Watermark by Mathieu Bich

Aug 31, 2007
799
1
Hi Guys,

After a busy day today, what with having friends over, taking a guitar lesson, teaching a magic lesson, and deleting Viagra ads on this forum, I decided to write a little review on the product that has gotten much talk lately. Watermark.

This will not be a traditional review, with categories like Angles, Quality, Difficulty, etc. I am writing this like what I would tell a friend if they asked me my thoughts on it. So here we go:

Water Mark by Mathieu Bich.

I am a fan of Mathieu's work, and more importantly a fan of Mathieu. I had the pleasure of meeting him at Magic LIVE, and he is one of the most humble, and nice magicians I have ever met. What ever they say about the French being mean is hella wrong.

Watermark is a unique effect. Watch the demo and you WILL be fooled. The method may disappoint some, but personally I think it is BRILLIANT. Watch the demo again.
Imagine being able to do what Dan does in the demo and make ANYTHING appear. And I am not exaggerating. Using it as a revelation is FAR from all that you can achieve from this effect. Imagine having your own FACE appear on the napkin. With the right presentation this trick could get HELLA freaky.
A friend and I had the idea of making the iconic Obama "Hope" icon appear. The possibilities with the effect alone are endless.
The method is very interesting. As I said before, some of you will not like the method because without revealing too much, each napkin must be prepared before hand. However, I do not see this as a turn off. Each one takes less than 3 seconds to prepare, and once you have prepared one, you are set for weeks ahead. You can even keep the napkin, let it dry, and perform the effect again. There are NO angle issues, and they can examine the napkin at any point throughout the routine. Once they are prepared, there is nothing to be discovered, which is what makes this so deceptive.
The price is really quite astonishing considering the effect. It is so easy, so direct, and so POWERFUL, that a 10 dollar price-point is crazy. Most companies would try and chalk this up as a 25 dollar, one trick DVD. If you are turned off by the price, than you really do not fully understand how many uses there are out of this effect. You could present this in so many different ways. It could be as simple as a card revelation, or go as far as to make baby jesus appear in their hands. The choice is yours ;)

Over all I really do like the simplicity, and directness of the effect. It is powerful, easy to do, angle proof, and genius. The quality is good as always, and you for the first time, you get the learn from Mathieu himself.

Do not hesitate to pick this up.

Thanks,

~Zach
 
Nov 10, 2008
149
0
Upstate NY
The possibilities are limitless. As long as you as a magician can think up new things to use it for, the effect is amazing.

Plus once you set up the gimmick, it doesn't go bad according to the 1:eek:n:1!

Great effect, not just for people who use cards. I think it fits mentalism much better than cards do.
 
Mar 6, 2008
1,483
3
A Land Down Under
It fits a very mental magic type piece. Pure mentalism though? not so much I mean there is still that element of 'trick' when you see it performed. The point I am getting at is if you are a mentalist and you are essentially reading minds, how is sprinkling water on a napkin better than writing it down or just simply telling the spectator what they are thinking. It adds a more 'forced' feeling to what is happening and looses a lot of the organic nature that makes mentalism so powerful.
 
May 3, 2008
618
1
It fits a very mental magic type piece. Pure mentalism though? not so much I mean there is still that element of 'trick' when you see it performed. The point I am getting at is if you are a mentalist and you are essentially reading minds, how is sprinkling water on a napkin better than writing it down or just simply telling the spectator what they are thinking. It adds a more 'forced' feeling to what is happening and looses a lot of the organic nature that makes mentalism so powerful.
I'm not sure exactly what you mean. You're essentially reading someone's mind, then revealing their thoughts in an impossible way that is far more impressive than writing it down. What can get more organic than a napkin and water? Honestly, I think that Watermark is what real magic should look like.
 
Nov 20, 2007
4,410
6
Sydney, Australia
I'm not sure exactly what you mean. You're essentially reading someone's mind, then revealing their thoughts in an impossible way that is far more impressive than writing it down. What can get more organic than a napkin and water? Honestly, I think that Watermark is what real magic should look like.

No, I agree with D ICE R on this one. Keep in mind that this is only from the perspective of a mentalist.

It's like asking someone to think of a shape, and rearranging vegetables on a plate to form the shape. Why vegetables?

So again D ICE R is asking: why water and a napkin? The point of mind reading is you reading their mind. The point is in the action of reading their mind, not in the revelation (which incidentally touches on a big issue with mentalism, namely making it visual - but that's another discussion altogether).

