"Alpha Cards" by Jesse Feinberg
Suggested Retail USD$20.00
Available from your favorite dealer
In a Blink: 3 Out of 10

"Alpha Cards", a set of gimmicks by Jesse Feinberg, is something that is a brilliant idea but lacks the execution to make it all that feasible as a powerful effect.

The ads tell the story and, to their credit, don't exaggerate things -- you know what you're getting with "Alpha Cards" which is, essentially, playing cards with Bicycle backs with heat-sensitive ink that allows for a single card to be shown to be either the Four of Hearts or the Four of Spades, depending on whether the ink is "hot' or "cold".

And it's a very neat idea. It's been touched on by others before, but Feinberg did a great job with his implementation. It's a shame it isn't great enough.

The problem is the technology, really. Feinberg's cards look good and are designed to be re-used over and over again. If you follow his instructions for care and use, the cards should last a very long time. But the technology bites on this one and bites deep enough to make these extremely hard to use.

Here's the thing: heat-sensitive ink isn't perfect. When it's "cold", all is well -- you and your audiences will swear that the card is a for-real, honest-to-goodness, printed-with-black-ink playing card. When the card is "hot", that is, heat's been applied to the ink, you'll see remnants of the black ink visible quite plainly on the card, in specifically the one place you don't want to see it.

Whoops.

There's a big discrepancy to deal with as well, but it's not as crippling as the leftover ink issue: essentially, the special Four of Hearts isn't identical to an ordinary Four of Hearts. While I suspect every magician (and a few regular card players) will notice it, I doubt your average spectator will. Still, it should be mentioned.

Okay, so there's the basics of the problem: the technology issue. Now comes the other side of the coin, the handling problems.

First up, you're depending on body heat to do the job here. That's all well and good for most folks, but for others they might find they don't generate enough heat to use "Alpha Cards" reliably, if at all. Feinberg addresses this in his instructions, suggesting the use of hidden heat packs and touching up the cards with a lighter. These work, but think about it for a second: in the former case you're now toting something else around other than the gimmicked cards and shelling out extra money to get "Alpha Cards" to work; in the latter case, you're running the risk of destroying the cards (too much heat, you see, makes the ink fail to change). If you're like me, and your stable temperature hovers around 99.3, then this is not an issue; if not, you could be in for a challenge.

Second, the change is not in your control. While sometimes a simple waving of the card back and forth for a few seconds will do it, the temperature of the ink dictates how long it takes for the change to occur. Thirty seconds is not abnormal, though usually ten to fifteen seconds does the job. Be prepared to work that into your presentations and effects.

Speaking of which, Feinberg includes a couple of simple pieces to get you going, but you'll want to graduate beyond those fairly quickly.

The problem is going to be coming up with something that deals with the shortcomings of "Alpha Cards". By far, the biggest problem is the appearance of the gimmicks, which to my mind relegates this one to near-blind spectators or darkened rooms. Solve that one, somehow, someway, and "Alpha Cards" could be a very slick thing indeed.

But without a resolution to that, you've got something that's one of two things: a gimmick for performing very weak routines or something unusable except in the most favorable of circumstances.

To my mind, that makes "Alpha Cards" strictly for the curious. With better technology, this could have been the trick of the decade; as it is, Feinberg did the best he could with what he's got, but it's just not worth serious consideration except for the novelty of it.

"Alpha Cards" by Jesse Feinberg
In a Blink: 3 Out of 10

Practicality: 1
How can something with no set-up and no reset be so impractical? Because you'll need to perform this is a darkened room to pass off the card as a real card due to the nature of the gimmick. Also there's a chance you'll need a hand-warmer or other silliness to get this to work. Not good at all.

Workmanship: 3
The card looks okay in its "cold" state, but in it's "hot" state... Basically, you're left with artifacts of the heat-sensitive printing, making the card look dirty and suspicious at best and tipping off the work at worse. You'll need to figure out how to get this one past spectators.

Documentation: 5
The documentation is adequate, taking you through the care and handling of the cards. A couple of simple routines are included to get you going

Effect: 5
It all depends on what you do with it and the things you may come up with will get strong reactions. However, will they get strong reactions with other methods? That's the big question.

Presentation: 4
Again, it's all in what you do with it, but with what amounts to crippled gimmicks in play, you're really going to have to stretch to make these work with any sort of power.

Shane

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