Demi Deck by Angelo Carbone Review

Hi, welcome to Real Magic Review, my name is Steve Faulkner, and today I will be reviewing Demideck by Angelo Calboni. Before we do the review, very importantly, loads of stuff to say, so I'll try and say it quickly, because I'm a bit of an itch here then, felt like a fly flew in it. Right, first off, OnlineMagic.co, that's the thing that runs the whole thing, that is my membership site, which is wonderful, it's brilliant, have a look at it, don't take my word for it, I'm very biased, because I love it. I've been doing it for 10 years, and it's, have a look at the Trust Pilot reviews, have a look at the special guests that are on there, I've got to update the sites that are on there, it says courses available, there's more on there, there's a coin magic course, a rope magic course, a new rubber band magic course, all volume one, gonna be more, and loads of live sessions and special guests, the best magicians in the world on there, there is, that's good, isn't it? 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So have a look at that, the first episode should go up today, or tomorrow, with my friend Noel Qualter, and you're going to be finding out some stuff about Noel that you would never have known, or will never read anywhere else. It's good stuff, so that's Steve Faulkner's Magic Show, wherever you get your podcast, please give it a search, leave it a review, and give me some feedback, it'd be great. Loads more people have agreed to do it, and some very big names in magic, so it's all very exciting. Right, and like and subscribe, of course. Demideck, a lot of talk about this, a lot of hype about this, does it deserve it, well that's what this is about. Full disclosure, I have had this for one day, I've played with it a lot last night, I've used it a lot, I haven't taken it out and done it in a gig, don't have to to tell you the things I need to tell you now. If you haven't seen the trailer, do check it out. Angelo said to me, watch the trailer, I said no, I don't want to watch it, I don't know anything about it, I had an idea before I get it, and when I got it I watched the trailer and got very excited. First up, Angelo is someone who I really respect, he, I know there's been stuff on Facebook that he's put on over the years of him just really working on different illusions, different effects, putting loads of time into it, putting loads of work into it, and this is no exception, and very wisely, I think, he said I've been working on this for, since 2002 was when he started working on it, because he said I've got a video from 2003, and he plays a video from early 2003, and it's this old version of it that he's playing with, and then he shows the sort of the build-up to what he's got now. Now this isn't done in a way I don't think of, I'm not going to overprove that this is, it's just a wise decision, because everybody says I've been working on this for 20 years, and you go, well I haven't seen anything, and this is a genuine thing, and he shows you, doesn't spend long doing it, doesn't spend hours doing it, he doesn't try and hype it up to you when you're watching the tutorial of the trick you've already bought, which that kind of winds me up as well a little bit, winds me up a bit strong probably, but he shows you a few versions of this, Tenyo made a version, Colin Rose made a version, but then said look if we release this now, I just wouldn't be able to make that many of them, because I think a lot of people are going to want it, so over the years he just kind of played with it, and used it, and performed with it, and now we have this, because of the technology we've got now, and the ability to produce these things, the trick is, it's one of those ones that gets you, you watch it and you go, I really want to see that, now it's, you know, talking about Tenyo, I love all that Tenyo stuff, but a lot of it I look at it and go, I wouldn't do this, it doesn't fit anywhere, this is kind of a version that does, it is cutting a deck of cards in half, putting it back together, and I love the way that, you know, on the trailer it says to an audience member, you know, when you think of a magician, what trick do you think of? Now we know nine times out of ten people are going to say, sign someone you have, and I get asked at so many gigs, so how do people do that? So it's, this is something you can actually go, right, actually I'll show you a version of it, and it does look phenomenal, and it isn't just a trailer, it looks phenomenal, I've, you know, I've looked in front of a mirror, I'm not putting any footage on here of me doing it, for a very good reason, which we're going to talk about in a sec, but I showed it to my friend James this morning, we have a cup of tea every morning, he knows what to look for now, and I didn't do it that well, and I don't mind with him, because he kind of knows a bit, no idea, he was really, and because he's seen quite a lot now, he's kind of getting a bit wound up with it. So it's great for all that, you, very briefly, there's a routine with this you can do, which you get a gimmicked card with, which I think is nice, it's great, I would tend to just keep it pure, I think, it is really good actually, when he does the thing. So we'll reach inside and remove your card, what was your card? Queen of Hearts. Look, I'll put it back inside, close it right there, and look very carefully, I'll pull it out, just like this, 104 pieces, now 52, all