Product description: If you don’t know the Cardiographic effect created by Martin Lewis and popularized by David Copperfield, you’ve been living under a rock! This effect had a few variations over the years: lite, signature edition, electronic edition and so on. But it was only for a stage show, nothing has really been done for close-up (you had a business card version but it wasn’t the best in my opinion). So here it is! The close-up version of Cardiographic, new working mechanism, quality pad, very well made props, I don’t know why you’re still reading this review, go out and buy it!
Price and where to buy it: This is sold at $60 and you can find it in nearly every Murphy's magic partner !
What you get: The box in which everything comes in is very good, a white hard cardboard one, so it protects perfectly what’s inside. You’ll find a link for an explanation video, done by Martin Lewis himself which is not the best I’ve seen in terms of quality production but is straight to the point and easy to follow. You also get a wet erase pen, 2 “gimmick refills”, a stack of refill sheets and of course the gimmicked pad. The working is not the same as in the stage version, I think I like the close-up mechanism better. Everything is already made for you, you have a stack of 30 to 40 sheets in the pad so you have a handful of performances ready before the need to reset it. The quality of the whole project is outstanding and I can’t find anyone behind disappointed with what they receive.
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:
You won’t be doing this table hopping since it will always be the same card which rises, so if people compare the souvenir sheet you left them, it will be exactly the same.
THE PROS:
It’s a very visual effect and I think Martin Lewis has done a great job redesigning this miracle for close-up work. As I said, the mechanism is really cool and new, you have a full control on the rise and you can show all of your fingers.
You have a lot of sheets in the pad so you don’t have to reset every 3 performances, I like that you’re setup for at least 30 performances.
The reset is instant, no need to push anything back into places, everything is covered in the routine, I like that a lot.
The gimmicked sheet of the pad has been made out of Tyvek or a kind of plastic material, it means it’s very durable and if you take care of it, this will last a long time.
You can leave them with an impossible souvenir and they will remember you forever with this sheet.
They even included a wet erase pen in case you want to draw additional thing on the gimmick (which can be erased afterward) so you really get everything you need in order to perform this right out of the box!
Overall rating: I’ve always been a huge fan of the cardiographic effect, but I didn’t do much stage show. This is, for me, the perfect version and I’ll be performing it for sure! 4/4 hearts.
As for the difficulty level, you need to force a card but the handling of the pad and the gimmick is really easy, 2/5 stars.
Similar products: You have all the stage version: lite, signature edition, electronic but also the close up ones that were out like the business card one. I think the close-up cardiographic is the definite answer to this effect for close-up.