We start by looking backwards. One of our favourite releases of last year was Ultimate Self Working Card Tricks Volume 2. This is a great DVD rammed full of excellent and easy to do magic (read our review here). If you didn’t buy it last year, what are you waiting for? £19.99

We saw many different decks of cards last year, but if you really pushed us, one of our favourites was (and we’re slightly embarrassed to admit it – because it is ‘non-Bicycle‘!) was the Golden Bees. You can read our review here – and they are still available at the bargain price of £10.99  over at JP Playing Cards (we’ve seen them for TWICE the price elsewhere).

We also promised to look forward, so if you’re looking for a stylish new deck for the new year, how about the Limited Edition Exquisite Deck by De’Vo?  Gold foil and a beautiful swirly back design – it lives up to its name. £12.99

Prospect is a new effect (based on some old principles) which seems to be dividing the magic community a bit. But the general consensus seems to be that this is more surprising for a lay audience than you would expect. The spectator makes a series of decisions to think of a card and it is the only card you are holding. Strong magic. £30.99.

For something similar, but using a matchbox, you may also consider Inferno (on this great value lecture DVD) by Joshua Jay.  We’re actually shortly going to be reviewing it for another site so can’t comment on it properly yet but it looks good.  £9.99.

We hope you have a great start to the year – and will be posting lots more magic news, reviews and comment in the days and weeks ahead.

The post Trick of the Month – January 2014 appeared first on Bicycle Cards.

Let’s run through the routines on the disk first.

Knocked Subconscious

– a very clean looking card location using a principle that is so old that you may never have come across it before – making it delightfully new again!  Ingenious!

Four Shadowed

– this completely fried me when I watched it for the first time – an incredible location of 4 of a kind which looks SO clean.   It is all achieved with a little bit of set up and a lot of sneakery (have I just invented a new word?!).  This is very strong indeed.

Deconstructed Construction

– another one which fooled me badly when I watched it first time – a very clever pseudo mind-reading effect – the spectator seems to only think of a card and you can reveal it.  This is extremely clean with some neat subtleties in the handling.  But you will need some confidence as a performer to do this one well.

Degrees of Board-dom

– this is a nice presentational approach which combines two already strong effects from Bannon/Aronson into a completely impossible miracle.  You cleanly predict the outcome of a very random set of decisions made by the spectator.  There’s a fair bit of one time set up for this and a bit of set up each time you perform it but the strong effect more than justifies this.  There are no moves as such, but it does require a bit of thinking as you perform it though I suspect after a few performances this will be second nature.  But be warned – you might still not understand how it works!

It cuts deep

– from a freely shuffled and cut pack you successfully reveal three cards.  This is a neat little thing.   It isn’t the strongest effect on the disk, but because it can be done with a borrowed and shuffled deck, that gives it extra points.  I could see this being a useful weapon in the impromptu armoury.

Methodical

– a three phase routine with increasingly impossible locations of a card from a random bunch of cards previously selected and shuffled by the spectator.  It’s hard to know whether to call the ‘moves’ in this ‘moves’ or not.  This was probably my least favourite routine on the disk but it is still effective and would fry a spectator.

1492

– another very fair-looking location of a card in a well mixed deck.  You don’t even need to look at the cards and yet can still find their selection.

So what do we think?

There is some great material on this disk – really strong effects with minimal ‘work’.  There are some principles here you might well re-use in your own ideas, but almost all of the routines are very strong in themselves.  I’m fairly sure that being a ‘magician fooler’ is not a particularly useful measure in evaluating magic – but it is fair to say that a lot of the stuff on here will fool magicians (who haven’t seen the disk!) too.

As ever, there are helpful explanatory comments from Liam Montier who has a real knack for asking the questions you might just have.  There are also some really poor jokes from James Went… And Ryan himself comes across as a really nice guy.

