Jason Messina has given us “Wi”. What is it? The advertisement I read did not give me much to go on, lots of hyperbole but very little substance. So now, I am looking at “Wi”. It is 14, eight and half by eleven, single sided pages, folded in half and stuffed in a clear plastic bag. I opened up the bag and pulled out the pages to see that they have been stapled at the bottom corner, (I believe this was an error made by the person who put this together) creating a very confusing few seconds as I stumble through trying to figure out how to read this. Does this really take away from the information? No, but it does make me wonder if this was a rush job to just get something out on the market to make money. I can’t help but wonder why so many of the creators of magic do not put more thought and effort into the presentation of their product.

As I read the manuscript, there are quite a few grammatical errors. A good copywriter could have made this a much easier and more professional read.

So what is this Wi about? Here it is in a nutshell. You are walking with a friend and he says he’s hungry. You pause and write something down on a piece of paper and give it to him. You then ask him what kind of cuisine he would enjoy? He replies, “French”. You tell him to look at the paper. There is a phone number on the paper. When he calls this number he finds it is a French restaurant.

The method is clever. Very clever! With some forward thinking there are many directions that this idea could be taken.

There are some things that did not sit well with me in this manuscipt. Jason has presented this trick as a “Hanging out with your friends and do a cool trick idea”. And that is fine with me. However, there are some sticky blocking issues that are addressed by Jason, but not fully. I cannot go into much detail here without giving away the method but even in an impromptu situation, there is some dirty work to be done. How that dirty work is done, will directly impact how well the effect goes over.

Let’s talk about “the dirty work”. Jason does not give much guidance on this part of the trick. He throws out a few ideas but most of his attention is on the other workings of the effect. The problem from my point of view is in the method in which you will do “the dirty work”. If done clumsily it will take away from the effect. It might even expose it to the person you are performing it for. Jason provides no real motivation or cover for this part of his effect.
Additionally, if you are going to perform this in one of your stage/stand up shows, Jason’s solution to the blocking problem is to turn your back during a card trick (when the spectator is showing a card to the audience) and perform the dirty work. This is not an acceptable solution in my world, but perhaps some could do it this way.

I feel that although the concept and method of Wi is very good, the manuscript leaves a great deal to be desired. The thoughts/effect ideas supplied are more conceptual than ready to be used immediately. I believe this would have been a much better manuscript had Jason spent more time on the presentational aspect of the effect to include set up, blocking, and scripting. Even the additional ideas supplied are splashed on the paper in quickly worded paragraphs. Once again I would have liked to have seen more solidly developed thoughts.

There will be some that will think the concept alone is enough and the grammatically correct writing, more fully developed routining, and better concept on blocking the dirty work is just icing. I would disagree on that point. But in the end it will be decided by the person who spent the $25 on this effect.