From the spectator’s point of view, they receive a face-down card that the performer selects and they are instructed not to look at it. The performer then fans through the cards and the spectator selects another card which is only displayed to them and the performer does not see it. The performer then suggest that is the cards match that would be a good trick, but the card handed to the spectator turns out to be a blank faced card. The performer takes the card back and while it is face down he rips off the corner and then hands the rest of the card back to the spectator who holds it face down. The performer licks the card and places it on top of another face down playing card so you can see the blank face. With a slow shake, the blank corner slowly and bit-by-bit turns into the card that the spectator chose. When the spectator then turns over the blank card that she is holding, it matches the card that appeared and the corner fits in place.
This concept behind this card is super cool and the gimmick, which is premade, it very clever. This can really kill in the right circumstance, which for me would be social media outlets or darks bars.
With your purchase of Expose you get the premade gimmick and a 54 minute instructional DVD with a few segments. The performance segment is poorly mic’ed and seems to be shot with a telephone. This is disappointing as the resolution is poor, it is not full screen and it seems to be a short cut. It may have been shot this way to mask some of the angle and lighting issues that I will discuss in a bit. However, the rest of the DVD is shot in studio and with excellent production value. The background lounge music gets to be annoying after a while, but I plowed through it. The instructional portion of the DVD addresses and issues you may have with using this gimmick in great detail.
Jason teaches you how to build the gimmick in 15 minutes and god help me if mine ever breaks. I would just buy a new one instead of attempting to build it. Too complicated and complex. I don’t like sewing and special thread and stay away from making anything that requires those skills. I suppose that with enough use the gimmick will break and you will have to decide to mend it yourself or buy one from scratch.
To perform the trick you will need to do some work with duplicate cards that will require some scoring and cutting. That should take a few minutes and it not too tough. Everytime you perform Expose you will destroy two cards (although it is possible to only destroy one if you don’t hand anything out).
The biggest issues I had with the gimmick is that there are significant lighting and angle issues. You are best off to perform this in a more dimly lit setting and to spectators that are not burning your hands. Best to stand a few feet away from your spectators too. Like I referenced above, I believe that this trick’s best venue is on websites or in social media.
This trick can be reset in a few second as long as you had done the pre-show work on the needed cards. You will need a second of alone time to reset this trick. The trick is not hard to perform, but SansMinds suggests that it requires 3 out of 5 on a Skills Level Required scale.
I appreciate Murphy’s Magic for sending the trick to me so I can give it my honest review.
