The Gold Standard – David Regal
$75.00
http://www.murphysmagic.com/product.aspx?id=59250

The Hype:

What is The Gold Standard? It is an 18k gold-plated tie tack or lapel pin that does something special with great economy: a card is returned to the deck, and an instant later it is seen impaled on your tie tack. You can pull on the card, and spin it on the post. Best of all, when you remove the card from the tie tack, there is a hole in the card! 

The card can be signed. The effect can be performed at any time in your act, with a deck in play. And it doesn't have to be a playing card. The Gold Standard can just as easily cause a signed bill to become impaled, or a business card - imagine handing out your card only to discover it pierced by your tie tack. When you remove the card, there's a hole running through it. You can then give that potential customer your business information with a permanent reminder of the effect he just witnessed. 

This is an elegant quality prop, custom designed from the ground up, with attention to detail.

My Take:

I have had the honor and privilege over the past few years of seeing David Regal both perform and lecture and he always surprises me. He seems to be a bottomless fount of ideas for both clever gimmicks and methods that are always extremely well constructed. So, while Gold Standard both surprised me and fooled me, the quality did not.

What you get in the package is the Gold Standard gimmick which is beautifully made and gold plated with 18K gold. With care, this should last you a lifetime. And since it is gold, it should retain its appearance, too. And unlike a lot of the other new effects on the market, you get a real DVD for instruction instead of a download.

The quality of the instruction lives up to the usual Regal standard of teaching the effect thoroughly. He also goes into the history of the magic plot. Seems that magicians have been doing tricks with similar outcomes for almost one hundred yeas. Of course, none of them (to my opinion, at least) measure up to David’s newest trick.

This is not a hard trick to do. It looks good and plays very well. The basic effect can be done by pretty much anyone. David walks you through everything you need to know to be performing this fairly quickly. There is an advanced version taught also which looks amazing, the appearance of the card is a real eye popper.

One thing that David keeps pointing out is that the card actually has a hole in it after it is given back to your spectator. This should eliminate a lot of the suspicions they have. The only thing some may have an issue with is that the effect does require you to wear a tie. I know a lot of performers have gone for a more casual look but this is definitely worth classing up for. Plus, you will be wearing a beautiful piece of gold jewelry. Really doesn’t go well with anything but a tie now, does it?

David has come up with a lot of great effects in the past. The Clarity box, the Disposable Deck, Momento, Clink. etc, Every one a showstopper. He continues the tradition with Gold Standard, a trick which really lives up to its name.

And David is one of the few magicians who is also a professional writer for the entertainment industry (he was on the writing staff for the kids’ TV show “Rugrats” ) so you know his script will be first rate.

This is superb and I am heading to my closet and pulling out that tie which has not been worn for a long time. I suggest you do the same.

Back