Trick Review - Weiser Wallet by Danny Weiser
Updated: May 14, 2020
Here is my in-depth review of Weiser Wallet by Danny Weiser.
REVIEW PHILOSOPHY
The philosophy is simple: to give you the truth.
When I review a product, I’d like to judge the product per se, but not putting past record or creator’s name/reputation into consideration. I will provide what is not said on the advertisement and details beyond the product itself.
I have no affiliation with any magicians or dealers, thus you will have everything good and bad about the product. Almost nothing is left out.
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YOUTUBE REVIEW
If you want to watch the review, here is the YouTube version.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This review is full of both positives and negatives about this product. It’s the most polarized review I’ve ever done.
As my goal of doing this review is to give you 100% honest and transparent information, I hope you can read til the end so that you will have a full picture.
I seldom make this kind of acknowledgement, but you will understand why I made it when you finished reading.
WHAT YOU GET?
You will receive a gimmick wallet made of leather.
A link to the password protected online instruction is also provided.
QUALITY OF THE WALLET
The wallet is made with black leather. The leather quality is nice but honestly I don’t know the type of leather it is. It’s tough and should last a long time.
The stitching of the wallet is supremely done. To my surprise, the one of mine is almost perfectly done with perfect spacing.
There are spaces for credit card and business card. Apparently there are 2 such pockets. Each can hold a single credit card but it is quite tight. It can also hold a playing card but is barely wide enough. I don’t recommend putting playing cards in these pockets.
There is also a plastic pocket. It is very stiff when I start using it. I put in 4 cards and loose it up so that playing card fit in more easily now. The pocket can hold up to 4 playing cards.
As for the overall design, it does what it should do. There is nothing much spectacular about it.
To conclude, Weiser Wallet is a very high quality product built good material. I am very satisfied with its function as a switching device.
QUALITY OF THE TUTORIAL
The explanation comes as online tutorial on Murphy Magic website. It is downloadable on your own device.
The effect is explained in a 12 minutes and 07 seconds long video. The explanation is hosted by Paul Romhany. The video is done in a home setting with 1 camera. There are 2 kinds of shots - medium and close-up. The shots are clear enough for viewers to understand all the workings of the wallet and the trick.
Length (in minutes) of the main parts (I literally counted):
Trailer - 0:52
Introduction - 1:00
Gimmick - 1:40
Flash Changes - 3:43
Effect - 2:49
Another Flash Change - 1:16
There are 4 main parts of this tutorial, namely ‘Gimmick’, ‘Flash Change’, ‘Effect’, and ‘2nd Flash Change’. There is no clear sectioning in the tutorial, but viewers can easily find each part because the video is very short.
The working of the wallet is self-explained once you hold it in your hands. Therefore, in the Gimmick section there is not much additional insight about the working of the wallet. Paul briefly go over the structure of the wallet and explains how it works.
The main section is about the flash change you might have seen in the trailer. In this section, there are 2 handling of flash changes. Both are shown on the trailer. In my opinion, both flash changes are subpar and should not be done as regular moves with this wallet. I will elaborate in the section below.
In the Effect section, a coincidence effect is demonstrated and explained. It is a very short demonstration which is pretty much self-explanatory. The switch used in this effect is the standard switch which should be used with this wallet. It’s simple, direct and not manipulative. The structure of the effect is not solid and it leaves audience too much unwanted imagination. Basically it implies that the wallet is in play to achieve the effect. Switching wallet is a powerful tool. But once audience suspect the wallet, there is no effect. This effect may be a good start for learners to come up with something else, but it is not something I would recommend anyone to perform for real audience. At the end of the section, there is another switch taught to attempting to create an illusion that the card never leave the sight. The idea is interesting but I don’t think it’s a reliable move. Even Paul is not executing it convincingly.
In the ‘Another Flash Change’, another flash change is taught. But this one is not using the core mechanism of the wallet. In addition, you need to construct you own gimmick to accomplish it. The idea is interesting but I wonder how many will actually use it.
