EASY TO EXECUTE CARD TRICKERY 4
J. JACK
Impromptu Obervation Test with Aces - Two red aces transform into two black aces. Stunningly, the red aces then appear out of nowhere.
Random Thot Expanded - The spectator cuts off about half of the deck. He deals as many cards as he wants from the cut-off portion into a pile. He looks at the last card dealt, places the card back on the pile face down, and places the rest of the cut-off portion on top of the pile. While this is being done, the card expert turns away. After the spectator is finished, the card expert gives the pile several shuffles. When the card expert picks up the pile, he has no idea of where the noted card is. The noted card is then discovered in short order.
B + D Revisited - The back of two cards are signed (each card with a different word). One card is placed in the card box. The other card is shuffled into the deck. The faces of the cards changes places. The backs of the two cards attach to the transposed faces.
Prediction and Change City - The card pro takes out three cards. Two cards are selected. One selection is shown to be the mate of the three cards taken out of the deck. The other selection is found at a surprising place. Two alternate endings are included.
No Turn Away Overtime - A selection is placed on top of the deck. Attempting to push the card into the deck, the cardician pushes down on the deck. The top card is turned over. It's not the selection. The spectator is asked how many cards do they think were turned over. Inexplicably, the top half of the deck is shown to be face-up. The selection is soon seen to be the only card reversed in the middle of the deck.
In this version, you don't have to turn away from the audience.
From Here to Nowhere - A quick location of four selections
MONEY BACK GUARANTEE
Reviews
(Top ▲)
Overview
Six effects, eight dollars, one money back guarantee, and one J.Jack Production. Is it gem or is is rubble? Stay tuned.Effect
You get six effects, each of which is a "reworking" of someone else's effect, namely Nick Trost, Karl Fulves, Kyle MacNeill, Aldo Columbini, David Acer and Peter Duffie. Read the ad copy for the effect descriptions. They do a decent job of explaining the effects.Method
Generally speaking, the methods aren't terrible. However, in a few cases some are overly elaborate. For example, take Random Thot Expanded. The effect description says that the cards are shuffled after the spectator does the procedure. In reality, you don't quite shuffle, but rather you do more procedural "stuff." Very deliberate "shuffling" of the cards that clearly communicate to the audience, "If I don't do it this exact specific way, the trick won't work." The effect is that the spectator notes a card at (for example) the seventh position from the top. Then after your contrived and obviously procedural handling, the spectator's card is found to be . . . wait for it . . . seventh from the top. To me that's a weak method because the effect points to the method . . . obvious card control through procedure.In most cases, the variation is not as good as the original and causes some issues that the original doesn't have. But there were cases where the variation was a slight improvement. But even in those cases, they are just minor handling changes. It's the equivalent of saying "I've improved on the method because I do a double undercut instead of a pass." To me, that type of thing is not worthy of publication.
One exception to that, however, is Joker Jack's handling of Kyle MacNeill's effect B + D Revisited. I think Jack's handling is a vast improvement on the effect, handling and method. Another exception: I did like a couple of the modifications Jack made to Nick Trost's effect, Observation Test With Aces. Jack's is impromptu and I like the ending better. However, one of the main magical moments that occurs is better with the Trost method; but if I had to pick one of the two versions to do, I'd do Jack's.
In Prediction and Change City, an alternate ending is given called Prediction And Catch City which should have been the only ending given. The ending in the main write up and the other alternates are very weak compared to this clean ending.
Jack's take on David Acer's Overtime is touted as being better because in Acer's version, you have to turn your back to the audience. I'm not sure why that's a problem, especially when you consider that other effects in the book require the magician to turn around. In the original routine by Acer, the turn around allows you to quickly get the deck ready. While Jack's version gets you ready in front of the audience without turning around, it's much more awkward and not as clean. Further, the final reveal is more convoluted, and not as clean and smooth as Acer's
Generally speaking, the methods are a bit procedural and sometimes contrived. But there are some exceptions to that rule as pointed out above.
