Whiplash (Josh Janousky)

A MacGyver among card gimmicks

Overview

I love Josh Janousky's work.  I follow some of his social media, and always read what he has to say when I notice one of his posts in the forums I frequent.  To begin with, he's hilarious.  For example, he describes Whiplash as "cooler than a grizzly-bear riding a unicorn with a chainsaw."  I love that quirky kind of humor, and his entertaining and unique style.  Just check out the trailer for Whiplash over here, and you'll see what I mean.

More importantly, Josh is incredibly creative.  I first came across his work as a result of the digital download for his trick IG.  This was featured by Bro Gilbert as part of "The Vault" series, and is a relatively easy trick that uses Instagram to produce a modern, fresh, and fun prediction effect.  I loved it and ended up reviewing it here.

But with Whiplash, Josh Janousky has produced something even more terrific than IG. And don't just take my word for it, however.  In the voting for The Magic Cafe's annual "Trick of the Year" in 2017, Whiplash came in a very strong third place behind Angelo Carbone's "The Gift" and Kelvin Chow's "Quiver".  Making it into the Top 3 of all tricks released throughout an entire calendar year is a remarkable achievement.

The reason Whiplash is so highly regarded is because of how much you can do with it.  This isn't really a trick, but is more of a Swiss Army Knife for card magic.  It's a remarkable utility gimmick that you can use to do transpositions, vanishes, colour changes, and more.  It does come with four complete routines, so it certainly does teach you some amazing tricks. But the fact that you can do a whole lot more with this only adds to its appeal.



Effect

It's hard to do justice to Whiplash by describing a single effect, because this isn't a one-trick pony, but is a utility gimmick that lets you do a variety of card magic.  But the main ability it gives you is a ready way to transpose, vanish, and transform cards.

The instructional video teaches four routines, including Whipped Across, which is a variation on the classic "cards across" plot. This involves cards disappearing visibly and then reappearing one at a time, the final card in the hands of your spectator.  The other three routines are an Oil and Water effect, a Sandwich routine, and a Monte routine.

The best way to get an idea of what this utility gimmick can do is to see some of the clips that are part of the official trailer video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOZ1uu2a4CM



I have seen Whiplash compared with other releases like Twizted, which I don't own, so I can't comment about how these compare.  But Josh does credit Mark Mason and Eric Jones, as well as Kyle Littleton for some of the routines, so Whiplash has been released with the appropriate crediting and permissions.

Contents

What you get is a box slightly larger than a tuck box for a regular deck of playing cards.  Inside is a single copy of the gimmick, and a paper that provides you with a link to a password-protected site from Murphy's Magic where you can access the instructional video.

The gimmick I received used a red Bicycle Maiden Back.  Personally I don't think this will be too much of an issue, because most magicians will have a good supply of Bicycle decks, including a Maiden Back.  And even if you don't, it's quite close to a Rider Back, and you could include it along with some Rider Backs without it being detected.  What was more of an issue for me was that while the colour of the card back was a good match with my other decks, the colour of the card face of the gimmick was more muted than the cards in my other decks.  Some variance in printing colours is to be expected, but I would have liked this to have been a closer match - although I'm not too worried that this will get noticed by the casual observer.

The gimmick should hold up to a lot of repeated use, but in the event that you want to make your own from a different deck, or need to repair it, that is all covered in the video.  However it is somewhat of a fiddly business to make your own, and considering that you can buy it at a reasonable price, I'd probably be inclined just to get a new one if ever it came to that, rather than try to build one myself.

As for the tutorial video, this was a 427MB download, and a very impressive 95 minutes in length.  I'd rather have a video that covers too much than too little, so this immediately made a good impression on me.



Teaching

The instructions consist of a long video that runs for over an hour and a half, but fortunately it is nicely organized.  First there's an introduction, which is followed by a history of the development of the gimmick, and an overview of what you get.  Then there are performances and tutorials for each of the four routines that are included: Whipped Oil and Water, Whipped Sandwich, Whipped Across, and Whipped Monte.  The video is rounded out with coverage on how to repair and customize the gimmick.

The video itself is a quality production, with clear visuals and sound.    But most importantly, the instruction provided is excellent.  Josh gives careful step by step instructions, making everything easy to follow and learn.  It's also entertaining in places, because Josh has a quirky sense of humour, and doesn't take himself too seriously. (When is the last time you saw an instructional video that includes voice impressions?!).

