Price$39.95
Media TypeTrick
CategoryStage, Mentalism
Date AddedSep 29, 2023
Invisible Shooter
Adrián Guerra
Luis Enrique Peralta
(Based on 1 review)
Quique Marduk presents Invisible Shooter
Adrián Guerra is an Argentine magician who won the first price in card magic at the Fism 1994 (Yokohama, Japan)Invisible Shooter is a clever and useful gimmick that allows you as a tool to perform many different routines with cards.
It fits into any playing card case, It is solid, sure fire and versatile.
Invisible Shooter includes a complete video tutorial, replacements. And play with it, you will find many other ideas and uses.
Reviews
(Top ▲)
Overview
One gimmick, eight minutes of YouTube instructions, $40 bucks, and 1 Invisible Shooter magic review. Is it gem or is it rubble? Stay tuned to find out.Effect
There is no specific effect. However, in the ad trailer, you'll see the type of things you theoretically could do with it.Method
Well . . . the trick is called Invisible Shooter, and the ad copy tells you that it's a gimmick that fits in your card case. It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to figure out that this thing shoots cards out of the box, especially when one of the effects in the trailer is exactly that, cards shooting out of the card box.An important note about the gimmick. While it does fit in your card box, not much else will fit. The entire gimmick takes up about the same amount of space (actually just slightly more) than 2/3 of a deck of cards. So you can't carry your cards in the box if the gimmick is in the box. It also requires you to cut a hole in the back of your card box about the size of a piece of Orbit gum.
Additionally, resetting the gimmick requires you to remove the gimmick from the box completely and fish out a piece of the gimmick and with a special supplied tool. Not very practical for repeat performances, but for a one off "set show" that shouldn't be an issue. It's the kind of gimmick that you would only use once in your show. But don't go out and spend your hard earned cash just yet.
Lastly, the effect where the cards visually fly out of the deck (see the ad trailer) require some cards to be in the box in front of the gimmick, and some cards behind the gimmick, and then some cards in the gimmick, all of which is in the card box.
It's a tight fit to do that, and at the end you have to remove four of the card that on one side of the gimmick. You can't just dump them out of the box due to the nature of the gimmick. Reaching in and pulling them out is a nearly futile exercise as well. They tend to friction themselves to the gimmick. This is not pretty stuff.
Product Quality
This is where is all falls apart folks. You can stop right now.Let's start with the video. It's 7 minutes and 56 seconds. No words. Just music and a pair of on screen hands. While I appreciate the attempt to make it language-independent, things are missing with this format. First, he showed the "replacements" (aka "variable tension grippers") and two little metal rings that are about the diameter of medium-sized BB (from a BB gun). Nowhere is it explained what those are for.
Further, as will be the case with any thing that can double as a "naked" scrunchy, it will eventually "snap." Nowhere are we shown how to replace it, and by looking at the gimmick, I have no idea how to replace it.
As mentioned earlier, this requires a small modification to the card case. No information is given on how to do this, what things to consider when doing it (e.g., how big is too big, too small, exactly where on the case, etc.)
On to the product itself. This thing is, essentially, a 2/3 of a deck sized and shaped gun that can fire (at your command-ish) a card or a few cards out of the deck.
First, getting the "gun" to fire requires your hand to be on the deck holding the deck steady while releasing the "trigger." The trigger is pretty stiff (due to the tension on it) so it requires holding the box stationary while, with the same hand, releasing the trigger.
The moment it releases the audience will be treated to an impossible-to-hide loud snapping sound. Obvious much. In the trailer, you'll see an effect where a card appears underneath a larger playing card. I don't see how that is possible. The card comes flying out of the box so fast and with so much force that it bounces off of the card after hitting it another loud smack sound. It sometimes goes right under the card and out the other side.
I was only able to test it a few times. Each time you test it, you have to then remove the gimmick from the box, and reset it. The supplied "resetter" tool broke after using it about 7 or 8 times, maybe a dozen at the most. The tool is a plastic crochet hook. The hook just broke right off, so unless I get myself another crochet hook (a very small one) then the gimmick is useless.
While it was still in its unbroken state, fishing out the piece needed to reset it was a pain in the butt. It's difficult to see in the gimmick and figure out what you're doing. Sadly, this is the kind of thing that would have been easily remedied with a slight alteration to the gimmick design. It's an obvious change that, I think, anyone who saw the gimmick would easily think off after one attempt to reset it.
Ad Copy Integrity
Claim: " . . . sure fire"Nope. Getting it to fire is not as "sure fire" as it needs to be to be reliable. Much of the stuff you might do with this relies on incredible timing and choreography. If it doesn't fire exactly when you attempt to release it, you're done.
Claim: "Invisible Shooter includes a complete video tutorial"
Complete!? No.
Final Thoughts
- Effect: Amazing if you could do them.
- Method: Unreliable at best. Noisy.
- Product Quality: Garbage.
- Ad Copy Integrity: Overselling, if I'm generous.
Even if the gimmick functioned as shown in the ad trailer and wasn't too forceful, but was perfect in aim, release, everything, the sound would still be a problem. If the sound wasn't there, then I have the problem of not being able to use it because my reset gimmick broke.
If, however, the reset gimmick was made of titanium and indestructible, eventually the thing that Edie Brickell shot at the stars would eventually break, and I have no idea how to replace it.
When we consider all the facts . . .
Final Verdict:
Half Star with a Stone Status of complete and utter rubble!