Suspenz Archives - Bicycle Cards

Eric Bedard – Suspenz – review

Phil Sweeting — Sat, 01 Dec 2018 00:01:15 +0000

Suspenz is a neat way to give the impression that you can float playing cards in thin air. Here’s our review.

I remember a floating deck effect around at least 30 years ago – and in some ways Suspenz uses a similar method – but the Suspenz gimmick is much more robust than the item I have in mind. That increases the range of options with the gimmick and probably also your confidence in performing.

It is a very simple idea – with a nicely machined gimmick. And the effect is really very eerie! It seems to me it could be used as an extra effect in a longer routine – anywhere that you might normally spread the cards out you could make the float. Imagine an in the hands Triumph routine where the final display floats!

Of course, you’re not limited to cards – anything of a similar size and weight can be ‘floated’ – and as you can see in this image – the gimmick will actually sustain a reasonable weight.

You really need to use two hands to ‘start’ the float – but once the cards are floating you can work with one hand which allows you to do things like…

Can you cope with the Suspenz?…

Trick 1 – This is a simple ‘find a card’ trick – where the card is found amongst a suspended pack of cards. Nothing too astounding here…

Trick 2 (don’t you just love the names?!) – A spectator takes and signs a card. Suddenly the rest of the deck turns blank and the whole deck floats in the middle of the deck. I like the way his scripting gives a rationale for the effect – and I suspect that for a lay person this would actually pack a bit of punch.

What do we think?

The gimmick is well-made and of a size that you can easily bring it in and out of play. The effect is visual and more or less angle-proof. For my money, it definitely needs to be used in the context of a longer routine, rather than being a stand-alone effect. But Suspenz is a nice re-imagining of the classic floating deck and I think you’ll have some fun.

The idea of using it out and about and floating some bank notes (watch out for breezes!) or business cards or credit cards is also quite appealing. ‘Impromptu’ magic at its best!

I’ll put in one caveat since I haven’t played with this enough to properly ‘stress test’ it. I find it slightly curious that more or less the first thing on the teaching video is instructions about how to strengthen your gimmick. That doesn’t strike a note of confidence in the user. But as I’ve said, on first glance the thing seems well-made – so perhaps this is just going the extra mile?

Vortex magic could also do with a bit of quality control on their videos – since all the titles on the instruction say ‘Supenz’! That being said I enjoyed their amusing touch at the end of the video!

If you work with cards, then I can easily see Suspenz bringing an extra element to your routines.

You can pick up your copy of Suspenz from the Merchant of Magic for £49.50 (at the time of writing).

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

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