healed. How are they not in half? Oh, oh my god, I only turned half, that's crazy, because I flipped it over when I took it out, one second, this is actually super simple to fix, barely an inconvenience. That's all good, brilliant, I love it, really good trick, maybe it'll work really well live for me, but my tendency would be to just do it as a thing, to just go right. Now if you're going to just do that, there are two ways of doing it, there is a way that is a little bit more angley, where you hold the deck, and it's good for one or two people, or camera, social media, and all that, and I think again, like I always say, that is a valid thing, but you're gonna have to be a lot more careful about angles. I did that version this morning, and that's the one where you pull the cards out, you put them back in again, you show them everything very clearly, you slowly open it up, they see the inside of the box on the back of it, you open it up again, you lift a little flap importantly, that shows you the other half of the card, so you can see both ends of the cards, put that back, put it back together, and slide the cards back out, and show the cards as a full deck. Brilliant. The second version is, he says a little bit more advanced, it's not advanced really, it's just more to think about, where you show the deck a little bit more openly, it's all a bit quicker, but it's without putting the, the saw, the, this blade through, all right, because you're cutting a woman in half, you're cutting them, this is without the blade, you just split it, put it back together, do that, and I didn't mention a blade thing before, but you've seen it on the, on the trailer. That's, when you're doing it, you're thinking, oh yeah, I've got to be careful of that, and as he said, there's a few more things to think about, and it's a bit more of a quick kind of one-off, bang, bang, bang, we're going to do this, right, let's get on with it, kind of trick. And then you've got the routine, and various other ways of doing it you will come up with. The important thing with these kind of tricks is, is it built well, is it going to last, how angly is it, how easy is it, which is less important, I mean, as long as it's doable, I'm happy, but you don't want it to be completely impossible. It's built, now, obviously, I haven't had it long, it seems to be built well. Now, full disclosure, the blade bit I got with it came apart a little bit, and I've put it back together with a tiny bit of super glue, all right. If I'd have bought it, would I have been bothered with that? No, because it's not the main unit, and I get a feeling that's not going to happen with many people. If it does, don't come back to me, but, you know, the, it's just a tiny little thing, it wasn't like it all fell apart, and I thought, oh, better sort that out. The rest of it, I've, you know, I've really, kind of, all evening, yesterday evening, just, kind of, doing it, making sure it didn't loosen, it didn't go weird, nothing came off, nothing, you know, the flap that you open, and by the way, the flap that you open to, kind of, that convincer of showing the other half of the deck, is a bit fiddly. They do talk you through it, but you've got to, kind of, do something, and all the tips, so when you do it, if you don't watch the instructions, you may, kind of, struggle with it. That takes a little bit of practice, just to feel the right place to do what you've got to do. But everything else, when the other thing is, when you tip the cards out, you've, some, sometimes one or two will get stuck in there, and you, not stuck, but will stay in there, and you've just got to, kind of, feed them out. Again, with practice, with working on it, that isn't going to be a problem. But all these things are easy, and this is why I'm telling you all this. So it makes you feel like you can go out and do it straight away. Angles, again, you're going to have to be wary of them, but they're not difficult angles to think about. Basically, you do this version of people there, if there's people around, you do this other version. If there's people totally around you, looking behind and over your shoulder, you probably won't do it at all. Yes, you could, kind of, do it at a lower level, but I wouldn't do it. There is an angle thing here. I wouldn't call it an issue. It's the same as a lot of things like this. You are going to have to practice your angles, know where to do it, and when you do the trick, you're going to feel vulnerable, but you'll be all right, is my, is my feeling, once you've done it a few times. When I showed my friend this morning, I was like, is he seeing this? But not at all. Very magical, great effect. So it's an easy trick, but it seems that many people have gone out and gone, right, I can do that, and that's kind of how it makes you feel. So if I stick it on social media, I'll film it, I'll show, and you have to think about the subtle bits of this. Now, subtlety doesn't mean difficulty. These are very easy things, but with these kind of tricks, there are maybe three or four things you want to be doing with your fingers and hands, none of which are difficult, that have to be unconscious. You don't want to be doing this going, right, if I do that, oh yeah, I've got to do that. I've got to do that. And because that creates this kind of cagey feeling and this feeling of process, whereas you want to not be thinking about any of that stuff. You want to pick it up, know exactly what your hand