We recently reviewed Mark Southworth’s excellent Pop Art and at the same time received a copy of his new Poker Fly. Although we primarily review card magic here, we are doing a mini-review of this one for two reasons. Firstly, most magicians who do card magic also have an interest in close-up magic generally. Secondly, I am sometimes asked when performing at tables whether I have anything other than card tricks! It is always useful to have something else ‘up your sleeve’ – and poker chips go well with poker cards, so without further ado, here’s the review.
Poker Fly, as its name suggests, is a kind of ‘3 Fly’ routine using poker chips instead of coins. 3 poker chips travel one at a time from one hand to the other.
I like the idea of using poker chips. Because the coin routines need a large coin for visibility they often end up using dollars, which never sit happily with me in a UK context. Poker chips are recognisable and inconspicuous and the game itself seems to be increasingly popular.
A clever gimmick takes away the need for all but very basic sleight of hand. And there is an alternative ending to deal with the vanish of the last chip if you really want to avoid sleight of hand. The chips are nicely made and are pretty much a perfect match for the chips in my own poker set!
The routine is nicely constructed and best of all ends clean and examinable. The props take up very little space in your pocket and re-set is more or less instant. So I think this would make a great little routine for walkaround.
The DVD clearly teaches the routine – breaking it down into sections and then having a ‘practise session’ which goes through the whole routine in slower motion with commentary. There are not too many extras with this one. There is a bonus routine – which is like an extra phase with a single chip. But this requires you to be able to do the muscle pass – so is not for the feint hearted.
I think this is a nice addition to the ‘3 Fly’ genre. It’s £35 direct from MagicTao.
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