To conclude, the tutorial is filled with unpolished ideas which knowledgable magicians should see the issues right away. As the functionality of the wallet is similar to Himber Wallet, there should be a lot of solid routines which the publisher or the creator can come up with. I think experienced magicians will find little useful or practical in this tutorial. In fact, the disappointing quality of this tutorial may root at the biased belief at the flash change mechanism of this wallet. In the next section I will talk about why flash change is a bad idea with this wallet.
ISSUE OF FLASH CHANGE
Let me state my findings first: the trailer is edited to make flash change instant.
As you can see in these pictures, some frames are cut away when the flash change happens. Each frame in this video is 1/30 second. When the video moves from 1:01 to 1:02, it's 1 frame. The same for moving from 8:26 to 8:27. Unless what we see is done by Flash or Superman, I don’t believe the frames here are connected at all. There is only one conclusion: frames are cut away.
What does this tell us? It implies that flash change is not as instant as it may seem. If the flash change can be done convincingly, why edited the frames at all? They have every opportunity to reshot the trailer to make it work, but why chose to edit it? You know reason, don’t you?
Weiser Wallet is a good switching tool, but it is not built for changing. If the publisher and creator has to edit the trailer to make the change good, why do they believe that the change can be executed nicely in real performance?
In the tutorial, some handlings are taught for semi-open flash change. In other words, some kind of misdirection or cover is needed. If they believe the Flash change is that good, why did they spend time teaching the viewers about all kinds of covers for sound and flash? Isn’t it contradictory?
To my biggest disappointment, the publisher decided to LIE to their buyers even in tutorial. They have deliberately removed the sound track during the flash change. In other words, viewers will not hear at the huge sound during the change demonstrated in the tutorial, but in fact the sound is so obvious in real world. This is 100% dishonesty to actual buyers!
I think it’s unfair to make potential buyer believe that the flash change they see in trailer is as clean as it seems to be. The ‘changing’ mechanism utilize the ‘switching’ mechanism. Therefore, there is no elastic part to speed up the change. In most cases, unless you employ misdirection or cover, there is flashing. It may be a fun idea to play with, but definitely not the MOST UNIQUE feature they should have marketed in the product description. The wallet per se is good, but the idea of making it look better is actually very bad. It’s just like a beginner magic kit telling you that you can do 300+ tricks with the kit. For uninitiated, it may work; but for experienced ones, the idea is hilarious.
KEY POINTS OF THE PRODUCT
The credit card compartment can barely fit in a playing card.
All pockets are very tight.
Many unpolished ideas
Clear pocket can hold 4 cards
How to insert the card
DIFFICULTY
The switching is automatic. There is no sleight-of-hand.
EXAMINABLE?
The wallet is not examinable.
PROS ABOUT THE PRODUCT
High quality materials.
The switching mechanism is very solid.
Reasonable price.
CONS ABOUT THE PRODUCT
The tutorial is poorly done with a lot of unpolished ideas.
The wallet is poor at flash change, but in description it is marketed as an unique feature.
They lie to both potential and actual buyers.
FINAL VERDICT
Weiser Wallet by Danny Weiser is a high quality switching wallet which can accomplish the job beautifully. However, it is not a changing device which you may expect if you want to accomplish the flash change you see in the trailer.
The buying decision is quite straight forwards. If you have Himber Wallet and satisfied with it, you may not need this wallet. However, if you don’t have a switching wallet, Weiser Wallet is definitely a good choice.
At current price of $35, it is a good investment in terms of quality and basic functionality. But of course, I am hugely disappointed by the dishonesty not only to potential buyers but also actual buyers. Editing the tutorial to make something look better but not achievable is simply a lie.
Video Quality: 4/10
Honesty: 2/10 (I seldom include rating for honesty, but in this case, I have to include it for my readers)
Effectiveness of Tricks: 9/10
Practical: 9/10
Creativity: 7/10
Cost Performance: 9/10
Final Score: 7.5/10 (this rating is for the wallet itself only, if I have to account for honesty, it’s only 4/10)
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Thank you for reading this review.