Price$44.95
Media TypeTrick
CategoryGeneral, Close Up, Mentalism
Date AddedJul 09, 2015
Name Tag
Agus Tjiu
Tjiu Agus Haryanto
(Based on 1 review)
A new must-have item for all performing magicians.
Great and unlimited effects in a seemingly innocent item.
A prop that can be handed out for examination before and after the routine. ESP prediction Card Prediction Card transformation Card transposition Magician's imagination is the limit Gimmick can be personalized with your own picture and your own name Easy to modify Step by step instruction on the DVD
Reviews
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Name Tag Review
One 40 minute DVD, one name tag holder (gimmick), four specially printed cards, $45 bucks and one Name Tag Review. Is it gem or is it rubble? Stay tuned to find out.
Name Tag Review: Effect
You are able to predict the out come of a free choice of either 5 ESP symbols, or 6 playing cards.
Name Tag Review: Method
The method relies on a very special gimmick that allows you to secretly make the prediction be whatever you want. You are limited to the five ESP symbols along with specific cards. The gimmick does most of the work, but is a little knacky. There are four gimmicks supplied. Two allow you to reveal ESP cards, and two allow you to reveal playing cards. For the ESP cards, one gimmick allows you to reveal the ESP cards as if you hand drew the prediction. The other gimmick allows you to reveal a printed symbol rather than an apparently hand drawn one.
With the cards, it's the same thing. One gimmick allows you to reveal what appears to be an actual card, while the other gimmick allows you to reveal an apparently written prediction of the card value and suit shape. I found that the printed ESP card reveal is the easiest gimmick to work with and that the printed playing card one is the hardest to work with. As I mentioned, the gimmick is very knacky, and will take some practice. If you're familiar with nail writers, it takes that same type of pause required to do the work. Once they reveal their choice, you have to take a moment an adjust the gimmick accordingly. It takes a fair amount of practice to do this without looking fishy.
The method is legitimate and doable, but will take a small amount of dedication and a fair amount of practice. One last note. There is a method taught for secretly switching a bunch of freely selected cards with another group of cards. It is brilliant! It was, by far, my favorite thing on the DVD. I will be using this from now on when I need to switch a bunch of cards. It requires the use of something that most card magicians already have.
Name Tag Review: Ad Copy Integrity
The ad copy is very accurate. Everything they claim is true. The ad trailer correctly, accurately and fairly represents the truth about what the effect is and what you get. One point of clarification is needed, however. The claim that the prop can be examined is true if you remove the card from inside it. You can hand out the name tag sleeve for examination as long as it's empty.
Name Tag Review: Product Quality
The special sleeve and the four prediction gimmicks are precision made and work perfectly (after you acquire the knack). The lanyard and clip are also quality material. As for the video production, that's another story. Bad lighting and bad audio abound. Also, it's all 100% in non-English audio, but it's subtitled English. This, of course, creates that awkward vertical tennis match between text and teacher (Agus Tjiu). Thus . . . rewinding is needed more than once.
The language barrier also caused one other problem. During the section where he talks about putting a photograph of yourself on the name tag, he talks about how thin the photo should be. The subtitles say that it should be no more than 120 grams. Any more than 120 grams will be too thick for the holder. I'm sure he meant something else, but we'll never know.
The only other weird thing was that the lanyard is permanently attached to the clip that attaches to the name tag holder. In the video, he shows you using the clip without the lanyard so that you can clip it on your shirt instead of wearing it around your neck. It appears that he has two clips. Mine only came with one, so if I decide to go with the "clip it on the shirt" look rather than the "around the neck" look, I'll either have to buy a clip at an office supply store or destroy my lanyard. It's not a huge deal since the clip has nothing to do with the effect. It just holds the name tag. But it just feels like something is not quite complete.
Other than that, everything you need to know about doing this effect and similar ones is found here. In the trailer, at the very end, there is a moment where he flicks the holder and the card changes. That is not taught on the DVD. However, it's pretty intuitive once you know how the gimmick works. Lastly, the one thing needed to perform the super clever card switch I mentioned earlier is a common item, but I felt that it would have been super easy to include it for the sake of completeness. It would have increased the value much more than the small cost to do so.
Name Tag Review: Final Thoughts
If you liked anything you saw in the trailer, then you'll love this. It's a very clever and well made gimmick that will last a long time. If they're smart, in the future, they'll come up with more revelation gimmicks that can be used with the name tag holder. Either way, if you don't mind putting in the time (not a ton) to get the knack, this is well worth the cost.
Final Verdict:
4 Stars with a Stone Status of Gem.
Available at your Favorite Magic Dealer. Dealer's see Murphy's Magic for details.