Review of Holy Grail by Jordan Johnson

Effect:
A playing card is signed by the spectator. The card is then clearly shown to be the only card held by the magician as it is visually torn into 4 pieces. Throughout the entire tearing process, both sides of the card are shown multiple times and also showing that this is in fact the only card, and the only pieces of the card that are held in the hands. Without any switches or ditches the card is then reassembled one section at a time. With the restoration of each section it is clearly demonstrated that the pieces have in fact been securely restored. In the end you hand out the card for inspection. It is clearly the spectator’s signature, and you don’t even see any lines where the card was torn. It is totally restored to its original condition. The Holy Grail does require preparation & practice and is recommended for intermediate to advanced magicians.

Method:
The method is devilishly cleaver and well thought out. Jordan Johnson definitely did his homework on this one. Jordan did more than sufficient testing while developing this routine, and it clearly shows that he did not rush through a neat concept just to get it out on the market. He spent a lot of time testing different elements of how to best produce the desired effect. His time and thought behind the effect is evident when he gives his instructions. I would like to add a personal note that I thought it was admirable for Jordan to give credit to the magicians who came before him and inspired his creation of the Holy Grail.

Advanced Method:
Jordan took additional time to present not only a basic routine, but he also added a very well thought out advanced method and presentation. With the basic routine you watch the card get restored and then handed to the spectator to see that all the tear marks are even gone. In the advanced method, you can show the spectator the tear lines being restored individually. In other words, the card is put back together but you can still see where it had been torn. A magical stroke of your finger now removes the tear line from side to side, but the tear line from top to bottom is still clearly seen. Another magical stroke of your finger and the vertical tear line is now gone. No matter how closely the spectator examines the card, they will no longer see where the card was torn.

Performance:
In my opinion this is one of the strongest visual pieces of magic I have seen for a “Torn and Restored” card routine. It comes about as close to real magic as anyone could expect. The only weak spot I found was the clean up at the end. Since the Holy Grail is recommended for intermediate to advanced magicians, I was hoping for a better clean up at the end, maybe something a little more original. The clean up that Jordan suggests does not really have a good reason for the additional movements, however it is still effective and it gets the job done. Even with that said, I’m sure the professional magician will have no problems coming up with their own ending which would be much cleaner and more convincing.

Instructions:
Jordan did an excellent job in walking you step by step through the whole process. It was not rushed, and it was not overly drawn out with a lot of boring repeats of things he had already covered. His instructions were very concise and to the point while being completely thorough. It was exactly as long as it needed to be. Jordan even took the time to show special handling moves that add a lot of power to the presentation. These were subtle moves, but moves none the less that take the presentation to a higher level. I don’t really want to tip the hat as to what these were, but I will say that they were greatly appreciated.

Quality:
The DVD takes about 60 minutes to cover the performance and Explanation. It was nicely produced including a menu that allows you to jump between sections of the DVD. The graphics and video presentation were very modern using a split 4 panel view and some interesting special effect. My video machine had no problems reading the disk. There were no digital skips, jumps, or frame freezes. Overall the reproduction of the disks held to the high end of the industry standards. On a technical note, I would suggest that Blacks Magic works a little more with the audio during the instructional phase. It sounds like they used the cameras external microphone instead of using a direct feed from a wireless microphone. This added to a little additional room echo which has a tendency to cheapen the production quality, but it was not so bad as to distract from the message.

Additional Notes:
It appears as if Jordan’s effect may not be totally unique. In fact, someone else had a very similar effect that was at least shown in video form some two years earlier than Jordan’s version. However, James Clark and the team at Blacks magic did consult with this other magician and it was agreed that this was a case of Independent Creation and not a theft of an effect. James gives plenty of notification of this on the DVD, and also gives credit to the other magician who has performed a very similar effect. I say kudos to the Blacks Magic team for making this acknowledgement. I think this will go a long ways towards showing the credibility of James Clark, Jordan Johnson, and the entire Blacks Magic Team. I wish more companies would display this type of concern and diligence towards acknowledging the others within the industry.

Summary:
If your routines include card magic, especially “Torn and Restored” routines, the $24.95 you will spend on Holy Grail seems to be more than fair. They probably could charge even more. My only concern is that beginners will get this and start posting bad performances all over the internet. This effect should be sufficiently rehearsed before presented. Bad performances made public will only take a strong effect and cheapen it for everyone. I would suggest that Blacks Magic make a secret forum area for the people who purchase this effect. Owners could then privately discuss alternate handlings, post private videos for review, and receive suggestions from Jordan Johnson or others on how to improve their performance before the show it publicly. If this method and technique are closely guarded then this could easily be one of the classics for years to come.

You can see a video demo and/or purchase the Holy Grail by visiting Blacks Magic Group.

Until we appear again,
Kipp Sherry

Glad you liked it Kipp thanks for the review

Forum up today at http://www.blacksmagicgroup.com/forum for customers who own Holy Grail. Also, Jordan created a new handling that allows you to hand the card directly out without going back to the deck. It's pretty sweet. That video will be posted in the forums section, that is password protected.

JC

Jordan states the video of the handling will be up in about a week.

This is the best torn and restored card on the market. BAR NONE. Thanks!

