Product description: This is so hot, it’s melting my hands! No, seriously, Calen is a beast when it comes to creating visual and impacting magic. This is really good, it’s a combination of 2 known principles but when added together, they produce amazing and visual magic. The idea is simple, you push a Sharpie through a playing card, move it around and take it out without leaving any trace or mark on the card. It’s smooth and unbelievable! Let’s find out if it’s something you can really do.
Price and where to buy it: This is sold at $34.95 and you can find it on Theory11 website.
What you get: The packaging here is great, the cardboard box in which the items come is really nicely crushed and with a gold finish. Inside, you’ll find both gimmick nicely protected, with a warning telling you to watch the instructions first. The video is less than 10 minutes long and easy to understand, to the point. I wish they’ve included a little bit more information but overall, it’s really good. The gimmicks are really well made, the pen is amazing and the card is invisible. I think you should take care of the card because it may be damaged if you use it a lot. I really like what I got, I think it may be better for my magic collection because I don’t see myself carrying the gimmicks with me but still usable in real world. Very happy then.
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 have 2 gimmicks in play so you must bring them in and out, which is harder than just having a gimmicked card. So more work needs to be done, if you want to hand them out afterward.
The card may be a bit fragile, if you play too much with it, it may break and the gimmick won’t line up correctly. So you have to be gentle with it.
THE PROS:
This is a sick combinaison between two gimmicks so methods are mixed together and it become more impossible for the spectators.
I really like how visual it is, the gimmick is not new but the handling is amazing, and make it looks like you really remove the pen from the card.
The gimmicked card is made out of a face card so it hides the secret better and you can flash the card front and back. You can also show it front and back during the penetration process, so no heat is really put on the card.
It’s not that expensive compared to other gimmick of the same sort, and the pen is perfectly made so it will work flawlessly. You could not use a different one, working on the same principle.
Overall rating: I really like this one, it’s not something I will take out at every gig but it’s an amazing piece of magic I’ll enjoy showing to my magician friends. But this can be definately used in the real world if you want to, 4/4 hearts.
As for the difficulty level, you will need to learn how to master the move but it’s not difficult. You’ll need to work on it a bit to do it smoothly, 2/5 stars.