Anyway, here’s the effect. The magician has a set of 4 of a kind. They turn face up, one by one, then all together, and then their backs change colour!

It must be said there are many close variations on this kind of thing, but this is a nice one. It only requires one ‘move’ – which you will probably already know (and which is taught on the DVD if you don’t). A lot of magic happens quickly – and Gary’s presentation is amusing and engaging.

Things we like: Lots of magic, fairly easy to do, very visual, re-set instantly so great for walk around, a couple of presentational variations provided.

One thing we like slightly less: we’ve got so used to ‘fractal’ type effects that it seems a shock that the cards can’t be examined at the end (not a deal breaker with proper audience management – but worth mentioning).

The DVD has no frills but doesn’t need them. You get a ‘live’ and a ‘studio’ performance, a clear explanation, the ‘move’ is taught, and there are a few notes on the history/credits for the effect (it is actually quite an old effect re-released – but I think falls into the category of ‘so old that it’s new’…)

This is a great little addition to the genre and I’ve had good reactions from it with the people I have shown it to. Shock Twist is available from Merchant of Magic (with thanks to MagicTao who kindly provided the review copy).

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