Michael, I have to say that I don’t really like this version of a Torn and Restored. I especially don’t like having to post about two T&Rs in a row. All a spectator is going to think is “he never tore the card”, and he will not be able to rewind his brain to a point where he saw two pieces of card (which is what actually fries the brain). But I’m not going to give this effect a rating. I’m going to give the video a rating however. I’m impressed at the nerve you show by posting the video even with your mom yelling in the background, and you yelling back. Nice!

Rating: Two Big Balls

Ratings are completely arbitrary depending upon the amount of leftover stuffing in my fridge, and whether or not it’s still good. And whether or not I ate it anyways.

What can I say? This was incredibly elegant, and a pleasure to watch. Maybe because it’s the holiday season, or the beautiful song, or the fact that it’s dedicated to “Mom” – for whatever reason, when I watched this video it moved me.

That being said, there were a few things in there that could be improved upon. The first ditch had no theatrical reasoning, which means it stands out as something that doesn’t make sense, thereby raising suspicion. This shouldn’t have happened- since you were going to get the marker anyways, you should have just had the marker closer to the edge of the table. This would have given you PERFECT cover for the ditch, with no extra odd-looking motion. I have an even better solution, but bear with me for a minute.

In such a beautiful handling, it seems oddly rustic to put the torn pieces in your mouth. It doesn’t seem to fit the ambiance of the effect. I have a suggestion that would take care of the first ditch and the “card in mouth” issue. Instead of writing “love” on the paper, simply have it written there already. Keep the paper near the edge of the table. Make the first ditch as you grab the paper to pick up and show everyone what is written on it. This way, you also don’t have to put the card in your mouth.

I really like your take on Torched and Restored, although folding the card signature out leaves you with another problem that the original doesn’t have, and that is that you have an extra piece stuck to the part of the card you need to show. Which means you have to ditch that extra piece before the trick is over, when heat is still on it. (In the original, as you know, you can wait until the effect is over and the suspicion is off entirely before you remove the extra piece.) In your video, this removal looks clumsy, and should be cleaned up so as not to look suspicious.

(If you’re going to keep putting the card in your mouth, you don’t really need to gaff a card at all. Just tear a card, ditch all but one piece, put the piece in your mouth, have an extra folded card with YOU and ME written on it hidden with the slip of paper you burn. Then as you reach to your mouth to take out the card, hide the extra piece inside your mouth as you hold up the new card. This would also eliminate having to ditch that last piece.)

Anyway, a really good job. I enjoyed it immensely.

Rating: Three Light Bulbs and a Crying Smiley (It’s a good teardrop!)

(Rating are completely arbitrary. Sniff. Sniff. I gotta go call my mom…)

The 24 page booklet contains detailed instructions on how to perform the effect, a plethora of pics, the history of the effect, and a section called “the work behind it all” which really gets into the down and dirty details of why the effect works so well, and how to make it better. All in all it’s a worthy project that I believe adds value to the magic community as a whole.

The effect is on sale for $20 at Decks, Lies, and Videotape, and it comes with three bonus items that I will discuss in future posts. They are all valuable items. I believe that in this case, twenty dollars buys you thousands worth in knowledge.

You have a really strong voice and a very good presence when you are performing. This is all the more reason to clean up your script. Right now, it’s pretty bad and doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

This “Color Monte” look alike is pretty good – I’ve always liked it, but you have some movement issues. A double lift from a three card packet is easily achievable. You should look through your books or videos and find out how to do it right! Email me if you want to and I’ll help you out.

I see potential if you put in the time.

Rating: One Milk

(Still arbitrary)

What is it with doing magic tricks to music on YouTube videos?  When you all perform these things, do you say, “hang on while I open iTunes, so the trick looks really good”? What happened to talking through a trick, using vocal inflections to make it more amazing? I think it my be laziness. Okay, I’m off my soapbox. For now.

This effect has the potential to look amazing. But you need to work on the moves. A novice or layman would be able to tell you exactly how you did that, based on that performance. It’ll take work to get the moves down so well that it doesn’t look like you are doing anything. But it will be worth it. You need to have a reason for every move your hands make, and here – you don’t. This makes it obvious what you are doing.

