Destiny
Michael Kras
Want an effect that your audience will remember for a very long time? This just might be what you're looking for!
Imagine this: A spectator, we'll call her Marilyn, thinks of ANY card in the deck. It is a legitimate free choice. The magician tells Marilyn that he had a strange dream that may or may not have involved her, and when he woke up, he grabbed the nearest deck of cards as well as a Sharpie and spent the rest of the night with them.
The magician removes a deck of cards, the very same one he spent the night altering. For the first time, Marilyn names the card she's been merely thinking of: The Jack of Clubs. AMAZING! That's the card that she named in the magician's dream! Not impressive, right? Well, not yet.
The Jack of Clubs is then removed from the deck, and the magician reveals that the back of every single card in the deck has a different name written on it... Andrew, Tanya, Sam, Richard, Colin, Jessica, Sarah...
Suddenly, the circumstances become all too clear. The tabled Jack of Clubs is turned over. There is one name printed on the back, in indelible ink.
Marilyn.
THE DESTINY EFFECT is a time-tested performance piece for the magician or mentalist that works as well for walkaround and close up as it does for parlour and stage. In this detailed manuscript, you'll learn how to construct your own Destiny Deck in no time at all with just a deck of cards and a Sharpie, as well as multiple handlings and ideas for the effect itself and contributions from other magicians.
KEEP IN MIND:
- No secret writing.
- No pre-show work.
- No forcing.
- No gimmicks.
- No sleight of hand.
- The deck is normal and completely examinable.
Magic doesn't get much more personal, intimate, or memorable than The Destiny Effect!
What You Get
PDF E-book
Reviews
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Random I-Tunes Song of The Moment: Bat Out of Hell by Meatloaf
This is a pretty solid effect, but the manuscript looks like it was rushed together at a pace not unlike a Bat Out of Hell (Thank you Meatloaf). The basic effect is that any card is freely named. Then upon showing the spectator that you have a full deck with various names written on the back of each card, you reveal that the freely named card has the spectator's name written on the back of it.
This is powerful and several handling techniques are discussed in the ebook. The effect is not entirely new. However, Kras does a good job of giving credit where credit is due as well as a relatively thorough history of various similar effects and sources of inspiration.
The reason I feel this was rushed to production is due to the high number of typos, spelling errors, grammar issues, punctuation mistakes and missing information. For example, Kras continually refers to "using the mnemonic" makes the routine easier, etc. However, he never teaches a mnemonic to use. That said, everything you need to do the effect is there and considering that you get multiple variations and the fact that it's only $5 bucks, it's not hard to over look some of the poor production problems. The method for this is pretty solid and very doable. A lot of points were taken away for the missing info and production errors. However, a lot of that lost ground was gained back due to the extremely reasonable price and the fact that after reading the entire manuscript you know what you need to do the effect. If you like the effect, I think you'll be happy with the method. For $5 bucks, it's worth the risk.
Final Verdict:
3.5 Stars with a Stone Status of gem (with a little g).