Price$37.50
Media TypeTrick
CategoryClose Up
Date AddedNov 13, 2006
Gobsmacked
Costas Damianou and Simon Lovell
(Based on 2 reviews)
Effect
The magician presents a blue deck of cards. The backs and fronts of the cards reveal it is a 52 card regular deck. The deck is placed face up on the table. This is the last time the magician will touch the deck. The spectator is asked to cut the deck around the mid point, and place the cut-off pile alongside the other pile. They then select one of the two piles, and the other pile is placed to one side. The magician asks the spectator to deal the cards face-up from the face-up pile, and stop at ANY card they wish. Which they do. A genuinely free choice. The selection is placed away from the rest of the deck, and the magician now takes the remaining cards and specifies that truly, the spectator had a free choice, and the card they chose isn't a duplicate of any of the other blue backed cards. However, upon turning over the selection the spectator is GOBSMACKED to see that not only is the card a red backed one, it also has their name written across it's back (or any message you want). They suddenly feel that perhaps their free will isn't as free as they'd thought!
You will receive all necessary cards to get you started and enter the Gobsdmacked World, a full-color instructional leaflet containing everything you need to perform Gobsmacked and a Multi-Regional DVD explaining the full working of Gobsmacked with many more suggestions on using Gobsmacked in Various scenarios from Birthday parties to coorporate functions.
Be sure to check out the accompanying DVD for more ideas, handlings and much more!
Reviews
(Top ▲)
In the package you receive 12 redback Bicycle cards and 12 blank back face cards. You supply your own blue backed Bicycle deck.
You also receive 1 DVD and written instructions.
I happen to like written instructions a lot but these are printed on coloured glossy paper and are quite hard to read. The printing is really small. I scanned the paper instructions for more readability.
The effect is basically a "stop" effect. The spectator has a free choice to stop dealing cards face up and the chosen card turns out to be the only redback card in an otherwise blue deck. The included routine also has "your card" written on the back in your own handwriting. You could write anything on the back such as happy birthday or really anything. The blank backs offer more possibilities. I just use the "your card" routine.
The choice seems to be totally random due to a clever setup of the deck. Reset is fairly easy and could be done in front of spectator. Outcome is always different. The deck is not examinable but during the routine there is no reason to suspect anything fishy.
I really like this effect. The spectator deals the cards, you don't really handle the cards very much at all. It is practically selfworking. No sleights whatsoever.
I know that there many effects out there that are similar but I like that this one is pretty clean and straight forward. One can always do a deck switch if you really want to. .5 star deduction because of the paper instructions. They are so hard to read.
(Top ▲)
I know that I tend to ramble on about crediting. So I’ll spare you this time and, instead, just list a few places you can find previous versions of this trick. At least the author credited one of them.
"Oddity" by Edward Marlo, see Early Marlo
"Self Evident" by David Regal, see Star Quality and the L&L DVD Tricks!
"S.L.O.B." by Simon Lovell
This is a really nice effect. This version doesn't seem to have anything to add beyond what's been done before. The DVD instructions are clear enough, though the printed instructions are almost unreadable due to a poor choice of colors.
"Oddity" by Edward Marlo, see Early Marlo
"Self Evident" by David Regal, see Star Quality and the L&L DVD Tricks!
"S.L.O.B." by Simon Lovell
This is a really nice effect. This version doesn't seem to have anything to add beyond what's been done before. The DVD instructions are clear enough, though the printed instructions are almost unreadable due to a poor choice of colors.