What do you get?

2 nicely printed 3 ½ Clubs cards. These seem to me to be very well printed and the indices and spots appear clearer/larger than some I have seen – which makes the visual gag much easier for the spectator to appreciate. You also get a link to online teaching – which runs to around half an hour.

What’s different about the effect?

Essentially, what you are purchasing here is Cody Fisher’s presentational angle and tips for this routine. I don’t want to give too much away of the routine – but suffice to say Cody has introduced a number of elements to the routine to make it seem much more impossible/surprising and gives you all the ‘work’ on the psychology of the routine to get a better reaction.

He talks you through the process of modifying the cards to make the handling both easier and also more impossible. This is pretty straightforward stuff – the ‘craft’ skills required are minimal. You will also need to be able to do some basic card handling – he teaches a couple of forces which are very effective in the context and are not too difficult to do.

And he explains how he came to develop the routine, how the psychology works, and everything you need to know to include this in your set.

What do we think?

This is another of those releases which is a little hard to evaluate. It is a very strong routine with this gaff card – and I can see it getting excellent reactions. But in one sense there’s nothing ‘new’ here – instead you are benefiting from the insight and wisdom of an experienced performer who has put together an easy yet powerful routine.

I do appreciate Cody’s style and think he is a very clear thinker when it comes to getting maximum reactions – we loved an earlier release of his which we reviewed – Killer Prediction – which was essentially a new (and to my mind brilliantly executed) platform presentation for the Invisible Deck.

Are the claims true?

I think Deal Sealer, performed well, would definitely leave a strong impression and may win you a booking or a nice tip. And at this point we have to trust Cody when he says he closes with it (In fact, he has a nice idea about returning to a table after he has already performed which is explained on the video).

So if you’re looking to learn a strong effect which is fairly easy to do then this comes highly recommended. If you’ve been around the block a bit longer and are confident on improving your own presentations, you may want to give this one a miss. But I like it – and could see myself using it.

And just maybe I’d get one of those $100 tips he talks about. Though the way the pound is going at the moment, that might only be enough for a small beer.

Deal Sealer is available direct from Merchant of Magic for £23.50 (at the time of writing).

Review copy kindly provided by Murphys Magic to whom dealer enquiries should be directed.

The post Cody Fisher – Deal Sealer – Review appeared first on Bicycle Cards.

The genius of this routine is that it makes the ID entirely suitable for a platform performance and adds a brilliant kicker ending where some paper balls which have been used to select audience members are unfolded to reveal the name of the freely constructed card written on the sheets before the trick even began.

I am completely sold out on the important magic truism that effect is everything, method is (almost) nothing. And if you’re performing in the real-world for real people you will know this to be the case. Which is one of the things which makes reviewing quite challenging because magicians sometimes take a different view.

But either way, the effect that the audience is left with seems to me extremely strong – and the clever construction of the routine flew past me when I watched it the first time. Cody goes into a lot of detail about why he does things the way he does and so there is much to learn from the DVD. You won’t find any radically new principles here, but there’s some clever thinking and wording going on which adds much to the overall strength of the effect.

On the downside, in addition to the necessary deck (which isn’t supplied – only an instructional DVD), you will also need to make a modest investment to make up the rest of the necessary. But this is a very modest additional expense – and for the overall value of the routine seems to me very worthwhile.

Teaching is clear and detailed, and it is nice to see a live performance included – which always gets a thumbs up from me. He explains a variation using the Brainwave Deck instead of the ID, but for my money I would probably stick to the ID version.

A small excursus on Invisible Decks

On the subject of IDs, I will share my own experience. In spite of our name, I have found Bicycle Invisible Decks to sometimes be a little bit too ‘slippy’ which makes it harder for me to use, so for many years I have favoured the Royal Magic (non Bicycle) version which had a bit more ‘stick’. But I’ve just got my hands on a Card Shark version in a Pheonix Deck and this is my favourite version to date – and will become my regular deck. It has the added advantage that it is made in their ‘Parlour’ size which makes it more visible in a stage setting than a standard Poker deck. End of diversion.

All in all, I like this a lot. Although I don’t do as many platform shows I can see me making this up and adding it to the set, since you get a good amount of magic for a modest investment. It is not difficult to do, so will leave you plenty of time to work on your performance. Which is just the way I like it.
Available from Merchant of Magic for only £31.99 at time of writing.

Review copy kindly provided by Murphys Magic to whom dealer enquiries should be directed.

The post Cody Fisher’s Killer Prediction – review appeared first on Bicycle Cards.