when I can’t find anything about it, just like a laymen would do. Anyway, the gimmick is really well made and I can understand why it took them so long to finally have the perfect one. I would say that it’s a little bit expensive for what you get, I would have seen this priced at 20/25$ max. But the quality is amazing and the gimmick really 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 :
[if !supportLists]– [endif]As I said, this is a little bit expensive for what you get. I do understand they went thought a lot of research in order to find the perfect manufacturer for the gimmick but still, for what it is, I would see it priced a little bit less.
[if !supportLists]– [endif]There are some angle issue, not big one, but still, I would be careful when doing this surrounded.
[if !supportLists]– [endif]The packaging could have been a little better, I don’t like things that are provided in such large ziplock bag !
THE PROS :
[if !supportLists]– [endif]This is, as the name supposes it, a quick and fun thing to do with a Sharpie ! I can see this being done in a lot of pen routines.
[if !supportLists]– [endif]Since the gimmick is so small and invisible, you could even let the pen in the hands of the spectator without worrying about them finding anything.
[if !supportLists]– [endif]Due to the nature of the gimmick, it can be added to any Sharpie ! So you can borrow one (if Sharpie are common in your country) and add the gimmick to it. But it also means if your Sharpie runs out of ink, you can easily buy a new one at the store and put the gimmick on it.
[if !supportLists]– [endif]When you break the “tab” of the cap, there are 2 senses that are stimulated : sight and hearing which adds a lot to the routine I think, it’s not often that an effect can trick your ears as well as your eyes.
[if !supportLists]– [endif]The gimmick won’t interfere in your routine, so you can completely add it and perform routine from Greg Wilson with the gimmick on and go into Sharpie Quickie whenever you want.
[if !supportLists]– [endif]The gimmick is really well made and can be adapted to any Sharpie, so you can put it on your Double Cross Sharpie for example to add another effect to your gimmicked pen !
[if !supportLists]– [endif]This is something that will make your creativity work, before watching the actual explanations (but they explained what was the gimmick in the introduction), I was thinking about several ways to perform the routine.
Overall rating : This is a very creative idea, very well made and should last a long time, it’s a little bit sad it is not more affordable, 3/4 hearts.
As for the difficulty level, you have to work on your “choreography” but it’s fairly easy, I would say 3/5 stars.
Similar products : I don’t know any product which allows you to do such an effect, maybe recapped by Greg Wilson but it’s not something with the tab of the cap.