Two red back Aces are shown. While held by an audience member and performer they multiply into four cards -- two with red backs and two with blue backs. The red back cards are shown no longer to be Aces but Jokers. The Aces now have blue backs. The cards are squared and separated and shown again to be the original two red backed Aces.

Since my own effect Ob-Ser-Vo is named as one of the inspirations for this effect -- and since I am specifically thanked in the instructions -- I wish my report here could be more positive. However, when I performed this for a non magician friend, he looked at me and smiled and said, "So? The cards are just stuck together, right?"

Right.

There are three problems here. First, the cards supplied do not match the cards described in the instructions which accompany the trick. The instructions speak of cards that are waxed together at the four corners. The cards supplied have double-sided tape in the center. Granted sticking a piece of tape is simpler and faster than applying wax to the four corners, but is the final result the same? Unfortunately, it isn't.

And this is the second problem: wax was a better method because it held the corners together, flat. The tape only holds the centers of the cards together -- so the corners can flare out. One must be much more conscious of angles in performance with taped cards. Even worse, the cards that I received were almost impossible to separate (even after separating and then re sticking them) -- thereby making the routine very difficult to do.

Third, and most problematic of all, the first solution that probably appears in the mind of the average audience member is, in fact, the correct solution.