In case you haven’t watched the trailer, the effect is simple to describe. The magician is wearing a tee-shirt with a drawing of a pocket and two Sharpie markers poking out of it. He then visually ‘plucks’ one of the sharpies from the tee-shirt – so the drawing only has a single pen on it, and the magician is holding a real solid sharpie in their hands.

That’s a perfectly accurate description and the trailer is an accurate depiction of a very visual effect. The method, like all the best methods, is simple and the technique is pretty straightforward – though you will need a little handling practise to get it really good.

So far so good. So what’s the problem?

A collection of cumulatively annoying niggles

I have to admit I didn’t get off to an auspicious start with Attire since I couldn’t watch the video online – so I had to download it. I had no problems streaming the explanation on a subsequent attempt in a different location – so it would be unfair to judge the effect on this.

However, I found the (almost 40 minutes) of explanation really annoying. It was chopped up into far too many segments – with three different people explaining different things. The reason given was that some of the ideas came later and were filmed later – but that, to me, is already a bit of a red flag in a world where too many magic releases are put out without a decent amount of ‘road testing’ and as a result come to market far too soon.

Some of the explanation was also slightly patronising (I think he was trying to be humorous) and some of the ‘banter’ was simply cringeworthy. Maybe I’m getting too old to review these ‘modern’ effects?

You’ll have to do a little bit of work to prepare your gimmick – but in this instance that move is entirely justified since you’ll want to add the gimmick to your garment of choice. Be warned that (depending on how you attach it) the gimmick will have a limited lifespan.

As you can see, none of these things are deal-breakers, and I do think it is a good effect. It’s great to have some decent live performances and I’m pretty sure you’ll get some decent reactions from this. Given that so many of us use Sharpies in our magic anyway – what could be better than producing one magically?

The question of attire…

The deciding factor for me, personally, is that I would be extremely unlikely to perform in a tee-shirt. Whilst you could attach the gimmick to a more formal shirt, I think this is really an effect for the (young) street magician. Whilst that is enough to put me off performing, it is not enough to stop me recommending you take a look at Attire – especially if it fits your performing style/dress! For me, it is the best of Danny Weiser’s effects we have looked at so far.

Attire is available from MagicShop.co.uk for £23.99 (at the time of writing).

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

Roddy McGhie/Danny Weiser – Attire – review

4.3 / 5 Reviewer

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The post Roddy McGhie/Danny Weiser – Attire – review appeared first on Bicycle Cards.

Switch Up promises to be an extremely visual transformation of some writing on the back of your card case – in most of the examples revealing a thought of card or prediction in a very magical way. And, with a few reservations, we have to say it delivers.

The common factor in the Danny Weiser routines we’ve seen have been somewhat fiddly gimmicks and very visual effects. The way in which this particular gimmick works certainly gives the great visual, and to my mind is just a little less fiddly than some of the others.

You are supplied with a gimmick ready-made (though you will need to customise it with a sharpie) and some materials to help you make a new one (or repair it). As with a number of recent releases distributed by Murphys you get no physical teaching media – only a link to an online video (which you can download). Given the widespread availability of high speed internet this shouldn’t be a problem for most people – but depending on where you want to learn it you should bear that in mind.

The gimmick is well made and should be fooling at quite close distances. As with all these kinds of things, I have some concerns about how long it would last if you were performing with it day in and day out, but what you receive has been well made.

The teaching (by Chris Webb) is clear and easy to follow. It covers all you need to know (even teaching a basic card force) with a number of variations and ideas given. For me, one of the strongest points of the routine is the clever clean up at the end which effectively leaves you clean making the visual magic even more baffling.

I don’t know whether I like this enough to do it all the time, but it would look great on a showreel, and once I’ve sampled the real-world reactions I might find it becomes more regular. Especially if I can get over my slight concerns over the long-term resilience of the gimmick.

Available direct from Merchant of Magic (with thanks to MagicTao who kindly supplied the review copy) – £24.99 at the time of writing. Also available in Red.

The post Danny Weiser – Switch Up – review appeared first on Bicycle Cards.

