Been looking for a way to incorporate dice tricks into your repertoire? This is your next stop. Some of these tricks rely upon equivoque, some require sleight of hand, some are mentalism and some are classic tricks adapted to dice.
With your $25 purchase, you get 10 specially sourced and crafted translucent dice, a black velvet drawstring bag and a password protected streaming instructional video that is an hour and nine minutes long. The video cannot be downloaded (or at least I couldn’t download it).
The video presents 10 tricks using dice that is presented and taught by John Carey. While Carey is mostly know for his card work, he has dabbled with coins and sponge balls in the past and with this project he has made a big appearance with dice.
So here is the ironic thing, I was very excited about this project, but when I watched it I was surprisingly less enthused. However, when I road tested a few of the tricks they really fooled and impressed. I was so happy with the reactions that I have been playing with a few tricks for casual settings, friends and family whenever I get the chance.
The ad copy says:
“We are delighted to bring you John Carey’s Dice Dice Baby Project. Ten super clean mysteries with dice are performed and taught in exacting detail. There’s so much variety in this collection, comprising mental and magical mysteries. Super simple handlings that you will love learning and using!
Six mentalism routines – all of which require NO SLEIGHT OF HAND at all!
Four super visual Close-Up tricks – get some eyepopping magic a-happening!
Comes with everything you need – ten translucent dice, a
carry bag and over an hour of indepth teaching on a video download!
1. Dice Wave- A beautiful mental mystery involving a game of imagination
2. Hummeresqe- Put simply, they just think of one of six dice and you nail it!
3. Hot Roddy! A very clean prediction effect
4. Evoque Dice- Another simple, but super strong prediction.
5. Gadabout Dice- A coin classic but now with different coloured dice! Quick,
powerful and visual.
6. Homing Dice- A fun and strong magician in trouble sequence.
7. Clearly Wild! Wild Card but with dice! Quick and visual.
8. A perfect 6! A perfect six way prediction where they make all the choices.
You will love this!
9. Translocation Dice- A lovely Dice across effect with an unexpected finale!
10. Covert Prediction- One deck of cards and a few dice and you will have a
beautiful card at any number prediction. Super sneaky!”
The descriptions in the ad-copy give very brief overviews of the tricks, but do not really explain what the tricks are about. I will touch on a few here, but this is certainly not a comprehensive description of each and every trick.
First, let’s start with a criticism before we get onto the good stuff. Hot Roddy! is a hot rod prediction effect, but done with 6 dice lined up on a table. I have always hated the hot rod effect and have always felt that it was too obvious and not fooling. Maybe it is just me, but I have an aversion for this hot rod effect just as much as I do with any other version that I have seen. However, if you are a hot rod lover, then I am sure you will love this version. It just never appealed to me.
Many of the routines use basic equivoque, such as Dice Wave in which the spectator divines the color of a die in a bag as the colors on three other dice fade away and leave just clear dice. This routine and some of the others are great introductions to equivoque and will be perfect for beginners and even some intermediate performers. The equivoque taught is used by pros and Carey boils it down to the essentials.
The few routines that require sleight of hand are not too difficult, but do require a bit of practice so you get comfortable with the dice and the angles. Good stuff! A great example of the simple sleight of hand is the Translocation Dice trick. It is essentially a “dice across” routine which is fun and entertaining.
Because this project was produced by Big Blind Media, the production value of the video is excellent, the editing is excellent and it is presented in a well organized professional matter. The only criticism I have is that there are no tracks to advance to as you would have on a DVD, but I think this must be the wave of the future to cut down costs and be able to get the video to magicians anywhere and anytime.
My favorite routine is the Evoque Dice in which the performer lays out 6 dice all different colors. The performer gives the spectator a small bag to put in her pocket. After what appears to be very fair elimination of 5 dice, the spectator takes out the bag and there is one die in the bag. The color of that die matches the color of the chosen die. The trick is so simple and relies entirely on equivoque. It is taught excellently and is so easy. I was surprised at how badly this fooled spectators time and time again.
Overall, Carey presents a really credible magic dice performance. There is nothing too difficult here and anyone interested in magic with dice will appreciate and enjoy this project.