Price$14.95
Media TypeTrick
CategoryGeneral, Close Up
Date AddedMar 28, 2015
My Favorite Magician
Richard Ribuffo
The Magic Of Richard Ribuffo
(Based on 1 review)
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Includes custom printed Houdini card, plastic storage wallet and instruction sheet.
Reviews
(Top ▲)
PROS
Let me start by say that this review is painful because I really wanted to give this a five star.
The effect comes with a single card with Harry’s image on the face and a bicycle deck back, and a half page of written instructions.
On the positive side, when I saw Richard do the performance of the effect, I really loved the effect, and the scripting. It is a captivating story about Harry Houdini and his ability to escape from the most impossible situations.
The effect plays just as it looks in the video demonstration.
The effect involves one pretty basic sleight, the flustration count, and the explanation does cover it pretty well.
The routine can be done completely surrounded.
CONS
Now, the problem. The instructions are … simply terrible!
The instructions come on a half page, perhaps to save paper. Upon reading the instructions, I came away scratching my head. The instructions don’t start with a description of the effect, so you have no idea what the effect is supposed to look like, or even what it is. The instructions start with a description of “The Frustration count”. I think he meant “The flustration count”. It then talks about the “Gaffed Card”, but this instruction seems like someone wrote a beginning, middle, and ending to an explanation and then threw out the beginning and the end. It was like jumping into the middle of a conversation and having no clue what they are talking about. Next is a discussion about the “Handling”. The handling makes sense if you have filled in the rest of the gaps. Finally, there is the “Script”. This part is nice, it has the full script, but without proper description to pull it all together, it is like reading latin.
I also really think that people developing magic effects for sale should come up with a good way to end the effect clean. With this effect, it would be so simple to have a clean ending involving an un-gimmicked duplicate card. This was not described in the brief instructions.
If you do get this product, and I am glad I did, I strongly suggest you do a YouTube search for “My Favorite Magician Richard Ribuffo”. In my opinion, you will need to refer to the presentation and the very brief explanation to piece together how this is done.
VERDICT
Personally, I really love this effect. However, in doing an honest review, I must say the explanation is terrible. I would suggest you look up the performance on YouTube, and if you like it, between the performance and the terrible instructions, you can probably figure out how to do this.
I would have loved to give this a five star rating because I really like it, but I generously gave it three stars because of the terrible instruction.
In addition, a very good way to end clean is to have an ungimmicked duplicate card in your pocket, put the two cards in your pocket as you hand out the Houdini card. then, go back into the pocket, remove two ungimmicked cards and ask a participant to shuffle the deck for a followup effect.
Let me start by say that this review is painful because I really wanted to give this a five star.
The effect comes with a single card with Harry’s image on the face and a bicycle deck back, and a half page of written instructions.
On the positive side, when I saw Richard do the performance of the effect, I really loved the effect, and the scripting. It is a captivating story about Harry Houdini and his ability to escape from the most impossible situations.
The effect plays just as it looks in the video demonstration.
The effect involves one pretty basic sleight, the flustration count, and the explanation does cover it pretty well.
The routine can be done completely surrounded.
CONS
Now, the problem. The instructions are … simply terrible!
The instructions come on a half page, perhaps to save paper. Upon reading the instructions, I came away scratching my head. The instructions don’t start with a description of the effect, so you have no idea what the effect is supposed to look like, or even what it is. The instructions start with a description of “The Frustration count”. I think he meant “The flustration count”. It then talks about the “Gaffed Card”, but this instruction seems like someone wrote a beginning, middle, and ending to an explanation and then threw out the beginning and the end. It was like jumping into the middle of a conversation and having no clue what they are talking about. Next is a discussion about the “Handling”. The handling makes sense if you have filled in the rest of the gaps. Finally, there is the “Script”. This part is nice, it has the full script, but without proper description to pull it all together, it is like reading latin.
I also really think that people developing magic effects for sale should come up with a good way to end the effect clean. With this effect, it would be so simple to have a clean ending involving an un-gimmicked duplicate card. This was not described in the brief instructions.
If you do get this product, and I am glad I did, I strongly suggest you do a YouTube search for “My Favorite Magician Richard Ribuffo”. In my opinion, you will need to refer to the presentation and the very brief explanation to piece together how this is done.
VERDICT
Personally, I really love this effect. However, in doing an honest review, I must say the explanation is terrible. I would suggest you look up the performance on YouTube, and if you like it, between the performance and the terrible instructions, you can probably figure out how to do this.
I would have loved to give this a five star rating because I really like it, but I generously gave it three stars because of the terrible instruction.
Suggestions
If you do this effect, and I do think it has tremendous potential, you might want to consider using an indifferent card, cutting out the image of Houdini, using the included card as a template. Leave the cut pieces in the card so they can be easily popped out. In performance, pop out the image as you pretend to carve out the Houdini image and hand out the card for examination.In addition, a very good way to end clean is to have an ungimmicked duplicate card in your pocket, put the two cards in your pocket as you hand out the Houdini card. then, go back into the pocket, remove two ungimmicked cards and ask a participant to shuffle the deck for a followup effect.