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magicduro Special user Las Vegas 529 Posts |
It's an ok effect but I am not impressed. Overall the experience has been disappointing. I will not be renewing my subscription.
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bugjack Inner circle New York, New York 1624 Posts |
I cancelled mine a couple of months ago. Rather than feel a bit of excitement each month I wound up indifferent or, sometimes, disappointed. Going into Real Secrets and based on their list of contributors I expected more variety in the effects. Instead, there's a very specific house style -- as someone here on the Café called it, a "Max Maven/Martin Gardner" style. (Which is not to slight either, because they're both amazing.) I began to feel that the whole secrecy thing was more an excuse for RS not to be more explicit in their marketing about what their style was because, frankly, there's a more limited audience for the kind of effects they're marketing than other types of material.
Also, for all the talk of "secrets," as many have posted, the secrets in many of these effects are not really new. The first effect I got from them was a routine very similar, down to the method, to a marketed effect I own. And I prefer the marketed effect version. Another effect I thought was cool... and then, when paging through "Art of Astonishment," found the exact same effect. Sure, the RS version uses entirely different props and makes an aspect of the routine a lot easier... but it wasn't like I was confronted with the shock of the new. More to the point, though, there's an aspect of what RS is doing that is very cool but ultimately quite difficult to pull off. And I'm not sure they're pulling it off. I'm speaking of gimmicking items that are supposed to be real-world items. I'll abide by their terms of service here by referring to the effect that was released to the public in Genii magazine. It uses fake receipts, and it is a very clever effect -- one of their best, I think. Problem is, the receipts are all from New York. So, if you're doing stuff for friends and family -- which is, really, what the RS effects are best suited for -- you have to sell that you'd be carrying around receipts from New York City. For some people, that's not a problem, but for many, it probably would be. And if you live in New York, as I do, a closer look at the addresses and stores will lead some people to doubt their authenticity. My broader point here is that it is very difficult to convincingly gaff printed objects that are supposed to real world. The more you try to make something look pedestrian, the more a tiny detail can throw a spectator off. Now, to take the opposing side, for most of the RS effects, this inauthenticity is not a big problem. I found that many of the effects had a kind of "wink wink" quality to them. They demand a kind of playfulness on the part of the performer, so it really doesn't matter whether the audience thinks a prop is "real" or not. The receipts trick -- even if you know the receipts are fake, it's still mystifying. The bigger problem I had with RS was that so many of the effects were procedure-based, and at a certain point I gave up hope that there would be more diversity in their offerings. |
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magicduro Special user Las Vegas 529 Posts |
My biggest qualm is that most of the effects are more tricks than magic! Overall, I am disappointed at the strength of the effects.
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BrainMagos Special user 554 Posts |
The tricks arent strong then? Wow...I thought all of them were killers...
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LobstaJohnson New user 48 Posts |
Ok, I did this one for my family and they were blown away; my biggest issue was coming up with some logical patter to go with it. I'm hanging in there awhile longer to see what happens. At $15/month it's still a great deal.
a
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<BR>credo che tutti gli uomini siano fratelli |
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Markymark Inner circle 1686 Posts |
Quite a few people say that it's only $12 or $15.00 a month but it adds up!
You have no choice but to sign up for 2 years and I was disappointed with almost everything so far which is 10 months of money down the drain!
''In memory of a once fluid man,crammed and distorted by the classical mess'' -Bruce Lee
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Dave V Inner circle Las Vegas, NV 4824 Posts |
Have they smoothed out the customer support issues? Their email support was fine, but the tendency to delete posts or delete supplemental material without warning, along with the mandatory "2 years, automatic update" feature was enough to turn me off.
Now it sounds like if I took the year's subscription and distilled it down to something I could use multiplied by the monthly cost, that if I got only one effect that would suit me, it would have cost well over $100 for the one effect. I'll stick with "a la carte" buying of stuff I "know" rather than take my chances.
No trees were killed in the making of this message, but a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.
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J-Mac Inner circle Ridley Park, PA 5338 Posts |
Quote:
On 2012-12-02 12:39, Markymark wrote: Huh? Where did the two years come from? It's only a one year subscription. If you are thinking about the auto-renewal aspect of the subscription, that just means that you must cancel it when you want it to stop. The Auto-renew thing is what seems to have ticked off so many, however many online subscriptions are set up the same way. E.g., my Dropbox subscription (a paid premium account) is just like this - They give me no notification whatsoever and they automatically dip into my PayPal account each year and take a year's payment. Same with Ancestry.com. Certainly not an uncommon practice! That said I doubt I will allow it to go past one year. Just not my kind of magic. Thanks! Jim |
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bugjack Inner circle New York, New York 1624 Posts |
I think what you're buying is the surprise of what lands in your mailbox each month. Let's look at it another way. How many of these effects would you buy individually at $15 if their effects were clearly described?
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Jamie Ferguson Inner circle Alba Gu Brà th 3640 Posts |
3
When the chips are down, the duvet is uncomfortable.
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J-Mac Inner circle Ridley Park, PA 5338 Posts |
Not even 3 here! I didn't purchase for the surprise; I purchased - or I think I purchased! - based on the names of the creators who were contributing to the project. And though some of the effects are probably very good for some, they are pretty much all of one particular ilk that unfortunately doesn’t fit in with anything else I perform.
Jim |
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takeachance Inner circle 3764 Posts |
How do you cancel, through paypal or do you have to go to Real Secrets
cheers for any advice |
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Jamie Ferguson Inner circle Alba Gu Brà th 3640 Posts |
Crikey! Are there going to be any subscribers left at this rate?
I'm staying in for the time being. I hear that the line up for year two is going to raise the bar substantially.
When the chips are down, the duvet is uncomfortable.
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Tom G Inner circle 2895 Posts |
I will most likely cancel before the renewal can be charged. Just not my style and for many of the reasons listed above.
As for raising the bar next year, I've heard nothing, but if they had wanted to keep subscribers maybe it should have been higher or had a little variety this year. |
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Jamie Ferguson Inner circle Alba Gu Brà th 3640 Posts |
If you cancel now you'll end up kicking yourself.
When the chips are down, the duvet is uncomfortable.
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bekralik Inner circle Canada 1349 Posts |
Jamie, where did you hear this from, and why haven't they told other subscribers what's in the pipeline? People need this information to make an informed decision.
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Tom G Inner circle 2895 Posts |
I have read that they are touting year 2, a while ago. But what business man says it will be more of the same,
or almost as good? It plain and simply wasn't my style. As for if Jamie actually knows something, that's up to him to answer. I do know a couple of people connected to RS, and they are really tight with any info. |
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bugjack Inner circle New York, New York 1624 Posts |
Clever strategy -- weed out the merely curious so that only the true believers get the real work. Or, to put it another way:
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Albert Einstein |
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Dave V Inner circle Las Vegas, NV 4824 Posts |
Quote:
On 2012-12-03 05:51, takeachance wrote: You can email RS customer service and they can handle it for you. Or, cancel your future PayPal subscription renewal and wait for them to dump you themselves. I emailed them and they took care of it the same day. It's up to you to check your PayPal to be sure you don't automatically pay again.
No trees were killed in the making of this message, but a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.
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BatsMagic Inner circle New York 1052 Posts |
Wow- Not much interest here, is there?
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