The Medusa Project by Perseus Arkomanis Review

Hello, my name is Steve Faulkner. I'd like to welcome you to Real Magic Review and today I'm going to be reviewing the Medusa Project by Perseus Akamalus. Before I do this review, I'd like to tell you something. I have an online magic course, it's called onlinemagic.co. It's more of a resource really because there are so many videos on it now. 91 live sessions, David Williamson on Tomorrow Night, along with many other guests, entertainers and lecturers, and of course I'm on there every week hosting the sessions along with 500 plus, 600 now actually, I think, recorded videos of card moves. I've just uploaded to Spongebob stuff because someone requested it, a coin magic course. I'm just about to upload a rope magic course. I'm uploading new videos every couple of weeks or at least every month and a chunk of them as well. So there you go. Go and have a look at that. You're going to learn from me, someone who's been in the business a long time, so learn from experience. There's my little sales pitch. Go and have a look at it and like and subscribe if you like this video and you want to subscribe to it. Thanks. Right, I had to sit on myself for a long time, put off doing it because it was called a project and when someone's called a project, it's going to be a project, learning it. Luckily it wasn't. It might be if you're not used to your card magic, but I got this out last night, had a good play with it, went out and performed it today in my usual kind of shonky manner, kind of practicing it for 15 minutes and go, that'll do and going out and doing it. And I was nervous. I get nervous at the moment. I'm losing my nerve because I'm not performing often. And, um, I think, you know, today I was like really have to force myself because I find it really weird. I go into places and go, oh, I'm a magician. Can I film you? And, um, uh, and that happened. And then a couple of people said no. And I actually, my friend James watched it in the end, which, oh, I just realized when I said James, I went into his office and he's seen a lot of magic, but he doesn't know how they're all done. And, um, and he said, you got your magic jacket on and you knew something was afoot. Uh, and you will, it will be handy to have a jacket for this. But anyway, so I went in there, um, did a trick for him. He said it was one of the best tricks he'd seen me do, which is he's seen a lot of my tricks. He was really surprised at how good it was because it's a card trick and then it becomes this thing. That's great, isn't it? Yeah. It's good, isn't it? Yeah. Like that. It's amazing. And I like that one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's good, isn't it? Yeah. Um, and then after a while, I really, I really enjoyed it. I've done it a couple of times, um, really enjoyed it. And I just think, well, we'll get to that in a minute. So what is it anyway? Stop banging on Steve. Tell us what the trick is. Um, where you'll see bits of performance footage, but what it is Medusa, as many of you will know, some of you may not is, um, it's a Greek myth of a monster. I was going to say monster, but that makes me sound like a, like an eight-year-old, doesn't it? Oh, I've got a nasty monster in it. And it's, um, a woman with snakes for hair. And when you look at her, she, you turn to stone. There you go. Fascinated with this as a kid. Cause I watched them clash of the Titans as a kid with the Ray Harryhausen animation. I just thought it was so fascinating. I loved it. It was Ray Harryhausen had done that one. Um, and I still love it when it comes on. I just think it's one of the most magical things I've ever seen in this, the idea of look and having to use a mirror to look at someone who's going to turn into stone, the fear of that. And if you've got it wrong, I just thought it was great. So this has got in built with it, some stuff now with that, of course it means it, some people might see that as fairly limiting, but you don't have to stick with the scripting. His scripting is very lovely. Um, Perseus is very good at kind of speaking in that kind of sort of lyrical way. Um, quite romantic, not that it isn't a romantic story he tells, but the way he says it. And it's, um, very magical. I went for a more sort of my usual slap dash as Medusa, you know, she does turns you to stone, here's a mirror. Um, but you know, with a bit of thought it might have been good, but, um, I still mention it and I think it's, it's good. It's when you say, do you know who Medusa is? So they pick a card. Um, I decided to do the Medusa thing after I kind of do the card thing, because I find it weird going Medusa cards. He, he taught me, he does it a lot better, but anyway, um, they pick a card, put it back in the pack. Uh, they can put it back anywhere and you introduce this coin, which has a mirror on it. And the first part of the effect is they breathe on the mirror and it's got a number five on it, or you can breathe on it. And that tells them what card it is. That's pretty magical. Something about