Hello everyone, here's a review of Edge by Mathieu that I received a few days ago.
Effect:
Make anything appear on the long side of the deck-or change one message into another. Watch the trailer
Price:
$24.95
Teaching:
As you can imagine the teaching is great, various methods to reveal are included and are what most of the DVD focuses on. I particularly liked the routine suggested at the very end of the DVD with a total of 4 reveals.
Quality of gimmick
Thish is the main gripe I had with the one I received. Nothing shocking, just a little irritating-the corners of the cards making up the gimmick were all slightly bent downwards, and I had to unbend every one with a credit card by sliding it over them. Also two of the cards weren't cut properly so I had to place them at the top and bottom of the deck to prevent this from being an issue. The effect still works wonderfully though.
Difficulty
Easy- it is selfworking once all is set up. Takes about 30 minutes of practice to get used to it. Then go and destroy minds.
Applications
Can be done as a standalone trick, or as part of another effect. The problem is that you can only reveal one message, or two if you choose so, but then you can never go back to revealing one. As you write on the deck with permanent marker (pencil will be very hard to see), extra Edge gimmicks need to be bought to use with different messages-this didn't come as a surprise, just pointing it out for those who may have thought it could be adapted or reset on the fly. Also, you don't get to choose which card you want to reveal if you want to use the deck's built in method. Of course you can choose to reveal whatever you want, it doesn't have to be a card, but then much of the deck's makeup is wasted (difficult not to say more without revealing too much).
Wrap-up
Overall, 8.5 out of 10. The effect itself is amazing, it floored my family who are used to all my card magic, and it is a very fun thing to perform. Its limitations are that it can only be used for one type of trick, in that either you choose: blank side to reveal -or- visible message changing to different reveal (note, you can go from the first effect to the second, but if you choose to you can't go back with the same gimmick). You can also use both sides to reveal, bringing the total reveals to 3 or 4, but then the ink will be visible whichever way you spread, so the patter will need to be changed to account for that. Finally, you can't realistically use the deck for normal card tricks (well you can but it will be awkward, and you can't have them examine the cards). I would recommend doing this in the middle of some other tricks and do a deck switch on the offbeat. I understand Theory11 sell discounted refills for existing customers, I might pick some up at some stage-though you can make the gimmick yourself if you are patient and precise enough.
That's it, hope it helped!
PS Thanks ifanoctopuscouldpalm for the format inspiration
Effect:
Make anything appear on the long side of the deck-or change one message into another. Watch the trailer
Price:
$24.95
Teaching:
As you can imagine the teaching is great, various methods to reveal are included and are what most of the DVD focuses on. I particularly liked the routine suggested at the very end of the DVD with a total of 4 reveals.
Quality of gimmick
Thish is the main gripe I had with the one I received. Nothing shocking, just a little irritating-the corners of the cards making up the gimmick were all slightly bent downwards, and I had to unbend every one with a credit card by sliding it over them. Also two of the cards weren't cut properly so I had to place them at the top and bottom of the deck to prevent this from being an issue. The effect still works wonderfully though.
Difficulty
Easy- it is selfworking once all is set up. Takes about 30 minutes of practice to get used to it. Then go and destroy minds.
Applications
Can be done as a standalone trick, or as part of another effect. The problem is that you can only reveal one message, or two if you choose so, but then you can never go back to revealing one. As you write on the deck with permanent marker (pencil will be very hard to see), extra Edge gimmicks need to be bought to use with different messages-this didn't come as a surprise, just pointing it out for those who may have thought it could be adapted or reset on the fly. Also, you don't get to choose which card you want to reveal if you want to use the deck's built in method. Of course you can choose to reveal whatever you want, it doesn't have to be a card, but then much of the deck's makeup is wasted (difficult not to say more without revealing too much).
Wrap-up
Overall, 8.5 out of 10. The effect itself is amazing, it floored my family who are used to all my card magic, and it is a very fun thing to perform. Its limitations are that it can only be used for one type of trick, in that either you choose: blank side to reveal -or- visible message changing to different reveal (note, you can go from the first effect to the second, but if you choose to you can't go back with the same gimmick). You can also use both sides to reveal, bringing the total reveals to 3 or 4, but then the ink will be visible whichever way you spread, so the patter will need to be changed to account for that. Finally, you can't realistically use the deck for normal card tricks (well you can but it will be awkward, and you can't have them examine the cards). I would recommend doing this in the middle of some other tricks and do a deck switch on the offbeat. I understand Theory11 sell discounted refills for existing customers, I might pick some up at some stage-though you can make the gimmick yourself if you are patient and precise enough.
That's it, hope it helped!
PS Thanks ifanoctopuscouldpalm for the format inspiration