Android by Jay Crowe

Read exclusive online reviews of products and discuss them.
User avatar
Tom Frame
Posts: 1344
Joined: January 17th, 2008, 12:00 pm
Favorite Magician: Del Ray
Location: San Francisco
Contact:

Android by Jay Crowe

Postby Tom Frame » September 5th, 2008, 8:57 pm

Android (Booklet) by Jay Crowe $29.99
Softbound, 5 x 8, stapled. 10 pages, 6 pictures, 2 templates
Includes 2 business cards depicting the buxom psychic, Madame Tarot
Available at www.whosmagic.com

The performer displays the business card of a psychic he met on one of his adventures. He permits the participant to freely select any one of 7 objects. The participant announces her selection. Using his cell phone, the performer sends a text message to the number on the business card, asking the psychic to use remote viewing to determine the selected object. The performer receives a text message back from the psychic and, you guessed it, she correctly names the object.

Yes, its the venerable telephone trick, dressed up in hip, young, 21st century techno attire. I would image that this effect was designed to appeal to adolescents and twentysomethings who simply adore stabbing away at their phones. Mr. Crowe is a member of that demographic group. There is nothing wrong with that. And there is nothing wrong with me being 48, and not being a member of that group.

Lets plunge headfirst into the bad news.

The writing is terrible. There are dozens of typos. The writing is so bad that it is possible that English is not the authors primary language. Even if that is the case, it is the responsibility of every author to have their works proofread by knowledgeable parties before they sell their products to the masses. Mr. Crowes oversight is simply unacceptable.

Mr. Crowes patter is adequate. The photos are helpful. It was nice of him to include the templates so that you make more copies of lusty Madame Tarots business cards. This could be my favorite element of the trick.

I must say he does a very good job of explaining the technical information.

Ill attempt to describe what is involved without tipping the precise method. You must use your own phone. Before performing the effect, you must decide which 7 items will be used. Mr. Crowe uses post cards from different countries, but any objects will suffice.

You are then directed to a website, where you must create an account that allows you to use a certain technology. With the US and Canada platform, you will need to create 4 separate accounts in order to cover all 7 objects. You will also need to spend a bit of time setting up the technology for this effect. Frankly, this is too much work for me.

During performance, the process of typing the message to the psychic and waiting for her response really slows down the proceedings. This dead time cannot be covered by witty repartee, because you are forced to focus on your (or your participants) typing. This is simply poor construction.

$30.00 is way too high an asking price! Baby bang, big bucks.

In my mind, good magic should not only amaze our audience, but it should help us to form a connection, a brief but rewarding relationship with them. The use of the sterile, dehumanizing medium of text messaging is antithetical to that goal. I much prefer a genuine, real-time human voice.

This product may sell very well to its intended audience, and they may love it. I will be very happy for the author and his happy customers.

But, given the problems that Ive described, and the availability of superior versions of the telephone trick, I cannot recommend Android.

User avatar
Richard Kaufman
Posts: 27056
Joined: July 18th, 2001, 12:00 pm
Favorite Magician: Theodore DeLand
Location: Washington DC
Contact:

Re: Android by Jay Crowe

Postby Richard Kaufman » September 5th, 2008, 9:15 pm

Just a side-note: the first telephone trick was created in 1898 by John Northern Hilliard and would later appear in The Sphinx. This was only a few years after rotary dial phones were first introduced!
Subscribe today to Genii Magazine

User avatar
Matthew Field
Posts: 2846
Joined: January 18th, 2008, 12:00 pm
Favorite Magician: Slydini
Location: Hastings, England, UK

Re: Android by Jay Crowe

Postby Matthew Field » September 6th, 2008, 6:01 am

Another note: The British telephone number given on the printed card in the trick will not work as printed. Mr. Crowe gives it as 44 0xxx xx xx xx xx. The 44 is the international access code, used after dialing your own country's international operator code, for calling the UK from other countries.

When you do that, however, you must drop the leading "0" that starts all UK phone numbers (there are a few exceptions to this, such as Information and the emergency number).

So, the upshot is if you want to dial the "psychic" from within the UK, you've got to drop the "44", and if you want to call it from outside the UK you've got to drop the "0".

That's OK, except you're not doing the dialing. You've given this "psychic"'s card to thye spectator, who does the dialing, and the phone number is wrong. So to use the supplied UK version of the card (a US version is included as well) you've got to do some crossing out, or make up a new version yourself.

In additon, to use the trick you've got to register for a certain service, which means supplying all your credit card infromation. There's no charge for the first batch of uses, but then a charge kicks in for further uses. Me, I'm not thrilled giving unknown companies my credit card info, but you may not care.

Ain't tehnology grand?

