I’m hoping that you can guess the effect from the name – that’s right – your tie changes colour! But there’s a little more to say than that…

This gimmick will enable you to make your tie change colour during the course of your performance. It’s not strictly a visual change – you need a moment’s cover to effect the change. But it really is just a moment – so in the act of turning away from the audience to ditch something in your case, or while an audience member shows something to the rest of the audience, you would have ample cover.

What’s in the box?

You’re provided with a couple of gimmicks and materials to make this up with your own ties. You will have to destroy one tie to make this up (you didn’t think it was real magic did you?) but the ‘shell’ once made could be used with any other tie within reason. Part of my main gimmick had come detached in transit, but it is easily mended and once re-glued wouldn’t affect the performance in any way. You also receive a comprehensive instructional DVD.

There is a little work involved in preparing the gimmick to use – only basic arts and crafts skills and tools are required – it is not too difficult – but you do need to be careful since you will only get one shot at cutting up the extra tie! But David Penn’s explanations are clear and detailed so this should not be difficult.

Every aspect of preparation and set up is described – he even shows you how to tie a tie! There’s not masses of detail on the ditching process – but this is very straightforward, and you will have to experiment with your own gimmick anyway.

A couple of presentational ideas are suggested. David’s own routine is in the context of a plot around ‘perception’ – perhaps this is why at one point he describes the trick as a “great psychological miracle” – which sounds a bit over the top to me.

Although he suggests it could be worked close-up, I would have thought that in most real-world close-up settings this is unlikely to work since you’d struggle to find the cover for ditching – so for me it would primarily be a stage or a carefully controlled close-up environment to use this. Fairly obviously, you couldn’t re-set in front of an audience – you would need some privacy a minute or two and ideally a mirror!

We think this is a simple but effective little idea and would be a great element to add to an existing routine. It’s not really designed to be a stand-alone effect, but a great addition to another routine which would add some real wow.

Recommended. Available from Merchant of Magic – £42.99 (at time of writing).

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

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If you really want to go to town on a magic set then the Metamorphtrix set from Fantasma is the one. An enormous number of tricks, some good quality props and an instructional DVD. But it rocks in at £49.99.

To my mind the Deluxe Magic Set by the Las Vegas Magic Company is a very credible alternative with some classic pro quality tricks for only £34.50

But our top recommendation is probably still the
Joshua Jay Complete Magician set.  This consists of a book plus a DVD plus a few key props. Joshua is a fantastic teacher – and I have a bias towards books as many readers will know. £34.99

There have been a load of new cards out recently so we’ll do a special ‘Christmas Cards‘ (pun intended!) post in a few days.  But here are a few more new and notable releases – which would of course make great Christmas gifts for that special magician in your life…

I haven’t physically seen this yet – but I’m very excited about it. There seem to have been a whole plethora of different approaches to this problem recently – the in view switch of a card/billet – but this looks the best I’ve seen. One of the great features of Mystery Solved is that you can be seen to place something in at the beginning of the routine. £59.50

This is the UK edition of a trick that has really caught my eye. Fair Play looks like the perfect prediction effect to have about your person (OK – on your keyring) – so you are set to perform some amazing magic at a moment’s notice – and better still it is very easy to do. £29.99

Our final plug will only be of interest to a few I suspect.  I don’t actually perform stage illusions (and this is a close up magic blog!) but I LOVE reading about them.  One of the UK’s leading illusion designers has just released his magnum opus – the Confictura of Thomas Moore – and if you have any interest at all in this field you should really check out this serious (and heavy!  3KG!) book.

That’s all for now. Don’t forget to check back for the latest news, reviews and Bicycle cards! We’ve got a new John Bannon effect and a new Liam Montier DVD to review in the next few weeks.  So much exciting magic to enjoy!

The post Trick of the Month – December 2014 – the magic set edition appeared first on Bicycle Cards.