Brent Braun's TORCHED & RESTORED

What The Audience Sees:

'This week Jamie let me pick any card from a deck and had me sign it. He then proceeded to rip my card into 4 pieces and had me wave a glue stick (he said he usually uses a lighter but my co-workers and I work in an office) over it, and it was completely restored! Amazing!'

How It Went:

This went over really well considering I've done a fair amount of restoring things after they've been cut, ripped, etc. But I had a swack (I think I just made that word up) of new spectators this Friday and they were, from what I could gather from their reactions, astounded.

What makes Magic Friday such a pleasure to do is that I only do tricks that I know will go over well. I sort through tons of magic, always looking for the best effects for MF, and I really love doing it. That said, however, sometimes it's not the best effect that gets performed. Let me explain-

There are dozens of ways to perform a T & R card effect, and I think I've got them all. I even have one of the hundred original copies of Hollingworth's Reformation which, and this is just my personal opinion, I believe is one of the, if not The, best. There's something about it that I really like. Now don't get me wrong, Garcia's, J.C.'s, and all the rest are excellent as well, there's no question, but there was something about Brent Braun's Torched and Restored that seemed to make it an excellent Worker.

Is it a piece by piece restoration? No. Will it fool and impress all of our magician friends? Maybe. Will it rock the lay people? Absolutely.

Best Lines:

'This is going on our Wall Of Wow!'- my own wall, cool.

'I just don't understand?!!?!'- remember those days?

'That was Awesome! And I was really watching!'- always good to fool a repeat client.

Angry Bob Rating:

I have a co-worker (Bob) whose uncle was a magician and thereby has a good working knowledge of how magic works. He's pretty grumpy but likes Magic Friday's because he can tell me how he figured out how the effect is done... A high rating means he'll never figure it out.

'Why can't I see it with the #$%^in' lighter?' He probably thought I was lying about not being able to use a lighter...2.5/5. Anyhow, most people with Magical Knowledge will have a very good idea how it's done but, and I've said this many times before, that doesn't mean they'll be able to do it.

My Rating:

I'm giving this one a 8.5/10. It's not my absolute favourite of all the T & R's but it's really quite good and, to be honest, it's probably the version I'd use in a Walk Around Working environment- which says a lot considering all the competition it's got from the other versions...

The JDG Tip:

I had a sort of epiphany this Friday and should bump the rating up to a 9.5 because I was performing this effect when I had it.

For years I've been having people sign cards and have been giving them out as souvenirs but it hit me like a ton of bricks on Friday. Why the heck are They signing them? I realize that it's to prove a point but who wants a card with their own signature on it? I don't want a card with my signature on it, so I started signing them myself and would ask them for any number between 1 and a 1000, which I would write beneath my name, to prove that we weren't using a duplicate.

I'm praying that I'm the first to think of this but I know the moment I hit the POST button I'm going to get PM's telling me that this was first thought of in 1824 by a dog named Alfred...Oh well. A good idea nonetheless, IMO.

Closing Thoughts:

I'm tossing around the idea of taking August off to recoup and regroup. I'll keep you posted...

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVEYONE!

Jamie D. Grant
www.whatizit.net

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