FLASH CHANGE (William Alexis Houcke)

Another novel flashlight card trick from the maker of Gleam

Overview

Most of us have a good sense of the kind of magic that people like.  And when it comes to card magic, what we're constantly "fighting" against is the fact that most of our spectators have seen their kid nephew or their well-intentioned uncle performing card tricks.  So they've usually seen plenty examples of bad and boring magic with a deck of cards.  That makes it so important for us to capture their imagination in what we do.

One way to accomplish that is by doing something that is very visual.  Another way to accomplish it is by doing something memorable and modern, by incorporating our spectator's own technology.  That's why we're seeing a lot of card magic nowadays taking advantage of phones or social media, and bringing technology into card magic.  It connects with people, and it makes things interesting for them.

FLASH CHANGE from William Alexis Houcke falls into this category of modern magic by takingadvantage of your spectator's phone to reveal a selected card, simply by using its flashlight feature.  This gimmick is apparently just a blank card.  But using the flashlight on your spectator's phone, this blank card suddenly reveals not just one spectator's selection, but with a shake instantly changes and reveals a second spectator's selection as well.   It's visual, it's contemporary, and it's certain to catch the attention of a modern audience.



Effect

The name "Flash Change" does a good job of describing the visual effect you'll accomplish with the single card that this trick uses.  Although the way you present this can be customized to your own taste, the basic plot works something like this:

You remove a deck from a card box, and two spectators each remove and remember a random card from the deck.  Now comes the first unexpected moment as you show that inside the tuck box is a single playing card, which is completely blank.

At this point you invite someone to bring their smartphone into play, and switch on its flashlight feature.  Holding the blank card over the flashlight beam shows that the blank playing card is indeed blank.  But with a shake of the card, now it shows something surprising in the light: the first card chosen by your spectator!  Then as a further kicker, you shake the card again, and instantly the card magically changes to show the second card chosen by your spectator!

Check out the trailer video here to get an idea of what this effect looks like in practice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDzfcQEeMfY



Contents

When you first get this product, it may seem underwhelming.  But really, this is just a single gimmick that does all the work for you, so not a lot is needed.  The gimmicked card comes in a clear plastic sleeve, contained inside a small folded piece of thin card that's made out of the same material as the gimmick itself.

Also inside is a link to a page on Murphy's Magic website where you can access the online video instructions with a password.  The online video tutorial that explains how to use the gimmick comes in either English or French language.  The English video runs for a little over 6 minutes, and can either be streamed or downloaded as a 577MB file.



The Instructions

English is clearly not creator William Alexis Houcke's first language. He does have a very heavy French accent, but I could still make out everything he was saying.  The video starts with Houcke talking on camera, and switches to excellent close-ups of the gimmick, and uses multiple camera angles throughout to ensure we can follow everything properly.  For a short video, it's been put together well.

After introducing the gimmick itself and explaining how it works, William covers the handling.  He demonstrates all the steps you need to follow, and provides a couple of different options for handling the gimmick, e.g. using both hands versus using one hand.  By the time you're a couple of minutes into the instructional video, you pretty much know all that you need to know as far as the gimmick is concerned, and how to use it.

Houcke also teaches you how to perform his routine with the gimmick, which is very straight forward.  I don't think I'm giving anything away by saying you need to force two cards, and the video briefly teaches you how to accomplish this with the Riffle Force. But of course you can customize this to your own preferred style, and use any force that you wish, and also adjust the presentation to whatever you want.



The Gimmick

The gimmick has been well made, and is only about the thickness of two standard playing cards.  It's quite angle proof, and there's nothing sticking out on the sides or underneath. The only angle you can't show is if someone literally gets underneath the card and looks at it from below.  From the top it genuinely looks like a blank card, and it can stand up to visual examination from above without anything looking untoward.

There is a section in the video where Houcke pulls the gimmick apart, in the unlikely event anything breaks or that you need to repair something.  But it seems pretty durable, and if ever anything were to go wrong, the fix would probably be as simple as gluing two pieces together.  It seems very well made, using some very custom materials, so it isn't something you could make from scratch on your own.  But once you own the gimmick, you have the essential components that you need, and they should go the distance for however long you use it.

The images I've provided don't really do justice to how clearly the pips and indices show up with a flashlight in real life.  There's no problem at all with seeing the value and suit and pips of the playing card.  All you need to do is move the card over the flashlight, at which point the various details like the pips and indices show up clearly.  The fact that you can show the majority of the card makes it more convincing, so you're never just showing only one of the indices.  Particularly the fact that the center pip changes from a diamond to a heart with the second revelation helps make the illusion more fooling and impossible.

It won't come as a surprise that the gimmick is not examinable, and that you can't use it to produce any cards you wish.  It will only give you the option of revealing the same two cards: the Five of Diamonds, and the Ace of Hearts.



Difficulty

The gimmick is very easy to understand, and it will take you less than half a minute to figure out how it works and what to do.  Probably the hardest part about this trick is being able to force two cards on your spectators, so if you already know some basic card controls and forces, you've already got the most difficult elements of this trick under your belt already.

