Spin Doctor - by John Bannon

[Pier]

So we are at number three in the Series.

Maybe you've already read my previous little reviews of "The Royal Scam" and "Duplicity"; this time the trick is called "Spin Doctor", and is a cute variation on the classic "Twisting the Aces" card theme with some very welcome 'Bannon-esque' touches, as usual.

I'll recap the physical feature of this work briefly because... it's the third time I do it: infact, as for the other two tricks in the series:

• The included playing cards are Bicycle quality in a plastic holder;
• There's a DVD with professional filming showing the trick, the explanations and the extras;
• The DVD includes a convenient (printable) PDF file with all the explanations and some "more". Be sure you don't miss the "more" part if you get the trick.

Let me quote now John's original text for the effect explanation (not only I'm lazy , but who else can describe the trick better than John himself?):

"You display a small packet consisting of four blue-backed Aces. Each time the face-down packet is given a “twist” or a “spin,” a different Ace is seen face-up in the packet.
After three “spins,” each of three Aces has turned face up—Hearts, Clubs and Diamonds. Now, you deliberately turn the Ace of Spades face-up and suddenly all four Aces are face-up. Now you place the Ace of Spades face-down on your spectator’s open palm and say you will make it vanish and appear between the other three Aces. The other Aces are held in your left hand in a face-up spread.
Nothing happens. At least, that’s the way it seems. However, when you turn over the “Ace of Spades,” it’s now blank—it’s vanished. And, when your audience looks back at the spread of Aces, they see that the Ace of Spades has reappeared in the midst of the other Aces.
Now you offer to make the Aces change in full view. Nothing happens. At least that’s the way it seems. But when you deal each of the four Aces face down into your spectator’s open palm, each Ace has a different back design and color—four different colored backs."

The only thing I can add if that You end clean and everything is examinable -- that's one of the fixed points around which the whole "Fractal Card Magic Trylogy" was made!

As you have just read, various magical surprises happen during the trick; all the flowing of the moves is fluid and logical. Technically, the trick is no more difficult than an array of Elmsley Counts placed in the correct places. Anyway John worked A LOT on the effect to let it look SO fluid: in some place the Counts are sleightly varied just to get the correct "innocent" flow of moves. Not to mention a "discrepancy" that is really genial; not only it fooled me badly during the trick, but when I saw its explanation I laughed (and John previewed even this on the PDF!).

The idea of using a fifth more-or-less hidden card in a '4 cards twisting' effect is not new, of course. The news are that John found a clever and logical way to put it into active play so the card not only became part of the various misteries of this trick, but helps in the end to show ALL the remaining cards to the perplexed spectators: yep, you don't need to hide, palm, cop or "vanish" anything.

The trick can be reset almost openly while you put away the cards, so it's perfect to repeat imediately.

If this wasn't enaugh to wet some appetites, let me add that at the end of the PDF file you'll find even more hints on what to perform if you have not a crowd but a single spectator in front of you, and how to modify very little the trick to perform it with a borrowed deck and use it to reveal a freely chosen card at the end of a series of magical twistings.

In the PDF and in a video section, a LONG list of credits is reported.

Oh, the extra trick. Yes, Even in this video, a second bonus effect is performed and explained. This time is called "Doctored Daley" and is a very little variation on the classic "Daley's Last Trick" that many of us already know and perform in one of its variants. John changed the handling... of the spectator (!) a little so the whole effect becames even MORE magical to the lay-onlooker's eyes. It's really one of those things that make you think "why I didn't thought of this before?"

Fun Inc., the trick's distributor, provides even a little link to a demo video on their website.

~~~~~

All in all I'm a little sorry that this Series ends here; anyway it should be quite unusual a 'Trylogy' including more than three items, don't you think?
On the other hand, John is a terrific Magician... I'm sure He's already working on this