breathing on a mirror and the mist, um, creating that, um, that number is really cool. And then you're in a lovely position because they think the trick's over. And of course it's not because then you, you can touch the cards and you turn the cards to stone. Because if you touch it for long, look what happens. If you touch it and touch other things, you see that it starts turning things to stone. Give it a little wipe like that and it starts turning the whole thing to stone. And then you're left with this stone block. So it kind of, you could say it follows the kind of tradition of cards turning into solid stuff, but it does it in a very different way. And I, and it does feel very different. It doesn't, it isn't just hissing. Now he's, he has got handling on it and easier handling when you can do that. It's almost like an Omni deck, isn't you sir, boom, turning into a block of stone. And that might be quite good to do if you're, you're kind of lacking a bit of confidence with this. Um, but the slow that you, there's a card in this that makes you look, you've half turned the cards to stone and then you rub your hands over it and the whole deck's turned to stone. And then you show the deck of cards with their card imprinted on it. And it is genuinely made of, well, not cards, whether it's made of stone, it's not made of stone, it's made of clay, I think. So very magical. This kind of slow change, I think gives it a completely different feel. It's a lot, I used to, I loved, and I still don't know what I prefer, but I, Richard Sanders, um, Extreme Burn is, is clearly a classic where you know, Pages is a classic, but the one that everybody started doing, like this instant change into notes. But part of me, I remember seeing both and felt it was more magical where, with Slow Burn, where you just rubbed your hands across it and it slowly turned into money. I just thought that was, there was something in that which captured me a bit more. Now that might be the magician in me, but I just like that. And I like slow stuff like that. And with this, this idea of this slow change happening right in front of them, right there. And then at that moment, they're, they're, well, they can hold, or you can drop on the table from a very short distance. Uh, this solid, um, it's got a rustic, it looks really rustic. It looks great as well. Uh, I'll just show you that actually, uh, you get more in here, but this is, I don't know, I'll wait for it to focus. Oh, come on, focus. Get my head out of the way. There you go. Uh, so, you know, it looks great. I think it looks brilliant. It's kind of knackered up on purpose. It's not, you know, it's not like it's been back around in the post or anything. You do also get a lighter and a sharpie if you want to extend the routine and start touching other things. And he's got all this lovely stuff where he goes, Oh, touch the coin against the pen. And now the pen's gone. And I've touched it against the lighter and the lighter gone. So you can add that if you'd like. I mean, I don't have really much time to get into all that, but I can imagine with choreography, you can do some really beautiful stuff where the one thing after the other, and you can get more stuff made. I think it's lovely. So of course you're buying the props, you get the free props and the mirror and it's, it's, it's really, really lovely. This coin, you know, even that as an artifact is, is interesting. Uh, and straight away I'm, I'm in the routine itself. I absolutely love it. I've just performed it twice and I've loved performing it twice. And I've, I've done that thing of coming out of a place with a smile on my face because I was a bit nervous and the adrenaline, but also that I've kind of done something. I thought, yeah, it feels different. It feels special. It feels like he says something that means a lot. And you know, he's called Perseus. So that's, that's where he said the idea of if you check the myth out, but he, the idea of the Medusa thing came to him. He says he's been performing it for years. It's his kind of thing he's known for. So it is, it has kind of seen the stage time. Um, and it's his favorite thing to perform. I think he says, and I think I can see why it is really, really nice. And you know what? There are so many tricks being hyped up at the moment. So hyped up and this really hasn't, and I'm not saying it hasn't been advertised or marketed, but, and I think this kind of, this is one of the few things that does live up to it. You know, it's like, it's a really beautiful like bottle, you know, it talks about bottle. It was just so clever and so lovely. And I think this is really special. Um, I would happily take this out with me to a gig. And I think I will. And I say that quite a lot and I don't end up doing it because then something else comes out, but I can't, this has really captured me and it captures the audience. Um, there's something, you know, I haven't done it in a situation where people are kind of geared to, to respond and stuff like that. But I just can't imagine it's