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Devin Knight V.I.P. 2493 Posts |
Ed Bedrick sent me a free copy of his and Russ Desimone's new Tagz-Keys to Street Mentalism. He has asked me to be brutally honest in the review. I told him there were some things I didn't like about it and that my review would not be 100% favorable. Still, he asked me to post my thoughts good or bad. So here goes.
Tagz is a new mentalism effect involving the little loyalty tags that many supermarkets give you with bar codes on the back. When you buy groceries you get your tag scanned and you save money off your next purchase of gas. The guys have produced four very professional loyalty tags that look like the real thing. They are nicely made with real appearing bar codes on the back. Each tag has several forces and psychological forces built into and printed onto the tags. Some of the forces are good and some of the other forces are not so good in my opinion. For example, two of the tags have spelling forces on them. A spectator is asked to name a number from one to six, and depending on the number he gives you, you either count or spell T-W-O or F-I-V-E, etc. In other words, the old HOT ROD force. Now in my opinion, and many other professional mentalists, the six count force is one of the worse forces in magic (despite the popularity of Hot Rod). It is normal to ask for a number and count to it, but when you spell the number it looks so contrived and un-natural. I am not knocking Tagz, I am knocking any trick that relies on this force. I would never use this force. However, if you like the force and are a Hot Rod fan, you may like his Tagz with has six colored balloons from a party store on the front, a person selects one using the force and a single balloon on the back has the matching color. Your prediction. Now Hot Rod has some merit, despite the weak force, as you magically change the stones on the rod to match the selected color. At least the spectators are amazed by the change and in most cases, the weak force is forgotten. I can not say the same for Tagz. You turn over the tag and a matching balloon of the same color is seen PRINTED on the card. Now the spectators knows the tag was printed and that the matching blue balloon was already printed on the back. Astute spectators are going to realize that everyone must select the blue balloon. If you had written on a piece of paper, you will select the blue balloon, it would be much stronger. Showing the balloon printed on the back, in my opinion weakens the effect and at best makes it an interesting novelty. There are some good psychological forces built into the tags, but by doing so, I feel the effects LACK credibility. The old think of two simple symbols, one inside of each other is a great stand up routine, if the performer is trying to project an image he is drawing on a pad, or trying to draw the image the person is thinking of. I have used this many times to great effect. HOWEVER, printing the triangle inside the circle and putting it on a tag completely destroys an otherwise excellent force. When you show the symbols printed on a tag people realize that everyone thinks of the same thing. I have never been a big fan of the 1089 force, although I have used it at times. To me it is a contrived way to arrive at a random number, but I know many professionals use the 1089 at times and in certain cases it can be acceptable. However, for this to be good, the performer needs to apparently read minds and pick up the number or write it on a pad like it just came to him. Having the number PRINTED on the back of the tag makes the effect look too impossible. If the number is printed on the tag, then somehow you must have control how they derived the number (which is correct). On another tag they have the numbers 35 and 37 printed as part of the barcode. The same argument applies to this too. The bottom line, is that in my opinion when FORCE ITEMS are professional printed on a loyalty tag, then the spectators realize that they must be force items, otherwise how are they printed on the tags. Once they do that, they figure this is some trick you got from a magic shop which is correct. In my opinion, all these tag effects scream magic shop. All of these effects can be done without the tags just using a regular piece of paper for your prediction and would play much stronger and in some cases would pass as mentalism. Using the tags only destroys the mentalism effect and makes it appear as a magic shop novelty. Those with little experience in mentalism may find these tags a novelty to carry around, but I don't think any serious mentalist would use the tags for the same reasons I have mention. Again, on a positive note, the tags are nicely made and look like the real thing. Each barcode has a playing card name built into the barcode so if you force a card you can show the barcode and the name of the selected card is there. This could be a novel way to reveal a card, but then again, spectators have heard of forcing cards. Having the card printed on the barcode is only going to confirm that to most astute spectators. |
gphrenol Regular user 112 Posts |
It is difficult to come up with a good routine when new to magic. But some times the being creative and trying to be out of the box makes a person settle in to always being out of the box and creating astounding effects. Even creating good tags is an art that will help other ideas flow. A better 1089 force would be good. It does seem to scream out that something mathematical you do not understand is happening.
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Koolmagic114 Veteran user 319 Posts |
Hi gphrenol,
There are other reviews of our new effect as well. But they are posted in THE LOUNGE under "Latest and Greatest". Searching TAGZ will bring them up. One of our other reviewers was saying that he uses it in a routine as not a direct mindreading or mentalism thing.. But almost as a coincidence thing. He is using more than 1 tag on his key chain. Letting the spectator pick one of the tagz to use. Then doing the effect with that using one of it's forces. And then having/getting the coincidence of them having picked that tag..and the link to the "experiment" he is doing and then the revelation on the card. Eddy
Eddy
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Co-Creator of "TAGZ" / "Iced Over" / " TelePad" / "Penigma" www.magicianslair.com |
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