Title: Hole 2
Artist: Mickael Chatelair
Producers: Gimick Magic
Link: Available At Your Favorite Murphy’s Magic Dealer
Retail Price: $24.95
Learning Difficulty: Easy
Length of DVD: 20 Minutes (Approx)
Includes:
Features:
The basic idea with Hole 2 is the spectator selects a playing card, it’s then sandwiched between two cards with large holes cut in the center of them, for visibility, and then with magic the card visually and impossibly melts through the bottom hole card and drops a short distance onto the table below. The good news is that it looks amazing in the demo video. The bad news is that, like the producers name suggests, this trick is heavily reliant on some seriously gimmicked cards.
For starters let’s discuss the gimmick. It’s well made, and it should last a long time, but I’m not sold on the practicality. Playing cards wear down. Depending on how often you perform, and how you handle the cards, you can wear them down pretty quickly. Hole 2 is not a gimmick that you’ll find easy to replace on your own. Meaning you’ll probably have to buy a new Hole2 when your gimmick finally breaks down. The gimmick is, for a playing card, really heavy. This makes handling the cards during the routine feel more awkward than it should. Performance wise you end dirty, requiring a switch before things can be examinable. While this in itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it does mean that Hole 2 is going to be another one of those tricks where you’ll be dedicating an entire deck of cards to a performance that only uses one of them, leaving you with dirty work of either cleaning up your gimmicks and storing them aside from your deck before you continue your routine or switching decks out all together.
Visually Hole 2 is impressive. The magic looks impossible, and it can be reset quickly to be repeated again making this a decent selection for strolling or bar magic. The reactions I’ve received though have been less than thrilling. So far when I’ve performed this for friends and family it gets a lack luster reply. I’m not sure why. Hole 2 is mostly angle proof, anything that would give it away would be an angle you’d never perform for anyways, and it is simple enough to learn. Hole 2 is a good one off. It’s a nice strolling or street magic piece, and it looks great on a camera. However I can’t just help thinking to myself that this isn’t a piece of magic that I’d personally use. It’s not a bad trick. The flaws aren’t fatal, it does what it says it does, and the magic is visually appealing, but somehow I just got left feeling like there’s all this work for very little pay off. Not to mention that I’ve seen other hole style sandwich effects on the market that isn’t so gimmick reliant. So at the end of the day I’m sort of indifferent about Hole 2. I’m not saying don’t get it. I will say though that it wasn’t for me.
When I give my product scores below I am measuring them on a scale of 1 to 10. 1 Being absolute the worst score possible, and 10 being the absolute best, making a score of five average. The four points that I grade upon is Product Quality, Teaching Quality, Sound & Video Quality and Overall Quality.
Product Quality: 5
Heavy gimmick, that is not easy to replace. Well built, but left me wanting more.
Teaching Quality: 5
Easy enough to learn. Beginner level magic. The gimmicks do all the hard work for you.
Video & Sound Quality: 7
Sound and video were both okay.
Overall Quality: 5
It’s not a bad trick. It’s just not a trick that I’d use personally.
Have a product you want reviewed? Want to see if it will stand up to the Draven Seal of Approval? Contact me directly at draven@williamdraven.com to find out how your product could be on the next Draven Reviews! Don't forget to like my blog where all my reviews are posted at www.williamdraven.wordpress.com.
Artist: Mickael Chatelair
Producers: Gimick Magic
Link: Available At Your Favorite Murphy’s Magic Dealer
Retail Price: $24.95
Learning Difficulty: Easy
Length of DVD: 20 Minutes (Approx)
Includes:
- Instructional DVD
- Gimmicks
- Two Hole cards
Features:
- English or French Language
- Trailer
- Chapters
- Play All
The basic idea with Hole 2 is the spectator selects a playing card, it’s then sandwiched between two cards with large holes cut in the center of them, for visibility, and then with magic the card visually and impossibly melts through the bottom hole card and drops a short distance onto the table below. The good news is that it looks amazing in the demo video. The bad news is that, like the producers name suggests, this trick is heavily reliant on some seriously gimmicked cards.
For starters let’s discuss the gimmick. It’s well made, and it should last a long time, but I’m not sold on the practicality. Playing cards wear down. Depending on how often you perform, and how you handle the cards, you can wear them down pretty quickly. Hole 2 is not a gimmick that you’ll find easy to replace on your own. Meaning you’ll probably have to buy a new Hole2 when your gimmick finally breaks down. The gimmick is, for a playing card, really heavy. This makes handling the cards during the routine feel more awkward than it should. Performance wise you end dirty, requiring a switch before things can be examinable. While this in itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it does mean that Hole 2 is going to be another one of those tricks where you’ll be dedicating an entire deck of cards to a performance that only uses one of them, leaving you with dirty work of either cleaning up your gimmicks and storing them aside from your deck before you continue your routine or switching decks out all together.
Visually Hole 2 is impressive. The magic looks impossible, and it can be reset quickly to be repeated again making this a decent selection for strolling or bar magic. The reactions I’ve received though have been less than thrilling. So far when I’ve performed this for friends and family it gets a lack luster reply. I’m not sure why. Hole 2 is mostly angle proof, anything that would give it away would be an angle you’d never perform for anyways, and it is simple enough to learn. Hole 2 is a good one off. It’s a nice strolling or street magic piece, and it looks great on a camera. However I can’t just help thinking to myself that this isn’t a piece of magic that I’d personally use. It’s not a bad trick. The flaws aren’t fatal, it does what it says it does, and the magic is visually appealing, but somehow I just got left feeling like there’s all this work for very little pay off. Not to mention that I’ve seen other hole style sandwich effects on the market that isn’t so gimmick reliant. So at the end of the day I’m sort of indifferent about Hole 2. I’m not saying don’t get it. I will say though that it wasn’t for me.
When I give my product scores below I am measuring them on a scale of 1 to 10. 1 Being absolute the worst score possible, and 10 being the absolute best, making a score of five average. The four points that I grade upon is Product Quality, Teaching Quality, Sound & Video Quality and Overall Quality.
Product Quality: 5
Heavy gimmick, that is not easy to replace. Well built, but left me wanting more.
Teaching Quality: 5
Easy enough to learn. Beginner level magic. The gimmicks do all the hard work for you.
Video & Sound Quality: 7
Sound and video were both okay.
Overall Quality: 5
It’s not a bad trick. It’s just not a trick that I’d use personally.
Have a product you want reviewed? Want to see if it will stand up to the Draven Seal of Approval? Contact me directly at draven@williamdraven.com to find out how your product could be on the next Draven Reviews! Don't forget to like my blog where all my reviews are posted at www.williamdraven.wordpress.com.