The title is ever so slightly misleading since the routines are not entirely without moves – but they are certainly not complicated finger flinging effects.  And from a technical standpoint anyone should be able to do these pretty easily.  To perform them well is another story.  But it always is.

There are lots of onscreen credits for sources which I always appreciate.  I also enjoyed the onscreen apologies and corrections.  They appeal to my sense of humour.  Make of that what you will.

Definitely recommended.  Release date is 19^th August.  Available from Merchant of Magic (with thanks to BBM who kindly provided the review copy).

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Mind Mirror (Jack McMillan)

A really clever and very fair looking card discovery (originally published in his Expert Card Technique).  Some set up required but beautifully simple.

Convergence (Cameron Francis)

This is a really commercial version of the ACAAN type plot.  If you have a long memory you will remember this was released on the Annihilation Deck and for me (you can see our review here) it was stronger than the main effect.  This is a brilliant solution which you can just concentrate on presenting.

Stock Exchanged (John Gustaferro)

Here’s how it plays – a pack of cards is well shuffled and mixed with the help of two spectators face up and face down.  At the end of the process two predictions match and the rest of the cards right themselves and separate themselves into reds and blacks!  Triumph meets OOTW meets a double prediction.  Very clever routineing combines some principles you will probably know for a great effect.

Sense-Sational (Ryan Schlutz)

Crazy levels of very free-looking mixing end up with the location of 3 randomly chosen cards.  There is a setup required but it is well worth it for the power of the effect.  There are three phases to the routine each utilising different principles all of which are well concealed.  You may well find yourself incorporating some of them in your own effects.

Poker Pairadox (John Bannon)

A mixed up set of cards instantly separates out into matching pairs with a nice presentational angle.  Insanely easy and very visual looking.

Four Most (Peter Duffie)

This is a clever twist/extension of an effect you may have done before.  Three spectators stop you at random points as you deal out some cards and insert bank notes to mark the spot.  One of them stops during dealing for your note and at the end you have located the four aces.  Showy, easy to do, engaging.  This one is going straight into the working set!

Password Fallacy (Jim Steinmeyer)

Whilst I’m a big fan of Steinmeyer’s books, I must confess I’ve never seen any of his close-up effects, so I was curious to see what this was like.  It is effectively a spelling effect – but the method is such that with care it could be done over the phone or in any other entirely hands off way.  It’s not a massive mystery but it is a puzzling little effect with a logical premise and if presented well it should go down very nicely.

Amara Rises Again (Ryan Matney)

I’d never heard of Ryan Matney before, but this is a nice little effect.  The spectator ‘goes digging’ in the pack of cards and by a very fair looking process manages to identify the card which matches one isolated in the card box, and also find its three mates.  An engaging plot helps keep this otherwise slightly ‘procedural’ trick moving.  The ‘force’ is very clever.

Blind Choice (Roy Walton)

A clever little colour-matching effect involving five spectators.  Think OOTW but without such a lengthy dealing procedure and involving more people.  Compact, clever thinking as you would expect from Roy Walton.

Final thoughts

I think there is some really strong material on here which would be really helpful for someone just starting out, and in the hands of someone with a bit more performing experience they would become miracles.  I will certainly be using some of these.

If I had a minor niggle, it is that a couple of the effects have been released before – on BBM disks – but at least they have re-filmed them so it isn’t just a cut and paste job  More positively, as we’ve probably said before, Liam Montier has a real gift for explaining things very clearly – so full marks on the explanations.  I also note the blatant use of attractive women on the main menu without making comments!

All in all, a great disk – go get it.  The release date is 17^th June and there are all kinds of pre-order deals on – we’ve highlighted a couple below.

(Oh – and for the next week you have a chance to win it and a bundle of other goodies in our competition!)

You can get it direct from the horse’s mouth at BBM.

Merchant of Magic are offering a deal with Volume One and Volume Two together with 25% off.

Freepostmagic are offering a free deck of Karnival Hornets or Karnival Deathheads with pre-orders while stocks last.

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