Stash by Jasper Jongejans and Magic From Holland present a clever gimmick that aids in the performance of a very cool card to impossible location i.e. behind your cell phone.
For $25 dollars you get a gimmick that is almost completely made and a password protected link to a 22 minute instructional video. The gimmick come in a bicycle card rider back (red and blue) and will have a certain lifespan to it. The more you use it, the sooner you will need to replace it. I do not think that the average magician could fix this themselves so you would need to buy another gimmick.
The instructional video is good and you will easily understand what you need to do to learn this trick. What is not included is a phone case that you will need to perform this trick. My phone case had a clear back so I did not need to buy a new one, but if your phone case has a solid back, you will need to go out and buy a case that is easy to get on and off and also has a see-though back. Your phone also needs to be big enough so that a card can fit under it with a case over it.
Basically, with Stash, the performer shows the spectator that they have a playing card under some folded currency in between their phone and the clear phone case. Make up whatever patter you want about a lucky card, but the spectator sees it before anything happens. Then your spectator selects a card and signs it. The card disappears from the deck in which it was placed and when the phone case is removed from the phone, it appears that the signed and selected card was in the phone case the whole time.
While I like this trick very much, there are some points worth mentioning that may be an issue for some people. First, although the card can work with U.S. dollars, I think that U.S. currency may be a tad too small and this trick would be better suited for a bigger piece of paper currency. This issue is that when the gimmick does its’ thing, it may not be 100% clean and clear. I also think the way in which the phone is removed from the phone case seems a bit unnatural and so may your spectators. Certainly fellow magi will wonder why the phone was removed from the case in such a way. It probably will whiz by lay people since the ending is so strong they will have forgotten what took place.
Sometimes the gimmick is a bit finicky to set up and something can look misaligned. In the worst case scenario, the gimmick is misaligned and the trick will fail. I found that setting the gimmick to look totally normal was a slight issue, but one that can easily be covered up with thumb placement.
To get the signed card to the impossible location will requires some skill and will put off a complete novice. You should be comfortable with copping and palming.
Finally, you will need to combine the gimmick with the currency of your choice. That takes about 2-5 minutes of arts and crafts time and is no biggie.
With the issues I pointed out, this trick is super cool and very strong. It is seemingly impromptu with your everyday phone and will certainly befuddle your spectators.
Thanks to Murphy’s Magic for asking me to review this product.
