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.

A masterpiece. If you care about your art, pay attention to this!

A perfect mix of comedy and magic. Well scripted, nearly perfect. The only thing I noticed is that he took too long to get to those sponge balls, which shouldn’t have happened since he only did two tricks – he should know where his equipment is!

Need I say more?