Well!!! Some of us have been waiting long for this! Thanks for the review Kipp! I'm at work right now and cannot look at video demos, so I prefer to wait until this evening when I get home to have a look at the effect.

I've been performing T&R by Daniel Garcia for some time now and never changed this routine for others (like Unripped by Gared Crawford for example - which method is probably, in my opinion, one of the closest to the Copperfield T&R Baseball Card), because DG's routine is so much practical and nearly impromptu (ok, it does take a few minute preparation...).

How practical is this method? Comparison to DG if possible (difficulty and preparation)?

Thanks for your help!

Goldeneye, I'm getting it soon and can compare the two.

Thank you tian_ci! That's nice of you! Cheers!

Any news anybody? I heard that the setup was a bit tricky...

Not really tricky, but it does take some prep time.

Until we appear again,
Kipp Sherry

I just saw the video... Well, to be honest I'm a little disappointed... I don't know haw it works, but when DG's Torn really "looks" magical, Holy Grail gives the impression of the peformer just sticking all the bits together. Ok it's clean and ok you can have a "full" restoration. But it doesn't "look" magical to me.

This is NOT criticism, just my point of view.

Then use the little subtleties that Daniel Garcia uses when you do Holy Grail. Lol I'm assuming his lack of hand movements aren't imperative to the effect; just add your own flair and personality.

I just watched the trailer. Did anyone else get the impression that it looks like the card is really being restored? It looked so clean.

I agree...just seeing the ends touch and fuse together piece by piece, and knowing this can be done surrounded, it just looks sooo impossible, yet effortless.

I have watched the DVD, including the performance and the explanation. Effortless performance requires TONS of effort in preparation...

A good try to continue the search of the Holy Grail in Torn & Restored Card plot, but it is not the Holy Grail in my opinion.

Peace.

I have this and agree that there is a lot of preperation involved, however why is that an issue? I do a lot of preperation for a lot of my effects, heck I have one effect that last 20 seconds and the preperation is a pain.

In my stage show I have over 2 hours of prep time and my show is only 45 minutes.

I guess what I am saying is why is that an issue if the effect is solid and truly a winner. I think the Holy Grail is as clean as it will get, yes there is preperation involved, but that doesn't take away from the reactions and the effect.

Just my two cents as I have noticed a lot of people on the Café complain about prepertation for effects and I just don't understand it.

sickmagic!

Thank you sickmagic, finally someone with an view like mine! I actually had a long talk with some friends about preperation for an effect becuase I was reading penguin forums and saw that with Holy Grail and VDP people were saying that it wasnt good because of preperation. Now I don't know if a lot of them are kids or what, but every magician has to prepare for effects and I was just so shocked to read that for effects where they were amazed and fooled by the demo that when they found out it required prep work and that one card was used per performance then they completely changed their views and didn't like the effect. Which if a magician was amazed by an effect then IMO prep work is worth it because the spectators will react even more.

You know Jordan, while I agree with you about your thoughts on this subject I can understand why some people don't like preparation. It seems our world is a world of instant gratification, with that said, I personally don't mind preparation if the end result is as nice as the Holy Grail.

Like I said in my stage show I put a lot of prep time in it in fact that one effect I mentioned that is a 20 second effect takes me 15 minutes to prepare each show. No one complains about preparing Gene Andersons torn and restored newspaper, I really don't see much difference in this and that. The effect is well worth the preparation!

Sickmagic!

I'm curious just how practical this is in person. I own Ripped & Restored, and while it looks great on video, there are problems when peforming in person- thickness becomes a big issue when performing under someone's nose. I'm not fishing for any methods here. I just want to know if these types of problems exist and just how truly practical this is to do close up. Thanks.

I'm not concerned about preparation (yes I also have noticed that some people are not pleased with having a lot of preparation), but I'm concerned about how magical an effect looks like. And I repeat it, for me it doesn't look magical... And it's not a question of subtelties or personality.

Again, I still do not know anything about the methodology but there really is too much going on... And bryanlonden, it's not a question of lack of hand movement: on the contrary, there are too many moves: the performer is WAY too concentrated on the restoration and on how to do it... You're nearly frightened he might not do it... And I'm sorry, but it really looks like he's sticking the bits together. I hope you won't consider this as exposure, because it's really what it looks like to me and, besides, I don't know how it's done. I showed it to my girlfriend who asked me : "When does he apply the glue on the card?" And she really doesn't know much about magic...

If the audience has the slightest idea of how it MIGHT be done, then for me it's over, even if it's not how it's done. And this is true for ANY effect in magic. Magic is about (among other things) amazement. There should be NO explanation possible, and please do not mention the "too perfect theory", it's not the problem here. Maybe the video does not do the effect justice. Then I would suggest to shoot another video with a proper handling that does not look like a 4 year-old kid is glueing his torn card back... without glue...

Do not take anything harsh, I do not intend to be mean, it's just my opinion. The method is probably very clever, but for me it's not finished. Anyway, it's always good to have new things in magic, it enables the magic world to evolve and creativity to flow.

So then, we can assume the final cleanup did not fool her in the least? (The purpose of that clean up is to get the idea of "glue" out of their head!)

If they really believe they are holding the original signed card that you tore up, then examining it should kill any idea that you glued it!