New Release Round-Up #5
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Time for more uneducated opinions on new releases based primarily on the advertising copy and first impressions.
EDCeipt by Craig Petty
I saw this recent release from Murphy’s Magic. It uses receipts to perform an effect like the Magic Age Cards except instead of thinking of a number, people are asked to think of a food item.
This seemed very familiar to me and I remembered that Real Secrets put this same effect out back around 2012 and I kept it in my wallet for a while back then.
As far as the benefits of this version, I’m sure Craig’s release goes into much more detail and variations than the original did. (Real Secret’s instructions were intentionally minimalist, like the magic instructions of old). And it looks like there’s an added receipt so there are more potential choices. And I’m intrigued that the receipts are made of Tyvek. That will definitely add to the longevity, but it seems like that wouldn’t really feel like a receipt, you know? But maybe they have a different type of Tyvek than I’m familiar with.
At first, I thought it was better that they went with national brands. But now I’m not so sure. I don’t love the stores they’ve chosen for the receipts with this release. It looks like primarily grocery stores with California addresses? I don’t know why I’d be carrying receipts from grocery stores. Especially ones that are 3000 miles away from me. (And the prices that are visible in the demo seem bizarrely low.) I’m not suggesting everyone is automatically going to pay attention to these details, but when you’re 100s of miles from the nearest Safeway, it’s going to be weird to be carrying around a receipt from one of their stores. “Yes, I kept this Safeway receipt in case my Doritos are defective and I want to drive 12 hours to return them.”
When you’re doing a trick with receipts, you want it to come off as a purely spontaneous moment. The reason you’re using receipts is because that’s what you “just happen to have on you.” You certainly don’t want it to seem like you’re providing your “special” receipts that you brought with you for this purpose. The nice thing about the Real Secrets receipts was they looked like local places that could conceivably be found anywhere. They consisted of restaurants and food marts so—if anyone asked—I could pass them off as places I visited while on a business trip and I was holding onto the receipts so I could expense them.
If I was sitting on a plane or train with someone, or randomly met up with them somewhere, I would find it much more natural to “find” a few restaurant/small market receipts in my wallet, than I would to have five large grocery receipts on me. Mainly because I don’t know anyone who hangs onto grocery store receipts, nor do I know anyone who shops at five different grocery stores (for essentially the same items).
That being said, perhaps these issues are covered in the instructions for EDceipt. From performing the original version, I know this can be a good bit of casual magic. I doubt I’ll be picking this version up. I just don’t feel I’d have a great excuse to be carrying around receipts that look like this. So it’s not ideal for me.
Picture Consequences by Joel Dickinson
In this effect, the spectator chooses a head, body, and legs from a set of picture cards to create a person/creature. You then reveal that you predicted they would choose those particular “pieces” when forming their person.
This is one I actually have seen in person, as a friend of mine has it and I saw a couple of performances.
The reactions were stronger than I anticipated. It really feels like there must be more possible outcomes than there actually are. And all the outs involved are pretty good.
I’ll be picking this up for myself, although I do have some concerns about it.
I’m not sure what the story of the trick is supposed to be. Is it a children’s game that you’re using as a psychological experiment? Or is it a psychological experiment that you disguised as a children’s game? I wish the story was a little clearer in that sense.
Also, I don’t think the “influence” aspect of it really works that well. You’re supposed to suggest they were “influenced” because they saw dots of certain colors on the instructions or on the box. 🤷🏼♂️ Okay. I just don’t find that to be a compelling demonstration of “influence,” so I’d probably leave that out.
And finally, please, people… I beg of you: Stop printing the name a trick is marketed under on the trick itself. The box says “Picture Consequences.” Google that and you find the trick for sale. That’s not great. And the more someone is intrigued by the trick, the more likely they are to wonder if they can find more information about the game or the psychological experiment.
Beyond those concerns, I still like the trick. Creating the image has a feeling of something you’ve done as a child. And it’s one of the better uses of multiple-outs that I’ve seen.
ISO by Marc Kerstein and Noel Qualter
I’m psyched about this one. I got a chance to see the app in action, and I get the feeling people are going to come up with a lot of good uses for this. My mind is still working on a couple ideas, which I think will either solidify or evaporate once I see the full instructional video.
It’s a utility app. It’s iPhone only, and I think the spectator has to be using an iPhone as well. So if you don’t have an iphone, and don’t tend to perform around people who do, then this won’t be for you. If you do I think it will allow you to do some cool things.
The effect with which the app was originally demonstrated for me was a bill-to-impossible-location. You borrow a bill. Take a picture of the bill on the spectator’s phone. Vanish or destroy the bill. Then remove the bill from wherever you like. They can verify from the picture on their phone it’s the same bill.
(Maybe force them to crumple up the bill and swallow it, but then remove it from your own asshole. This proves to your spectator that you two have a “special connection.”)
It’s going to be interesting to see what people come up with for this app.