The work put in will be the difference between your spectators saying “wow, that looks really neat”, and them saying, “what the *$%^#”

Rating: Two Milks, and and iPod.

(Ratings are completely &!%$, based on %!&@$#)

The presentation doesn’t make any sense. Read it:

“I’ll leave the three face up in the middle of the deck, that way you’ll be able to see what’s going on. That way if I spread through the cards, you’d be able to see it there face up in the middle of the deck. And if you’re watching closely, and I know you are, then you’ll see that there is no three face up in the middle of the deck or any other card face up in the middle of the deck.

That’s simply because the three of diamonds is shy. Don’t worry though, we can bring it back. All we have to do is take another card here, the Ace of diamonds, One, Two, Three, and the three comes back.”

See what I mean, the plot makes no sense. Also, the three not being face up anymore is an effect, yet you don’t treat it as such. Get the most out of the magic! You are also, as you can see, pretty repetitive.

I’m going to throw something out to you here, use it as you wish:

“Take out a card for me. Ahh the three of diamonds. Interestingly, you picked a pretty shy card. Even if we put him back into the deck face up, after just a couple of seconds, he turns face down. What he needs is someone to encourage him. Ahhh, the ace of diamonds. The ace is a very encouraging card. He can coax the three out of his shell. Watch him work…And there he is. The three of Diamonds.”

Now, I’m not too thrilled with this presentation that I just came up with, it’s kind of boring, but at least it makes sense.

Rating: One Milk, because you’re trying to get better!

(Ratings are arbitrary, based on how shy I’m feeling that day.)

Wow. This hurts my brain. To quote Douglas Adams, yet again, “It’s like having your brain smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped around a large gold brick”

I am, for once at a loss for words. I don’t know if I like it, hate it, it’s just weird. So I’m not going to rate it, I just thought you should all see it. I have to go try it NOW!

First of all, I have to say- how cool would it be to have the name Kent Gunn. Gunn with two n’s. Awesome. It sounds like a comic superhero, or a 1970′s P.I. “Yes, I’m Kent Gunn, Private Investigator. How can I help?” See what I mean.

But I digress. KENT!!! Thanks for the submission. Your version of Triumph looks really, really good. You did the “name of the trick” joke again, and this time I knew it was a joke, and it worked for me. Nice. You presentation is obviously geared towards magicians, and you pulled that off rather well. Anyone who was paying attention to all of your details was probably as fooled as I was.

I am a big proponent of spreading the deck face up at the end, revealing one face down card to build suspense. It seems to work better that way. However, I suspect that you had to do it in this manner to keep us all thinking you were using a cheeky deck, and then schooling us on that as well. Thanks for the submission, I enjoyed it immensely.

Rating: Two Light Bulbs and a Private Investigator’s Badge

(Ratings are completely arbitrary based on whom and what is being investigated.)

Good job, Arthur. You did very well on camera. In striving for perfection, I would suggest that next time you do a little bit of pre-show work and make sure your audience has a free hand, just let them know they will have to sign a card. But that’s next time. You handled it well for live TV. Thanks for your submission. Not what I’m looking for in my Top Ten, but great nonetheless!

Rating: Two Light Bulbs and a Television.

(Ratings are completely arbitrary. You might even say “bananas!”)

As someone on the Magic Cafe said, your handling is really, really good. This effect looks amazing. Unfortunately, you patter is very boring and too descriptive of what you are doing.

Rate the following sentence in terms of entertainment value: “I’m going to make a rabbit appear in this hat. Look. The hat is empty. I turn the hat over. Look. There is a rabbit in the hat now.”

That is what you are doing with this effect. You are taking a miracle and stealing some wonder out of it. I don’t know your personality, or how it would work best for you. But this presentation is NOT it.

Rating: One Milk and one Light Bulb. Great handling, poor presentation.

(Ratings are completely arbitrary depending upon what genre of music I am into that day.)