So I think what he's saying is, it is naturally suited towards a mental-type presentation, but perhaps unsuited for serious mentalists at least, since the idea of sprinkling water on a napkin is, at the very least, a difficult and strained way of revealing something for a mentalist. It may be "organic" in the sense that it uses water for example but it's more "forced" than "organic" if you consider organic to mean how well it flows with a routine or persona.

Again, going back to the vegetable thing. A close-up restaurant worker will find it much easier and much more natural to use a napkin or some vegetables as a revelation. That works. But just not in the context we were discussing.

And a recap for anyone wondering why we're discussing it in this context: D ICE R points out that it would work well in a magician performing with mental-type presentations; but ironically perhaps not so well in a real mentalist's routine.
 
Jul 1, 2009
648
1
29
Austin,TX
Thanks for the review. I'm going to pick this up I soon i make a quick stop to the store. To me it is really cheap.
 
Sep 22, 2007
3
0
I am really thinking of buying Watermark but I have a question. I am living in Turkey and most often I can't find the right gimmicks for the tricks. So can you tell more about the gimmick. I am not asking you to reveal anything just say that can I make this gimmick in Turkey?
 

j.bayme

ceo / theory11
Team member
Jul 23, 2007
2,848
352
New York City
I am really thinking of buying Watermark but I have a question. I am living in Turkey and most often I can't find the right gimmicks for the tricks. So can you tell more about the gimmick. I am not asking you to reveal anything just say that can I make this gimmick in Turkey?

You should have no problem. Mathieu Bich had no trouble in France; we had no trouble in the USA. If you have any issues, contact our support crew (theory11.com/support) for assistance.
 
Sep 22, 2007
3
0
You should have no problem. Mathieu Bich had no trouble in France; we had no trouble in the USA. If you have any issues, contact our support crew (theory11.com/support) for assistance.

Alrgiht thank you for your answer.The question might seemed meaningless but i just wanted to be sure before buying it because i had a lot of troubles with making gimmicks here in Turkey.
 
Aug 31, 2007
799
1
can it be any npakin? does ot have to be a napkin? or can u do it ith a piece of paper?

Yup, paper will work fine. You can do this with lots of different materials also, like cardboard, and other paper like materials. I think it might even work on clothing....THAT would be badass.
 
May 3, 2008
858
0
Could you maybe perform this with a piece of paper that already is filled with ink? So maybe it would have typed directions that somehow force a card and then you drop it in water and it soaks everything except their card?

Also, will I need to make a special trip to the store or a magic shop (there are no magic shops in my city) for the supplies to make it or will I probably having it laying around at home?
 
Sep 22, 2007
353
0
just tryed out the wonderful water mark in worked great only the odds of reuse for one gimmick are slim u mines well make up a bunch because once its wet u have to wait quite a while before u perform again it has to dry.
 
Aug 17, 2009
20
0
this effect would suck in my house because we own and use the 'gimmick' regularly, so its pretty obvious to anyone around me, i didn't buy it and i'm not bragging, its just this effect could be obvious to certain people as i'm sure my family aren't the only ones to own this 'gimmick'. -_____-
 
Dec 17, 2007
858
2
Canada
Although this is a decent review I would never trust anyone's judgment on something they almost undoubtably got for free, for in that situation candy-coating is inevitable.


-Michael
 
May 3, 2008
1,146
4
Hong Kong
Im not a big fan of this piece. I love bich and his work but this was just... meh.
I get the concept and how on the spot it seems to the audience, but the effect seems to die down after you let them check the piece of paper or napkin or what ever.
If I was an audience member, I would like to keep the napkin or atleast touch it right? I would then try to see what happens when I get it wet. I would then see that that section of the napkin just doesnt... and it would then seem that it was just the napkin which was special rather than the entire trick.
Although the audience will still be fooled with how you knew their card or whatever, they wont exactly find it amazing other than the first moment of revelation.
 
Sep 1, 2007
479
1
Too be honest, to those who don't like the gimmick or how you do the trick, no one cares, because it's not about you. It's about your audience. So do it for them, whine to them, whatever.

I'm a fan of this trick 100%. Although I'm not a fan of tricks that you buy for $10 then you need to make a trip to the store and hope they have the product/s you're looking for... This trick is worth the money, and the trip.

What I really like, you don't need to practice it, it's angle proof, and what I love most of all, the audience can do the trick.
 
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