Besides the video instructions, there's also a facebook video group that you can join, which has been set up by Josh, and where you can share ideas with other owners of the gimmick, and access additional real life performance videos.



Impressions

The real strength of Whiplash is the visual effects you can produce with it.  The gimmick enables you to do things that you simply couldn't do with regular cards on their own, and the visual impact really makes it worthwhile. I love extremely visual effects, and the instant changes you can do with this are guaranteed to get a good reaction from your spectators, which makes it well worthwhile.  If I had any complaint, it would be the choice of using a Maiden Back rather than a Rider Back, but you can hardly call that a fault because USPCC doesn't allow customizing of Rider Backs anymore, and in the scheme of things this isn't a huge deal given how similar these look.

I don't think that magicians need to be embarrassed about using gimmicks, as long as it is justifiable, and in this case the visual magic you can create with Whiplash more than justifies its use.  The gimmick is admittedly not examinable, so you can't give it to your spectators to look at carefully.  But Josh does cover ways of handling this in the instructions, and if you perform everything naturally there should be no reason for them to even ask to examine anything.  Only the very attentive person might notice something, because the gimmick really does look normal to the casual observer.

Another strength of Whiplash is its versatility.  You have a variety of ways in which you can use it, including visual effects like transpositions, vanishes, and colour changes.  I really like the fact that four routines are provided, but that is just the tip of the iceberg, because you can do so much with this.  The sky is the limit, and your own creativity and imagination will help you come up with your own ideas for applying and using the gimmick.

The instructions are also excellent and cover all the ground you'll want to know about the gimmick, as well as several routines to get you started in using it.  The gimmick is not that difficult to use, and the routines that are taught in the tutorial video are relatively straight forward, and I'd consider them just above the capabilities of beginners.  If you have intermediate abilities in card magic, and can handle basic card fundamentals like card controls, card forcing, and double lifts, you already have the set of skills you need.



Endorsements

To give you an idea of enthusiastic response that Whiplash has generated, here are some of the positive things that others have said about it - these are mostly quotes from scattered places online:

"I absolutely love it! Some awesome routines are covered here." - Ari Isenberg
"This is something i see myself performing constantly." - Ezequiel Reis
"Four nicely taught routines that will have your spectators' eyes popping out! Extremely visual and yet not difficult to do. One of the best purchases I have made." - Jim McGowan
"Really opens the door for creative routines not so easily possible before.  You're getting very good value for your money here. I will definitely be using this often." - David Jonathan
"Amazing gimmick with a lot of interesting applications. And also a great tutorial. It's fun to play with it and try to create new routines." -  Fabrizio Andrioni
"I'm no pro at card magic, but have very much taken to Whiplash! Highly recommend to any one who loves card magic!" - Stewart Clarke
"It looks so visual that sometimes I even fool myself when doing it." - Anonymous
"A superb gimmick. Certainly the best card gimmick I have purchased in the last 15 years.  This is a gimmick that really is only limited by your own imagination." - Cubemaster
"The nature of the effects can be appearances, vanishes, and productions, so you are receiving a practical tool that will certainly deliver results." -David Regal
"The versatility of it is fantastic. So far I've used it for transpositions, color changes, vanishes, etc., and I feel like I haven't even touched the surface of its potential."  - Stephen Cabe
"This is definitely one of my favorite card gimmicks that I use all the time.  I love all the routines he teaches." - 1KJ
"Even for an amateur like myself the training was easy to follow and perform. The nature of the gimmick has given me the ability to WOW audience members." - Tom Rolfe
"So simple yet surprisingly effective. Eye candy at its best." - Andrew K.
"If you are on the fence about Whiplash, get back off it and order the darned thing!" - Jim Mac



Recommendation

If MacGuyver was into card magic and wanted a utility tool that could accomplish a variety of visual effects, Whiplash would meet those requirements.   This is a gimmick that is easy to use, has a variety of applications, and should prove quite durable.  The only downside is that it is a Bicycle Maiden Back card, but we can only blame USPCC for that rather than the creator, and this isn't a deal-breaker given that many people have reported using it successfully along with regular Bicycle Rider Back cards.  It's not surprising that on The Magic Cafe this was voted in the top three tricks of the year in 2017.

Most importantly, you'll enjoy using Whiplash in light of the visual impact it has in vanishes and transformations, and how it enables you to astound spectators by accomplishing the truly impossible.  And isn't that what magic is all about? I'm for anything that helps me do that more easily!



Want to learn more? See Whiplash, which is available from Murphy's Magic retailers.