Product description: Hold Up is the latest creation from Sebastien Calbry, I didn’t like at all his Captured which I found really bad but this is way better, it’s workable, it has a nice visual aspect and something I can see magician do. The idea is simple, you have a card selected and lost in the deck, you show 2 jokers and place an indifferent card between them. Slowly, the card will rise by itself and change as it passes through the jokers. It’s almost self working and the rising/changing card is very interesting. But let’s see if it’s worth your money.
Price and where to buy it: This is sold at $25 and you can find it here : www.magicdream.fr
What you get: You get a small cardboard box with inside the link in order to watch the explanation video which is very well shot and teaches you everything you need to know in order to activate and operate the gimmick. The gimmick is actually already built up so you can perform this right out of the box, along with spare material in case it breaks. The gimmick is simple but ingenious and allow you to do the routine effortlessly! Even though you’ll need a time adaptation in order to line up the card perfectly when you do the trick, this is dead easy to do.
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 most tricks using this kind of gimmick, it can eventually break but you get some in case, so you can repair it easily.
The joker can’t be examined, but I think the heat will be on the card that just changed and not really on the two jokers.
The first card between the two jokers will always be the same, but not the card it changes into. So be careful if you do this to the same audience twice.
THE PROS:
I like the fact you can show both jokers at the beginning front and back, which gives you quite a lot of room to perform this.
You get two effects in one, you get the transformation and the animation together, without you touching anything.
It’s fairly easy to do, the knack is pretty quick to get and once you master it, you’ll be able to repeat it over and over.
If you want to adapt it with another deck, it’s completely doable, with minimal art&craft skills.
The gimmick is made on a Joker so you can easily get rid of it and end with a clean deck.
No force at all are used so the card can be freely chosen by the spectator.
Overall rating: Sebastien is back in the game, Hold Up is definitely a good trick, not the one I’ll be performing at gigs but a nice visual moment, 3/4 hearts.
As for the difficulty level, the lineup movement is the hardest of all the routine and still quite easy to do, 2/5 stars.
Similar products: Card Wrap is a famous routine you can do and will look like this one.