Contact – Rick Lax

Product description : Rick Lax is one of the most prolific magician those days, he releases a lot of products through Penguin Magic. Contact is the third and last episode of 3 tricks which involve ripping or tearing a single card, it’s also one of my first Rick Lax trick, so I don’t have any expectations. Contact is a trick in which you rip a card in half, you write your telephone number on one half, the spectator writes his number on the other one, you place their number in their hand and you clearly show you have yours. With a simple wave, your number turns into theirs and they now have YOUR number in their hands which is perfect for doing magic and picking up girls ! But is the trick good, is it worth your money ? Let’s find out !

Price and where to buy it : This is sold at $19.95 and you can find on Penguin Magic website !

What you get : You get a small ziplock bag with inside the artwork, it’s not a fancy packaging but it does the job, protecting the cards. Inside, you’ll find a small business card with the link to watch the explanations video online. One of the cool feature of the player they’re using is that you can very easily download this video and you don’t need (after the download) any internet connection. The video lasts around 20 minutes, it’s a very well produced one, no thrills or fancy editing but everything is well covered and Rick Lax is a great teacher. You’re also provided with 28 gimmicked cards, they’re printed by the USPCC so the quality of the card is fantastic, the same as the standard bicycle you’re using. I’ve seen similar gaffed cards but not exactly like Contact’s ones. So you get 28 cards and a well shot video for less than $20 ? This is a really really good deal !

Teaser : http://www.penguinmagic.com/p/8315

The pros and the cons : Here is the core of my review, let's begin with the cons, as I will usually be doing, I prefer to keep the good things for the end.

THE CONS :
– You will need to use 1 card per performance so the initial cost when you buy the trick is around 70 cents per performances. You can buy more cards if you want to on Penguin Magic, so the cost can be as low as 23 cents per performance which is a very good deal !
– The piece on which they wrote their number can’t be handed out but Rick explains in depth his psychology behind the trick and why this is not a problem.

THE PROS :
– It’s very easy to carry around, just stick a few of these in your deck and you’re ready for the night. Also, taking a card out of your deck reinforces the fact it’s a regular card.
– The back of the card is printed on Maiden design which looks a lot like the Rider back so there is no real problem here about matching your regular deck in use.
– It’s a very easy routine, Rick says it doesn’t use any sleight of hands and I must agree with him on that one ! This trick is perfect for beginner, as well as pros or amateurs since you can completely focus on your presentation.
– You can write down phone number but also signatures, drawings, anything you want ! This allows you to fit the trick the way you like in your routine.
– I really liked one part in the video which is called “Psychology” where Rick explains why he chose to put phone number instead of signatures or anything else and the reason behind that solves the problem that one of the piece can’t be handed out. It’s logical to keep it because of the way the routine is structured and I’ve never had any problem about people asking me to see that piece.
– When you think about it, 70 cents (or 23 if you buy refills which I think you will do after running out of the first 28 cards) for a very good routine is not that expensive and it leaves people with your number or your details which can be really strong for a corporate event ! (or to pick up girls, as you want !)
– They provide you with 3 to 4 different cards in the set so, for example, you get 9 eight of hearts, 9 10 of diamonds etc.. So you can do this several times the same night without having to use the same card every time !

Overall rating : This is my first Rick Lax release and I must say I’m very happy with it ! I find the routine to be strong, it connects with people, it’s easy to do, uses only one card, what do you want more ? I’m not sure whether this will stay in my repertoire but I can see a lot people using it, 3.5/4 hearts.

As for the difficulty level, there is not a single sleight of hand here, it’s not self working but really easy to do, I would say 1/5 stars.

Similar products : This was based on the French Kiss routine by Wayne Houchin but here, only card is used and I think there is less suspicion from the audience because of that.

I bought this when it first came out , a fabulous effect , Harry Nardi does a great demonstration on a Alakazam vlog from memory it was around November I'll have a look and try and put a link on

I found the video you were referring to wanderwizard. Here it is: https://youtu.be/JLI8fSRla5A

The method is pretty clear in that video. They probably could have covered it a bit better. However, I guess you'd still have to buy the gaff cards... unless you want to make your own which considering that the card is being torn almost immediately wouldn't be out of the question.

This is one of those the effects I always liked but it somehow fell thru the cracks a couple years ago and I forgot all about it. Well now Penguin emails me and tells me they've added another phase to it so I checked it out.

I think it's a very cool addition. For one thing, in the original you were left dirty. But after the this new phase you are left clean and are able to leave the half card with the spec in an "Anniversary Waltz" type of effect.
I think similar to the ending in Prohibition Monte if I recall that one correctly.

If you already own Contact the new addition is now included in your Penguin Magic Videos. If you missed Contact the first time around you may want to check it out.

https://www.penguinmagic.com/p/8315

While you're at it there are a couple other Rick Lax card effects that you may have missed before. These are each very easy to do, yet very strong effects IMO.
Check out Diamonds are Forever, Tornado, and Eraser.

If I purchase this, and learn the method, is it pretty easy to reconstruct a similar gimmick with a business card or index card, or another similar object? I am not too fond of using a playing card for this type of effect, it screams "gimmicky".

For the next week you can get Contact for free if you order over $150 from Penguin.

One of the Penguin Monthly magazines is completely dedicated to the Contact gimmick... it describes all kind of routines you can do with it. AND it actually includes one of the gimmicks. Excellent! I believe is the August 2021 issue - I just received it. Recommended.

Yes, I have a set of my business cards made up for this.