is going to be doing to do what you need to do. There's no real, it's not like palming or anything when it takes years to get it looking natural. It's going to look natural because at each level of it, you're holding something. It's not like you've got a palm and hold out something and make your hand look natural and pretend it's not holding anything. It's all kind of in context. But if you're not careful, like some people have done, I think, is you'll kind of go, oh, this is really easy. I can do this straight away without thinking about those things you have to rehearse. And what you have to rehearse is the equivalent to really, you know, rehearsing, putting that into that hand and not putting it like that. You know, it's kind of a way you put your hand. It's a way where you hold your hand. It's a way you open the thing. All of it takes no skill whatsoever, but it takes unconscious competence. You know exactly where your hands are going. So you can talk when you're doing it and, you know, they can be burning it, but you just want all that right. So you're not feeling cagey about it and looking cagey about it. Now, you will get away with it if you do that, but it will be a little bit like a kid showing you a magic trick. You know, if a kid shows you, you know, a 10-year-old trick or something like that, I'm not saying 10-year-old tricks are just for kids. Don't get upset. But you can see they're kind of going, oh, this, this, but when they practice and it looks smooth, it's really amazing. The little details and subtleties with this are what really makes it work. So when you put the blade in and open it up, you see the blade and the bottom of the box. And that means more than you think. There's a lot of work gone into that. There's a way of kind of not using black art, but making sure that bits that could potentially flash a lot, don't flash a lot. And you've got sort of a little bit of leeway and forgiveness there. It feels well-made. As I said, nothing's really come apart and I've sort of, you know, given it a bit of work. It is a kind of unusual to us looking card box. So my feeling is that when you've done the trick, you're going to either want to do it first and then go onto it and do a load of magic tricks or do it at the end when you put the, a load of card tricks and do at the end when you put the cards back in, you know, do the thing and then put, put it away. It's not examinable. It doesn't have to be examinable. It doesn't bother me. And you know, they're going to be so blown away by what they definitely have seen, which is a deck of cards. And they can of course examine the cards, which is great because that's the thing they're going to be going, is it, you know, how have these come apart? Does this deserve the hype? I think it's really special. It's different. And Angelo has worked an awful long time on this. It is the result of something that he cares about. And I know that because the minute people started putting stuff online, that was a slightly weird bit of handling. He was all over the Facebook group going, please don't do this. Please wait. You know, you've got straight away and taken out. So please here, do this. They put an extra bit in a video just to make sure, which for some of us would be obvious, just to say, look, don't do this because it's going to give the game away a little bit. Again, it wouldn't completely expose the trick, but he's really into the fact that he wants people to do this properly because it's something he cares about. It's something he's worked an awful long time on. I think it's really good. I won't be doing it every table because it's just stuff to think about. I think I'll have it and it'll be great for those moments where I go, yeah, it's going to work. This is going to blow people like parlour. Great. And it's a version. If you, you know, I don't think it's a shoehorn version. I don't mean it's a, it's a kind of one of those things. Have you ever seen, you know, David Coffey working with a great wall of trying and that's the same as two elastic bands going through each other. I actually do that sometimes and it works, but this is genuinely pretty much the same trick. And I love the fact it's got the little blade, you know, you recreate in something. And sometimes it's going to feel like, you know, that question from someone has been spontaneous and you've come up with this amazing way of doing exactly the same trick. And everybody says, by the way, not everybody, but so many people say to me, yeah, I love closeup magic. The stuff on stage is all right. And that's great telly, but it's right there. And the fact is this is that trick, but it's right there and it's great. And you know, it's got a lovely box to it. This is important. Now this box, and I'm not saying, Hey, it's lovely. It's good packaging is proper solid. So it gives you something, you know, to, to carry this prop in and to make sure it keeps well sort of thing. So I would, you know, I wouldn't chuck this in my closeup case, you know, without this box. And I think I like the fact it's not massive. It's just a bit bigger than the thing. And it's somewhere to keep the prop. Oh, that's why it won't close because the little blade is in the way. Yeah. But I think it's a good release. I think it's solid and anybody having a problem with it just hasn't practiced with it and you haven't got to practice that much. Really. I'd love to hear what you think. That is Demideck. Congratulations to Angelo.