Title: Impression
Artist: Jason Yu
Producers: SandsMinds
Retail Price: $34.95 USD
Learning Difficulty: Moderate
Length of DVD: (approx) 30 minutes
Includes:
Features:
A spectator signs a blank card. A photo of that card is taken on their cell phone. They see their signed blank card in the photo. The phone is put down and a playing card is selected from a deck. When they look back at the photo on their phone their signed blank card is actually a signed card that they selected!
Impression by Jason Yu is an ambitious card trick to perform, and not in the usual way one would associate the word “ambitious” to card magic. The effect produces near TV show quality results but is hindered by the sheer amount of magical monkey work one has to go through in order to achieve the desired effect.
The DVD comes with the raw materials you will need to construct your gimmicks, and there is enough there for two different gimmicks, but like a lot of other SansMinds tricks it will require some crafting before you’ll be able to attempt this trick.
The attention you have to spend on details during the construction of the gimmick is annoying. This isn’t the usual tape here or cut there stuff you may be used to. You have to be fairly accurate with your set up to avoid detection of the gimmick by your spectator. I know being vague like this probably makes this sound way worse than what it is. It’s not a difficult set up, it just requires attention to detail.
As far as card magic is concerned the performance of this trick is not a simple one. It’s convoluted and to say the least “involved”. You have to switch in and out your gimmick, and be familiar enough with cell phones to disable and re-enable the sound, take multiple pictures, and delete them without detection of your spectator. All of this may not even be possible on just any brand of cell phone either. I know it works on Iphones, because I have one, so that alone may narrow your field of performance opportunities.
At the end of the day you’ve got a great piece of magic, but you’re going to have to jump through a lot of hoops to get there. Nothing about this trick is convenient from construction to performance it’s complicated. I’m not sure that’s going to be something everyone is going to be willing to submit to. This is a great trick, but the likely hood of this staying at the bottom of your magic junk drawer, I’d wager, is fairly high. If you like fidgety magic then you may like Impression. As for me I think I’m going to take a pass.
When I give my product scores below I am measuring them on a scale of 1 to 10. 1 Being absolute the worst score possible, and 10 being the absolute best, making a score of five average. The four points that I grade upon is Product Quality, Teaching Quality, Sound & Video Quality and Overall Quality.
Product Quality: 4
Convoluted method, detail specific construction, and limited range of camera phone performance options.
Teaching Quality: 6
The tutorial is easy enough to follow.
Video & Sound Quality: 8
Sound and audio are good.
Overall Quality: 4
I wasn’t impressed with this product. It’s not particle to perform but the potential for a reputation maker is there. It was a great idea, but perhaps a little too ambitious for the average user. Overall I’d say pass and you won’t miss much.
Have a product you want reviewed? Want to see if it will stand up to the Draven Seal of Approval? Contact me directly at draven@williamdraven.com to find out how your product could be on the next Draven Reviews! Don't forget to like my blog where all my reviews are posted at www.williamdraven.wordpress.com.
Artist: Jason Yu
Producers: SandsMinds
Retail Price: $34.95 USD
Learning Difficulty: Moderate
Length of DVD: (approx) 30 minutes
Includes:
- Instructional DVD
- Gimmicks
Features:
- Play All
- Menu
- Sands Minds Products
- Credits
A spectator signs a blank card. A photo of that card is taken on their cell phone. They see their signed blank card in the photo. The phone is put down and a playing card is selected from a deck. When they look back at the photo on their phone their signed blank card is actually a signed card that they selected!
Impression by Jason Yu is an ambitious card trick to perform, and not in the usual way one would associate the word “ambitious” to card magic. The effect produces near TV show quality results but is hindered by the sheer amount of magical monkey work one has to go through in order to achieve the desired effect.
The DVD comes with the raw materials you will need to construct your gimmicks, and there is enough there for two different gimmicks, but like a lot of other SansMinds tricks it will require some crafting before you’ll be able to attempt this trick.
The attention you have to spend on details during the construction of the gimmick is annoying. This isn’t the usual tape here or cut there stuff you may be used to. You have to be fairly accurate with your set up to avoid detection of the gimmick by your spectator. I know being vague like this probably makes this sound way worse than what it is. It’s not a difficult set up, it just requires attention to detail.
As far as card magic is concerned the performance of this trick is not a simple one. It’s convoluted and to say the least “involved”. You have to switch in and out your gimmick, and be familiar enough with cell phones to disable and re-enable the sound, take multiple pictures, and delete them without detection of your spectator. All of this may not even be possible on just any brand of cell phone either. I know it works on Iphones, because I have one, so that alone may narrow your field of performance opportunities.
At the end of the day you’ve got a great piece of magic, but you’re going to have to jump through a lot of hoops to get there. Nothing about this trick is convenient from construction to performance it’s complicated. I’m not sure that’s going to be something everyone is going to be willing to submit to. This is a great trick, but the likely hood of this staying at the bottom of your magic junk drawer, I’d wager, is fairly high. If you like fidgety magic then you may like Impression. As for me I think I’m going to take a pass.
When I give my product scores below I am measuring them on a scale of 1 to 10. 1 Being absolute the worst score possible, and 10 being the absolute best, making a score of five average. The four points that I grade upon is Product Quality, Teaching Quality, Sound & Video Quality and Overall Quality.
Product Quality: 4
Convoluted method, detail specific construction, and limited range of camera phone performance options.
Teaching Quality: 6
The tutorial is easy enough to follow.
Video & Sound Quality: 8
Sound and audio are good.
Overall Quality: 4
I wasn’t impressed with this product. It’s not particle to perform but the potential for a reputation maker is there. It was a great idea, but perhaps a little too ambitious for the average user. Overall I’d say pass and you won’t miss much.
Have a product you want reviewed? Want to see if it will stand up to the Draven Seal of Approval? Contact me directly at draven@williamdraven.com to find out how your product could be on the next Draven Reviews! Don't forget to like my blog where all my reviews are posted at www.williamdraven.wordpress.com.