Price$65.00
Media TypeTrick
CategoryMentalism
Date AddedJul 30, 2013
E-Rase
Julien Arlandis
(Based on 3 reviews)
You'll use E-RASE for close-up, parlor, or stage.
Effect:
In front of your spectators you draw with a marker different ESP symbols on your E-RASE tablet.
You then ask one of them to choose one or more of the symbols.
Once the choice is made, you erase the symbols that were not selected.
Hiding nothing and with no manipulation and in full light, you invite your spectator to erase the remaining symbols -- the very ones he chose.
He will find that this is impossible! The symbols cannot be erased!
How is this possible?
Invite him to rub his fingers on other side of the transparent tablet, thereby erasing the remaining symbols. It's MAGIC!!!!
One question -- How have the chosen symbols passed through the transparent tablet????
An impossible mystery, given that the tablet is entirely examinable.
The effect that you've just read is only one of the many easily performed with this tablet.
- You will bring this A4-formatted tablet everywhere.
- During the whole routine there are no forces.
- The routines are infinitely personalizable with cards, drawings, symbols, letters, numbers, etc.
- The principle used, as far as we know, has never been used in a magic trick.
- No manipulation, no chemicals, no special ink.
- Although it's difficult to believe, you write openly in front of your spectators and only their choice or choices go through the tablet.
- Delivered complete: specially made tablet, DVD, marker, eraser, and gimmick.
Reviews
(Top ▲)
This product is another one of those that really frustrates me as a reviewer - there are a lot of good points to it but some of the bad ones take away from it a little.
First of all when I got the box, there was nothing in it except the tablet and two gimmicks. I had to wait for the DVD to be shipped separately with the extra missing items and then, I only received the DVD instructions, an extra gimmick and the thing you put on the gimmick for this to work.
It is supposed to come with an erasing cloth and a marker - neither of which I got so I cannot consider them for the review.
For what I did get, the tablet itself is sturdy and will do the job, but there are some spots on mine that looked like dried superglue spots near the edges where the black border was attached. It took a lot of elbow grease and some acetone to get it off.
Maybe it was just my unit that was missing some of the items (and in fact the most important of them - the DVD), but except for that part, the ad copy is accurate. If you receive exactly what I did, there is no way to work out the method for this thing without the DVD.
The DVD itself had some great ideas on it and various ideas were given, but the quality of the DVD was terrible. The lighting was not bad but the English portion of the DVD was dubbed very poorly. While listening to the English speaker you still could hear the French being spoken by Julien in the background. The sound quality was all over the place and for the most part it was just enough to do the job. From section to section the volume level was way down low and then way up high. The video looks like it was shot in a living room with two posters of the E-Rase product on the wall. The French side of the disc was no better, except you did not have the horrible dubbing to put up with. The sound on the French side of the disc was unfiltered and horrible.
The menu is easy to use and is broken down into chapters. If it makes any difference, the menu on the English side was not in English, but there were no descriptive words for each chapter other than the titles "Chapter 1, Chapter 2, etc."
The DVD starts with Julien showing you what you receive in the box, he then teaches you the basic method, how to set up the gimmick and then moves into the various ideas. At the end he is joined by Mickael Chatelain and he shows you how to care for the tablet and clean it when it gets dirty. As an extra "bonus" they show you a bunch of screen shots of the types of drawings you can use with the tablet - seven of them to be exact and one did not even make sense.
There is a bonus section on the menu that should not have been labelled as such - it gives you the choice of watching the official E-Rase trailer in French or English. If you have bought the product, presumably then you have already seen one of the two trailers.
Another gripe I have with this is that on the tablet itself, there is a sticker on both sides of the border with the name of the product on it. I have no idea why you would do something like that because in this day and age, that is just giving away the method. It basically says, "Here is the name of this thing - go look it up and have fun with it when you get it." Though with a $65/USD price tag, I am not sure some would but that is another thing altogether.
That being said, the marker that is supposed to come with this is a dry erase, which is very easy to find in most stores these days that carry stationery or office supplies and they are cheap. Just about any non-abrasive cloth can be used to erase it as well, but as you will see in the instructions, the method requires it to be a cloth of some sort.
