"SCOnK (Signed Card on Key Ring)" by Jordan Johnson
Suggested Retail USD$24.95
Available from your favorite dealer
In a Blink: 5 Out of 10

"SCOnK", a new DVD by Jordan Johnson, is an interesting idea but, with little going for it other than the core idea, it's simply not worth the price.

I had hopes for this one. I really did. It just reads so damn good:

A spectator selects a card (free choice) and signs it. The card is returned to the deck and the performer borrows a set of keys from a spectator. Two other cards have holes punched in them and are threaded onto the key ring. The signed card now vanishes from the deck and appears between the two cards, threaded on the key ring.

But then you watch the video and things slowly begin to unravel.

"Strikingly different", the ad says. Not really. Chastain Criswell had something close to this (I'm not sure if it's still on the market or not). Granted, it's a "card-to-impossible location" (not really; think "sandwich effect on a ring") versus a transposition, but still the idea is way to close to have "SCOnk" called "strikingly different". "Different", I'd go with.

"Imaginative", the ad says. Not really. The solution is likely one you'd come very close to creating yourself. Johnson went a bit Rube Goldberg on his solution I believe, but the basics are pretty simple to work out yourself (or, put another way, what would we do if we didn't have Scotch tape?).

"Intriguing", the ad says. Not really. The idea is: it's a great way to hand out a business card (if you somehow worked out a reason for doing that -- Johnson's skimpy instructions are no help here) or, at the very least, leave them with a little something that's different. But the methodology is a bit too impractical for my tastes (you'll need a new gimmick every performance) and the cleanliness simply isn't there. Give me a version where the spectator threads the cards on the ring and now we're talking intriguing.

"Perplexing", the ad says. Now there they got me. This does look good enough. It is different. What the method lacks, the theme makes up for. In the end, that's what kept me from throwing this one into storage.

But then I remembered the price tag and my blood pressure started to rise and into storage it went.

Here's the thing. "SCOnK" isn't terrible. It's not great, but it's at least average magic and that's not all that bad. For $25, though, and considering a lot of other quality stuff that we're lucky to have on the market right now for less than that, "SCOnK" is too anemic to be sold as a standalone effect. Oh, granted there's some sort of "impromptu" version (which ain't; it's a redressing of a Hofsinzer production, with no key ring in sight) but still there's not enough "there" there to make this one worth the purchase. Or, put another way, you're paying right at a buck a minute to learn something you could probably cobble together yourself if you gave it half a thought.

Sold as a trick among tricks, "SCOnK" might have been something interesting. As it is, it's over-priced and under-thought and only worth the purchase to true diehards who just have to have it. For others, the practicality issue, the huge break in the action (ever tried to thread cards on a keyring? That'll take some yawn-inducing time), and a simplistic method make this one hard to recommend.

My advice? Look for something that offers more for your money.

"SCOnK (Signed Card on Key Ring)" by Jordan Johnson
In a Blink: 5 Out of 10

Material: 5
Well, it's an interesting idea, and may be flexible enough to make someone's day, but with practicality issues, structuring problems, and simply not enough bang for the buck, there's little to recommend this one.

Practicality: 4
One part of the gimmicks you'll have to remake for every performance, which pretty much kills this one for anything but one-off performances.

Quality of Production: 5
It's a single-camera shoot, with some lighting problems and terrible angles during the explanations. Still, it's simple enough to grasp that the production issues are aggravating but not a hindrance.

Quality of Instruction: 5
Johnson does an adequate job of explaining things; you'll have no problem here. It would have been nice to see other things to do with this idea or thoughts on why a simpler working wasn't chosen.

Presentation: 7
It is what it is (a "card to impossible location") and it plays well, but a drastic lag in the action makes this one a bit clumsy for much professional work.

Shane

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