DiVinyl Wallet by Tony Miller

[Tom Frame]

DiVinyl Wallet by Tony Miller $20.00
4 pages of instructions, 7 photos, 11 videos
Available at: http://www.rfaproductions.com/products/DiVinyl.html


Tony Miller is well known for producing pricey, attractive wallets made from the finest Corinthian leather. But something troubling has happened to him. Maybe his medication needs to be tweaked. Perhaps has rats nest of a mane has started growing inside of his skull. For whatever reason, he is now peddling an inexpensive wallet made of cheesy material!

This is a thin, simply designed, 4.25 x 2.75 vinyl bi-fold wallet that allows you to surreptitiously switch flat objects such as cards, coins, billets or folded bills. There are no moving parts, secret panels or inserts. For $20.00, you receive not one but two wallets.

My objection to most of the switching wallets that have been produced over the years is that they look like props. I dont think Ive ever seen a lay person carrying something that resembles a Himber wallet. And neither have most lay folk. So, when they see a performer using one of these large leathery leviathans, they are understandably suspicious of it.

The DiVinyl wallet arouses no such suspicions because it looks like a cheap, flimsy piece of crap that people have seen before. And thats a very good thing indeed.

The wallets come with a tiny piece of paper that bears a link to a super secret page of Mr. Millers website. The page contains a PDF of the basic instructions and 11 short, home-made videos. This is a novel instructional approach that reduces Mr. Millers production costs, permitting him to pass the savings on to his happy customers.

In the PDF, Mr. Miller teaches the basic switch. Unfortunately, it requires the performer to hold the wallet in an odd manner and the switch looks a bit fishy. I dont like it.

He suggests placing a visual anchor, like a folded bill, under the glassine window to reinforce the image that nothing has changed after the switch. This is a well known, effective subtlety.

Now, on to the videos.

Loading (Cameron Francis): Mr. Francis teaches how to load a Mercury Folded card into the wallet. This is a standard loading procedure.


Vision Test (Steve Haynes): A participant selects a card which is lost in the deck. The performer displays a small eye chart inside the wallet and uses it to test the participants vision. He removes the eye chart and reveals the participants card on its back. The switch is well timed and imperceptible. I really like it.


Quickdraw Switch (Justin Miller): Mr. Miller teaches a tabled method and an in the hands method for executing the switch. He demonstrates these handlings with a card and a coin. I like the in the hands version and I really like the tabled version which features a delicious discrepancy that soars right by people.


Tabled Variant Switch (Chris Aguilar): Mr. Aguilar offers a tabled method and an in the hands method for executing the move. I dont like it because it looks fishy.


Money Cards (Tony Miller & J. Aaron DeLong): A card case rests atop the wallet on the table. Three participants select cards and leave them face-up on the table. The performer opens the wallet and shows a card and a dollar bill. The bill has the name of card #1 written on it. The card is a replica of card #2. The performer places the bill back into the wallet and tables it. He opens the card case to remove the final prediction, but discovers that the case is empty. He removes the bill from wallet and it now has the name of card #3 written on it.

There is no explanation, but youll figure it out. I like it.


Shirt Pocket Switch (Tony Miller): Mr. Miller demonstrates how to execute the switch at eye level. This method requires the performer to execute the basic switch, which I dont like.


Kents Switch (Michael Kent): Mr. DeLong demonstrates how to direct the crowds attention away from the switch by executing a larger movement. This is an effective, time-honored strategy.


Not Will Smiths Switch (Tony Miller): This is a performance-only clip. Again, it involves executing the basic switch. I didnt like it before and I still dont like it.


Switch In Dex (Tony Miller): This is a performance-only clip. The participant mentally constructs a card and the performer reveals it inside of the wallet.

The effect employs an index and the dreaded basic switch. I like it if the Quickdraw Switch is used.


Money! (David Regal): Mr. Regal uses the wallet to perform a quick, clean money printing effect. No explanation is provided, but you wont need one. I like it.


The Weston Dump (Alan Weston): Mr. Weston teaches how to execute the switch while dumping a billet out of the wallet. I like it.


Recommended

[Doomo]

Gosh! I would like to thank the academy! I guess this means that it is pretty good. Other than that damn basic switch... Which some people seem to like... Oh well. On the other hand, enough people liked it enough to contribute ideas to it that I guess it is kinda popular... In fact we sold out of the first run... We just Got the reload in. So we is back in stock. Thanks fer the review Meester Frame!

[J-Mac]

I picked a pair up and have been having fun ever since! I dont normally do much of anything with cards; mostly coins. Why? I have never done well with cards but I have with coins - guess I just stuck with the stuff that worked best for me!

But playing with this little inexpensive wallet is a true blast. It is so easy and quick to perform a simple switch of a card or billet and the result is usually eye-popping! Lots of fun with this.

Thank you.

Jim