Maverick by Lloyd Barnes

[Tom Frame]

Maverick (PDF) by Lloyd Barnes 10/$15.00
18 pages, 19 photos
Available at: http://www.disturbreality.com


Mr. Barnes is a 20 year old man from South Wales, and this is his first marketed effect. He does a fair job of teaching the mechanics. There are a number of typos and grammatical errors. The photos are clear and, with one exception, helpful in learning the handling.

You make the small gaff yourself, using something that you already own.

A card is forced, cut to the top of the deck, turned face-up and signed by the participant. The performer inserts the face-up card near the bottom of the face-down deck, leaving it outjogged for about a third of its length.

While holding the deck with one hand, the card slowly and visibly rises up through the deck and stops its ascent a few cards from the top. The performer waves his hand over the deck, causing the card to appear face-up on top of the deck.

Go the website, click on SHOP, then click on the Maverick banner. This will take you to the demo. Youll quickly decide whether or not this effect is for you. With repeated viewings, youll probably figure out the method. I was stunned the first time I watched the demo.

Then I began to actually practice the handling. The method for causing the card to visually rise up through the deck is very, very difficult to perform well. Ive been practicing it for about two hours every day for the past week, and it still looks terrible, and transparent.

Prior to the ascent, the face-up, signed card is resting peacefully atop the deck. The performer lifts it off the deck with his right hand. Using his left thumb, he then slides the card back on top of the deck. With his right hand, he again removes the card from the deck and finally inserts it, outjogged, near the bottom of the deck.

This handling is awful! Any sentient participant will wonder why the performer removed the card, only to immediately put it back. They will also wonder why the performer had to use his left thumb to slide the card back onto the deck. Why doesnt his right hand just drop the damned card back onto the deck?

This is method-driven construction that screams to the participant that something sneaky has occurred.

Ive had no success at executing the method with even a moderately worn deck. Its somewhat easier to do with a brand new deck, but its still quite challenging.

The deck has to be held in a rather uncomfortable position that makes it difficult to keep it squared and steady. The fingers grip of the gaff is awkward but unavoidable. An extremely deft, surgeon-like touch is required. The gaff is very sensitive to alterations in grip pressure. Even minor pressure variations will expose the gaff.

Any hesitation or fumbling at either the beginning or the end of the card's ascent will likely tip the method.

Mr. Barnes does not teach us how to cause the card to appear on top of the deck. He does direct us to the sources that describe how to do so.

The author uses one sentence to describe the necessary clean up, but he doesnt teach us how to do it.

Though the method is angle proof except from directly overhead, I would still want my participant to view the effect from at least three feet away.

Mr. Barnes also offers a handling in which the card is face-down. This version also suffers from the problems that Ive described, but the final sequence is easier to execute.

$15.00 for a one trick PDF that cost Mr. Barnes nothing to produce is too high of an asking price. I understand that he is selling the secret, but this particular secret is not worth $15.00. For twice that price, you can buy an honest to God hard bound book, containing dozens of secrets. A $10.00 price tag seems more reasonable.

On a purely intellectual level, I think Mr. Barnes method is quite clever. But on a practical level, I dont think it will hold up in a real world performance. And thats a shame, because I truly wanted to like this effect.

Not Recommended.

[Morten]

Very good honest review.

I too was stunned when I saw the demo, but somehow I didn't like it.

Thanks for the review. =)

[Tom Frame]

Thanks Morten.

[Lloyd Barnes]

Thanks for the honest review Tom.

Even though Tom does not like this guys I'm sure there'll be some of you that will.

If you do want to pick this up it's now available at Alakazam.

http://www.alakazam.co.uk/index.php?pag ... &Itemid=14

Cheers,

Lloyd Barnes

[Sonny Shepard]

Interesting effect. I wish the demo would show a performance that was more close up. Maybe that would be giving too much away. I don't know.

Lloyd, in your experience, how close can the spectator be and still look deceptive?
In most of my performances, my spectators are right on top of me. This is also the type of effect where you really want the spectator(s) burning your hands.

[Steve Hook]

I wish the demo would show a performance that was more close up.

Oh for gosh sakes......

[Lloyd Barnes]

Hey,

In answer to your question, the effect can be done completely surrounded, this is one of the beautys of this effect.

Cheers,

Lloyd

[Lloyd Barnes]

Hey,

Just want to drop in and address those of you that contacted me, inquiring why Maverick was not available through the www.disturbreality.com shop.

Basically, there were technical issues regarding the site we are using to host the products, but all this has been fully resolved and Maverick is now available for purchase. Here:

http://www.disturbreality.com/Disturb%2 ... erick.html


Cheers,

Lloyd