In my opinion there are some things you can (and should) do with your tablet and gimmick to make this better, including reducing the possible noise at one point. Start by steaming off the stickers on the thing and replacing it with something like a bulldog clip. Even leaving it blank with nothing at all is better than the E-Rase stickers. I have a bunch of eyeglass cleaning kits with the cleaning cloths in them that were never used because I have so many of them. I used those for the eraser and to help make the gimmick better.
I cannot even say whether $65/USD is a good price point because I did not get everything in my original box to begin with, and even when the missing items were shipped separately, I still did not get everything. If I paid that much money for a product and received what I did, I would be livid. If it had come complete, I would probably be upset and delighted all at once because the product has a ton of uses and there are limitless things you can do with it - it is a true utility - but the quality of the DVD and the supplied parts (again judging on the parts that I did eventually receive separately) were not great.
For what it is I was ready to give it 2-2.5 stars but if you watch the DVD and turn the sound off, you will still be able to learn how to do the main effect sufficiently. For that matter, once you learn the basic method you will be able to learn most (but not all) of the other ideas given with the sound turned off. This is not a strong enough effect to use by itself, nor as an opener or closer. I think this is better as part of a set or as something you use at the end of a middle set in a show.
Ignoring the terrible quality of the DVD and the fact that I did not get everything that was supposed to come with the product, I think this has a lot of uses and there is a lot you can do with it and I think some people will take this idea and run with it. For that, I give it 1 star.
*As of this writing on the 17th of January, 2015 I have taken the time to put this into performance since this review. Based on my experience with this prop in live performance situations, while the effects were generally well received, the now-glaring impracticalities (which were pointed out in the review, became obvious. This drastically reduces my initial star rating from 3 stars to 1.
**There is an inherent noise issue with the gimmick that was quite obvious even in louder venues. I had to modify the gimmick to work effectively, which was nothing like what was shown on the DVD.
For the record, since I did not get a marker with this initially, I substituted a brand of dry erase markers called Expo, which work very well on this plastic.
Again, once you supply yourself with all the necessary implements to perform the effects possible with this prop, it can be made to work, but whether it is practical for you is not for me to say. I found a particular set where this makes a good one - off bit of business, but it was just too restrictive to remain in the set.
First of all when I got the box, there was nothing in it except the tablet and two gimmicks. I had to wait for the DVD to be shipped separately with the extra missing items and then, I only received the DVD instructions, an extra gimmick and the thing you put on the gimmick for this to work.
It is supposed to come with an erasing cloth and a marker - neither of which I got so I cannot consider them for the review.
For what I did get, the tablet itself is sturdy and will do the job, but there are some spots on mine that looked like dried superglue spots near the edges where the black border was attached. It took a lot of elbow grease and some acetone to get it off.
Maybe it was just my unit that was missing some of the items (and in fact the most important of them - the DVD), but except for that part, the ad copy is accurate. If you receive exactly what I did, there is no way to work out the method for this thing without the DVD.
The DVD itself had some great ideas on it and various ideas were given, but the quality of the DVD was terrible. The lighting was not bad but the English portion of the DVD was dubbed very poorly. While listening to the English speaker you still could hear the French being spoken by Julien in the background. The sound quality was all over the place and for the most part it was just enough to do the job. From section to section the volume level was way down low and then way up high. The video looks like it was shot in a living room with two posters of the E-Rase product on the wall. The French side of the disc was no better, except you did not have the horrible dubbing to put up with. The sound on the French side of the disc was unfiltered and horrible.
The menu is easy to use and is broken down into chapters. If it makes any difference, the menu on the English side was not in English, but there were no descriptive words for each chapter other than the titles "Chapter 1, Chapter 2, etc."
The DVD starts with Julien showing you what you receive in the box, he then teaches you the basic method, how to set up the gimmick and then moves into the various ideas. At the end he is joined by Mickael Chatelain and he shows you how to care for the tablet and clean it when it gets dirty. As an extra "bonus" they show you a bunch of screen shots of the types of drawings you can use with the tablet - seven of them to be exact and one did not even make sense.
