Noteworthy
Gabbay, David
David Gabbay
Table of Contents
Magic Effects
TacsMan
Sweet
Window to the Soul
Fair & Square
Clown Purse
Coin Ninja
Purse Time
Paper Prison
Dizzy Tenkai (The Card that Falls Up)
Gabbay's Coin Opener
Short Essays
Suggested Focus & Inception
Let it Breathe
Abundance Mentality
No Mistakes
Malini & YouTube
Fantasy & Fantastic
Sure To Inspire
Pages: 68 - 6" x 9" - Softcover - Black and white pictures
Reviews
(Top ▲)
For 20 bucks you get a below average production of a book with some average material.
My biggest complaint about this book is that the photographs are very unclear in many, many, many cases. I can't really rate the ad copy integrity because it simply lists the table of contents which means I have to explain the effect for each item in the book.
TacsMan(3.5 stars)
3 coins penetrate a Tic Tac box. The handling is fidgety and awkward, but I think it has potential
Sweet(2.5 stars)
Signed coin ends up in sugar packet . . . more fidgety moves with less than convincing handling
Window to the Soul(1.5 stars)
Instant stooge, plus the wrong angle can tip more than just your stooge as to what's going one equals awkward handling and less than practical effect.
Fair & Square(4 stars)
Using a credit swiper for an iPhone, you magically swipe the selected card off of a 52 on 1 card making the real card appear in the card box. The handling is a bit awkward (I detect a pattern), but the method is solid. Gabbay tells you where to get a free iPhone swiper thingie.
Clown Purse(4.5 stars)
Pretty solid handling for wand (in this case, Sharpie) from small tiny purse.
Coin Ninja(2.5 stars)
Awkward and angly handling of Karate Coin
Purse Time(3.5 stars)
Clever use of black art for a paradox card plot or a card to impossible (yet in full view the whole time) location effect
Paper Prison(3 stars)
Awkward (NO! . . . Yes!) handling of card under box, card to box. Using the same awkward and unjustified move found in Fair & Square
Dizzy Tenkai (The Card that Falls Up)(1.5 stars)
Imagine a muscle pass with a playing card . . . awkward and obvious
Gabbay's Coin Opener(2 stars)
Awkward (Again?) handling for a coin production with a lot of "nothing" happening . . . not good for an opener and relatively angly.
Regarding the essays . . . well . . . they've got some ok tips, but nothing that most people haven't heard already.
Gabbay has some decent ideas, but between the many awkward moves, the hard to see images and the less than practical effects, it's hard to give this one too high of a rating.
Final Verdict:
2.5 Stars with a Stone Status of grubble (if it weren't for Clown Purse and Fair & Square, this would likely have been rated as rubble).
(Top ▲)
For starters, the writing is difficult to read. Not just because of the typos, but because of the odd ‘jokes’ and sentence structure. Take the third sentence in the booklet, “The TacsMan” (name of the effect) is a fun little ditty.” Then later he says, “By blending methods, it seems to create a greater degree of fooling.” This kind of writing takes away from the clarity of these effects, and makes this a difficult read. This kind of language is fine when hanging out with friends, but as the written word, it just doesn’t flow.
The black and white photos are difficult to see at times, and look cheap, and the essays at the end are kind of a disappointment. The good ideas aren’t his, and his ideas aren’t good. There’s a lot of unhealthy advice, and many working pros will see that some of it is just plain wrong. The essays are also where I saw the majority of the typos.
That said, the effects have some interesting ideas and are very visual and clean. “Purse Time” is a nice ‘card to ring box’ type effect that looks very deceptive. “The TacsMan” is a coins thru Tic Tac box effect is very visual and seems very practical for the average table hopper.
“Sweet” is a great effect where a signed coin appears inside a sugar pack. Best part, the spectator removes the coin after you rip it open! This is a great effect, and worth the price of the book. I reviewed a signed coin to sugar packet effect on DVD a few years ago, but this version achieves the same effect and is impromptu with ZERO preparation! If you are a restaurant worker this is gold! Worth the $20 for sure.
This product is half good, half bad. Two and a Half stars is the most I can give the product as a whole.