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Torn

Daniel Garcia

Paul Harris Presents

(Based on 2 reviews)

In the basement of a seedy Las Vegas hotel, Daniel Garcia slowly touched two pieces of a torn playing card together. Achingly slowly, with no cover, he let go of one of the pieces and the card was restored! Paul Harris shook his head and softly muttered "If this kid is not using some kind of sticky substance, he owns me." Daniel restored the third and fourth pieces in equally miraculous ways and handed Paul the card....no sticky substance! In lieu of Paul's mortal soul, Daniel agreed to let Paul get Torn out to the world. It really is the next great leap forward in this piece-by-piece restoration. Totally practical and even more magical than the original TV-only version With this DVD and a little work, you'll have a breathtaking magical effect you can do anywhere with any freely selected signed card.

Torn didn't just astonish Paul Harris. Daniel has owned just about every magician he has come across, and for sure every laymen he's shown the effect. Daniel Garcia's "Torn" is a must for anyone who wants to perform a truly miraculous piece-by-piece restoration.

Reviews

Andrew

Nov 16, 2010

Torn is a torn-and-restored card from the mind of Daniel Garcia. It is a variation of Yves Doumergue's Ripped & Restored. The DVD quality is great and everything is clear and easy to understand throughout. He goes over the teaching very thoroughly and leaves nothing out.

The card is restored one piece at a time with very little cover. It is a cleaner looking version of Ripped & Restored in my opinion. The trick uses just a few moves and is not very hard to learn. You will need to practice to get it looking good, however.

The DVD also includes the original Torn video on it, which is basically Daniel teaching the trick to the camera just like the new teaching. It doesn't really help with anything, but it is nice that they threw it on there.

There is very little set up to this trick and it's easy to do. Overall I like this effect. It's a simple torn-and-restored card without difficult sleights. The card is freely chosen and signed, a nice touch to the trick. The reason I gave it four stars is because it is angle sensitive and it is best to perform it to one or two people who are straight on in front of you. If you want a fairly easy T&R trick, this is the way to go.
(Top ▲)

Gabe Fajuri

Official Reviewer

May 19, 2005

Variation follows variation follows variation. These days, the output of derivative magic seems unending. In a marketplace dominated by minor differences in method and supposed “fixes” that are really no more than vaguely veiled attempts at creating a secondary source of income for hobbyist-cum-professional-tricksters, variations are the name of the game. Change the color of the cards to red, the shape of the cups or the format in which a trick is taught, and suddenly, your “revolutionary” variation is worth marketing. Yeah, right.

The hoary Torn and Restored plot, performed with playing cards, has not escaped the jaws of this beast, either. Ever since Guy Hollingworth’s “Reformation” hit in the 1990’s, spurred on by Chris Kenner’s work for David Copperfield (performed with a Honus Wagner baseball card on a TV Special), card creasers by the dozen have appeared on the scene.

But sometimes, the back-and-forth, the endless noodling, yields excellent results. I’m pleased to tell you that finally, after a lot of tinkering, experimentation and less than stellar solutions, you can stop wondering what version of the Torn and Restored Card to Learn.

“Torn” is it.

Daniel Garcia has come up with what is, to my mind, one of the cleanest handlings of this trick ever devised. The pieces are merely touched together, one at a time, and seem to fuse together. There is a conspicuous lack of extraneous rubbing of the torn edges with the fingers, and a bare minimum of cover from the hands.

In short, this looks like real magic; a live, in-person camera trick.

You know the story: A card is torn into four pieces, and then, piece by piece, it’s restored to its original condition.

I hate to sound like a dealer ad for the trick, but man, I’ve got to tell you, this method has it all: minimal sleights, a complete restoration, borrowed cards can be used, and yes, the card is signed. There are no gimmicks, and no glue or sticky stuff is used. And no, you won’t have to sell your firstborn to uncover the method. It’s really not that tough a trick to learn and perform.

I suppose if I was extremely critical and a detailed, thorough reviewer, I could prattle on and on about the differences between “Torn” and the “Reformation,” “Reparation” (Jon Lovick’s version), and every other method for the piece-by-piece restoration extant. But I really don’t think that’s necessary. Trust me.

The DVD is nicely crafted and shot, if a little too rock-star like in production for my tastes. If there is one criticism I can offer, it is that more close-up shots of Garcia’s hands would be helpful. But there is really no reason to complain. In the end, the stylized look of the DVD is really more annoying than any lack of technical expertise in the instructional portion of the DVD. After all, this is a friggin’ card trick, not the latest hit spinning on TRL.

But what a card trick.
(Top ▲)