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DVD Review: The Cloak by Justin Miller

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DVD Review: The Cloak by Justin Miller
If you can use a practical IT hookup, you may find it here on Justin Miller’s DVD. The Cloak offers a standing and sitting-down table hook-up that lets you perform rising card and haunted pack effects - there’s no floating bills or hovering cards here. Millers’ hook-ups are practical and workable in the real world, and the results are superior to loops.

Standing or Sitting

Between the two hook-ups, the table is the better of the two because there is no anchor on your body. Also, in the haunted pack effect where the deck cuts itself to reveal a spectator’s card, the table hook-up allows you to make the selected card turnover after the deck separates.

On the downside, the table hook-up means that you must be sitting down at a table, although it could probably be adapted to a taller table to allow you to stand.

Upstanding

The standing hook-up is entirely on you and doesn’t require you to walk up to a table and create an anchor. I like the freedom that this offers and compared to other setups that I’ve worked with, I found the Cloak to be relatively out of the way, which allowed to perform my usual table routines.

Also, because the hook-up is on my body, I didn’t have to remember to un-anchor my IT. I’m not proud to admit that I have often forgotten to un-anchor my setups, which has resulted in breakage.

Of course, the standing hook-up isn’t as out of the way as a loop around your wrist. One advantage over loops is that you don’t have to load the card into the deck to accomplish either the rising or haunted pack effects - a spectator can do this for you - and you can stand further away from the pack. Loops only give you so much distance.

Haunting and Rising

Miller teaches a visual and convincing rising card from glass and a haunted pack effect. There are no floating bills or hovering card effects. There’s a stunning version of the haunted pack that can be done in the spectator’s hands and Miller offers another powerful version that allows you to reveal two chosen cards.

The rising card is impressive. Once the cards are placed into the wineglass, you don’t touch them again until after the card rises. Also, the spectator can hold the wine glass as the card lifts itself from the deck. With the table hook-up, spectators can actually wave their hands over the glass to verify that there are no threads pulling the card up.

At the end, the reset is almost instantaneous. You can pretty much perform the effect and immediately hand out the cards and wineglass for careful examination. There’s nothing for spectators to find on the objects.

The video, which is a Kozmo production, is excellent and Miller does a great job of teaching the techniques. In the instructional segments, Miller uses visible dental floss to clearly show placement and handling.

There’s lots to like with the Cloak. If you’ve been frustrated with the down sides of traditional IT work, definitely check out this DVD for some fresh approaches.

-Wayne N. Kawamoto

MSRP: (US) $30

Dealers can purchase from Murphy's Magic Supplies, Inc.

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