Being a psychologist and not a farm hand I find the palm of my left hand insufficiently calloused to make this thing work. It is based on the old rising pencil trick and was even released years ago as a voo-doo doll that would stand up by itself in your hand. Unlike the pencil and the doll, the sharpie pen is way too heavy to be effectively used by most of us tenderfeet er..hand.

It is also a wildly unbalanced object that even when you do get it to rise, it wants to list to one side or another making it look more like you are juggling it than an object mysteriously rising by itself without the magicians help. To make matters worse after a few uses the blackened [gimmick] appears to come off going from a well camouflaged black to match the top to bright and shiny silver.

I would have hoped Steve would have supplied a hollow pen that is light in weight and better balanced. The idea it can be used as a real pen escapes me. If you don’t mind the pain or the blood for that matter I guess it would fool people but for me, it’s going to be something to auction off at the next SAM or IBM meeting.

Frank Tougas