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Sublime

Sublime Self Working card Tricks – John Carey
$26.95
http://www.murphysmagic.com/product.aspx?id=59201

The Hype:

Renowned card worker John Carey has a stellar reputation for creating practical, powerful card magic. Tricks that play brilliantly, and shock audiences, but are eminently DO-ABLE. Carey is known for employing clever thinking and choreography rather than complex moves and techniques, but on this project he has distilled it down even further and crafted 10 routines that require NO sleight of hand AT ALL! 

Often entirely impromptu, these routines are simple in method but staggeringly impactful. You'll be able to perform all ten routines immediately and really concentrate on engaging with your spectators and creating magical moments. 

 My take:

There has been a huge outpouring of videos on self working card tricks recently. The best ones seem to come from Big Blind Media as does this one by British card man, John Carey. Like Nick Trost, John has specialized in effects that rely more on subtlety than knuckle busting. And with this release, he cuts it right to the bone.

Every trick on this set is self working requiring setups ranging from none to minimal. Most of the tricks are excellent but the quality varies.

Here is what you are taught.

Opening Time – This is John’s take on the Open Prediction plot. Super easy to do and a real fooler.

Think as I Think – A fun version of a two deck Do As I Do. Bears a strong resemblance to Chad Long’s Shuffling Lesson but with a different outcome.

One Hand and One Card - The magician keeps one hand in his pocket until the end of the routine. A card is selected and vanishes. The magician removes his hand from his pocket holding the selected card. You are also taught John Bannon’s Double Dutch cut.

Yes, You CAAN – A number is randomly chosen and used to determine a card. This trick requires only two cards and is an excellent trick to put into a plastic card wallet and toss into your pocket. I have one that I carry and it always plays great. You’re provided with a file on the computer to print out the prop you need.

Scattered – Spectator selects four of a kind from an imaginary deck. The magician has the spectator toss the imaginary cards, one at the top of the deck, one at the bottom of the deck, one in the air (where it is grabbed and placed into the magician’s pocket), and one at the closed card box on the table. The actual four cards are all found in the proper places. Nice use of the Equivoque technique employed by Joshua Jay in his Inferno routine.

A La Goldman – a two deck Do As I Do using no key card. This fooled me the first time I watched it. Easy to do and you just may fool some of those “in the know.”

Dice CAAN – Sorry but for me this was the one weak spot on the set. It relies on the stand by of throwing some dice, adding the total, then adding the numbers on the other side. I have run into a lot of laymen that realize the total is always the number of the dice times seven. The odds are that your audience will not know this but there is a chance they might.  Interesting to watch but I am going to have to pass on this routine.

Sync – The spectator just thinks of any suit then cuts the deck. The suit is paired up with the value of the card cut to. The deck is shuffled and the magician finds either the actual card or the card that matches it in value and color. This is a very nice routine and like the others, easy to do.

Make Believe (a coin effect) – Like you, I have no idea how a coin trick found its way onto a DVD of card tricks. But it is self working and you will have fun using this as a break in card tricks. The magician says he has three make believe coins. A Chinese coin (with a hole), an English penny and a half dollar. The spectator is given the Chinese coin to inspect and tells the magician which of the other two he is to hold. Both close their hands. When the spectator opens his hands, no magic has taken place, They are both still empty. But when the magician opens his, the selected coin is found on his palm. This does require a gimmick but it is quite likely you already own it.

Redford Unplugged – A final use of the cross cut force but this is sweet as it allows you to use three spectators and get more people involved.

Conclusion: Since I have started reviewing I have become a big fan of releases from Big Blind Media so I was anxious to look at this one. Nick Trost was always a hero to me as he allowed someone with average skills to do real magic. Big Blind has continued that tradition with DVD’s by John Bannon, Liam Montier, Cameron Francis and now John Carey.  At thirty bucks for the lot, you are paying roughly three bucks per trick. Do the math, this is a bargain and you will find more than one routine you will add.

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