Review of CHOP by Craig Petty

Reviewed by guest reviewer: Yin Howe Yeap

I am a big fan of good Cups and Balls and Chop cup routines. So I was very looking forward to getting this.

You will receive a gimmick along with an instructional DVD. It is a chop cup style routine with a cup and a scrunched up dollar bill.

The gimmick is used to make any cup into sort of a chop cup, but different, some of the moves are not possible with a regular chop cup. For example, you can put the cup directly over the ball and have it instantly disappear if you wanted. Also, have the bill magically drop into a spectator’s hand on your command. The gimmick is pretty much hidden in plain sight.

The cup can be examined by the spectator before, during and after the routine. Technically you can use any cup, but a paper/styrofoam cup is more suitable.

The bill can be borrowed. (Important Note: This will NOT work with ‘plastic’ money, which is what Singapore Dollars are made of nowadays, or a 5 Malaysian Ringgit note, as you need to scrunch up the bill into a ball. Singaporeans might want to take note.)

Craig has included his routine in the DVD which is a 7 phase Chop Cup style routine.

I like the Bonus routine ‘Sharp’, where a marker pen magically vanishes, appears and transposes, reminiscent of Greg Wilson’s Recapped which can be done as a prelude to CHOP or signing a card or as a stand alone routine.

Overall, it’s a great routine and it’s visible enough for a large group of people but also great for 1 to 1 performance. I have not practiced this enough to perform yet, but likely will not do all 7 phases because to me it is a little long. Although some parts of the routine are done in the spectator’s hands, you will need a table to perform this.

The ‘secret moves’ for CHOP are not hard but takes practice and won’t be something you’d be able to do smoothly right after you watch the DVD.

Another thing to take note is that lemon juice might leak into your jacket pocket.

4.5/5 stars

Review of Mental Epic Pad (Props and DVD) by Marc Oberon

Reviewed by: Bernard Sim

This is darn clever! The performance section blew me away as I couldn’t figure out how it was done. Everything seems so fair. The board looks innocent, low tech and the method is so devious.

What you get is the DVD and a little something to construct your own Mental Epic Pad. Marc Oberon constructed it on a A2 size board (594mm by 420mm), a board of this size is very suitable for stage and parlor performances.  The construction is not difficult, you’ll need a foam board, tapes, scissors, spray mount glue and not to forget the drawing pad as well as the envelopes and bulldog clip to cover your prediction .  The basic set-up can be reuse and after each performance, you will need to replace part of the board. Marc Oberon has this well thought out; the refills are very easy to make and takes little time. You can construct a size that most suits your performance style, the idea is the same but you just have to adjust the size accordingly.

If you have always wanted to do a Mental Epic type of routine, now is the time to do it. With this version, you will not be accused of having a gimmicked board as everything is so fair. Highly recommended!

Rating 4.5/5

 

Review of Kings Crossing (Cards and DVD) by Nicolas Gignac and Jason Palter

Reviewed by: Bernard Sim

Jumbo cards across. The plot is not new but this version is easy to do and relative clean. The cards are gimmicked and will do all the work for you. You can “show” both the front and the back of the cards in a very fair manner. However, the card can’t be examined but examination is probably not necessary as the handling kills all doubts.  I don’t like the routine as performed in the DVD, feels kinda too corny for me, but additional ideas of performing the routine are included.

The only gripe I have for this item is the price. At a retail price of US$60, it seems a bit on the high side, considering that this effect is neither groundbreaking nor new. If you have US$60 to spare, why not?

Rating 3.5/5

 

Review of The Invisible Pass by Chris Dugdale JB Magic – DVD

Reviewed by Bernard Sim

This rather short video on the Invisible Pass. The total length of the DVD is 21.57mins. Slightly more than half of it, 12.50 mins to be exact is on the explanation. The rest of the DVD is some live performance of Chris Dugdale.  Of the 12.50 mins of “explanations” it was filled with “fillers’ such as Chris Dugdale drinking a coconut, Chris Dugdale dancing etc. I know he is trying to add humor to the DVD but I think it’s not funny at all. The video is filmed in three different locations but to me, it seems that they are on holiday and decided to make a DVD at the same time.

To be fair to Chris Dugdale, he does a very good invisible pass, the explanations are pretty clear too. In this DVD he teaches the Invisible pass and the Turnover Pass. He also demonstrated the Riffle Pass. You would probably be able to learn the Invisible Pass from this DVD. At a retail price of US$30, I’d rather pay slightly more and get Richard Kaufmann’s On The Pass.

Rating 2.5/5