Switchcraft by Greg Wilson and Karl Hein . This looks really good. Love anything Greg puts out. I went ahead and ordered this today. Should have it by Friday. http://www.penguinmagic.com/p/5509#

Got this some time ago. It's good stuff.

Wish they would elaborate on the other effects on the DVD but I'm guessing they won't because people could just rip them off.

Just got this the other day. Mixed feelings-

The reason they don't elaborate on the other effects is because they aren't that strong, in my opinion.

The crown jewel of the set is X-Con(shown in the demo), and it's sister effect No-Win Situation(offered for free from Karl's lecture if you subscribe to Reel Magic). These two effects, while awesome, are just slightly different.

ALSO INCLUDED:

Controlled Fate:
Somewhat confusing equivoque based routine. Great ending, but the payoff is weakened by all the stuff that comes before it.

Serial Liar:
Gimmick is used to force a specific bill. There are better ways to divine a serial number, in my opinion.

One-Cheek Sneak:
Bill disappears from the rest, ends up on the magician's chair. Disappears again, ends up under the spec. Not awful, but not great either. Underwhelming.

Paid Under the Table:
Bills of multiple denominations are displayed. Spec is asked to note the location of the one-dollar bill. Bills placed under the table, spec successfully locates the one. Spec is asked to try again, only this time, bills are mixed and performer says spec can keep the bill he chooses from under the table(out of a seemingly fair selection of bills from $1-&100). Spec always ends up with the $1 bill. Meh.

So... to me, your paying for X-Con, an envelope-less bank night. Really cool, and I'm glad I got it. But the rest seems tacked on to complete the set and justify the price. Would have been perfect as a RickLaxian-style single effect instant download from Penguin.

Using the EZ Money gimmick for these kinds of effects is a fantastic idea, and I wish more time was spent exploring it, as I feel this just scratches the surface.

I got this a while back.
I like the concept.
I agree that X-Con is the main trick.
It's an interesting fresh look at the bill change.

Hey Rick- any chance you can work your magic(P.T.P.) with this? Love to see what you come up with, sir.

Hmm, I loved this. One Cheek Sneak is fantastic and straight kills, X Con is also great and Controlled Fate as well. Thought it was a fantastic purchase and though not all six are perfect it didn't feel like any filler to me. Very happy with mine.

Glad everyone is enjoying SwitchCraft. Too be honest, I wasn't a fan of One Cheek Sneak and argued not to include it on the project after Greg told me about the idea. But then I saw Greg do it multiple times and I really changed my way of thinking. I've never seen Greg get anything but incredible responses with One Cheek Sneak. I think it's the best effect on SwitchCraft in terms of the reactions it gets.

Greg and I do use X-Con and Win/Lose Situation the most and I agree with Calvin826 that it is probably the most practical and easiest effect on SwitchCraft.

I have a feeling that some mentalist/magicians are going to take the Serial Number applications of SwitchCraft and improve the routining and handling to better fit them. I think there is a lot of potential for Serial Liar and we wanted to get people thinking about the possibilities.

In my opinion, the best effect that we were going to release didn't make it unto the DVD because of a crediting issue and we wanted to respect the rights of the creator who is a friend of mine and whose currently marketed product inspired my version using the Patrick Page Easy Money Gimmick. I'm sure some of those who buy SwitchCraft and explore all the ideas will stumble upon the same idea and think it's theirs. I'll give you two hints. 1) The routine is similar in the structure and the ending of Controlled Fate. 2) Just as X-Con is a version of "Bank Night" without envelopes, this is a version of another effect that was popular a few years ago without the extra prop and just the bills. By taking this routine off the project we were able to fit everything onto one DVD and reduce the price. Hopefully we will be able to release it in the future as a download. I mention it to get you thinking about other ideas. If you think you know what I'm talking about message me and I'll let you know if you're on the right track. Who knows, maybe someone will come up with some other really good idea we didn't think about.

Have fun playing with the new concepts on SwitchCraft guys.

Sincerely,
Karl Hein

Also want to give a public apology to Elliot Bresler who released a booklet years ago also titled SWITCHCRAFT. Greg and I have already apologized to Elliot who contacted us a while ago about the name mixup. We brainstormed names and thought it was the perfect name for our project (still do) and skipped the step to google the name even though neither of us had heard of Elliot's work since we aren't mentalists. Turns out it's also the perfect name for his booklet on billet switches which you should check out if the topic interests you. So, just want to apologize for any confusion between two separate products with the same name.

Kicking myself for missing this in the past. All f Greg's stuff rocks.

Looks like I finally have something within my grasp from my local friend Karl.

Karl, send me one! I'll meet you at the Chinese 24 hour place.

Hey, are you guys related to one Mr. Bressler?

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