Price$30.00
Media TypeTrick
CategoryClose Up
Date AddedMay 19, 2015
Box Pad
Jones, Gary; Congreave, Chris
Magic Tao
(Based on 2 reviews)
No sleight of hand needed
Custom made gimmick supplied
You supply your own pack of cards
Comes with DVD with full explanations
Reviews
(Top ▲)
Random I-Tunes Song of The Moment: When I Look At You by Miley Cyrus
Box Pad Review
One Gimmick, One DVD, $30 bucks and one Box Pad Review. Is it gem or is it rubble? Stay tuned to find out.
Box Pad Review: Effect
A small notepad instantly turns into a deck of cards.
Box Pad Review: Method
A simple gimmick that you attach to your card case makes this possible. That and a tiny bit of misdirection. In fact, this is really a good effect for practicing misdirection that will, likely, give you the misdirective (yes; I made up that word) confidence you need.
Your angle are pretty darn good. You can pretty much do this completely surrounded.
Box Pad Review: Ad Copy Integrity
The ad copy is solid. The video trailer and the written ad copy both do an accurate job of depicting the effect. Not much to say here. What you see is what you get.
Box Pad Review: Product Quality
The gimmick itself is made out of what appears to be plastic coated cardboard that should last quite a while. They really made everything easy for you. It takes 5 seconds to install the gimmick. Also, they supplied a PDF of the one part of the gimmick that will likely wear out after some usage, so you can easily replace that part of the gimmick.
The DVD was decent quality, shot well enough and lit okay, etc. The instructions from Chris Congreave were clear and easy to follow. However, one thing was left out, and that is dealing with moving the gimmick to another box once the box you're using wears out. I briefly and carefully tried to remove the gimmick from the box, and it did not want to play. I was afraid I'd rip or ruin the gimmick by removing it.
This means that either a) you can't move the gimmick to a new box when your box wears out or b) you can move it, but they didn't teach you how. In either case, you are left with a gimmick that will eventually need replacing when your card box wears out.
Box Pad Review: Final Thoughts
If you like the simply idea of a notepad turning into a deck of cards, then you'll be happy with this product (until your box wears out). $30 bucks is a relatively reasonable price to pay, however, for that price maybe a little bit more info about moving the gimmick should have been included.
Final Verdict:
4 Stars with a Stone Status of Gem.
Available at your Favorite Magic Dealer. Dealer's see Murphy's Magic for details.
(Top ▲)
PROS
I just love this one! The DVD presents this as the quickest magic trick ever and the quickest explanation ever. On the plus side, the explanation is short and to the point, but in the “CON” section, I will explain why the short explanation is also a negative.
The method is very good. There is a gimmick and you can’t hand out the box for examination. However, in the very short explanation DVD, he shows how you make the magic happen, produce a card box, remove the cards, pocket the box and proceed with a card trick.
In the real world, I would think that this is not very angle sensitive because the audience has no idea what is about to happen. Technically, you could have an angle problem from behind, but you are likely covering that angle with your body. I wouldn’t worry about angles with this product.
This is really suitable to the most beginner of performers. You can watch the DVD, perhaps even not watch the DVD and perform the effect within minutes.
The effect is true to the ad copy. The ad copy says you come out with a note pad and pen and the pad turns into a deck of cards.
CONS
The explanation could have been more comprehensive. There wasn’t much discussion about ditching gimmicks or handing stuff out for examination. Also, I think it would have been nice to explore different ways of presenting this. The ad copy has a suggestion for perhaps a restaurant approach. However, that idea is not on the DVD. For me, sometimes I break out a DVD perhaps months or even a year or two after purchasing it and revisit the idea. At that point, I am likely not going to go back to the ad copy to see an idea. It’s good to give magicians different ideas to inspire them to come up with their own variation. In the Suggestion section, I will cover one such idea.
If you are performing close up, you probably shouldn’t spend a lot of time with the note pad or draw to long of attention to the gimmick before doing the magic change. The gimmick looks very much like a spiral note pad at casual observation, but would not hold up under close scrutiny.
VERDICT
An excellent little gimmick that hides in plain sight and makes for a great quick opener.
I just love this one! The DVD presents this as the quickest magic trick ever and the quickest explanation ever. On the plus side, the explanation is short and to the point, but in the “CON” section, I will explain why the short explanation is also a negative.
The method is very good. There is a gimmick and you can’t hand out the box for examination. However, in the very short explanation DVD, he shows how you make the magic happen, produce a card box, remove the cards, pocket the box and proceed with a card trick.
In the real world, I would think that this is not very angle sensitive because the audience has no idea what is about to happen. Technically, you could have an angle problem from behind, but you are likely covering that angle with your body. I wouldn’t worry about angles with this product.
This is really suitable to the most beginner of performers. You can watch the DVD, perhaps even not watch the DVD and perform the effect within minutes.
The effect is true to the ad copy. The ad copy says you come out with a note pad and pen and the pad turns into a deck of cards.
CONS
The explanation could have been more comprehensive. There wasn’t much discussion about ditching gimmicks or handing stuff out for examination. Also, I think it would have been nice to explore different ways of presenting this. The ad copy has a suggestion for perhaps a restaurant approach. However, that idea is not on the DVD. For me, sometimes I break out a DVD perhaps months or even a year or two after purchasing it and revisit the idea. At that point, I am likely not going to go back to the ad copy to see an idea. It’s good to give magicians different ideas to inspire them to come up with their own variation. In the Suggestion section, I will cover one such idea.
If you are performing close up, you probably shouldn’t spend a lot of time with the note pad or draw to long of attention to the gimmick before doing the magic change. The gimmick looks very much like a spiral note pad at casual observation, but would not hold up under close scrutiny.
VERDICT
An excellent little gimmick that hides in plain sight and makes for a great quick opener.