I’d never heard of Michael Muldoon before, but people kept talking about him so we thought it was about time to review his new DVD, 6 by Six. This is an all-cards DVD with a number of new takes on some ‘classics’ and one or two of his own effects. So let’s get straight down to the tricks…
New Found Blood
The odd name for this effect is apparently due to it being invented whilst Michael was recovering from a blood transfusion! So what’s it all about? A spectator chooses a card. It then appears sandwiched between two red aces. A previously removed prediction card is shown to match the selection – and then the two tabled aces turn into the matching pairs of the original selection. Nice!
Some set up is required for this and Michael takes you through a number of ways to achieve that. The explanation is fairly rapid and packs a lot in. This routine assumes some level of competence with cards – so the moves are explained rather quickly. There’s certainly lots of magic in a short pace and it is very visual.
2 other variations on the effect are provided. The first is completely ‘in the hands.’ The final variation adds an extra ‘sucker’ phase, and a change of the ‘wrong’ card into the prediction card, with the original turning up reversed in the middle of the deck. Even if you don’t like the routine (and I think it is quite nice) some of the switches taught look like they could be very versatile and used elsewhere.
Two Ton Triumph
This is a nice in the hands triumph routine (assuming you can do an in the hands faro :-)). It’s pacey (I sometimes find Triumph type routines can be a bit slow) and the magic seems instantaneous. As the name suggests it relies heavily on a move by Bill Goodwin which is credited. There’s a very simple setup and I think with a bit of practice this should be in the reach of most magicians and is well worth the effort. A very nice version.
No Stopping Me
Spectator remembers a card at a random number in a freely shuffled deck and you are able to reveal it later. That’s the effect in a nutshell. OK, so there’s a certain amount of dealing and counting in this. But it is basically self-working so what more do you want?
Invisible Flush
This is a version of Jenning’s classic ‘Invisible Palm‘ routine with a royal flush finish. The kicker of the flush makes a nice addition to the effect. But I’ve never particularly enjoyed this plot. Nicely routine if this is your kind of bag.
Fool Me Once
This is the one everyone seems to be talking about. It is a real fooler which is not hard to do. Spectator freely cuts into the middle of a shuffled deck, looks at a card and shuffles their portion of the deck. This is then cut in to the remainder of the deck and yet the magician is able to name their card without appearing to touch the deck at all. There is a set up required, but it is more than justified by the strength of the effect. Great stuff.
[Extra magic note: At the back of the mind there is a similar effect I saw in a book I read back in 2006. I would like to check it out for similarity. Unfortunately although I can remember the date because I know where I learnt the effect, I can’t remember which book it was and haven’t been able to locate it in my library yet. Watch this space…]
The Royal Tantalizer
This is a variation on a Hugard and Braue effect. An elimination process whittles down to a single card which turns out to be the spectator’s card. Various piles which have been discarded on the way are shown to have a Royal Flush on top of them. As a routine this one doesn’t do much for me. And it requires a slightly fiddly set up from my point of view (not that difficult, but requires some memory work if you’re doing it on the fly). But it does have a very sneaky way of loading a card onto the deck which looks like it could have other useful applications.
Extras
The advertising speaks of an extra free download but I haven’t been able to work out how to access that. If you can help me, please let me know!
Final thoughts
In a world of flashy graphics and DVDs this is a refreshingly simply shot DVD – the explanations all seem to be done on the couch in his apartment. Michael comes across as a genuine and nice guy and so is a pleasure to learn from. I would have liked to see some of the tricks performed in the ‘real world’ rather than in a studio-type setting but I have no doubts that they would work well in the real world. There are some nice takes on some classic effects here plus some nice new plots. I don’t think there is anything truly ground-breaking, but if you don’t already have pet versions of some of these you will certainly find something of interest.