Crash Joker 2.0 is a really fun effect for anyone who uses Bicycle Cards. The plot is simple – with a shake or a flick you cause the bicycle to ‘fall out’ of the Joker’s card. You’re left holding a cut wooden cut out of a bicycle and the King on the Joker is left sprawling in the mud!
What do you get?
You get the really nicely produced wooden joker, the necessary specially printed Bicycle cards and a few other special somethings. The cards are in Red Bicycle stock, though you could make your own gimmick in Blue if you’ve got time for card splitting…
It all comes in a neat cardboard box, which also contains a link to the online instructions. These run to about 48 minutes and contain plenty of detail. The largest chunk of this – about 15 minutes – is taken up with explaining how you construct your gimmick. This is a little bit fiddly and is worth taking your time over. It isn’t overly difficult, and the instructions are probably more detailed/drawn out than they need to be – so don’t be daunted by this.
I love the quality of the bicycle, and the humour of the specially printed card supplied.
The instructions detail a few variations in handling, but the basic effect is very easy to perform requiring little skill. You would probably just need to play with it to experiment with what feels natural for you.
What do we think?
Crash Joker 2.0 is another of those effects that I am slightly in two minds over. I love that the effect is clear and strong and visual. It is quirky and appeals to my sense of whimsy. It is easy to do.
On the other hand, it feels slightly strange that the Joker starts off under the cellophane around the tuck case. There are ways of explaining this in your presentation, but it feels a little unnatural to me. At the same time, since the mechanics of this mean you would almost certainly want to use it as an opener, there may be some sort of weird internal logic to the starting position.
Part of me wonders whether there would be a ‘bare hand’ version using a much simplified gimmick where you just ditch the necessary from your hands – something which would be easy to do given the misdirection of the appearance of the bicycle. But you will need to come to your own conclusion.
All in all Crash Joker 2.0 is a nice effect which appeals to me in many ways. If the effect fits with your character and style then I would recommend checking it out. You would certainly find that it grabbed people’s attention at the start of your set.
Crash Joker 2.0 is available from MagicShop.co.uk for £26.99 (at the time of writing).
Review copy kindly provided by Murphys Magic to whom dealer enquiries should be directed.
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