We’ve only just been able to get our hands on this excellent release from last year – but it has been worth the wait! Read on for our full review of Fall by Philip Ryan.
The effect
The basic effect is extremely simple – a pen falls (hence the name!) off whatever it is balancing on, without you touching it. Obviously you would want to put a bit of work into your presentation to make this rather ‘bald’ effect more interesting. To give a basic example, it would be great to get a spectator to write something down with a normal Sharpie – do some kind of peek and your favourite revelation of the item – and then to perform Fall with the switched pen.
What do you get?
You get a gimmicked Sharpie in a nice cardboard box and a link to 11 minutes of instructional video. The majority of this video is spent waiting for pens to fall off things! This is made even more interesting than watching paint dry by the addition of a dramatic soundtrack!
There really is very little teaching. However, since the method is all but self-working even this brief content is plenty to explain how to do it, how to switch the pen in and a few thoughts on different ways of performing it.
A minor ethical quibble
I’m a big fan of mentalism and this kind of magic – but have quite strict ideas on the ethics of this kind of performance. So I was a bit disturbed when he mentioned that no one has ever asked how he did the trick – but rather assumed its ‘the real deal’. That troubles me a little – but perhaps others will have different views.
The pros and cons
Cons are few and far between. For some, the fact that the pen is specially gimmicked so you can’t use it for writing with might be a con. This doesn’t concern me at all – and it would be extremely easy to switch it mid-performance after you have used a normal one for writing. A brief method is taught on the video.
Pros are far easier to find. It is very easy to perform, you have some control over the timing of the fall, and reset takes literally seconds. Furthermore it is self-contained – so no extra bits are needed. It seems to me that if you already use a Sharpie in your routine, then this is a no-brainer. As long as you have the character/performance skills to hold an audience who are simply staring at an immobile Sharpie, I would say Fall was a great investment and a strong effect.
Fall is available from the Merchant of Magic for a mere £23.99 (at the time of writing).
Review copy kindly provided by Murphys Magic to whom dealer enquiries should be directed.
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