With Glass, Adam Grace creates a close-up genre of his own and he deserves lots of credit for his creativity and innovation. This Ellusionist.com DVD offers some 15 effects that with one or two exceptions, are strong. If you can get past the notion of carrying and working with a piece of glass, you may find lots to like.
All of the tricks on Grace’s DVD rely on a square of glass, a marker, some gimmicks and a series of moves. The glass (2.75" x 2.75") and the marker are provided with the DVD. Many of the effects fall into two categories: card revelations that rely on an ability to seemingly change what’s drawn or written on the glass, and transpositions, where dots seemingly appear, disappear and move around.
The Revelations
The card revelations are excellent and only require basic card skills and some time to set and reset the glass. This need for a reset makes the revelation effects somewhat impractical for walk-around, particularly if you want to perform them more than once during a short span of time. These card-based tricks make use of ultra-easy moves with the glass. If you can handle cards, you’ll be performing these in no time.
In “Sudden Change,” you appear to have predicted the wrong card, but then the card in the spectator’s hand changes to the one written on the glass, and what’s written on the glass states the spectator’s true card.
In “Stained Prediction,” a spectator deals two cards and has a completely free choice between them. When you pull the square of glass out of your pocket, the card is written on it. With “Glide Change,” Grace adapts the 52-in-one gag-the “prediction” card that shows a picture of all of the playing cards, and on glass, visually erases the other cards and leaves the name of the chosen one.
“Wipe Out” is an adaptation of a well known card revelation where you predict the wrong card, but the name of one card turns into another. This one has traditionally been performed on chalkboards and whiteboards. And still another revelation turns a random series of dots into the name of the chosen card.
Connecting the Dots
The dot tricks are visual-dots appear, disappear and move around-and many require no reset. As a result, they’re excellent for strolling situations. A couple of the dot tricks are stunners. Unlike the revelation tricks, the dot tricks require lots of moves with the glass that require practice. Among the dot tricks, I particularly liked “Dot Matrix,” a fooler that requires no setup and a clever gimmick. And another strong dot effect is Moving Hole, which allows you to draw a dot on the glass and apparently move it around.