We can’t just leave it there, so let’s give you a little more detail. Like the last Danny Weiser effect we looked at (his Upgrade Gimmick) this relies on a cleverly made gimmicked card. The difference, here, I think is that there is a lot more heat on the gimmick itself. And based on our experience, it is for that reason we would have less confidence with this routine.

In addition to the gimmick you are supplied with a DVD which teaches a couple of different routines. In reality there’s not that much difference possible – the effect is always the same – the difference is where it takes place. It is a nice idea to do the whole thing in a ziplock bag, or to restore it under your foot, but doesn’t make a huge impact to the overall effect to my mind.

In addition to our gimmick not really working, I have significant doubts about the visuals anyway, since unless the card is in constant motion and at least 3 feet away from the spectator I think the gaff will be visible. And the ‘tear’ for the standard routine looks a little too ‘neat’ to be convincing.  Danny compares it to ‘thumb tip guilt’ – but I think that is unfair since attention is never directed towards the thumb tip whereas the gimmick here is the focal point of the magic.

One bonus

In many ways our favourite part of this release is the bonus ‘no gaff’ routine. It’s not exactly impromptu but for me is much more commercial and workable. You have a card selected – magically ‘tear off’ the corner – which then re-appears in a sealed plaster packet which the spectator has held all the way through. It doesn’t have the same visual wow but is a nice creative idea – which ends up with a memorable giveaway for the spectator.

So we’re struggling to recommend this one. Danny comes across well and the quality of the DVD and teaching is clear, but this would only get a couple of stars at most from us. In order to make this ‘sleight of hand free’ there seems to be a massive pay off in terms of reliance on a gimmick. We’re not against using gimmicks, but this one just doesn’t stand out from the skyline for us.

Available in the UK from MagicShop.co.uk for £26.50 (at the time of writing).
Review copy kindly supplied by Murphys Magic – to whom all dealer enquiries should be made.

The post Skyline – Danny Weiser – Review appeared first on Bicycle Cards.

The Upgrade Gimmick is a clever little utility gimmick which enables a range of clever card magic to take place. The demo video features some amazingly visual changes, but did the reality match up?

First up, we should say, some people don’t like using gimmicks – and certainly some limitations come as a result. But on the plus side, they enable some very visual magic with little or no sleight of hand. For me the effect is always the thing – method is largely irrelevant – so don’t rule this out just because of the gimmick.

The gimmick is simple, but will have a shelf-life – in the sense that with use it will wear out. With very little practise you will find that you can achieve some great visual effects with ease. My only real issue is that ‘loading’ the gimmick is a little angle-y – and so some of the handling feels slightly less natural than would be ideal. There are always trade-offs in magic – and for most people the value of the effect will outweigh the drawbacks of the handling.

Danny gives half a dozen ideas for different ways of using the gimmick – as a climax for an ambitious card routine, with a blank card, even for a great card-through table, etc. etc. And, as the old saying goes, you are only limited by your imagination – which to be fair seems to be quite a limit for some magicians! One of the really nice things is that the visual change can occur literally in the spectator’s hands – which is a great result.

Although Liam says he likes the fact that the gimmick can sit in your deck ‘unobtrusively’ I would take slight issue with that. I suppose it would fly by in continuous handling – but there is a fairly unavoidable ‘natural break’ caused – which is great for locating the gimmick, but not so good for ‘unobtrusive’ if the deck were, for example, sitting on the table.

As Danny Weiser is a ‘new face’ in the magic world, the interview slot with him is interesting. He comes across as a nice guy and I appreciated hearing a bit of his story.

The DVD is produced to BBM’s usual high standards – easy to navigate and sharply filmed. In addition to the DVD and the actual gimmick, you are also given ‘some supplies’ which will help you repair or replace the gimmick when it wears out.

I’m in two minds about the final verdict on this. I love how visual the effects which are made possible with this gimmick are. And I can see that for ‘that special occasion’ – where I might take a little more effort to achieve that moment of wow, I might go armed. But I’m not sure it’s going to make the cut into my regular working deck.

The Upgrade Gimmick is available from Merchant of Magic (with thanks to BBM who kindly supplied the review copy) for a modest £17.99 (at the time of writing).

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