MoJoe's Review: Ultragaff

Dec 20, 2007
134
0
Joplin, Mo., USA
At the risk of revealing bias: This is the best Father's Day gift I've ever received.

Using gaff cards takes a sense of humor and perfect timing, in my opinion. Convincing use of gaff cards, in my experience, doesn't happen without some standard sleight of hand and tricks with regular cards. They need to be just different enough to stand out. Good examples that come to mind are the 3 1/2 of clubs, skull kings or the 13 of diamonds.

Before Ultragaff, E had some of the best gaff decks on the market, with outstanding art and interesting uses. But a disappointing number of those were two-card reveals: A raven with a card in its eye, a skeleton in a grave holding a card, a voodoo doll card, different types of aces. Those cards required a very creative story to explain their existence. In other words, they were too different.

Ultragaff addresses that frustration in spades.

The Ultragaff deck and videos provide cohesive routines for virtually every card but a handful. Creators Danny Garcia and Wayne Houchin freely admit that they couldn't think of a routine for every card in the videos (DG even fesses up about the green card in a humorous segment about his "gender"). But it's easy to forgive them, because the cards, routines and instruction are all outstanding.

A note about the cards: They have Bicycle's air-cushion finish and comparable to E's 1800s in quality. The art is photorealistic: The card with the batteries, cards with multiple cards and the wallet cards look as good as advertised and have been printed with a high resolution. The cards stand in sharp contrast to E's other gaff decks, because each of them are twists on standard cards and are much more practical.

But the videos are the best part of Ultragaff. The two creators' love of realistic magic shows in the instruction and presentation of each effect. As does their friendship: The two have quite a bit of fun yukking it up throughout the video. The first segment that features the two of them sets the mood, as DG impersonates David Blaine and talks about magic purists, while WH tries not to laugh. The two also teach several forces, such as Jay Sankey's Wichita Slip and Chris Kenner's Four for Four. When they are not joking, the two are sharing so much insider information on misdirection and performance that the viewer feels like he's watching a master class.

This is Ultragaff's only fault: There is SO MUCH information that instruction of tricks gets bogged down. Granted, that's the kind of fault that would make a good bullet point for marketing. But someone wanting to learn an effect, such as the angel pip-matrix effect can get frustrated with the amount of non sequiters, footnotes and verbal asterisks. Also, I'm mystified as to why E hasn't started a special forum for the Ultragaff.

But considering that E is offering a free Ultragaff with purchase of the three videos, this is an incredible bargain that deserves to be E's signature offering. The tricks are compelling, the instruction is outstanding and the amount of information inside the three videos makes Ultragaff an almost-necessity for a card magician's arsenal.
 
Oct 17, 2007
860
0
29
Aussie NSW
I purchased this a week ago for my birthday i think its a great deck some cards are a bit wierd but i love the angel matrix, Parallel, What lies beneath
and the one Joel Inspired Crowded i also love on disc two how Danny starts playing guitar its hilarious.
 
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