Title: Blind Date
Artist: Stephan Leathwaite
Producers: FlatCap Productions
Link: Available From Your Favorite Murphy’s Magic Retailer.
Retail Price: $35.00 USD
Learning Difficulty: Easy
Length of DVD: 31 Minutes
Notes:

Features:
• Play All Performances
• Performance Selection
• Explenations
◦ Play All
◦ Scene Selection

The spectator is invited to go on a “blind date” with one of 12 eligible male bachelors. Since their selection is at random you’ll place a prediction in play that ends up being the date they select to go out with!

I’m not a huge fan of magic tricks designed to hit on or pick up on girls, but this particular effect is kind of cute in a comical way. What you end up getting is a set of 13 blind date cards. They are about the size and thickness of a business card printed on card stock, the fact that the come in a Yu-Gi-Oh collectible card game card sleeve is probably only humorous to me since I’m a geek like that. Two of the Blind Date cards are blank so you can put your own picture and information on them. Obviously one of them is the prediction card, the other is the card the spectator will select. The blind date the spectator ends up going on is of course with you. –insert eye roll here.

The Blind Date cards come blank with the exception of a picture of the guy on them. You can write in information like Age, Name, location, occupation, and marital status. Why a married man would be going on a blind date seems a bit odd to me, I’d optioned for a contact method, but that’s just me. Maybe if all the other options were married and you are the only single option it would make the ending more powerful? I admit I haven’t played with that option yet. Of course you don’t have to write anything in either but I think it adds a certain amount of showman ship to fill the cards out. You’ll also need to get a couple passport sized photos of yourself printed so you can attach them to the card using whatever glue you fancy. There’s certainly an element of “some assembly required” before you can perform this trick, something I generally dislike, but thankfully it’s minimal.

The methods explained on the DVD are pretty simple. You have a dice method which produces a “random” number via some cleaver maneuvering, and then you have a card force as a backup in case you can’t hit the right number you need with the dice. While the card force is less clean than hitting the right number on the dice roll it is still effective to get the right card in the spectator’s hands.

This effect plays well for a close up performer, or a table hopper. You’ll need a surface to work on so this may not be the best effect for someone who works in a strolling atmosphere where all your effects need to be out of the pocket and in the hands. This effect could easily be converted into a larger stage version with minimal effort. The reactions I’ve received from performing this trick have been great! Overall I’d say this is a fun, and funny trick that you’ll probably enjoy.
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: 7
The cards will last for a long time, and the price isn’t bad.

Teaching Quality: 6
Learning to perform this trick is pretty easy. Shouldn’t take you very long at all to master it.

Video & Sound Quality: 4
The sound and video isn’t the best. The performances look like they were shot on a camera phone.

Overall Quality: 6
Not a bad trick. I normally don’t like tricks like this and I could see myself using this in the right setting.


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