Product description: To begin with, I’m not a huge fan of Oil and Water, I find this trick to be boring, I don’t find it dynamic enough, it’s repetitive, so I may not be the right person to review an Oil and Water product. Dominique Duvivier put out this routine some time ago, it’s a multi-phase Oil and Water with a really nice climax. The first phases may seem really cool to some people but I found them quite long and boring. The only thing worth in this product is the gaffed card for the climax, which looks very visual and clean. But let’s look more closely.
Price and where to buy it: This is sold at $22 and you can find it in nearly every Murphy's magic partner !
What you get: The packaging is a small cardboard box with inside all the gaffed cards, and regular cards you need for the effect. You can watch the explanation video online, which is about 30 minutes with a live performance at the beginning. Dominique then explains how it’s done, with various phases and 8 regular cards (4 red and 4 blacks, which are also provided). He then goes into the climax, he clearly shows the 8 cards mixed up and just by spreading them, they rearrange ! I think this could easily be included in any Oil and Water routine. The cards are well printed, so no problem with that. Overall, if you don’t do any Oil and Water routine, this may be good for you, if you already do an Oil and Water routine, you may buy it for the climax. But if you don’t like Oil and Water, this is not for you in my opinion.
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:
As I said, the first few phases are repetitive and boring. It may be good for someone who want to learn this kind of routine but I wasn’t very into this.
You’ll need a table or at least a surface on which you can lay the cards.
They will be the same 8 cards every time, queen of hearts and 9 of spades.
THE PROS:
My first con can also be a pro, if you want to get into Oil and Water, there are several manipulations which are taught in the video that you may like.
You get everything you need in order to do the trick, you just have to add a regular blue Bicycle deck.
I think the climax is really nice and could be a trick by itself. The gimmicked cards are really clever and the effect looks stunning.
There is a little text before the video by Gaëtan Bloom (a famous French magician) which is explaining all the credits and subtleties of the trick.
No manipulation is required for the climax so it’s really easy to do.
I think what is nice about this is that you can take bits of the routine and plug them into your existing one.
Overall rating: I’m not a big fan of Oil and Water and this product didn’t make me to change my mind about, the climax is good, 2/4 hearts.
As for the difficulty level, the phases with regular cards will require a bit of practice but the climax is self working, so 3/5 stars.
Similar products: I’m not the right person to give advices on Oil and Water so you’ll have to look by yourself for this one.