The Jaks Wallet

We thought we’d draw your attention to two which deserve to be more widely known. The first is the Jaks Wallet. This is a very clever (yet simple) peak wallet which looks like the kind of holder you would keep your business cards in. To my mind this makes it a very powerful tool for that moment you want to demonstrate some kind of mind reading on the fly.

As with all JO’C products this is beautifully made. A nice quality of leather, beautifully stitched – it looks, feels and even smells the part (is it only me that likes sniffing leather?!). You can remove a business card from the ‘wallet’, have the spectator write on it, place it back in the ‘wallet’ and then easily get a glimpse whenever you need to.

The ‘wallet’ comes nicely presented in an attractive cardboard box and a link is provided to a web-page where you can find both written and video instructions. There is more than enough detail to get you up and running with the wallet very quickly.

There are plenty of sophisticated peak devices and wallets out there, but for me, this one wins on simplicity (nothing to break, easy handling) and innocence – it really is exactly the sort of thing you would carry your business cards around in. The proportions are slightly larger than a standard UK business card – so there is plenty of room – and the peak enables you to see the whole area of the business card.

I think this will be in my pocket permanently now – just in case someone asks to see a little something. Even if you don’t do much mentalism or mind-reading this would be a perfect ‘impromptu’ effect for any kind of magician – and gives you an excuse to leave your business card with the spectator which is always a bonus! Recommended. Available direct from PropDog £29.99 (at time of writing).

The Small No Palm Wallet

Second on our list today is the Small No Palm Wallet. Some people are put off the classic card-to-wallet effect since they are worried about palming a card. You won’t be surprised to hear that is where this one comes in. It really does what it says on the tin – enabling you to load a card into the wallet directly off the top of the deck, without needing to do any palming.

Again, the wallet is beautifully made and smells great! It is a ‘tri-fold’ wallet with a number of pockets for credit cards, some for notes (these are quite small – but you can just fit a £10 note in them), a window compartment in the middle and a zippered compartment – which is where the loaded card ends up. In real life I tend to carry my wallet in my side trouser pocket. This wouldn’t really fit in there. It does go completely in my jeans back pocket, but I think for me will most naturally live in my jacket pocket – which is fine when I’m performing since I always have a jacket on.

It isn’t quite as versatile as its bigger older brother – for example you can’t use envelopes with it. But with a bit of creativity other effects are possible – for example could be used to subtlely add a small stock of cards to a deck, or could even be used in ‘reverse’ as a sort of peek?

Like all these sorts of things you will have to practise a bit to get the handling smooth. There are downloadable instructions which outline the basic method and a few ideas for other routines – but I’m sure you’ll soon come up with your own.

This is a great little wallet and ideal for anyone wanting to perform the classic card in wallet without needing to be frightened of palming! It also works out at less than half the cost of its more sophisticated big brother. Only £40 (at time of writing) and available direct from PropDog.

(Review samples for this feature kindly provided by PropDog)

The post Jerry O’Connell Wallets Feature – the Jaks Wallet and the Small No Palm Wallet review appeared first on Bicycle Cards.

First up is Poker Test 2.0. This has been getting a lot of attention as a very easy to do and very visual effect. 5 blank cards change into a brilliant poker hand with a different coloured back design. What a superb opener for your walkaround set. £21.99

Although we do more and more product reviews, we started off primarily as an informational site about new playing cards, so we like to keep you up to date on any interesting designs we see. The Draconian Playing Cards are a superb example of this. By the designer of the much admired Luxx Deck – and inspired (amongst other things) by one of my favourite authors – the design is based on Dragon scales and provides some beautiful displays. A gorgeous deck in blue or orange – only £9.99.

(For pure class factor, more cards which have caught our eye are the Monarch Playing Cards from Theory 11 – £6.89)

If you’ll allow us a foray into one of our favourite areas of magic, the Jaks Wallet is a wonderful mentalism tool. It is a business card wallet which enables you to get a cheeky peek – and is made to the excellent standards of Jerry O’Connell. If you have even a passing interest in mentalism this is well worth a look. It’s £38.99 if you get it from somewhere we get a commission! But direct from our friends at PropDog (who now own the rights to the Jerry O’Connell material) it’s only £29.99.

And if mentalism isn’t your thing, but wallets are – we recommend checking out the new Fire Wallet 2 – which has a number of improvements over previous fire wallets and even includes a card to wallet feature!  Only £33.99.

We’ll have more information on a couple of new releases from BBM in the next week or so – so watch this space for some more in depth reviews.  Have a magical March!

The post Trick of the Month – March 2015 appeared first on Bicycle Cards.