Price$29.99
Media TypeOne-Trick DVD
CategoryClose Up
Date AddedJul 19, 2011
Humbug
Carbone, Angelo
(Based on 1 review)
Use any Bicycle Poker sized deck. Can be used left or right handed.
No Flaps. No Pulls. No Magnets. No Nonsense.
"I don't buy card tricks but this I want. This shocked me! I'm doing it on TV." -Rocco
"Humbug looks like real magic and it's easy to do. It is soooo clever." - Andy Nyman
"Humbug is one of the most miraculous effects I have seen in years." - Martin Breese
"Humbug is badass! It's a keeper. I hate you." -Nathan Kranzo
Running Time: Approximately 20 mins
Reviews
(Top ▲)
Here's the official ad copy:
Vanish a borrowed deck of cards except for the chosen card. Visually pass a deck through a table. Cause a selected card to visually rise up the deck while out-jogged. Perform the classic deck to pocket where the deck in your hands gets smaller as the cards arrive in your pocket one by one. This amazing gimmick (included) utilizes an optical illusion principle.
Use any Bicycle Poker sized deck. Can be used left or right handed.
No Flaps. No Pulls. No Magnets. No Nonsense.
First, you can only use a borrowed deck if it matches your gimmick. To me, if you're going to claim that a borrowed deck is used then you should be able to literally do it with ANY deck. Second, the final line (No Flaps. No Pulls. No Magnets. No Nonsense) is not true. I'm not going to tell which one, but one of those four statements is not entirely true . . . it's almost true, but not quite.
Additionally, the only effect that is actually performed is the one in the trailer, the vanishing deck. The others such as the cards to pocket, deck through table, visual rise, etc were not performed. In fact, they were barely explained. Furthermore, some of the explanations were so vague that I'm not convinced that the effects would actually work. And further-furthermore, some of the handling for these variations was so clunky and barely walked through that I'm not sure watching this DVD even teaches you how to do these other effects.
Now let's make an assumption here. Let's say that the gimmick is as deceptive as Mr. Carbone claims. I think that's a reasonable assumption . . . the teaser fooled me, and it appeared to genuinely fool the spectators in the teaser. However, once I looked at the gimmick and handled it, I became very not-confident that it would fool anyone. It's very angle-sensitive. Essentially, there's only one good angle for this to work. I also think that it partly relies on the fact that nobody is looking for the gimmick. That helps sell the illusion. So again, I'm going to assume that if you truly get the spectator (even in a close up setting) looking at the specific angle, then the effect will work.
If that's true, then you have a really clever gimmick and even the clunky-barely-explained bonus ideas have some serious potential. The problem is getting into the correct position and angle without too much fidgeting. I think that this is the kind of effect that requires the same type of chops as a really well executed top-change. It's the kind of thing that's very obvious if you know what to look for, but if you have the right stage presence, personality and posture you can totally floor your audience with it.
I think that the cards to pocket handling (if you can get in the right position without detection) has the potential for becoming a serious reputation maker, but again . . . serious angle and fidget issues.
So pulling all this together including the angles and fidgets, the misleading ad copy along with the well made gimmick and the overall potential coupled with a relatively decent price of $30.00 and my final verdict is: 3 Stars with a Stone Status of Grubble (bordering on rubble, but mostly gem . . . with a little 'g')
Vanish a borrowed deck of cards except for the chosen card. Visually pass a deck through a table. Cause a selected card to visually rise up the deck while out-jogged. Perform the classic deck to pocket where the deck in your hands gets smaller as the cards arrive in your pocket one by one. This amazing gimmick (included) utilizes an optical illusion principle.
Use any Bicycle Poker sized deck. Can be used left or right handed.
No Flaps. No Pulls. No Magnets. No Nonsense.
First, you can only use a borrowed deck if it matches your gimmick. To me, if you're going to claim that a borrowed deck is used then you should be able to literally do it with ANY deck. Second, the final line (No Flaps. No Pulls. No Magnets. No Nonsense) is not true. I'm not going to tell which one, but one of those four statements is not entirely true . . . it's almost true, but not quite.
Additionally, the only effect that is actually performed is the one in the trailer, the vanishing deck. The others such as the cards to pocket, deck through table, visual rise, etc were not performed. In fact, they were barely explained. Furthermore, some of the explanations were so vague that I'm not convinced that the effects would actually work. And further-furthermore, some of the handling for these variations was so clunky and barely walked through that I'm not sure watching this DVD even teaches you how to do these other effects.
Now let's make an assumption here. Let's say that the gimmick is as deceptive as Mr. Carbone claims. I think that's a reasonable assumption . . . the teaser fooled me, and it appeared to genuinely fool the spectators in the teaser. However, once I looked at the gimmick and handled it, I became very not-confident that it would fool anyone. It's very angle-sensitive. Essentially, there's only one good angle for this to work. I also think that it partly relies on the fact that nobody is looking for the gimmick. That helps sell the illusion. So again, I'm going to assume that if you truly get the spectator (even in a close up setting) looking at the specific angle, then the effect will work.
If that's true, then you have a really clever gimmick and even the clunky-barely-explained bonus ideas have some serious potential. The problem is getting into the correct position and angle without too much fidgeting. I think that this is the kind of effect that requires the same type of chops as a really well executed top-change. It's the kind of thing that's very obvious if you know what to look for, but if you have the right stage presence, personality and posture you can totally floor your audience with it.
I think that the cards to pocket handling (if you can get in the right position without detection) has the potential for becoming a serious reputation maker, but again . . . serious angle and fidget issues.
So pulling all this together including the angles and fidgets, the misleading ad copy along with the well made gimmick and the overall potential coupled with a relatively decent price of $30.00 and my final verdict is: 3 Stars with a Stone Status of Grubble (bordering on rubble, but mostly gem . . . with a little 'g')