Houdini's Last Trick - Peter Eggink
$39.95
https://www.murphysmagic.com/product.aspx?id=67674

The Hype:
From your wallet you remove a picture of the Great "Houdini" - everyone is familiar with the fact that Harry Houdini was the world's greatest escapologist and still is a huge inspiration to every magician in the world.

You begin to tell the story that you've shot this "instant" picture from an actual picture of the iconic magician, during your visit at the "Houdini Museum": Analog pictures are known for their ability to capture energy and other spiritual phenomena.

You are introducing your spectator to "Houdini's famous card trick": You explain that Houdini would have a spectator think of any card and then magically revealed the chosen card in his breast pocket of his jacket.

Here is where the experiment starts... the spectator holds the picture in between her hands to "connect" with the master magician's energy (or the picture can be set aside so no one is able to touch it again).

Next, ask your spectator to memorize any card from the deck.

As if Houdini's spirit actually came through, your spectator feels a strange sensation...when you ask your spectator to open her hands and take a close look at the picture again, eerily and magically their chosen card has now appeared and is revealed inside Houdini's breast pocket in the photograph!

In the end the photo may be fully examined.Houdini's Last Trick comes complete with the ready to go gimmick, photograph and online instructions.

This is really a beautiful, brand new rendition of Peter's ingenious "Ghost-Tag" which was a blockbuster release 15 years ago.

"Houdini's Last Trick" opens up for a great patter and emotionally involves your spectators throughout the routine with an nostalgic, spiritual feel to it.

You will LOVE this.
Special engineered gimmick!
Self working!
EERY and MAGICAL card revelation!
Fits inside your phone case or wallet!
Always ready to go!

My Take:
When I was a kid, my favorite Saturday morning show was Mr. Wizard with Don Herbert. He would invite neighborhood kids into his garage (yeah, I know that would look very suspicious today) where he would perform science experiments with them. They were fun and you learned a lot about science. (If you do a search on Youtube for Mr. Wizard, there are hundreds of links including some full episodes.)

Watching the demo and instructional video for Houdini's Last Trick gave me a similar feeling. You can do some amazing things with science. I was so impressed that I looked up his site and watched all of his demo videos. Now I just have to work on my Christmas list. There is really some sensational magic that he has put out (and all available from your Murphy's dealer.)

Instruction is via a 19 minute video which, unfortunately, cannot be downloaded. It is however superbly shot and explains exactly what you need to know. You are given two cards, one gaffed and one not. The gaffed card can truly be set aside and not touched again by the magician. When it is turned over, the selected card has appeared in Houdini's breast pocket. The gaffed card can be thoroughly examined before the performance. There is nothing to see. Afterwards, the card can again be examined thoroughly (although a little easy monkey business is involved.)

I am extremely impressed with both the thinking and construction of this gimmick. This is not something that Peter came up with just playing around with cards. He uses a scientific principle and special materials to accomplish the result. I have to admit that when I opened the package, I was a little disappointed with what was in it. Then I watched the video and played with the gimmick. This is actually one of the coolest gimmicks that I have ever seen. The appearance of the card in the pocket is stunning.

There is an app available for your Smart Phone that shows an old photo with a group of guys. You have your spectator name a card and when the photo is looked at again, one of the guys is holding the selected card. In Peter's trick, you are limited to which card can be chosen (and he teaches you several methods to accomplish this.) On the computer app, you have to memorize the procedure and the method looks nowhere as clean as this. You also cannot let your spectator hold the phone. In Houdini's Last Trick, the spectator is encouraged to hold the photo. Definitely makes the effect stronger and more mystifying.

I had not seen the scientific method mentioned here before but it is really cool. And in watching the other videos of his available effects, it is clear that Peter is pretty much the modern equivalent of Mr. Wizard. His effects truly look impossible. Now, here's the best part, they are all easy to do. No knuckle busting. You can perform Houdini pretty much right after you watch the video once. All of his effects are eye candy and when you perform them, you will have just as much fun as your audience.

Reset is easy and the time can be effected by where you are performing. It cannot be repeated but it will have people talking and you will be begged for a repeat. But you know the magician's code.

Conclusion: I truly love the method and the gimmick. This is one that is going into my wallet to carry around. Highly recommended.

Seems like this would be one of those tricks that works one out of ten times. :/

I'm sorry to say, but the review of the initial poster is very misleading.
You have neatly hidden the "problem" with this trick (knowingly or unknowingly) in the sentence: "Reset is easy and the time can be effected by where you are performing."
If you were to say honestly how long the spectator(s) can hold the photo when the card is visible, then your review would have been good.
Indeed, it depends on WHERE you perform it, but you could at least have given an indication of the time in the best possible circumstances and in the worst circumstances.

Worst trick I’ve purchased in years. Went right into the trash. Didn’t even make it to the junk drawer. Old, unreliable tech. The image starts to fade almost immediately so you have to take the pic back from the spectator in five seconds or you’re in trouble. Out to lunch is a far better principle for this effect. This method is a giant step backwards.