There is a bonus section on the menu that should not have been labelled as such - it gives you the choice of watching the official E-Rase trailer in French or English. If you have bought the product, presumably then you have already seen one of the two trailers.
Another gripe I have with this is that on the tablet itself, there is a sticker on both sides of the border with the name of the product on it. I have no idea why you would do something like that because in this day and age, that is just giving away the method. It basically says, "Here is the name of this thing - go look it up and have fun with it when you get it." Though with a $65/USD price tag, I am not sure some would but that is another thing altogether.
That being said, the marker that is supposed to come with this is a dry erase, which is very easy to find in most stores these days that carry stationery or office supplies and they are cheap. Just about any non-abrasive cloth can be used to erase it as well, but as you will see in the instructions, the method requires it to be a cloth of some sort.
In my opinion there are some things you can (and should) do with your tablet and gimmick to make this better, including reducing the possible noise at one point. Start by steaming off the stickers on the thing and replacing it with something like a bulldog clip. Even leaving it blank with nothing at all is better than the E-Rase stickers. I have a bunch of eyeglass cleaning kits with the cleaning cloths in them that were never used because I have so many of them. I used those for the eraser and to help make the gimmick better.
I cannot even say whether $65/USD is a good price point because I did not get everything in my original box to begin with, and even when the missing items were shipped separately, I still did not get everything. If I paid that much money for a product and received what I did, I would be livid. If it had come complete, I would probably be upset and delighted all at once because the product has a ton of uses and there are limitless things you can do with it - it is a true utility - but the quality of the DVD and the supplied parts (again judging on the parts that I did eventually receive separately) were not great.
For what it is I was ready to give it 2-2.5 stars but if you watch the DVD and turn the sound off, you will still be able to learn how to do the main effect sufficiently. For that matter, once you learn the basic method you will be able to learn most (but not all) of the other ideas given with the sound turned off. This is not a strong enough effect to use by itself, nor as an opener or closer. I think this is better as part of a set or as something you use at the end of a middle set in a show.
Ignoring the terrible quality of the DVD and the fact that I did not get everything that was supposed to come with the product, I think this has a lot of uses and there is a lot you can do with it and I think some people will take this idea and run with it. For that, I give it 1 star.
*As of this writing on the 17th of January, 2015 I have taken the time to put this into performance since this review. Based on my experience with this prop in live performance situations, while the effects were generally well received, the now-glaring impracticalities (which were pointed out in the review, became obvious. This drastically reduces my initial star rating from 3 stars to 1.
**There is an inherent noise issue with the gimmick that was quite obvious even in louder venues. I had to modify the gimmick to work effectively, which was nothing like what was shown on the DVD.
For the record, since I did not get a marker with this initially, I substituted a brand of dry erase markers called Expo, which work very well on this plastic.
Again, once you supply yourself with all the necessary implements to perform the effects possible with this prop, it can be made to work, but whether it is practical for you is not for me to say. I found a particular set where this makes a good one - off bit of business, but it was just too restrictive to remain in the set.
(Top ▲)
Random I-Tunes Song of The Moment: Bad Company by . . . well . . . duh . . . Bad Company
E-Rase by Julien Arlandis Reviewed
One transparent "white board," one marker, one gimmick, $65 bucks and a DVD. Is it gem or is it rubble? Stay tuned to find out.
Effect
The effects is supposed to be that you draw some shapes on one side of clear piece of plexi-glass. Then you magically cause the shapes to penetrate the plexi-glass and end up on the other side. You prove this by erasing any one (or more) of the shapes named by the spectator right before the magic happens. The fact that they erase "proves" that they are on the side you claim. But a magical gesture later, they can no longer be erased because they're now on the other side of the plastic. Confused?
Method
The method relies on a secret way of erasing the ink from one side of the board when you appear to be erasing it from another side of the board. The method is fishy and unreliable at best. Every demo I've found on the Internet cleverly leaves out a few seconds of footage. It's always the same few seconds . . . the seconds that are so blatantly obvious that you're doing something fishy that where it left in the trailer you'd likely decide not to buy this.