not really killing. Now there's something you do have to know a couple of things. He's very open about this stuff is breakable. It's genuinely not, you know, it's not, you can't chuck it around. So you've got to be very careful, especially with the Sharpie. Now that's fine for me. And if, even if I'd have paid the money for it, and it is, I think about $120, I think. Um, so check that out. It's not a, it's not a cheap item. And as you can see, it's all handmade. They're all, it shouldn't be. Um, but the Sharpie thing can break, they even tells you what to do. If it does, you can use half of it still for the, for changing the cap into, uh, into stone. The, um, the site has, uh, insurance on, I don't know, I clicked on it and I couldn't see exactly what, but a premium, you can insure this stuff for $30, which is pretty good, but replacements aren't very expensive. Now you do get a gimmicked card and I think you're going to want to replace that after a while, but you can buy 10 of those for $20 and that's going to last you a long time. Um, and if you, if you're careful, you're not going to have to replace this stuff. So just be aware of it. But if you start dropping it all over the place, um, it will break, but I've got no, I think that's going to last me for, I don't think I'm going to drop it and I'll drop everything. The pen I'll probably will drop at some point and he'll fall apart and that's fine. Uh, cause that's not the main thing, but the basic routines with the cards, I think it's wonderful. It is going to take some skill. You do have to be on a hand or deck of cards with this. Now he does have an easier version, as I say, but if you want to do the version, which I think is the most magical, the slow, you're going to have to really be able to handle a deck of cards. Some gimmicks are made to make card tricks easier. And so you don't have to put the work in. This isn't, this is a gimmick made to give you a specific effect that you can't get with a normal deck of cards and a very magical one. Therefore you are going to have to know some moves. And that's why I always say, you know, people say you don't need loads of carbon. You need one force and you've won this. I think it's, I really think if you have like a load of moves in your, in your toolbox, you can just start bringing in and start learning things instantly. Nearly. You're not, then you still have to practice them, but uncle Steve says, learn your moves and you can do that on online magic. I didn't say that just because of that, but loads of moves on there, all the moves that we're going to want, all the ones you need for this. Um, so you have to be bold. You have to be confident with a deck of cards. And I was a bit nervous, but straight away you go, yep, this is great. It's all the built in and you've got the misdirection you need and you aren't going to have to need misdirection for this. So it's not an easy trick. It's not a beginner's trick, but something to work towards, I think. And something that most card people could, could handle by the way, it's not knuckle busting in any way at all. It's more a confidence thing. As I say, uh, angles, I think again, because the misdirection, you're going to be fine. I've done it surrounded. And yes, if they looked, they could see, but, but because of what I'm saying and where things are happening, it's completely fine. I can't think of anything negative to say about this other than you might break it and all that kind of stuff. I think it's really, really nice. I think it's a beautiful piece of kit. The, the Orion Magic are clearly, you know, putting themselves is, um, out as people that can, that are going to make quality products. This is the second thing I reviewed from there. I'm there's no, I have no doubt, um, that all of that stuff's going to be great or really good quality. Um, and I'm looking forward to getting more. So that's the Medusa project, Perseus Alchemanus. I think it's, um, $120. If I'm not right, I'm not far out. I think it's worth it. I think it's something you'll get a lot of use out of and you get a lot for your money and you get a lovely printed booklet as well. And some really nice, um, instructions on the download where he takes you through everything in real detail. And then you get this lovely over the shoulder shot and you go through the whole routine really slowly so you can follow all the moves. And, uh, it's great, right? I think you might gather like that one. Uh, you can get it if you want. Use the links below. They're not affiliate links. I don't get anything for this. Um, but you can go and have a look on online magic.co. If you want to learn all the moves you'll ever need to do routines like this, open any book and learn any trick because you can go on my course and learn it. And if it's not there, you can ask for it because that's what this is my job now, right? I'm going to stop talking now and you can stop listening to me and click them links and have a look at stuff. Uh, thanks very much. Like and subscribe. Take care. See you later. Bye-bye.