ricklaxmagic, thanks very much. Carrying it in your everyday wallet is such a great idea ( wallet's can be like mini close-up cases ).

Dan Harlan has Vortex on his site:

http://www.danharlanmagic.com/Vortex-vortex.htm

Dan and Jen ship so fast, you'd think they flew to your home and dropped it off themselves!

I always thought this looked a little hokey but I picked it up recently and am happy to say I was dead wrong. This is visual to the extreme and both the gimmicks and teaching are top notch (as will all Dan's products). Well done Dan. Also great that he included both Bike and Phoenix gimmicks in both blue and red. Love it.

It's such a pleasure when something you've ordered exceeds your expectations. And that is certainly the case with Vortex. Thanks Penguin - fast to ship. While I'm late to the conversation on this I think it is such a strong effect that it deserves a bit of a reboot here. I'd love to read anything new that others would like to share about how they are using this and I'd be happy to do the same. I can say for anyone thinking about purchasing this effect you will find it is easy to perform, will work well for a pretty large group and it is certainly fun to do. I can tell you that before purchasing it I wasn't sure how easy it would be to ring in the gimmick and then back out again undetected at the end. Luckily, you'll find that Dan has already helped out in this regard with the clever design and performance. Many kudos to Dan, thanks for making this available.

Got Vortex from Penguin Magic. I love it and will be using it. I had a problem that required a replacement. Just want to say that they were very gracious and took care of it. Great service from them -- I have used Penguin a lot, and always have been happy with their service.

I revisited this recently and am definitely enjoying Rick Lax's 2-card handling. I added a convincer with a double-backed card (when taking the cards from a deck) so that you could remove both cards from the pack- while showing both sides (but not calling attention to it per say). I agree to Rick's point that the flustration-like showing at the end is overkill. I'd rather just remove the cards, do the trick and drop the cards back on top of the deck as you started. Again, without calling any attention to the fact.

Just seen review of Vortex cannot believe I missed this.will order UK if I can if not Penguin do free postage for UK

Just used vortex with Rick's handling at my brewery gig and it killed! I'll try and post some live reactions soon.

I'm getting this as a christmas present. It should arrive from penguin probably tomorrow!

I'm very excited about this trick. Seems like a great opener!

So the trick arrived and I'm very happy with it overall.

My one criticism would be that if you're doing the 2 card version that Rick Lax teaches, it would be much better if the gimmick card was a queen of spades rather than a 5 of diamonds.

If you watch the video here...

http://www.penguinmagic.com/p/3218

... Rick Lax has the 5 of diamonds basically turn into a queen of clubs as the cards twist together. It looks much better when the queen of clubs simply twirls.

So what I think I might do, is just use rubber cement to glue a queen of spades onto the face of the 5 of diamonds. The nice thing is that this trick came with 4 gimmicks, so I can do this one one of my gimmicks and I'll still have 3 other ones if I want to do the handling with the full deck of cards. I've never split cards before, but maybe that would be better to do since it will be thinner. Though I don't think it really matters because I'm not handing the cards out for inspection anyways. I just want to do it as a quick little trick... there's a lot of movement in the cards during the routine... and they go back into the pocket as soon as the trick is over... so I doubt anyone will notice the extra thickness.

I realize that in Rick Lax's handling, the discrepant change kind of flies by people anyways... but I would still rather have a thicker card and a better looking change. Maybe in the future, they can print out new cards that don't have that 5 of diamonds (and use the queen of spades instead).

There is still a slight discrepancy if you use the queen of spades instead of the 5 of diamonds, but since the queen of clubs and queen of spades look so similar, it shouldn't matter as much.

Just picked this up and really like it. It's fast, visual, very easy to learn and the illusion looks about as perfect as you can get with a couple of playing cards.

Does anyone know if it's possible to get refills of the gimmick?

I don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but I am thinking this would be a good follow-up to Gregory Wilson's Revolution. Do Revolution first, where the named card is spun, then goes back to normal. Then tell them you will do it for them to actually see the moment that the card spins, and do Vortex.

I will have to wait until I get it to see how I am going to incorporate them together. I may need to find a way to displace the top card, in between the effects. But that should be able to be easily handled, while going through the deck to find their card.

Great idea Danster08. I love this effect and always thought it's a little to short. With Greg's is a perfect match!

Dan- For Vortex 2.0... Use two cards with scribbling or jumbled letters. After the swirling motion the predicted words appear, etc. Man and Woman cards turn into Bride and Groom card. Girl and little dog end up in a land with yellow brick road. Maybe even provide blank gimmicks for customization for one's own desires. Keep the original Vortex look on the ends of the cards.

No longer available?

Carry this one with me every day. Love it. A cool quickie with a striking visual.

Looks like an updated version is now available:

http://www.penguinmagic.com/p/3218

Paul Mc.

Is this the same gimmicks and just a update on the handling?

It's free shipping on this to the uk happy days.Sane cards just bonus handling from Mr lax.

Not updated. Same trick. Get it, you won’t regret it.

I have the old one. So its the same?