Also, there are parts of the handling where the gimmick is in view of the spectator. Additionally, at the end when the spectator is asked to try (using her finger) to wipe off the ink, it's not unreasonable for her to ask to use the cloth that you had just been using. But, alas, you cannot let her use that cloth because it has a gimmick in it. You could offer her another cloth, but this just adds more suspicion to the cloth. Even though any cloth will work, your refusal to let her use your cloth could lead her to believe that she knows the secret . . . that it's the cloth.
Further, the gimmick supplied is not the same as the one shown in the included DVD. We'll talk more about that in the Product Quality section. In fact, the rest of the problems with the method are all related to product quality, so we'll deal with that momentarily.
Ad Copy Integrity
The ad copy is hard to judge. Basically, in theory everything in the ad copy would be accurate if the product wasn't defective. The claims they make about no manipulation, no chemicals, etc. are all true, but the effect still doesn't work. The tablet is examinable, etc. but the trick still doesn't work. I think when we get to the product quality, things will become clear, so let's move on . . .
Product Quality
First we'll address the supplied DVD. It's French and English. The English version has the Julien Arlandis speaking in French with a translator speaking English. However, the voice-over translator guy can barely be heard on much of the DVD because the volume of Arlandis is overpowering the translator. Further, the translator has a pretty strong French accent from what I could tell. This makes it even harder to understand.
Without exaggerating, I can comfortably say that I understood about 10% of what was being said. It was extremely difficult to watch. Luckily the actions of Arlandis were, for the most part, clear enough to get the gist of what was happening.
Next, the ad copy claims that an eraser is included with the product. It was not. Further, the dry erase marker that came with the set is barely visible on the plexi-glass. The pen was nearly dried out, so I grabbed one of my dry erase markers from my white board. They, too, are barely visible on the plexi-glass, yet they work fine on my white board. Additionally, I could not erase the dry erase ink of my pens with the gimmick or a cloth. I was able to, eventually, scrub off the ink with some heavy elbow grease and a tissue. However, due to the nature of the effects that use this prop, having to scrub that hard does not work for performance. Add the fact that the gimmick wouldn't erase it and you have a useless prop.
On top of all this, the supplied gimmick is much, much, much smaller than the one shown in the DVD. This makes the secret part of the trick extremely difficult. Essentially, you have to be able to create the illusion that you're erasing the front of the board, when you're really erasing the back. However, the super small size of the gimmick makes this illusion totally transparent. Of course this all assumes that the spectator can see what you've written on the plexi-glass, but they can't. It also assumes that you can easily wipe off the ink from the plexi-glass, but you can't. It also assumes that the gimmick can actually erase the ink, but it can't.
Nowhere in the DVD was there any discussion of what kind of ink to use. I assumed that it must be dry erase ink, but as far as I could tell, that was never mentioned. Plus the ad copy did say "no special ink." However, let's assume that dry erase ink is not "special" ink. The next question is what kind of dry erase pen do you use? The one supplied didn't work. It was too light and barely visible. My Expo — the most popular dry erase brand — didn't work. I tried two different colors. They were barely visible and wouldn't erase easily.
Final Thoughts
Whenever I get a product that is this bad, I try to step back and see if I'm just being a jerk or am I truly being objective. Sometimes, I'll look at other reviews to see if other reviewers saw it the same way I did. In most cases, we're in agreement, so I read two reviews, but they were both about 3 stars. I have no idea how that's possible with the product. Often when another reviewer has a different opinion from me, after reading their review I can see how I may have missed this or that and how they made a good point here or there that I may need to reconsider.
However, in this case, I saw nothing of the sort. I cannot, in good conscience, recommend that you spend your hard earned cash on this. I don't do this often, but here it is folks:
Final Verdict:
Zero Stars with a Stone Status of Complete and Utter Rubble
(Top ▲)
Great trick,
It does what it says.
The only move you have to do is very subtle and easy to do.
It great for all settings whether close up or stage/
I would have given it 5 stars but I feel that the item could have been made better and the name of the trick should not be on it as it makes it look like a prop.
Highly recommend.
It does what it says.
The only move you have to do is very subtle and easy to do.
It great for all settings whether close up or stage/
I would have given it 5 stars but I feel that the item could have been made better and the name of the trick should not be on it as it makes it look like a prop.
Highly recommend.