Here's my review for Daniel Madison's CUT, reposted from the Ellusionist forums.
Basic Effect: A deck of cards is shuffled and placed on a table. The magician writes down a prediction on a notepad and a spectator is asked to cut the deck. The card the spectator has cut to matches the prediction exactly.
The Gimmick: The CUT force does require a homemade gimmick, but it isn’t really difficult to make. All you need is a deck of cards and one other “special” thing to create the gimmick for this amazing force. The gimmick is very well disguised and you can very cleanly show the deck as a normal deck of cards. Unfortunately, the CUT gimmick only let’s you force one card, BUT, in the Bonus Effects section he explains how you can very easily modify the handling of the effects to force any card. Daniel does however teach you how you can have the spectator(s) examine, handle, and shuffle the cards in the PDF.
Cut Mental: “Basic Effect” mentioned previously.
If you perform CUT in the most basic form, the spectator cannot handle the cards themselves apart from the cutting phase of the effect, but the spectator doesn’t really have any reason to suspect the deck is gaffed.
Cut Full Switch: Same “Basic Effect” mentioned previously.
This version of CUT is the same effect in the spectator’s mind as “Cut Mental” but Daniel teaches a switch to utilize so the spectator can shuffle and handle the cards before the effect. If you’ve purchased any of Daniel’s material you can probably guess how he accomplishes this switch.
Cut Psych: The spectator is asked to name a card after a short little story told by the magician. The spectator then proceeds to cut the deck and it is revealed that the card that was cut to is the card the spectator named.
The handling for this effect is the same as the previous apart from the naming of the card before the cut. Daniel teaches a very effective psychological force in the explanation portion which I am very pleased about.
Cut Chronic: A spectator is asked to cut the deck and choose one pile. The magician proceeds to name all the cards in the pile.
This effect is pretty darn cool. Daniel utilizes the CUT gimmick in a unique way to accomplish this effect. The “method” for this effect is much different than other Memorized Deck plots. The way he goes about naming all the cards is much simpler to remember than many other variations.
Bonus Effects: These effects were dubbed as bonus material and thus aren’t explained in nearly as much detail as the preceding effects and are more of ideas rather than full effects or routines. In the intro paragraph of the Bonus section Daniel briefly describes how to use the CUT gimmick to force any card which will definitely come in handy.
Sucker Cut: A spectator calls out stop as the magician dribbles through the cards; the spectator is asked to remember the stopped at card. The cards are shuffled and placed on the table. The spectator is asked to cut the deck and it is revealed that the card they cut to is the same card the stopped at.
I don’t like this effect that much simply because it’s so close to the basic “Cut Mental” effect. But it does show another way to make use of the CUT gimmick in a dribbling action.
Double Sucker Cut: After the spectator has cut to the same card they stopped at previously, a second spectator is invited to cut the cards; again at the first spectator’s card.
This is really just an extra revelation to Sucker Cut but I personally don’t think it adds very much unless you have some good patter to provide reasoning.
Face Cut: This isn’t actually an effect but rather a further application of the CUT gimmick. Instead of the spectator cutting the cards face down; they cut the deck face up. If you are creative you could think of some ways this could be useful.
Conman’s Flourish: A spectator is asked to cut the cards and remember the card they cut to and the cards are shuffled by the magician. In a flourishly fashion a packet flies up into the air, rotates, and lands face up on the deck revealing the spectator’s card.
I haven’t personally seen this flourish executed but I imagine it would look quite flashy. Like most of the other bonus effects, the effect itself isn’t that great; but it opens your mind to other ways to apply the Cut gimmick.
The Document: CUT is digitally delivered from eJunkie in the form of a zip file containing a restriction-free PDF of CUT (meaning that you can modify and/or print the document if you wish) as well as a bonus effect The Fine Scripture; also in the form of an unprotected PDF file. The file size for the CUT PDF is 401.85 kilobytes uncompressed (less than half a megabyte) and the dimensions of the document are 11.03 by 7.09 inches. The PDF is 11 pages, although only 7 of them actually teach CUT. Daniel Madison is one of the few, actually I think the ONLY magician I’ve seen that has turned his work into art. All of his various lecture notes and effects are very visually attractive with artistic fonts and background images as well as color schemes that make sense.
Conclusions: I highly, highly recommend this effect. It’s only 6 British Pounds (GBP) or approximately 12 USD for his incredible force, 4 variations, 4 bonus ideas and applications, a psychological force, AND a bonus PDF explaining 5 variations of Daniel’s Scripture revelation (I’ll write a review for this later. It’s 12:40 AM and I’m tired.)
