If you’ve not come across Mark Leveridge, where have you been? He’s something of a legend in the UK magic world, and as a dealer he is pretty much unique in only stocking and selling his own range of magic. We’ll be reviewing a couple of volumes of his collected card work in the coming weeks, but today we want to look at one of his latest effects – a really nice little packet trick called Keyed In which launched with great success at Blackpool this year.
The effect
4 blank cards become printed with a picture of a yale type key. The last key actually falls off the card – leaving a blank card and a real key.
This is a really nice routine that has a number of strong points. It ends perfectly clean – everything can be examined – and the re-set is very quick, making it ideal for walkaround.
It has been nicely routined, and Mark credits Jay Fortune who helped develop the current version of the effect. It has a couple of extremely convincing moments as the routine builds to its climax. The cards well printed and handle fine. In fact, my only real gripe is that the pattern on the key is slightly odd.
The DVD
This is not a flashy production – there’s no menu, instead you loop through the performance and then the explanation. The performance is carried out in a house to a seated spectator. Mark’s performance style won’t be yours. But come up with your own presentation! It would have been nice to see this in a ‘real world’ setting but that is not a deal breaker.
The explanation is clear and detailed. The routine requires two moves which you will probably already know if you have been in magic any length of time and which are taught if you don’t. It would have been a nice touch to separate out the teaching of the moves from the teaching of the routine itself since many would already have known them – though given the lack of a menu I suppose this doesn’t make sense.
The effect also comes with a printed cue sheet which to my mind is really helpful so you can practise without referring to the DVD. In fact, the first time I went through the effect I didn’t even use the DVD and the instructions were clear enough for me to follow the basic routine.
I think this is a logical and appealing routine and the final phase means it has more impact than lots of all-card routines. We’ve already mentioned the simple reset, and the minimal pocket space requirements mean that to my mind this is a real worker.
Available direct from Mark Leveridge Magic. £15.
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