Product Quality
From Here to Nowhere is a very convoluted method and not as "quick" as the ad copy claims. Other than that, I'd say the ad copy is fair and honest, though biased. No blatant lies are told, just some hyperbole in a few wording choices. When all is said and done, the ad copy is legitimate.
Product Quality
There were a lot of quality issues. First, the images were difficult to see. It looks like some sort of fading technique was used on them making them almost impossible to see when printed, and very difficult to see when viewed on a screen. The writing style was very confusing. For example, read the following paragraph taken right out of the book, and then post a comment telling me how long it took you before you understood what he meant.
This is the very first paragraph of From Here to Nowhere:
Have four cards selected. Control the first selection second from the top of the deck with a Jog Shuffle. Control the next selection second from the top of the deck (above the top two cards) with a Jog Shuffle. Control the other two selections to the top of the deck (above the top four cards) with Hindu Shuffles.
It took me nearly ten times reading it before I finally figured out what he was saying. A large chunk of this book is poorly written in the sense that it's very confusing. Also, in many cases, he'll say, "do such and such move as described in the notes section of this effect." So because of that, you have to go to the notes section, read the method, then go back to the description of the effect and continue on. The problem is that the paragraph in the notes section seems to be as if it were cut right out of the description and pasted at the end of the section. In other words, the wording flowed much better if that paragraph were left in place instead of being dumped at the end of the section. Further, the paragraph in the notes often doesn't have a clear "end." After reading the paragraph from the notes, I continued reading in the notes only to realize that I shouldn't have read that next paragraph, but should've gone back to the main description. Are you confused? I was.
Every single effect has a section or a paragraph or something that was confusing and not clearly written. In some cases, the description of the move is not complete or not as clear as it should be, particularly if you're not familiar with a jog shuffle. I am familiar with it, but still was confused at its usage in B + D Revisited. I finally figured it out after playing with the cards. For more confusion, here's another excerpt. This one comes from an afterthought on Random Thot Expanded. You'll likely be confused due to the lack of context. However, ignore that, and focus on its bizarre and unanswered question about the number nine.
If you count the cards while doing the Milk Build Shuffle, you can figure out how many cards the noted card will be from the top or bottom. If the spectator deals 18 cards and you count 26 cards while doing the Milk Build Shuffle, the noted card will be ninth from the bottom and eighteenth from the top after the Over-Under Shuffle. You could flip the bottom half face up, do the Riffle Shuffle, and have the spectator deal to the ninth face-up card or use the cards set aside and have the spectator deal to the eighteenth face-down card. But the question is this: How is the number nine related to the trick? It's probably best to include the cards set aside when the Riffle Shuffle if the number of cards dealt by the spectator is not low.
I've re-read that paragraph a dozen times and am just as clueless now as I was the first time. Another thing that adds to the negativity of the reading experience is the back and forth nature of having to go back to previous effects to look at an illustration. That coupled with the back and forth-ness of the notes section in many of the effects made for an unpleasant reading experience.
In another effect, where a spectator has the choice to randomly think of any number they like, he suggests that in order to have them select a number is to use a convoluted method of writing down digits and crossing one off and adding the remaining digits. Since they have a free choice, why not just have them name a number? The procedure makes it confusing, meaningless, and seem as though you are controlling the outcome.
He also refers to using a presentational idea in another book of his. He basically says that if you use the presentation from my other book, this trick is better. However, he doesn't give us any details about what that presentation might be, so you end up having to buy that other book.
Ad Copy Integrity
From Here to Nowhere is a very convoluted method and not as "quick" as the ad copy claims. Other than that, I'd say the ad copy is fair and honest, though biased. No blatant lies are told, just some hyperbole in a few wording choices. When all is said and done, the ad copy is legitimate.Final Thoughts
For the most part, this is just slight modifications of old effects . . . too slight of a modification to warrant a separate publication. However, this book is only $8. Maybe that's an ok price to pay for someone else's thoughts on existing effects, and it comes with a money back guarantee. Though there are a few decent points in the book, you may be better off keeping your eight dollars instead of getting it back after you read it.
Final Verdict:
2 Stars with a Stone Status of grubble (very little gem buried under a mountain of rubble).