-Review for my magic DVD Telekinetic
from the July 2017 issue of Linking Ring magazine
When the card case spun 180 degrees on Diamond Jim Tyler’s open palm, my first reaction was, “That looks really good!” It just got better from there. With a small adjustment on the palm, the card case stood up by itself and the lid popped open so cards could be returned to the case. What you see in the DVD and trailer is exactly what happens. It’s powerfully visual, baffling, and can be done close-up or on a stage.
Telekinetic is the latest in Diamond Jim’s long history of stellar, audience-tested material using new and old methods that melt his spectator’s minds. In this case, he had taken a ninety-year-old principle you have likely read about and dismissed, and made it more reliable, easier to use, and small enough to be retrieved from a pants pocket or coat in about ten seconds. The method is not nearly important as the way Diamond Jim has applied it to current props, and what other things you can apply once you learn the secret.
Among the effects taught on the DVD are a Rising Card in Card Box trick where the card box stands on end, opens, and the selected card shoots out of the box. Diamond Jim teaches a method for borrowing someone’s hard case cigarette box and having it spring to life, spin around, and pop open. Other effects use match boxes and, something rarely seen, rising, twisting, and opening matchbooks. There is also a Haunted Deck effect. One of the best applications of this method is a rising business card effect in which your business card rises out of a stack of business cards. You give out your card, and the spectator can examine the bound stack of business cards to their heart’s content.
Before Telekinetic, no one could ever borrow something and cause it to come to life because the setup and cleanup were complicated. That’s all been addressed. Telekinetic comes with the necessary gimmicks, and is easy to perform after just one viewing. There are some angle issues, especially in extreme close-up conditions, but I found they existed more in my mind. The first few times I performed the trick, I was timid and worried that the method would be obvious. I could not have been more wrong. The more confident I got, the less there was to suspect. The impact on the audience, especially in a stage setting, far outweighed my case of nerves. Any of the effects are likely to get the biggest reaction of your whole set in any given show.
Highly recommended.