I recently has my trick “Splitting Image” reviewed in Vanish Magazine (December 2018 issue) it got 5 out of 5 stars! Here’s the review, and then I’ll make a couple comments it after:
REVIEW BY NICK LEWIN
Louie Foxx will probably be familiar to readers of Vanish Magazine from his excellent column and the routines he contributes. Louie and I met up recently in Las Vegas and he showed me this routine. I loved it. I have been performing it ever since and can assure you that it is an absolute winner. It even leaves the spectator with a very cool photographic souvenir. I consider this one of the finest new close-up items I have seen in years.
The effect is a decidedly different take on both the torn and restored bill and the mis-made dollar bill. The performer borrows a phone and takes a picture of the spectator holding a dollar bill. The magician rips the dollar in two and then restores it into a single dollar bill that is now “inside out.” When when the spectator looks at the picture he took of the dollar with their phone, it has magically changed into a picture of the mis-made dollar bill.
This item is GREAT magic with a series of surprises that will astound any layman. The phone is a genuine borrowed phone with no special apps, pre-work or Internet access needed. The two special bills are superbly made and take the Mis-Made Bill to a new level. This is one of these special effects that is as much fun to perform as it is too watch. At this price it is a bargain, heck at twice the price it would be a bargain. You will carry this trick with you and use it a lot.
Highly recommended.
OK, that’s a positive review and Nick notices a couple things about the trick that are important to me. Mainly that it’s a cellphone trick that doesn’t use anything but an actual borrowed cellphone.
A couple months ago I was in a show where a magician asked the audience to download an app to do a trick. This is what’s wrong with magic on a cellphone, once they download the app, it’s the app that does the magic, not you. This particular show the magician hit another problem, no one took out their phone to download the app. Then after some begging, someone took out their phone, but they had no cell service! Finally someone did the trick using the app that was already on the performer’s phone…and the trick didn’t work!!!
This illustrates my policy that any trick that uses a phone must just use the phone, no “magic” apps, no internet…just a borrowed phone. I’ve published a couple methods for book tests using the Kindle or iBook app on a borrowed phone. Sure the tricks are harder as they will end up using some sleight of hand on your end, but it’s better than a trick failing!
Louie