You could I suppose but why make a connection bewteen the bill and the lemon. if you take the bill and do somthing with it and later the lemon is gotten from a totally different place then the bill would n't that be more wonderous

You could introduce the lemon before borrowing the bill and you could leave it out but you will eventually have to take it out of the specs site. It is at this time you are loading the bill and putting it where you want to do your reveal. ie, Cody Fisher uses nested boxes.

Hope this helps.

Marc

PS. This is an awesome gimmick and I think you could incorporate it into your show. In my opinion its worth modifying your show to use it. Although if you have a way to load a lemon now and it works, you may not need this.

Well Marc...your post gave me an idea. Ill probably start out the same and walk out with the lemon as if it is a bomb and a few times through the show ill point it out but ill make the lemon dissapear from the stand when nobody is looking. Ill borrow the bill, get it signed, burn it, and ill get mad at the spectator for not keeping track of the lemon which will cause everyone to realize the lemon isn't on the stand anymore. Maybe ill use a nest of boxes to reveal the lemon and inside the lemon will be the bill.

BBMagic,

Exactly! That sounds awesome!

Marc

Although Cody's method is one I abandoned a while ago for its obvious disadvantages.... I appreciate it's merits.... but still, I think that the Final Answer is the Final Answer....however "mad props" to Cody for making a buck on this idea. He seems like a very ingenious young man.

s

I'm not seeing the "obvious disadvantages" there is that 100 bucks cheaper part. oh wait...

Ok...perhaps you could ask for $100 less for your next engagement. You may be worth it.

Someone has a lemon up their final answer

Perhaps you have a lemon "up yours"...Ha!

No sleight to Cody but we all have certain favories that don't rely on major "prep time"

bless,

S

Scott,

Thanks for joining the "Bet Your Bucks" thread to plug TFA...

No major prep time required for my routine. There is a "one time" set up that should take about 10 minutes...then you never need to do it again. However on a day to day basis the prep time for shows is only 2 minutes or so...don't really consider that 'major prep time'.

I am sure you meant nothing personal...but saying that my routine has "obvious disadvantages" was a little mean and certainly uncalled for. Every routine (even TFA) has advantages and disadvantages. To simply make that 'blanket statement' as if it were a 'fact' is just not very professional. I would certainly not disrespect you in an open forum my friend...

I honestly feel that BOTH of our products (and The Lemon Game) are superior to other methods on the market.

Sincerely,
Cody S. Fisher

I try to refrain from making any seemingly negative comments or responses on these threads I felt compelled to respond to the posts recently made by Mr. Alexander on this thread and some other threads. I highly respect Mr. Alexander. I have all of his wonderful marketed items (except for his slashed which I hope to get in the near future), including TFA, and his excellent DVDs. But in all honesty I was a bit surprised by his negative comments and uncalled for trashing of Mr. Fisher's "Bet Your Bucks, which I have also and is excellent as well. Mr. Alexander has always respected other performers' ideas and products and always posted positive, respectful comments here on the Café. I just thought Mr. Alexander's comments here as well in a couple of other threads were not in character.

Best wishes,

Michael

Let me chime in as a retailer of both these products:

I certainly have respect for both performers and their inventions, and I also wholeheartedly believe that there is room enough for both methods in the magic community, however, I am puzzled as to why Mr. Alexander has given Cody and his product a "backhanded compliment." To my knowledge, Mr. Alexander has not purchased Bet Your Bucks from either Hocus Pocus or Cody Fisher, the only two sources for this product. I do not know how informed he is without having the product in hand, which has been a problem on this board for quite a while.

Perhaps he feels threatened that there is another take on this classic effect. I don't see how since both products are completely different in method AND in presentation. Once again, Hocus Pocus sells and supports both products however, unfortunately, Mr. Alexander's product has been unavailable for months due to manufacturer complications.

I want to be clear that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, however, with all due respect, I do not believe that Mr. Alexander's opinion is as informed as it could be in this particular situation. It is unfortunate that he has chosen to post a less than respectful comment about Cody and his product since both gentleman are professional performers and above this sort of retort.

Again, wishing no ill-will or disrespect towards Mr. Alexander, Hocus Pocus will continue to support both Bet Your Bucks and the Final Answer. The choice comes down to you as a performer what best suits your needs.

Best,

Paul Gross
Owner
Hocus Pocus

Has anyone used this routine and burned the spectator's bills the way Cody describes in the DVD I am curious, since the bowl that is used for burning the bills (according to the directions) is not supposed to be used this way. I don't want to get into specifics here since I don't want to expose anything that I should not be exposing. Those of you that have the routine will understand what I mean. I emailed Cody privately about this a couple of days ago, but he has not answered me as yet. I would be happy to discuss this more in private if anyone has actually burned the bills using this prop. Also, the link to the jackets mentioned in the DVD does not work. Any clues to costuming?

Disapointing reaction of Mr. Alexander. Like a jalous child, not that of an artist. The methode of Cody Fisher must be realy good to get such a silly comments from a competitor.

I don't know why I never asked this earlier...but this effect doesn't require sleeves does it?

BBMagic,

No sleeves required my friend...the "load / seal" is quick, simple, and 100% invisible! You could actually do this naked if you wanted to!

I hope this helps,
Cody S. Fisher

P.S. I do not recommend that you do this naked!

Obviously, this product and Final answer are quality products. I have final answer and I am still trying to see what advantages and disadvantages exist between these 2 products. There have been some answers to this question on this post, but they respectfully are not very specific, of course, without exposing the secret.

Answering that it depends upon the performer, is not helpful to me to determine if I want to switch to this new method. I love doing bill in lemmon and it would be great to know specifically from one that has both, what the performance differences are.

Bob

I've had some folks that I have the highest regard for write and tell me how much they love Cody's take on this classic plot. And they have been performing for many years and have used/known about quite a few of the more popular methods. Bet Your Bucks has been added to their bill in lemon effct effect ( using their own routines ).

Cody is slow to relase effects to the community. Only workers from his personal repertoir have made it to market.

Christopher

As an owner of both effects, I feel I can objectively compare the two products.

Since I've already spoken a fair amount on this thread, I shall keep this response rather brief.

Routines:
I humbly offer that both routines are excellent; they are rather different, and both have moments I really like. Along these lines, it's really up to the performer to determine what they like. I incorporate bits from both and add bits from the Lemon Game. In all, these are both excellent.

Gimmick:
Cody's gimmick really does allow you to load the lemon in plain view of your audience. It's incredibly deceptive and invisible; and the sealing gimmick is so innocuous you'll laugh at how clever it is. His method also justifies folding the bill, and takes all heat off the moment that the load occurs. The final answer gimmick is also very clever; it allows you to load the lemon in full view of the audience and is suitable for close-up/walkaround type performances. There is definitely more heat on the load and on the moves required to do the effect; though the DVD does teach ways to do the moves deceptively, I never felt 100% comfortable using it in close-up performances.

Value:
Both products are extremely well made. The gimmicks will both last you forever. You may need to "update" your TFA; I use "update" to keep the identity of the gimmick a secret. Those who own it will know what I mean; for those who don't, suffice it to say, it will require that you mail it to Thomas Wayne or Scott and I'm not sure what they're turnaround time is for this. BYB will last a lifetime and will never need to be replaced; you just may need to order more sealing gimmicks after a few hundred performances.

Bottom line:
Both are excellent products; but at the end of the day, I've switched to BYB for the method and for part of the routine.

Best regards,

Alym

Cody is true gentleman. I personally regard Cody as one of the finest thinking magician out there. I needn’t say more.