The effect

There are numerous ways you could present this, but here’s how Liam does it. He shows the spectator a business card with a person drawn on it. The spectator then chooses (in a very fair way) a photograph from a set of pictures which show a voodoo doll, each with a pin in a different place. The business card is then seen to have a mark in the exact same place.
In fact, there’s an extra little Eugene Burger approved (let the reader understand) bit to his routine – but I’d love you to have some surprises when you watch/buy this!

What do you get

A special set of beautifully produced photos. These have the classic ‘look aged but are actually new’ issue – but you can either do something about that, or ignore it – it doesn’t reduce the effectiveness to my mind.

A DVD which both teaches the effect (in video format) and contains a pdf with written instructions and a series of variations. And it all comes in a nicely produced cardboard sleeve.

What do we think

This is really an updating of an old Albert Spackman routine (in the wonderful but not easy to find now Art of Close Up Magic Vol 1 – I have both volumes in my library at home and they are brilliant!) – but to my mind the very effective props and the streamlined handling make it much better. There are a couple of really nice subtle convincers in the routine as performed by Liam which I think greatly add to the effectiveness.

The photos themselves provide a real point of interest – and immediately engage the audience. Of course, there are some audiences who might find the whole idea of voodoo distasteful – but as Liam’s performance demonstrates the style doesn’t have to be ‘heavy’. In fact you could play this in a number of different ways – I think I saw on the Café that Cameron Francis plays this as a simple prediction. You could, no doubt, take the principle and apply with a different dressing altogether if you like.

The pdf offers a few helpful thoughts and variations/extras. The DVD also includes all the artwork for you to print off your own versions of the pictures. In a day and age when you’re as likely to have to download your explanation and make your gimmick up, I really appreciate that this release includes the teaching in two formats and the necessary photos beautifully printed. Kudos to BBM.

The reset is basically instant and the props take up very little room – making this ideal for walkaround. All in all we think this is a brilliant and very good value release.
Available direct from MoM (with thanks to Big Blind Media who kindly provided the review copy). Only £14.99 (at time of writing).

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