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SansMinds – Holely Change – review

Phil Sweeting — Sun, 25 Feb 2018 00:01:24 +0000

There’s something disarming about holes. And Holely Change is both disarming and visual and dramatic. I still don’t know whether SansMinds were being serious or tongue in cheek in their product description (“with the help of 2 mysteriously holed cards…”!) but either way, this is a nice release.

Perhaps the most annoying thing about this is its name. I repeatedly failed to find it on the site of one “well known dealer” since I was searching for Holey Change – which makes sense to me. It’s real name is to my mind wholly inappropriate! Now I’ve got that off my chest, let’s get on with the review.

The Effect

Holely Change is exactly the kind of effect I like – simple, direct and visual. A spectator chooses and signs a card from a Red backed deck. It is isolated between two blank cards with holes in them. As the card is pushed into the ‘sandwich’ the back of the signed card visually changes colour to blue. And the signed card can be examined. Neat!

What do you get?

You are supplied with some specially gimmicked cards and you will need to supply a matching bicycle deck (or more likely two since you will lose a signed card every time). Your gimmick matches the colour of the deck you are using. And you will need the card they will sign in a different colour. You also receive a short (14 minutes) instructional DVD.

What do we think?

I’ve not always been overly impressed by SansMinds releases in the past, but I have to say that Holely Change really appeals. The simplicity of the gimmick and the ease of the handling are both great strengths. The magic is very visual and re-set is very quick. There’s no craft work to do. There’s a lot to like here.

The teaching is very clear – and is no longer than it needs to be. There even feels to be less of the typical SansMinds bombast – which I was pleased to see.

Although you could achieve a similar effect with sleight of hand, I really like that the hole cards make the change appear to be visible. You may need to work a bit on ‘framing’ the routine so that the hole cards don’t seem too odd – but I think that could be done with a simple sentence or two focusing on the way they let you see the magic happen.

So Holely Change is a surprise hit and comes recommended.

It is available from MagicShop.co.uk either in red or in blue for £29.99 (at the time of writing).

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

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