Branded Into Your
Audience's Memory
Review by
Joel A. Moskowitz, MD
How would you like to devastate street urchins in the manner of David Blaine? There is a saying, "Build a better mouse trap and the world will build a path to your door". Walt Disney took it one step further: He built a better mouse! Tim Trono didn't invent the principal or even the idea for the blister gadget. He did create a better instrument to elicit acclaim from audiences. Want a device applauded by Daryl and Paul Harris? Contact Tim Trono at Murphy's Magic Supplies. (read more)
He will gladly sell you (for $49.95) his astounding mechanism, with instructional DVD included. Tim, who himself doesn't appear in the DVD, is highly educated (three college degrees), an honor graduate of the Air Force Academy and now Project Coordinator and Purchasing Agent for Murphy's Magic Supplies, one of the leading and largest distributors of magic. He also is active performing close up magic.
Given these credentials it is no wonder that he would create a masterful utilitarian effect. Gregory Wilson is the spokesman on the well-crafted DVD: "Branded The Painless Card Blister". The title may be a misnomer. Tim Trono has done his homework, establishing the provenance of an effect described in Tarbell 7 (Kent Tiller). The narration provides the interested student/performer how the ideas of several predecessors evolved to Tim Trono's splendid creation "Branded the Painless Card Blister".
Sure it begins "Please take a card" but the unique manner of discovery will burn itself into the spectator's psyche. Imagine casually taking your BIC lighter out of your pocket; igniting the flame; pinching it; and "ouch" the flame is extinguished and you shake your fingers dramatizing the pain (not true). You call attention to your first finger and, voilá, the number of the chosen card is there and almost as an after thought, call attention to the pad of your thumb and another blister like configuration of the suit of the chosen card is there as well!
Then stand aside as spectators fall down in shock, express glee and amazement and may even kiss your ring and ask to join your religion! Performance vignettes of smooth Gregory Wilson in action will convince you that the audience reaction is one of excited awe. For a professional, the cost of "Branded" will not dissuade. It is the sort of magic that will evoke comments long after.
It doesn't require hours of practice. It is not the ‘find a card' tiresome prestidigitation. The apparatus (small but plays big) consists of two plastic forms, black in color, which fit on the outside of either the small or regular size BIC lighters. Previous versions depended upon putting your hand into your pocket, finding the template and pressing the pads of your fingers into the right symbols. Trono has bypassed this defect. One ‘blister producer' (the larger of the two) has a heart, a diamond, and a club as well as a small circle (remember using the hole in your key) and on the other side a ‘3', a ‘K', and a ‘7' all of which are artfully rounded as would be the form when a true ‘blister' albeit an identifiable one would have resulted from pinching the flame.
The smaller form is only for the three of hearts and two ‘holes'. Oh yes, the relevant card must be forced. If your venue is the street, you may be required to employ the classic force but with the benefit of a table - a criss cross force - with brief diversionary commentary will suffice. Dealers can purchase from Murphy's Magic Supplies, Inc. Attention: Tim Trono, Purchaser 11500 Gold Dredge Way Rancho Cordova, CA 95742 USA Direct Telephone (916) 290-6061 Fax (916) 853-9494
If you want to attract new business, Branded the Painless Card Blister is definitely for you... take one and call me in the morning. Got a second opinion? Leave me a comment below.
