Quadrant
Turchi Chris; David, Brandon
Paper Crane Productions - Amanda Hartley
Here's just one of the many effects possible with the quadrant gimmick. After having a card selected, signed and returned to the box you explain to the spectator the idea of being able to invert objects so they are permanently inside out. With a wave of the hand visually the card box is now transformed and now it can only be described as inside out. The inverted box is immediately handed out for examination. After you let that moment of amazement sink in and explain that not only did the card box turn inside out but the previously signed card is found to be inverted too.
What makes the Quadrant gimmick so valuable is that you are receiving a high quality, custom made gimmick that is built to last. Also included on the DVD you will learn a color changing deck routine where you also visually change the box. You will learn how to visually shrink a deck of cards and extract their selection from the box. I guess the real question is what will you come up with when you have the quadrant gimmick?
Running Time Approximately: 58min
Reviews
(Top ▲)
This DVD was organized in a strange way, it was kind of all over the place. That said, this review will be kinda all over the place as well. Keep in mind that I’m just going to follow the DVD menu.
Introduction: They break down the gimmick and show you a brief overview of the various utilities. Brandon takes you through the construction of the gimmick, you get everything that you need but there is a lot of prep necessary when you first purchase the DVD. Once you get it set up you will be good to go. It should be mentioned that with the 4 effects you can do with Quadrant you need a new gimmick for each effect, but yu are only supplied with the materials for one. This shouldn’t be a big deal but just know that you can’t perform any of the different effects back to back with the same gimmick.
Vanishing Box: Branden shows you how to perform Quadrant as an opener and makes the box for his cards vanish. As he walks you through the workings it sound like he thinks that we have already watched a section of the DVD that explains how to work the gimmick.
Change Variations: Branden now walks us through how to execute the gimmick. He teaches a flash change and explains how the gimmick has been constructed to end fairly clean. In this you just shake the box and it changes. The rub away vanish is slightly easier to do and in my opinion is prettier than the flash change. Basically in process of rubbing the box the change or vanish takes place. The last he teaches is a blow vanish, for this the box changes on the off beat while it is out of sight. The magician brings the deck up to their face, they give it a blow and the dek changes.
Ditch Variations: Chris takes you through a handful of ditches with the gimmick, I like the way the trick looks in his hands but he still bounces around a lot. All of the ditches are workable and he shares a couple ideas.
The Shrinking Box: This was one of the best looking effects on the trailer, without any cover the box morphs from a big box to a small onel. Unfortunately the actual routine taught is not that clean. A card is selected and you have to put the deck away. Later after performing a couple other tricks you pull out the deck back out and shrink it down. If you want to just shrink the deck this is nice or if you want to work this into a multiple card find where yoou put away the deck at one point to reveal a couple more cards then I could see this working as well. I don’t think hat all spectators will remember their selected card after such a long interlude before the card is revealed. Also it is important to mention that you need to purchase your own miniature pack to perform with as well as one to make the gaff with. This is one of the more difficult versions of the effect.
Color Changing Box: Chris teaches a color changing deck routine where the box changes color. The color changing deck is fairly basic but it changes the effect to see the box change colors before the deck. This was one of the pieces that I felt was the most practical in a real world situation.
Inversion: This routine is well motivated, it allows you to turn the box and a signed playing card inside out. It’s the only performance that is for a live audience and they get a great reaction. You will need to learn how to split cards for this routine, they have a small tutorial at the end for this. This is very strong and for me is the most logical effect for how the trick works. They don’t go over the reset on this but I could see this working in a walk around environment with some set up on between tables. I could see this working best as a one off effect. It is powerful and full of magic and could easily be performed by itself.
Ideas: Here they pop out a handful of ideas using a mental photography deck as well as an oni deck in the routine. Most of these are just ideas but they seem fairly worker friendly. They also touch on crediting.
Splitting Cards: The method is fairly basic here, this is not the best place to learn how to split card but it is okay. I can see a couple problems with Chris’ method but his will work most of the time.
Closing Thoughts: Here they give a thank you and share with you how to change the cards into other objects like a phone tape or a watch. There are some interesting ideas shared here but you really shouldn't use this on a phone, you could seriously ruin it.
So that is Quadrant. Branden showed this to me a few years back right when it was first released. It didn’t completely fool me but it is a nice trick. I prefer Chris’ handling to Branden’s and I think with the right magician this could be a reputation maker.
(Top ▲)
For $35 bucks you get a very clever utility gimmick that allows you to perform some incredibly visual magic
Watch the demo. It's NOT camera a trick. It looks that good in real life. The ad copy is 100% honest (a rare thing these days). The gimmick is very portable and relatively easy to use. I do, however, have a few complaints. First, the DVD seemed to be organized in a bit of a random or chaotic order. There were plenty of cases where the instructors (Chris Turchi and Brandon David) would make statements like "do the flap move" here, but nowhere have they told you what the heck a "flap move" is.
This happened on more than one occasion. Additionally, in some cases, they never do actually explain what the move that they're referring to is. This made for some confusing moments in the explanation. Additionally, for most of the effects, you have to modify your gimmick, but they don't really explain it. Then later in a different explanation, they kind of brush over a particular modification of the gimmick for one trick. You then, on your own, kind of backward interpret this to apply it to the other effects.
It's not a deal killer, but it was just not as well thought out and as clear as it should be. Additionally, you must keep in mind that when you modify your gimmick, it then becomes only usable for one effect. In other words, you have to choose how you're going to use the gimmick. Are you going to use it to shrink the card box; are you going to use it to make the box vanish; are you going to cause the box to change colors; are you going to cause the box to turn inside out?
Whichever one you choose will determine how you modify your gimmick. Then from there, you can only use the gimmick for that one effect. So if you later decide that you no longer want to perform the shrinking deck, you have to slightly and very carefully disassemble the gimmick and re-modify it for the new effect that you're going to do. This is not something you can do between tables. You pretty much are "stuck" with the gimmick until you can go home and take the time to re-modify it. None of this is discussed on the DVD. There may even be a clever way to more easily re-modify the gimmick, but they just don't discuss it at all. They don't even really discuss the initial modification. You just kind of have to figure it out on your own.
Finally, in the instructions, they mention a particular way you have to prepare a certain card with a magnet on it. Brandon David tells you to put the sticky tape on a particular side of the magnet and stick it to a card. However, if you do it that way, the polarity will be wrong, and you'll have to reconstruct that part of the gimmick. Just be aware during that part of the explanation.
So that's a lot of negative, I know. However, the trick is still very learn-able from the provided instructions. Additionally, the price is reasonable considering the fact that you're getting an hour long DVD with several ideas on it. Plus the gimmick is very well made and can be used for many different effects (as long as you're willing to pick one of those effects and stick with it).
When you consider that the ad copy is legit, the demo is legit and the product is well made (barring the confusion in the explanations). Though I think the effect is solid and the gimmick is well made, and I might even actually do this effect, my job is to review the actual product as a whole. Because of that, it took a fair hit due to the lack of clarity for the budding student who may watch this video and the one-trick-only nature of the gimmick.
Final Verdict:
3 Stars with a Stone Status of gem (with a little g)