There's not really any sleight of hand required to use the gimmick, and it's genuinely easy to use.  You'll have to remember the sequence of moves correctly in how you handle the gimmick, so that you don't show or cover the wrong part of the card at the wrong time.  But that's really all you need to worry about, and for the rest the gimmick does all the work for you.  The only real sleight of hand required is doing the riffle force, or whatever other force you prefer to use at the start of the trick.

Obviously all eyes will be on the gimmick as you're doing this, but as long as your spectator doesn't get to ground level and look at the bottom of the card from underneath, you're totally safe.  So there's really not much heat on you at all, and the one move you do need to do can be done invisibly by virtue of how the gimmick works.  If you use the presentation taught on the video, where you reveal the identity of the selection before your spectator shows it, you can easily do the one move needed with the gimmick while the spectator is turning over the first card. But there's nothing awkward that you need to accomplish, so even if your spectators eyes are burning the card the whole time, they really won't see anything.



Impressions

What I like about this effect is the visual impact and magical feel.  There are two distinct moments that happen, the first one being when your reveal the first selection in a magical and interesting way.  The fact that you have "divined" their selected card is already impressive to a layman, but seeing a blank card visibly change at an instant under a flashlight really adds to the magical feel.  The second moment is progressively more impressive than the first, because now your spectator visibly sees the card change with just a shake, revealing the second selection.  That apparently rules out that it's just a duplicate card with some secret property.  What kind of wizardry is this?  Of course that's exactly the kind of reaction we want from our spectators.

I also like the fact that this effect relies on your spectator bringing his technology into play.  By using his phone it amplifies the impact and makes it more memorable (of course if none of your spectators have a phone with them, you can use your own).  You can just imagine how he will retell the story of his experience: "I held my phone flashlight under his blank card, and right before my eyes it changed into my card!  And then he just shook the card and it turned into the second card!"  Using your own phone might make spectators suspect some kind of magical device in the flashlight, so it makes it more direct and convincing when it's their own phone that's used as part of the trick.

In terms of the difficulty: there's really nothing to worry about there.  If you can force two cards (using your favourite method), then you pretty much already have the set of skills you need.  The handling of the gimmick is very straight forward.  If you've ever memorized the sequence of moves required to perform Ultimate 3 Card Monte, believe me that this is a much, much easier.  There are also different ways you can present this, so that gives you a lot of flexibility to customize a routine to your own style.  The gimmick also resets instantly, and by adding the two selections to the top of your deck you're immediately ready to go again.  That makes it suitable for walkaround performers, or workers in a restaurant or party setting, although the fact that the same two cards are selected does mean that you don't want the people you've just performed to being within earshot when repeating the effect to another group.

I'd not personally come across William Houcke before, but some people may know his previous release Gleam, which relies on similar concept, by combining a flashlight with a card revelation.  With that trick your spectator can genuinely name any card, but it is much more demanding for the magician in terms of the handling.  I personally find that the visuals of Gleam don't look nearly as professional or convincing, because it just shows the value and suit, and not the actual card.  On the other hand with Flash Change you do lose something by not being able to give your spectator a genuinely free choice.  But that is compensated by the fact that you get to make a second revelation, and to produce this with a visual change that happens in the blink of an eye.  Gleam also retails at a higher price point ($35), but in the end which is best will depend on which effect suits you.

The recommended retail price of $25 is going to make people think twice before buying this.  For double that money, you can pick up Shin Lim's Evolushin Magic Kit, which comes with 15 gimmicks and 2+ hours of video instruction.  Is this worth it?   To be fair, $25 isn't unheard of for a single gimmick or trick these days.  As with most magic, what you're paying for isn't just the gimmick, but the secret and the concept.  And this isn't a gimmick that can be easily mass produced, but requires specialized materials and construction, so it would be significantly more costly and labour intensive to produce than your typical gaff card.  The price might hold some people back who might normally be willing to take a punt on a low-priced item they're not sure about.   Ultimately the most important consideration for you is the effect itself: how strong does this play, and how valuable is a unique magic effect like this worth to you?  There are magicians happy to pay a hundred bucks or more for a specialized trick if it's something they can use repeatedly over and if it really wows people.  Only you can answer whether this falls into that category or not.



Recommendation

FLASH CHANGE is really just about giving you a unique way of revealing two selected cards.  But magicians know the value of having a revelation that is interesting and memorable, and that's where the strength of this trick lies.

There's nothing really new about revealing two cards chosen by spectators.  But when a spectator's own phone is used as a flashlight to magically show the value of his card on what was previously a blank card, that takes things to another level.  And following this up by instantly and magically changing the card to the revelation of the second card can really blow the mind.

I'm very happy to have picked this up, and I imagine that anybody who does get won't be disappointed, because it lives up to everything it promises.  If you like what you see on the performance, you're almost certain to enjoy using it.

FLASH CHANGE is available from Murphy's Magic retailers.