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I received Lit back in November, and I’ve since performed it for magicians and lay-folks.
I love that the DVD comes with 14 different gimmicks. Refills are available, which I think this is important because this effect just begs to be given away!
Paper Crane did a very nice job with the video editing and DVD authoring. The teaching on the DVD is clear and concise.
We’re taught handlings for the effect by both Dan Hauss and Dan White. I think both handlings are effective. As a lucky coincidence, I have a one-way forcing deck that matches one of my gimmicks, so I’ve tried a few ideas with that as well.
On a technical level, the effect is easy. It seems way too easy for the reactions that I’ve seen on the DVD and in real life. That’s a good thing. Minimum effort, maximum results.
A little story – My Dad and I live in different states. He likes magic, but rarely gets vocally excited about it. After I got the DVD and I told him I was working on “That card to matchbook one from the Blaine special” I could hear him perk up and say, “Now that was d*mn good!” If he got that excited about it from a TV performance, I could only imagine the real-world impact that this would have.
The bonus effects on the DVD are both excellent. Dan White’s floating match is very practical, and is something that most will be able to keep with them at all times and perform at a moment’s notice.
The self-lighting matchbook from Andrew Gerard looks fantastic. It looks very pure and magical. This one isn’t something that I do often. Because of what’s involved, it’s more of a “special occasion” piece for me. Lit and the Floating Match are things that I carry quite often though.
When I first received Lit, I showed the gimmick to some local magic friends, and they loved it, and couldn’t wait to pick up Lit for themselves.
About a week after getting the DVD, I had a last-minute gathering with 8 friends and family members for dinner, ranging in age from mid-20′s to early-80′s. They’ve all seen me perform magic on several occasions over the past few years. After dinner, naturally, they asked for a bit of a show.
I told them that I’d start with something other than a card trick (for once), and that I’d been working on something with matches.
I performed the Traveling Match portion, complete with eating the match. I’ve performed the “classic” version of this, via dropping it on the floor or lapping it, many times. Eating the match adds a whole new dynamic layer to it. The whole group was just very interested in me eating the match. Some were grossed out, some were impressed, others wondered if I “actually” ate the match. (Putting it in your mouth can taste a little bad, but I think the reactions are worth it!)
I blew onto the matchbook after ‘eating’ the match, and had my cousin open it. Everyone was impressed that the burned one had appeared. She even smelled the match, and verified that it had been “recently burned” (even though it had actually been burned a week prior…)
From there, I said I was going to move into a card trick, but told my cousin to keep the matches between her hands, because I wanted to try something else in a minute.
I turned to my Aunt, as I took a deck out of my pocket, and had her select a card. For this part, I used a one-way forcing deck (Not mentioned on the DVD, but I thought the extreme fairness of the selection would be beneficial with Lit, and make my life reaaalllly easy). She picked her card, showed it around, and I used a simple Erdnase change to make the card vanish.
I then asked if everyone would be impressed if I could make the card appear inside the matchbook. The question alone brought verbal excitement! Just the idea that I could make something appear inside a matchbook trapped between someone’s hands got the group chattering. This came as quite a surprise to me.
I gave my cousin the go-ahead to open the matches and take a look. She almost jumped out of her seat when she realized it had changed into the selected card. She enthusiastically showed the card around the table, acting like a kid on Christmas. Everyone else provided equally strong responses.
These are people who have seen a lot of magic from me. They all like magic, but rarely respond to an effect so vocally. Some effects elicit verbal reactions, where others get quiet smiles, etc. But it’s VERY rare for something to get such a strong response from EVERYONE at the table.
My cousin (A 30 year old woman with her Master’s) was adamant that she’d been holding the matches the whole time, and recalled smelling the burnt match. She couldn’t begin to fathom how the matches had changed into the card.
I have to echo the sentiments of Jamie Grant’s Magic Friday experience. This effect is killer.
The reaction from this is way above the effort that gets put in. It’s soooo easy to do, and there’s no heat on the dirty work at all, since it happens on an offbeat where your audience thinks you’re switching gears into another trick.
Lit ranks right up there for me among the very best tricks that have been released in the last few years. Highly recommended.