Inside Magic

Here’s the effect:

You hand your volunteer a clear piece of plastic — it looks like a lens about the size of a business card. You tell the volunteer that she now holds in her hands a “Reality Twister.” You then allow her to see a plastic pen as you place it in her palm. You hold the plastic card over the pen and your volunteer can see the pen through it clearly.

As you turn the plastic card clockwise, the middle of the pen appears to vanish. Your volunteer can look through the plastic lens and see that not only is the pen’s middle gone, but she can see her fingers through where the missing portion of the pen was once located. The lens is turned again and now the middle has returned but it is twisted. When you lift the lens, the volunteer is holding the pen in its twisted state. She can examine both the pen and the lens without fear of detection.

Inside Magic Review:

Start with the premise that this trick costs $15.00 list and $11.95 street price. For that price, it is a heck of a trick. I mean a really nifty trick. It is, though, in my opinion something more like a puzzle than a magic effect.

One of my major complaints is the quality of the pen. It looks cheap and unlike even the cheapest pen you could imagine stealing from a bank about to be taken over by the FDIC. It doesn’t look like a pen really, but like plastic shaped in the form of a pen. Have I told you that I don’t like the quality of pen? Well, I don’t.

The effect is strong and does work well with the people to whom I’ve shown it. No one has commented on the quality of the pen. The skills necessary to perform this are minimal and it is basically self-working.

I like the presentation provided and that you can leave the pen in the volunteer’s hand. This won’t be the type of trick you will cherish forever but it will also not be the type that stays in your desk drawer. It falls into the “what the heck” type of purchase. However, if it had a nicer pen, well then we’d be talking something different.

RATING: Two and a half out of Four.