Product description: Ekaterina is an internationally renowned magician from Moscow, Russia. Gaining fame from her independently produced YouTube videos, she has since been featured on numerous television networks, including The CW, The History Channel, SyFy, and ITV. She worked for many companies including doing ads for Coca Cola for example. Sponsored is one of her creation which was featured in a Coca Cola video, and will allow you to remove the cap from a glass bottle of Coca and plug it at the bottom as it gets back to the top in a very magical way. I strongly advise you to watch the video in order to understand the visual of this effect. But is it any good ? Let’s find out !
Price and where to buy it: This is sold at $49.95 and you can find it on her website : https://ekatmagic.com/. But you can get 15% off with the code : ALEXIS15 so it’s quite cool I think.
What you get: You get a Coca Cola glass bottle, I’ve never seen one like that in France, it has a very specific capacity. You also get all the gimmick and the supplies in order to repair or remake the gimmick if it breaks. The explanation video is really well shot, as Ekaterina knows how to do it. She goes through all the tips and subtleties with Sponsored. I like the fact she provides you with everything you need to have, except the actual Coca to fill up the bottle. The gimmick is really ingenious in its working and it works perfectly. I have a small concern about it but I’ll go into more details in the “Cons” section. By the way, you should really watch the video, it’s amazing !
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:
The gimmick might break at some point but Ekaterina does give you tips in order to carry multiple gimmicks with you easily.
The get ready for the trick needs to be done before you approach the people, so you have to walk to your spectator with the bottle already in your hand, you can put it down.
THE PROS:
I’ve never seen an effect like this, this is why I like Ekaterina’s magic a lot, because it’s new, fresh and brings new effect to the market.
The gimmick is really clever in it’s construction because it allows both the vanish of the cap and the reapparition on top of the bottle.
It’s really easy to do, once you have a good gimmick, nicely made, you have nothing left to do, pick up the cap, smash it at the bottom of the bottle and voila !
I was first scared about the angles of the trick but there is none, you can easily perform the trick surrounded.
I can see this used in a show more than in close-up, even though it works perfectly fine in close-up. But at the end, you can’t give away or leave them with the bottle.
This trick doesn’t rely only on its visual aspect but you also have a magical sound to it, the sound of the cap hitting the bottom of the bottle and the sound of the cape flying back to the top, it’s really cool.
Overall rating: This is innovative magic, it’s really nicely done, I think it would fit perfectly in a parlour show, at the Magic Castle for example, but you can definitely use it in close-up. I have no place for this in my set but I can see people having a lot of fun with it, 3/4 hearts.
As for the difficulty level, making the gimmick requires a bit of time but nothing hard and you’ll need to practice with the gimmick to get it right, I’d say 2/5 stars.
Similar products: This can be used in conjunction of the Astonishing Bottle by Joao Miranda, and will make a really cool Coca Cola routine.