Matt Field

pduffie
Posts: 383
Joined: January 17th, 2008, 12:00 pm
Location: UK
Contact:

Re: Android by Jay Crowe

Postby pduffie » October 30th, 2008, 9:09 pm

Hi Tom

You say: "You must use your own phone."

However, it states at the end of the official demo "Borrow any cell phone."

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=cJhyG5EIsno

Can you please clarify. Thank you.

Best Wishes

Peter

Luigi Anzivino
Posts: 49
Joined: June 29th, 2008, 12:44 pm
Location: San Francisco, CA

Re: Android by Jay Crowe

Postby Luigi Anzivino » October 31st, 2008, 11:37 am

This strikes me as a terrible concept for a trick, actually... Most people today (and the adolescent target audience for sure) are aware of automated text message responding systems. You can send a text message to GOOGLE with your area code, and get back a list of movies playing near you. You can even download a ringtone for your phone with the appropriate text. Is it really surprising that you could set up a code to get the right answer from a clearly fake psychic?

But, more importantly, even if the exact method is not immediately surmised, it seems to me that this trick places the power claimed by the performer on the phone, rather than on the performer. Or, at best, although unlikely, on some unknown psychic sitting across the Atlantic. Why would anyone want to do that?

Jonathan Townsend
Posts: 8704
Joined: January 17th, 2008, 12:00 pm
Location: Westchester, NY
Contact:

Re: Android by Jay Crowe

Postby Jonathan Townsend » October 31st, 2008, 11:49 am

How specifically is this a better approach than making use of a dextrous assistant who is good at texting and has her/his phone set with text messages ready to send?
Mundus vult decipi -per Caleb Carr's story Killing Time

User avatar
mrgoat
Posts: 4242
Joined: January 17th, 2008, 12:00 pm
Location: Brighton, UK
Contact:

Re: Android by Jay Crowe

Postby mrgoat » October 31st, 2008, 12:27 pm

Jonathan Townsend wrote:How specifically is this a better approach than making use of a dextrous assistant who is good at texting and has her/his phone set with text messages ready to send?


Exactly.

And then you could use - say - 52 cards rather than the totally limiting choice of 7 items to predict.

User avatar
Tom Frame
Posts: 1344
Joined: January 17th, 2008, 12:00 pm
Favorite Magician: Del Ray
Location: San Francisco
Contact:

Re: Android by Jay Crowe

Postby Tom Frame » October 31st, 2008, 2:23 pm

pduffie wrote:Hi Tom

You say: "You must use your own phone."

However, it states at the end of the official demo "Borrow any cell phone."

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=cJhyG5EIsno

Can you please clarify. Thank you.

Best Wishes

Peter



Hi Peter,

I don't understand how you could perform this trick with a borrowed phone. But then again, I don't understand WHY you would want to perform this trick, regardless of whose phone you use.

pduffie
Posts: 383
Joined: January 17th, 2008, 12:00 pm
Location: UK
Contact:

Re: Android by Jay Crowe

Postby pduffie » October 31st, 2008, 2:36 pm

Thanks Tom.

I'm just looking into cell phone tricks that don't use a secret assistant.

Mr Goat: there already is one for all 52 cards using a mobile/cell phone call: http://www.simplicitymagic.com/

Best Wishes

Peter

User avatar
mrgoat
Posts: 4242
Joined: January 17th, 2008, 12:00 pm
Location: Brighton, UK
Contact:

Re: Android by Jay Crowe

Postby mrgoat » October 31st, 2008, 3:12 pm

pduffie wrote:Mr Goat: there already is one for all 52 cards using a mobile/cell phone call: http://www.simplicitymagic.com/

Best Wishes

Peter



Thanks Mr Duffie. Looks interesting.

Nice little ongoing rev stream for the cost of the calls.

Sadly they put

By purchasing this effect you agree to our Terms and Conditions.

But don't have a link on Terms and Conditions...

pduffie
Posts: 383
Joined: January 17th, 2008, 12:00 pm
Location: UK
Contact:

Re: Android by Jay Crowe

Postby pduffie » October 31st, 2008, 7:36 pm

The link worked ok for me. Took me here:

http://www.simplicitymagic.com/page6.htm

Hallas
Posts: 16
Joined: September 10th, 2008, 10:17 am

Re: Android by Jay Crowe

Postby Hallas » November 13th, 2008, 11:36 am

One might also want to check out Larry Becker and Lee Earle's "Influence U" effect.

pduffie
Posts: 383
Joined: January 17th, 2008, 12:00 pm
Location: UK
Contact:

Re: Android by Jay Crowe

Postby pduffie » November 13th, 2008, 4:34 pm

Thanks Paul.

I had seen the ad for this one but it didn't offer non-USA access. I see this has now been remedied. Looks interesting.

Peter


Return to “Light from the Lamp ONLINE.”