Sucker Peep
Mark Wong
Inside Magic Productions
The deck is then replaced into the card box.
In spite of this, the magician names the card out loud. Offering to explain its modus operandi, the spectator's attention is drawn to a hole cut on the card case where the index corner should be, which makes it convenient for the magician to peep at the selected card provided.
Of course, if one were to know how to bring the selected card to the bottom. The magician offers to show the spectator how this can be accomplished. The spectator again selects a random card and loses it into the deck.
The magicians proceeds to do a mini-expose on how to bring the selected card to the bottom or face of the deck. The cards are then replaced into the card box. The selected card is named just like before.
The magician remarks that if the card case is remotely suspected all that's to be done is to vanish the 'hole'. The spectator smiles knowingly as he grabs the card case but is surprised to find the hole now missing!
Easy to do!
Instant Reset!
Uses any deck of cards!
No palming and no complicated techniques!
Spectator gets to see and ensure that the hole in the box is real!
Box can be examined before and after the performance!
Spectator can even take the box home as a souvenir!
Sucker Peep is co-created by David Forrest, Mark Wong & inside Magic Productions.
Reviews
(Top ▲)
To start off I have to say that the ad copy is not accurate and the trailer is rather misleading. You cannot do exactly what is done in the trailer as far as the vanish of the hole - it is nowhere near as clean as they show.
Then there is the host who has a REALLY annoying habit of saying what to do, then immediately puts the exact same words in text on the screen. The way he speaks at times seems kind of condescending (for lack of better term), like he is talking to stupid people (no, I do not mean beginners). This happens throughout the WHOLE VIDEO. He has absolutely no personality, either in performance or in the explanations, which made it very hard to watch this DVD as a whole.
The DVD menu is laid out into three sections: Feature (which is what they call the trailer clip for some reason instead of, oh, say a 'trailer'...), Performances and Explanations.
The Performances are the exact same thing done twice, once for a group of people and again for a one-on-one. This was hardly necessary and it just dragged on for 10 minutes altogether. That was because the performances are just a longer version of the trailer clip.
The Explanations are not broken down into clickable chapters, but you can skip ahead to different sections. This was quite annoying because if you want to find something, you must start at the beginning but you can skip bit by bit through everything until you find it. Certain parts of the explanations were time stamped to allow this, but they were not broken down into individual chapters.
The teaching is okay and some things are taught better than others. Some of the sleights he spent way too much time on - even beginners with no card skills who might actually be interested in learning them will find it dragging on and on; it will probably bore them to death. The ditch used for getting rid of the gimmick is just plain obvious and there are much better ways of getting rid of it in the context of this effect, none of which are shown. The ending that was taught for this routine is quite blase, to say the least and it could have been much better.
The "cover" line for the switch is just about the dumbest line/excuse I have ever heard. Just a snippet of the line: "...we will use my marker because the ink dries faster." What?! To make it worse, the switch was not taught with proper timing and cover, making it quite obvious, in my opinion.
The audio quality on this video was just awful. Horrible. Yes you could hear what was being spoken for the most part, but throughout the video there was a lot of white noise and unfiltered sound coming through the mic (think popping noises). The background music was just a bit too loud throughout.
Mark teaches a one-deck variation on the effect that does not use a switch and is almost a carbon-copy of the Dave Forrest handling with absolutely NO crediting. In fact, there is NO crediting or references for ANYTHING on the entire disc.
In the Final Thoughts section, he goes over the SAME points AGAIN and though he is doing things with his hands and his pockets, all the while describing what he is doing, the camera does not show anything but his face. How pointless.
$30/USD for what you get is ridiculous. You get one effect on a DVD (and a poor version of it to boot) with no gimmicks and no bonuses. If you like the effect you read here, 'Pack of Lies' by Dave Forrest is MUCH cleaner, no need for a switch and is less than $9/USD. It is available as a download and you get a bonus effect with it. It was originally in his book called Fandango, which is also available as a download in two parts for about $18/USD each. If you buy both, for only $5 more than you pay for Sucker Peep you get a better, cleaner version of the Sucker Peep effect plus another 9 or 10 effects!
1.5 very dim stars.
(Top ▲)
We've all heard it said that you should Fight Fire With Fire (thank you Metallica) not water . . . If that's true, what do you fight bad magic DVDs with? More Bad DVDs? That seems to be the trend these days. This one is another addition to the ever growing list of wastes of your money.
Watch the trailer first. Then let me tell you that it's misleading. The vanish of the hole in the box is not quite as clean as it depicts. For $30 all you're getting is one trick . . . a trick that's not bad, but should have been included as a few paragraphs in a book with multiple effects, or at least one of 10 effects on a DVD. To pay $30 for no gimmick and an "ok" effect is ridiculous. After watching the trailer, if you're blown away by the effect, first, I'll be shocked. Second, then you may like this DVD. The DVD itself is semi-well produced, but for $30 bucks you should expect much more.
The bottom line is this, if you feel that $30 bucks is worth paying for what you see on the trailer, then by all means go for it. Just realize that you're not quite getting what you see in the trailer, and realize that your money and time would be better spent if you traded your $30 bucks for 3000 pennies and flipped them one at a time into a wishing well . . . each time wishing for world peace.
Finally, rather than fighting fire with fire, I'll fight fire with water (i.e., something that can overcome the fire) . . . a better DVD. If you're looking for an effect that uses a hole in the box with a similar "sucker" feel, get Cameron Francis's Corner & Exposure. It's $5 bucks cheaper, a much better effect, and includes a second effect that is equally as impressive, so take $5 bucks and cash it in for 500 wishes for world peace. Spend the other $25 on Cameron's DVD.
Final Verdict:
1.5 Stars with a Stone Status of Rubble.