Britain's brightest independent magic magazine

Issue 30 - Jan. 10

Review

Gumslinger  

Chris Webb
Available from: www.worldmagicshop.com

Price: £15.00  

Chris Webb has come up with a very quick visual bit of magic using a pack of stick chewing gum. Basically the plot is that you show a pack of gum sticks and slowly and deliberately you slide the sticks out of the packet. So the sticks are in your left hand and the packet they came out of is in your right hand. One little shake of your hands and instantly and visibly the two change places so that the sticks are now in your right hand and the packet is in your left. The sticks are spread and in fact you can hand out a couple of them as gifts if you wish.  

Gumslinger comes as a 25 minute instructional DVD and two props which you will need to make up the necessary gimmick. So, the first thing you have to do is actually make the prop needed to do the trick. This makes sense from the suppliers point of view as the process is a bit fiddly (although not difficult) and to have to make up lots to sell complete would be very time consuming and therefore would make the item either non-profitable or unacceptably expensive. However, at £15 the purchaser might perhaps feel that he is entitled to receive a made up gimmick. Well, you don't and so you will need to go out and buy some packs of stick chewing gum, fetch some scissors and glue and then follow Chris as he carefully takes you through the details of the construction process.  

Once completed you will have a gimmick which, in a very easy way, will create the visible change of sticks to packet and packet to sticks. My main worry about this as a performance piece is that it is so quick that if the watching spectators are not absolutely clear which hand each of the items is in at the outset, they will completely miss the effect! Spectators need to be very close and to be paying careful attention or they will simply go "sorry, what happened then?" So, if you intend to use this you need to work out how to point up the effect so that the onlookers appreciate what you just did.  

This trick does have a small re-set which you can't really do in front of anyone, although this will only take a few moments. Once done you can drop it into your top pocket and it's ready to go again without further preparation. Chris Webb is clearly very enthusiastic about his idea, and he gives several good tips about the correct handling and how to ensure that you present the best angles etc when working it. To also make a success of this, a purchaser will need to show the same attention to detail. ML  

What's Hot: very quick and visual change
What's Not: having to construct the entire gimmick yourself
Star Rating: ***  

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