Larry’s Bag by Mago Larry is a mostly transparent forcing bag made out of tight black mesh netting with two compartments and a zipper closed top. The device itself is 9 inches by 9 inches and 12 inches on the diagonal. There are some things I like about the bag and some things I don’t. With the product you get a 23 minute streaming vimeo instructional video that cannot be downloaded.
I like the way the bag looks and with appropriate audience management the spectator can open the bag. I will use this bag, but unlike the ad copy, I don’t think starting empty (apparently) is a real good idea. The idea that the bag can start empty and get filled by the spectator was one I really liked. It is, unfortunately, not as clear cut as that. While the bag possibly looks like it is empty to start off (and not “indeed” empty as indicated in the ad copy) there is an issue with loading the force billet or card scraps. The suggested way in which the force paper is supposed to be loaded is easy, but does not work very well. For that reason, my bag will start full. You can allow the spectator to open the bag which is a bonus, but don’t leave the back in their hands for too long.
The quality of the instructional video is not great. It is taught in Spanish and the English translation is a bit slow. Nonetheless, it is easy to understand and follow. A few routines are taught. In one, several torn cards corners are loaded by the spectator and after they are mixed up by a good shake, the spectator opens the bag, pulls out one card corner which matches a torn card that is in a prediction envelope from the beginning of the trick. Another routine is taught in which a torn newspaper is dumped in the bag, it is mixed and then a single piece is removed by the spectator. The spectator silently reads the word on the scrap of paper and the performer then guesses the word. As indicated above, I would not do either of these routines as they start with an apparently empty bag and it is hard to dislodge the force papers. Another reason that I do not like this idea, as presented, is because I think a spectator will notice the absence of many scraps of papers when they reach inside the bag.
The bag that I received was somewhat frayed with loose threads all over the inside of the bag. It didn’t matter to me too much, but it effects the overall rating of this trick. Also, the gimmicked part of the bag has a clever mechanism that allows the spectator to open the bag without revealing a second compartment. That mechanism can get bent out of shape easily (and fixed easily too) but that issue is not addressed in the video.
I think the bag is a little bit pricey, but no too much.
Despite the stated flaws, I still like Larry and his bag.