Review of The Lane by Mickael Chatelain

Reviewed by: Adeline Ng

I have had the chance on prior occasions to review Mickael Chatelain’s effect, and I have always found his effects to be very visual. In fact, I really liked two of his effects: Numberground and Cell Phone (which is by David Stone but in collaboration with Chatelain). In fact, ‘Magic Babe’ Ning actually uses Numberground in her professional close-up repertoire. However, The Lane does seem to pale in comparison to these effects.

The Lane is essentially a card effect. The card is freely chosen and then signed by the audience. The signed card is then lost in the middle of the deck. Magician takes a sticker and places it on the card box. Upon rubbing the sticker, the sticker magically transposes onto the signed card in the middle of the deck.

Personally this effect lacks somewhat of logic to me – perhaps it was because the creator is French and there was no patter. That can be easily fixed with your own presentation. The use of the gimmick is quite brilliant but I did not like how the other half of the trick was set up. The deck has to be quite gimmicked and the setup feels very delicate to me. In fact, if you are doing walk around, and the card happens to be in your pocket, the setup could be ‘destroyed’.  Practically I’m not sure how long the setup would last. After playing around with the gimmick, my friend and I came up with versions we personally thought would be much cleaner and actually made more sense (at least to ourselves).

I felt the effect seems to be a ‘gimmicky’ kind of fun for magicians, but not necessarily great for walk around.

2.5 of 5 stars