Title: Devil’s Mark
Artist: Alan Rorrison
Producers: SansMind
Link: Available At Your Favorite Murphy’s Magic Dealer
Demo Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3wYpwQ0aYg
Retail Price: $24.99 USD
Learning Difficulty: Easy
Length of DVD: 19 Min (Approx.)

A borrowed bill has a light shown on it, and the spectators selected playing card shows up on their bill as a water mark!

I’ve always said: “Give a magician the inner most secrets of the cosmos and he’ll find some way to reveal a card selection with it.” Enter Devil’s Mark by Alan Rorrison. On the surface, it’s another impossible card reveal with borrowed currency. Then SansMind tries to dress it up playing on the name and loosely trying to tie in themes of the devil being in the details, or that somehow money is evil or something like that. The devil tie in is half baked at best. This could have been a powerful bizarre effect teaching a lesson about money being the root of all evil, but SansMind shoots from the three-point line missing both the goal and the point. What they let you walk away with is nothing more than card reveal on bill.

What you get is an instructional DVD, and three specially made gimmicks. What you will need to supply for yourself is a wallet, and double stick tape. The gimmick construction, for SansMind, is amazingly simple. Apply some double stick tape to the gimmick, and you’re good to go. You will need to know how to do a finger palm, and how to load a finger palmed gimmick onto a selected bill, however this is very easy to do, and if you’ve ever played with Jim Pace’s “The Web” it’s very similar in execution. Once you’ve loaded the gimmick it’s all downhill from there. Force the card needed for the reveal on the gimmick, and then shine some light on the back side of the bill so the watermark shows up. However for the love of whatever god you hold holy please change the patter from the absolute drivel supplied to you by SansMind.

I spoke with the effect’s creator, Alan Rorrison, who had very little creative control with how the effect was ultimately represented by SansMind. In Alan’s version there’s strong symbolic tie ins with hidden messages, masonic imagery, illuminati control, and the reveal happens in the all-seeing eye on the back of a single dollar bill. Really neat, very powerful, story driven bizarre elements that will keep them shining lights on their bills for some time to come. Alan makes a strong connection between money and it being the root of all evil hence the name: The Devil’s Mark. Could it be that the real Devil’s mark here isn’t the one in Alan’s story, but the mark left behind on this illusion by the people who produced it? It’s well known that Alan has severed any working relationship with SansMind, could this just be one of the reasons why? I know artistic misrepresentation would be enough to **** me off. Perhaps the Devil really is in the details?

The effect in and of itself is brilliant. This could be some very powerful magic that is almost angle proof, and resets near instantly. Whether you’re storytelling, or going for a hard-hitting visual effect then this little gem is a worker. It packs small enough to fit inside your wallet, and is ready to go at a moment’s notice. All you need is a dollar bill, or other bank note. Works on any one, from any country, and if the spectator doesn’t have one you can always supply one yourself. Although admittedly the illusion hits harder if it’s a borrowed bill. Despite the crap can patter supplied by SansMind, this is a hell of a trick!

When I give my product scores below I am measuring them on a scale of 1 to 10. 1 Being absolute the worst score possible, and 10 being the absolute best, making a score of five average. The four points that I grade upon is Product Quality, Teaching Quality, Sound & Video Quality and Overall Quality.

Product Quality: 4
The price is a little bit much for what you get. The gimmicks cost probably five cents to produce, and the DVD a few dollars. They’re gouging you on this one. The magic though is strong.

Teaching Quality: 7
Easy to follow. Easy to learn. Easy to do.

Video & Sound Quality: 8
Good sound, and quality video.

Overall Quality: 7
The magic is strong on this, but please for the love of god create some stronger, more meaningful patter that can connect with your audience on a more emotional level than a simple card reveal. If you just want to reveal a selected card then do card to wallet. Save this for the people who can really play on an audiences wild imagination!


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