“The Sharpie Manual” and its handful of tricks share a slapped-together feel one normally associates with items that are sold exclusively at lectures. While it’s true that you can use the props and corresponding information supplied here to apparently transform, transpose or otherwise transmogrify Sharpies, it’s also true that several of these tricks wouldn’t fool a Family Feud contestant. For example, “Pending” is a pen-bending effect that works much better as Fred Baumann’s original “Metalogic” (which uses a spoon). And “The Color Change” is (of course) a color-change wherein a mini Sharpie with a black cap is pushed into your fist, bottom-end first, but when said bottom emerges from the heel of your fist, there’s a red cap on it. The pen is withdrawn completely and the black cap that was at the other end is now gone (?), so the pen “must” have changed color (and no you can’t open your fist).

On the other hand, there are one or two tricks here that have some potential. For example, “Pen & Ink” is an interesting plot with a provocative method in which both the Sharpie and its ink change color, but it’s angly as hell and the way it’s constructed leads to a confusing climax. And “Shrinkie,” a shrinking Sharpie effect, could be fun to do, but it requires an accessory that, while common, is not supplied with the trick. Indeed, you’ll need to add something of your own to half the routines in this manuscript, an imposition that occasionally expands to include input on methodology (e.g., from “Pen & Ink” - “During all of this, you should switch the red cap for a black one in a jacket pocket or something.”)

Bottom line - a collection of tricks using Sharpies is a good (and timely) idea, but this kit doesn’t do it justice.

David Acer