Monday, May 14, 2012
Blackmail by Bobby Motta From Ellusionist
http://www.ellusionist.com/blackmail-by-bobby-motta-and-peter-mckinnon.html
To me the biggest downside is that they give you six gimmicks and only five pieces of cardstock. They say the 6th gimmick is for practice and to use the matte side of the cardstock because it takes the writing better. But the problem is you can not erase the writing on the matte side. You can kind of erase it from the gloss side but it's still faintly there. I solved that by buying poster board and gluing two sheets together then cutting it into the right sized pieces. They say one gimmick will last 20 performances if you're not trying to conserve it. I believe that to be true from my playing around with it. But it only came the five pieces of cardstock not even enough to get a good practice going.
The up is it does what is said it would and does it well.
The DVD itself was good, about 45 minutes long, strait forward, nothing fancy, and ended with performance clips. They go over just about everything you could need to know to get started. And it offered some good routines, one of which is a stage routine from Bobby Motta.
It is very much a utility gimmick and not a trick and the more you know about mentalism going in the better. But I don't feel that you have to know a lot to use Blackmail but the more you know about it the better. You could buy it and just do the effects on the DVD, but it is a mentalism gimmick for use with mentalism effects. So the more you know the more use for it you have. Although as an out it packs much flatter than an invisible deck.
Update: I've been doing the lottery routine from the DVD and basically just playing around with the gimmick and so far it has only failed once and that was after it was damage in my pocket and I decided to keep using it just because it was my practice one and the damage was only at the top inch of the gimmick and I figured I keep away from that part. But other than that I'm loving it.
If you found this review to helpful or you thought it sucked let me know in the comments section.
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I liked the review... and it's the only one around!
ReplyDeleteI was wondering if it's possible to make your own gimmick rather than buying a refill.
ReplyDeleteYes and no. Motta and McKinnon go on and on about the search for just the right everything needed to make it but they never get into specifics. For example the card stock, McKinnon starts to say what weight it is but stops himself. So to replace it without refills take ingenuity and testing. That said the gimmick is nothing new and goes back ages probably appears or Corinda or the Jinx for all I know. And is simple so you could totally make one but it would not be the exact same as theirs.
DeleteThat said making your own gimmick would have several advantages.