The Skip Switch is a very clever and clean-looking way of switching a card which is sandwiched between 2 jokers, without it apparently leaving your sight. Cool!

Ollie comes across as a nice guy – not one of those flashy in your face chaps – and I like that. The move is very clearly taught in 5-phases. I have an average level of competence with cards, and it was within my grasp. You probably won’t be doing it immediately (at least not looking as good as Ollie!) but it is not a 24-years of daily study type move either.

How does it look?
Although I am very nervous about disagreeing with living legends like Peter Duffie, I feel I want to qualify something he says. Peter says “Unnatural actions are conspicuous by their absence.” I think this is true of the actual switch move itself but to me the ‘get ready’ feels slightly unnatural. For my money, however, the visual effect is so powerful that this is a worthwhile trade-off, but I have to tell it how I see it.

The routines
BBM never leave you with just a move itself, so the disk includes 11 routines. I’m not going to go into detail on them all but will make a couple of comments.

Firstly, all credit to Ollie’s creativity. There are a whole range of different effects here – with quite different feels to most of them – so this powerfully demonstrates the move’s versatility.

For me, some of the routines are a bit convoluted. Keeping track of what is where and why might be a bit much for a spectator in a typical walk-around type situation (though maybe not in a formal close-up show context). This is particularly true where there are 2 chosen cards to remember and things are swapping places all the time. I personally love the simplicity of ‘Edit the equation’ – but maybe I’m just a bit of a maths geek!

In my opinion, even if you don’t use the routines exactly as they are, there is more than enough food for thought to get you incorporating the move into your own routines.

Anything else to say?
The DVD is well shot – no extraneous noise or distraction. On the subject of noise, I was continually amused by the ‘audience interaction’. Every time Ollie asked for the non-existent spectator to say ‘stop’, the screen would blank and the word ‘STOP’ would appear in the middle of it. Well it made me laugh.

That does highlight for me one thing I would have liked to see – a bit of footage of Ollie performing some of this stuff in the real world to real people.

All in all a neat utility move and plenty of ideas to get you thinking. Good work BBM!

Available
Direct from BBM (£18.49 including p&p in the UK)
MagicShop.co.uk (£18.99 – p&p depends on what else you buy)
DudeThatsCool (£16.99 – p&p depends on what else you buy)

The post Ollie Mealing – Skip Switch Project – Review appeared first on Bicycle Cards.

A few general observations up front.  Ollie comes across as a very nice guy and has a straightforward and unassuming presenting/explaining style – which makes this very easy to watch.  I love the wonderful cheesy plugs for Karnival Decks on the way through!  And Cameron Francis adds his own blend of oddness to some of the explanations.

The Moves…

SeeSaw peek – very doable double peek which leaves you in a nice position for a range of effects.

Pit Control – a clever move where a freely selected card is controlled to second from top whilst apparently being pivoted round into the middle of the deck.

Barrier Shift – for me this looks a little contrived, but it is a new take on the pass.

Station Double – a technique for making a double lift from the middle of the pack.  A good idea and not too tricky.

Clay Switch – a very sneaky way of switching a card, right in front of them, but looks perfectly fair.  Very versatile.

The Tricks…

Constructing the Deck – a double backed pack becomes a blank faced deck becomes a normally printed deck.

Four Sugars – a chosen card disappears from the pack and reappears in your pocket. Then the rest of the pack turns into the chosen card’s three mates.  Strong!

Triple Coincidence – spectator cuts to three cards which in turn reveal the suit and value of the chosen card – the third is the chosen card.

The Sandwich Meal – a sandwich trick on steroids!  Two selected cards are individually ‘caught’ by the black aces.  Each time the black aces change into the three mates of the selected card.  In a final kicker the black aces themselves appear reversed in the deck, trapped by the red aces.  Lots of magic!

King of Clues – (one of only 2 performed ‘live’ on the DVD) – I must confess that I got rather confused in the live performance about what the effect actually was.  However, it was clearer in the ‘studio’ version.  Essentially 2 black kings swap places with 2 red kings and with 2 selections in turn – each time appearing in the card box.

Impromptu Stunner – after a deck is freely shuffled, 3 chosen cards are revealed in increasingly surprising ways.

Flat Pack – (live performance) – 2 freely chosen cards (from a shuffled pack) are used to create a new card which appears within the box.  The effect is immediately repeated with the other card which is possible from combining the suit/value.  Then the whole pack disappears and reappears in the box.

Graffiti Sandwich – the jokers find a freely chosen card,which is openly placed into the middle of the pack  – very quickly!  A more straightforward plot than some on the disc and very visual if you can master the move required.

Conclusion

I have to admit that this is one of my least favourite BBM DVDs.  I feel a little bad about reaching this conclusion since it probably says more about me than the DVD – because I am a very lazy magician, and I do not have the patience to learn the moves properly.

However, I would add to that that for me, some of the effects are too convoluted for my performance taste.  Were the effects more straightforward (what the dear departed Arthur Setterington used to call ‘Straight Line Mysteries’) I might be more inclined to put in the effort.

All that being said, I think the See Saw Peek, the Station Double and the Clay Switch are versatile moves which would certainly be worth a little investment of time to master. There will be lots of people who will love this, but it didn’t do it for me!

It’s £19.99 from BBM.

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