Price$39.95
Media TypeTrick
CategoryGeneral
Date AddedJun 14, 2014
Spontaneous Combustion
Geronimo Granell
(Based on 2 reviews)
Spontaneous combustion is an innovative card game where you can find a card previously selected at random. To find it you increase the temperature of your hands to such point you can burn through the deck leaving the silhouette of your fingers literally perforated on the cards as a witness to your power. Spontaneous combustion creates the illusion of burning through the deck with your fingers to find the previously selected card. The deck is ready to use. You can repeat the effect several times without preparing the deck each time. The chosen card is be randomly selected and can be signed . In this game you do not have to worry about technique, just run it and you can enjoy the surprise and admiration of your viewers. The script is designed to engage the viewer throughout the whole performance and offer an even more amazing finale. Creator of "Animated Magic Book"; with thousands of copies sold worldwide; "Deck Classifier" presented at the FISM : Portugal 2000; "Card in your palm"; "Cutting 10"; "Water and oil with six packs".Includes a DVD, booklet and a special card deck ready to use.
Reviews
(Top ▲)
Overview
One DVD, one special deck, one sheet of instructions, $40 bucks and one Spontaneous Combustion Review. Is it gem or is it rubble? Stay tuned to find out.Effect
In the simplest terms, a signed selection is found as you burn the cards with your bare fingers. Your fingers seem to melt through the cards as they apparently burn about half of the cards.Method
Some basic card handling and specially cut cards make this effect possible. The method itself is pretty simple and straight forward. Half of the cards are pre cut to the shape of fingers. There is some basic handling needed to keep this fact hidden. It's pretty easy stuff. However, the cut cards take a little bit of fiddling with to get them to stay in place, but it's definitely doable.The only other issue is that the cut cards and the regular cards seem to be from two complete different decks. The edges and sides seems a little bit different. This is best seen, so make sure you watch the video review. Overall, the method is quite doable and will work for any skill level. Also, I think that most hands will fit the gimmick as well. Maybe young children might have an issue, but any average sized teenager and bigger should be fine.
Product Quality
The cards are pretty well made. The only exception being the aforementioned edge and side problem. Again, take a look at the review video for clarity on this. The DVD is in Spanish with English subtitles. Though the training is only about 5 minutes, it actually does cover the needed info for proper handling. In addition to the 5 minute tutorial you are also shown two full performance clips with English subtitles. It's not the best production quality, but it has a DVD menu, and you'll learn everything you need to know pretty easily.Ad Copy Integrity
The ad copy actually has two problems with it. One is minor; one is major. The minor one is in the written ad copy. They claim that this comes with a booklet. Nope. It's one sheet of paper. One side is Spanish, and the other side is English. Minor, but slightly annoying. Next we have the ad trailer. Putting aside the humorous fact that they misspelled the name of the product on the opening screen, at about 27 seconds in they lie to us.There's a shot of a full (i.e., not gimmicked, cut or prepared) 4 of Clubs on the face of the deck. Granell places his fingers over the 4. Then they cut to him with his fingers hiding the gimmicked 4 of Clubs. Thus giving the impression that you place your fingers on a full card that is not "burned" right before your fingers melt/burn through the deck. This is simply not true. The method does not work that way, and nothing like this is taught on the DVD.
They create the same lie at about 40 seconds in with the 8 of Diamonds. During the 8 of Diamonds performance he also blows smoke out of his mouth at the cards. I'm not sure if they were being dishonest here or not, but to be clear, this effect and product does not include any smoke product of any type. I don't know if he was using cigarette smoke or some sort of smoke gimmick for that effect. He does not discuss it in the less than 5 minute tutorial.
Final Thoughts
Watch the video review for a more accurate representation of the illusion. If you don't mind the misleading moments in the ad trailer and you like this effect, you'll be happy with your purchase. If it weren't for the lies in the ad trailer, this would have been 4.5 stars or better.Final Verdict:
3.5 Star with a Stone Status of gem.
(Top ▲)
Spontaneous combustion is a good card trick with a cool patter about spontaneous human combustion and the ability to harness heat in your fingertips. The gimmick is similar to Jay Sankey’s In A Flash, but with a different story line, minus the flash paper. Here, as the magician fans the cards on both sides, to show that it is a normal deck, he asks a spectator to choose a card and then sign it. The card is lost in the middle of the deck and the magician rubs his fingers together and tells the spectators about the ability to focus energy and heat in your fingertips so that he can bend metal or burn other materials. While holding the deck, he shows that his fingers penetrate through and sink into the cards until he reaches the spectator’s signed card. When the magician removes his fingers, four fingers, have burned through the cards “leaving the silhouette of your fingers literally perforated on the cards.” The ad copy is accurate in its description as it indicates that “Spontaneous combustion creates the illusion of burning through the deck with your fingers to find the previously selected card.”
The trick comes with a gimmicked Bicycle deck, a DVD originally recorded in Spanish with English sub-titles, and some written instructions in both English and Spanish. The DVD has an excellent trailer, which is the promotional video, which looks like the beginning to a Hollywood movie, but it is incredibly misleading as it portrays the magician’s hand burning through the cards. The misleading portion of the video is repeated twice and is accomplished by editing with a switch of cards. Although the spectator believes they have seen what the video shows, in reality, the spectator does not actually see what is displayed on the video. I do not think it was necessary to include the misleading portion of the trailer as the effect is very strong without it and it could have been almost as impressive if the routine was filmed as it is actually performed.
The video tutorial is five minutes in length an dis very easy to understand, as are the written instructions. The trick is very easy to perform. The video and the written instructions have typos throughout (mostly in the written instructions), but that should not slow you down. The DVD has two live demonstrations, one with the selected card being signed and one without. I do not think that it is necessary to have the selected card signed since all the cards are displayed to be different and I do not think any spectator would question if the revealed card is not their card.
There is some one time prep on the gimmick, which is easy to do and takes about 2 minutes with a sharpie. The only potential problem that I foresee relates to people with very small fingers. They may have some trouble handling the gimmick, but should be able to compensate by the way they hold and angle the deck.
The trick comes with a gimmicked Bicycle deck, a DVD originally recorded in Spanish with English sub-titles, and some written instructions in both English and Spanish. The DVD has an excellent trailer, which is the promotional video, which looks like the beginning to a Hollywood movie, but it is incredibly misleading as it portrays the magician’s hand burning through the cards. The misleading portion of the video is repeated twice and is accomplished by editing with a switch of cards. Although the spectator believes they have seen what the video shows, in reality, the spectator does not actually see what is displayed on the video. I do not think it was necessary to include the misleading portion of the trailer as the effect is very strong without it and it could have been almost as impressive if the routine was filmed as it is actually performed.
The video tutorial is five minutes in length an dis very easy to understand, as are the written instructions. The trick is very easy to perform. The video and the written instructions have typos throughout (mostly in the written instructions), but that should not slow you down. The DVD has two live demonstrations, one with the selected card being signed and one without. I do not think that it is necessary to have the selected card signed since all the cards are displayed to be different and I do not think any spectator would question if the revealed card is not their card.
There is some one time prep on the gimmick, which is easy to do and takes about 2 minutes with a sharpie. The only potential problem that I foresee relates to people with very small fingers. They may have some trouble handling the gimmick, but should be able to compensate by the way they hold and angle the deck.