Questions on Various Products

[wZEnigma]

I figured I'd post several questions into one thread instead of making numerous useless ones.

I was wondering if anyone had either Hi-C or iTriumph from Maydey.com. What are your thoughts on this? Also, Penguin Magic offers several downloads. What would you recommend? Elevation by Josh Jay looks nice. Also, if anyone has Loki by Dee Christopher, could you briefly review it? And last, Revolver - thoughts/difficulty? Thanks!

Ian

 

[saborfang17]

Thoughts and difficulty about Revolver:

I don't own it yet, but as my friend would say, it's "sick-nasty". Really amazing, if you can get it to the level of perfection Kelvin Chow has displayed in the advertisement. Regarding the difficulty, I haven't bought it yet, but theory11 has rated it "Advanced", although I'm sure it was "Intermediate" when it first came out..

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

I've only got Revolver out of that list. I consider it advanced. None of the individual components are complicated, but trying to combine them is tricksy. Kind of like patting your head and rubbing your belly. Each one is simplistic, but doing them both is complicated.

It's a beautiful change, though. I haven't worked out exactly how I'm going to use it, other than to amuse myself, but I really like the mechanics and the look of it.

 

[praetoritevong]

I own and like Loki. In the interests of full disclosure though, I did receive it for free as part of a competition. Dee was very generous in that regard. However, that said, it was the piece in that eBook that I would be most likely to use. It's a very good concept that I'd like to try and apply to different items, which can definitely be done.

However, mostly, Loki is a method. An excellent method, but a method nonetheless. If you do not figure out how to present this, it will flop. It's the card magic equivalent of having a spectator pick a card, and knowing what that card is. You can't just say, "Your card is the King of Hearts." You could, but if you just did that, it would flop. If you shuffled the deck, took it out, and said, "Is this your card?" It would flop.

EDIT: Actually, I had the occasion to look at Loki again just now, and it contains more of a presentation that I recalled, so scrap what I said above. Dee gives you a very good premise with one or two very strong suggestions on how to convincingly pull it off. It was very easy to imagine. That said, I stand by my comments that you still need to bring the concept to life convincingly.

 

[JD]

I own Loki as well. It came with the Anate and Anate extended ebooks. I really like it and back up what Prae said.

 

[LuseifHo]

I don't recommend Revolver. Yes it is beautiful. Yes it is slick. Yes it works well, but why spend money on another color change when you can save the cash? Its just another color change, nothing mind blowing, nothing totally new.
As for Penguin Downloads... They are quite decent in quality, what you buy is what you get. They rarely have false advertising, you learn what you expect. All their products provide a very nice sense of content. I wouldn't recommend Elevation per se as... I dont think its worth the money. If you have absolutely no idea how its done then go for it. But I find it has some amateur elements which I think most intermediate magicians can catch quite fast so I wouldn't say its the best purchase. If you do have to get one from penguin... I would go with... Big Deal, also by Joshua Jay. Its easy and it plays big.
If you liked Elevation then just go for Joshua Jay's material. Almost everything he puts out is good stuff which works well for laymen and magician alike. Just go to vanishinginc.com I suggest his Talk About Tricks Set, but if you feel cheap then buy a single trick. Not one of his releases would I advise you from not getting.

 

[eostresh]

I don't recommend Revolver. Yes it is beautiful. Yes it is slick. Yes it works well, but why spend money on another color change when you can save the cash? Its just another color change, nothing mind blowing, nothing totally new.
As for Penguin Downloads... They are quite decent in quality, what you buy is what you get. They rarely have false advertising, you learn what you expect. All their products provide a very nice sense of content. I wouldn't recommend Elevation per se as... I dont think its worth the money. If you have absolutely no idea how its done then go for it. But I find it has some amateur elements which I think most intermediate magicians can catch quite fast so I wouldn't say its the best purchase. If you do have to get one from penguin... I would go with... Big Deal, also by Joshua Jay. Its easy and it plays big.
If you liked Elevation then just go for Joshua Jay's material. Almost everything he puts out is good stuff which works well for laymen and magician alike. Just go to vanishinginc.com I suggest his Talk About Tricks Set, but if you feel cheap then buy a single trick. Not one of his releases would I advise you from not getting.

I wouldn't necessarily disagree with any of this. If you are buying individually "The Big Deal" is a much stronger effect. I did like Elevation but I got it in Jay's "Different Side of Me" download package. You get about six different downloads for about $30.00. He has another download package out, Premisis and Presentations, that is 8 downloads for $30.00. I'd have to refresh my memory on the overall value of this set(though I recall liking it) before giving a recomendation on it. As for Different Side of Me, strong recommendation. When I first got it I commonly performed elevation and credit to cash, now that may card skills have improved I have abandoned elevation but use The Big Deal as a closing sequence in one of my ACRs. Cornered is a very nice method for bill to any location.