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CUT
Daniel Madison
CUT
Daniel Madison
Basic Effect: A deck of cards is shuffled and placed on a table. The magician writes down a prediction on a notepad and a spectator is asked to cut the deck. The card the spectator has cut to matches the prediction exactly.
The Gimmick: The CUT force does require a homemade gimmick, but it isn’t really difficult to make. All you need is a deck of cards and one other “special” thing to create the gimmick for this amazing force. The gimmick is very well disguised and you can very cleanly show the deck as a normal deck of cards. Unfortunately, the CUT gimmick only let’s you force one card, BUT, in the Bonus Effects section he explains how you can very easily modify the handling of the effects to force any card. Daniel does however teach you how you can have the spectator(s) examine, handle, and shuffle the cards in the PDF.
Cut Mental: “Basic Effect” mentioned previously.
If you perform CUT in the most basic form, the spectator cannot handle the cards themselves apart from the cutting phase of the effect, but the spectator doesn’t really have any reason to suspect the deck is gaffed.
Cut Full Switch: Same “Basic Effect” mentioned previously.
This version of CUT is the same effect in the spectator’s mind as “Cut Mental” but Daniel teaches a switch to utilize so the spectator can shuffle and handle the cards before the effect. If you’ve purchased any of Daniel’s material you can probably guess how he accomplishes this switch.
Cut Psych: The spectator is asked to name a card after a short little story told by the magician. The spectator then proceeds to cut the deck and it is revealed that the card that was cut to is the card the spectator named.
The handling for this effect is the same as the previous apart from the naming of the card before the cut. Daniel teaches a very effective psychological force in the explanation portion which I am very pleased about.
Cut Chronic: A spectator is asked to cut the deck and choose one pile. The magician proceeds to name all the cards in the pile.
This effect is pretty darn cool. Daniel utilizes the CUT gimmick in a unique way to accomplish this effect. The “method” for this effect is much different than other Memorized Deck plots. The way he goes about naming all the cards is much simpler to remember than many other variations.
Bonus Effects: These effects were dubbed as bonus material and thus aren’t explained in nearly as much detail as the preceding effects and are more of ideas rather than full effects or routines. In the intro paragraph of the Bonus section Daniel briefly describes how to use the CUT gimmick to force any card which will definitely come in handy.
Sucker Cut: A spectator calls out stop as the magician dribbles through the cards; the spectator is asked to remember the stopped at card. The cards are shuffled and placed on the table. The spectator is asked to cut the deck and it is revealed that the card they cut to is the same card the stopped at.
I don’t like this effect that much simply because it’s so close to the basic “Cut Mental” effect. But it does show another way to make use of the CUT gimmick in a dribbling action.
Double Sucker Cut: After the spectator has cut to the same card they stopped at previously, a second spectator is invited to cut the cards; again at the first spectator’s card.
This is really just an extra revelation to Sucker Cut but I personally don’t think it adds very much unless you have some good patter to provide reasoning.
Face Cut: This isn’t actually an effect but rather a further application of the CUT gimmick. Instead of the spectator cutting the cards face down; they cut the deck face up. If you are creative you could think of some ways this could be useful.
Conman’s Flourish: A spectator is asked to cut the cards and remember the card they cut to and the cards are shuffled by the magician. In a flourishly fashion a packet flies up into the air, rotates, and lands face up on the deck revealing the spectator’s card.
I haven’t personally seen this flourish executed but I imagine it would look quite flashy. Like most of the other bonus effects, the effect itself isn’t that great; but it opens your mind to other ways to apply the Cut gimmick.
The Document: CUT is digitally delivered from eJunkie in the form of a zip file containing a restriction-free PDF of CUT (meaning that you can modify and/or print the document if you wish) as well as a bonus effect The Fine Scripture; also in the form of an unprotected PDF file. The file size for the CUT PDF is 401.85 kilobytes uncompressed (less than half a megabyte) and the dimensions of the document are 11.03 by 7.09 inches. The PDF is 11 pages, although only 7 of them actually teach CUT. Daniel Madison is one of the few, actually I think the ONLY magician I’ve seen that has turned his work into art. All of his various lecture notes and effects are very visually attractive with artistic fonts and background images as well as color schemes that make sense.
Conclusions: I highly, highly recommend this effect. It’s only 6 British Pounds (GBP) or approximately 12 USD for his incredible force, 4 variations, 4 bonus ideas and applications, a psychological force, AND a bonus PDF explaining 5 variations of Daniel’s Scripture revelation (I’ll write a review for this later. It’s 12:40 AM and I’m tired.)
