Price$20.00
Media TypeTrick
CategoryClose Up
Date AddedMay 14, 2007
Smoke Rings
David Forrest
(Based on 1 review)
SMOKE RINGS - A One Card Link by David Forrest
Singled out by the legendary Paul Harris for inclusion on his 'True Astonishment' DVD set, SMOKE RINGS is a truly incredible impromptu miracle!
"If I only had one playing card with which to do magic, this is the routine that I'd do, bar none."
- David Forrest (from the introduction of this manuscript)
SMOKE RINGS is a completely impromptu, 100% examinable linking card effect which requires no preparation whatsoever. Only one card is used, nothing else. No additional gimmcks are required, your hands are clearly empty. This is anywhere, anytime magic with nothing more than a single playing card.
Effect
Any card is borrowed or freely chosen by a spectator and signed. With both hands unmistakably empty, two impromptu rings are torn from the card. Without any overt actions or suspicious cover, the two rings are magically linked together, one ring hanging from the other. Such is their linked condition that one ring must actually be torn in order to free the other - one ring is unmistakably displayed as being torn.To finish, the torn ring is completely restored and everything is handed out for examination. There is nothing to find. The rings may be kept by the spectator as a souvenir. Believe it!
After many years of secrecy, SMOKE RINGS can now be yours!
Pages 16 - Black & White, Photo-Illustrated, Saddle Stitched
Reviews
(Top ▲)
Smoke Rings is a single-card "linking card" trick that you can perform impromptu. All the preparation is done during performance, and at the end you're left almost clean.
How can you link a single card to itself? You tear out the center, then create a second ring from the piece you removed. The two pieces are briefly linked, then one is torn to release the other, and the tear is magically restored. The dealer's video demo tells the whole story, but I warn you that it's horribly produced. Unfortunately, as bad as it is, it represents the trick far better than the booklet you're buying.
Let's talk about the booklet. It contains 26 photos to help you learn the trick. But their small size (matchbook-like) and poor contrast make it a bit of struggle to use them. Also, note that the dealer describes the booklet incorrectly. It is stapled, not saddle-stiched, and consists of 11 pages (generously including the cover and blanks), not 16 pages. Other than these problems, the printing and design is of higher-than-usual quality.
Despite the photography problems, I was able to adequately learn the trick from the booklet. I found that, in performance, it doesn't play very strongly because of several shortcomings, all of which are mentioned in the book, but inadequately addressed by the author. Namely, there are physical and visual discrepancies during and after the performance, and the linked cards can only be displayed in very specific fashion; you can't allow one card to hang or swing from the other. You know, like you'd do if they were, um, linked.
The booklet opens with an homage to Paul Harris and his Cardboard Connection, from which Smoke Rings is admittedly derived. If you want to perform a linking card routine you'll be much better served by Harris' (and you'll save $15). If, for some reason, you want to perform a linking card routine with only one card, or perhaps you collect esoteric offshoots that should have been published in a magazine instead of sold, then buy Smoke Rings instead.
How can you link a single card to itself? You tear out the center, then create a second ring from the piece you removed. The two pieces are briefly linked, then one is torn to release the other, and the tear is magically restored. The dealer's video demo tells the whole story, but I warn you that it's horribly produced. Unfortunately, as bad as it is, it represents the trick far better than the booklet you're buying.
Let's talk about the booklet. It contains 26 photos to help you learn the trick. But their small size (matchbook-like) and poor contrast make it a bit of struggle to use them. Also, note that the dealer describes the booklet incorrectly. It is stapled, not saddle-stiched, and consists of 11 pages (generously including the cover and blanks), not 16 pages. Other than these problems, the printing and design is of higher-than-usual quality.
Despite the photography problems, I was able to adequately learn the trick from the booklet. I found that, in performance, it doesn't play very strongly because of several shortcomings, all of which are mentioned in the book, but inadequately addressed by the author. Namely, there are physical and visual discrepancies during and after the performance, and the linked cards can only be displayed in very specific fashion; you can't allow one card to hang or swing from the other. You know, like you'd do if they were, um, linked.
The booklet opens with an homage to Paul Harris and his Cardboard Connection, from which Smoke Rings is admittedly derived. If you want to perform a linking card routine you'll be much better served by Harris' (and you'll save $15). If, for some reason, you want to perform a linking card routine with only one card, or perhaps you collect esoteric offshoots that should have been published in a magazine instead of sold, then buy Smoke Rings instead.