In this review i'm several single trick DVDS reviewing
Torn 2 Peices by Shawn Farquhar
Smoke by Alan Rorrison
Psypher by Robert Smith
Imagine by G
Audio Coins by Eric Jones
Toosh by Steve Haynes

I'm giving these all good reviews. Because they are all good. Not cause i'm bias, its cause they are all truly good. Keeping my review short-ish, comment if u want more detail. I've spent quite a lot this month looking for solid non-card tricks (except Imagine).

Smoke by Alan Rorrison
I've spent quite a lot of money on other smoke devices. The problem i have with them is that they either have expensive refills or are awkwardly activated or you need to wear sleeves. This seriously eliminates all of that. Brilliant, commercial, 100% practical. I've been using it in a t-shirt, its great. It can be combined with any other trick to enhance it. But honestly after trying the "Portal" trick taught, its strong just by itself. That's what i use it for.
DVD is short and limited. Could of been expanded and really should of taught Card 2 Mouth as it was implied on the trailer.
Trick - 9.5/10

Psypher by Robert Smith
DVD in my opinion is crap. Robert is quite boring to watch after 1/2 hour. Also he doesn't explain the peak on the trailer (but its straight forward and now its a free download if you have the password). Also the dvd doesn't explain that you must peel the plastic coating off the gimmick (no its not that obvious), which makes it work. If you dont take it off it barely works. It claims it can go through 10 pages? No way. Not unless your trying to do it on purpose, for a real spectators 3-4 pages is more realistic. He says more gimmick is provided but "more" is like only 5cm2 more or so. Also all the tricks taught are ALL card tricks. Well they are pretty decent, though i think a tad convoluted and could of been stronger tricks. Nether-less they are strong card tricks (probably wont use them). DVD could of taught better mentalism. Bottom line is the gimmick its not as good as they say. However its still the best version of this gimmick i have ever used (i have used others before). I think its really pretty reliable and thats what counts. Gimmick is thinner and stronger and more flexible than Universal Impression. You only get enough gimmicks to make 1 note pad or 1-card case gimmick and a business card style gimmick. Not enough to make everything. Business card wallet provided is cheap looking however it works and i like it. I like the gimmick so much i went and bought another one.
DVD - 5/10
Gimmick - 9/10

Imagine by G
Trailer for this sucks. Doesnt show anything, but was getting good reviews, so i picked it up. Turns out this is a great trick. But annoyingly simple and it probably should have included at least 1 double blank card. Yes it does use a force, i wish he would explain more than just the Riffle force. If you watched the full performance chances are you could of backtracked the method. Yes the tricks is strong, i will be performing it and it integrates well with what i'm planning to use it for, but man its one of those annoying things you wished you came up with lol. DVD is a tad short, could of explained alternative routines, presentations etc. Also the V2F dvd he said on the Imagine dvd it explains version where you use V2F with Imagine. There is no such explanation of this on the DVD at all, also the link for the free "Sanitized" download bonus doesn't work.
Trick - 9/10
DVD - 7.5/10 (should of really been longer and included a double blank card)

Audio Coins by Eric Jones
I"m not a coin guy at all. But this i want to learn. Cheapest dvd in the list of what i'm reviewing. Coins are truly ungimmicked and no extra coins. Moves will take me a while to learn (cause i'm not a coin person), but they dont look too hard like say Ponta the Smith's dvd which all looks too hard for me. Last phase though requires sleeves but Eric teaches a alternative which simply is not as good. Overall he teaches a bunch of moves which i haven't seen before, all for such a low price. Also great impromptu coin routine that looks good. Bargain!
Trick - 8.5/10

Toosh by Steve Haynes
Those who know the Casanova effect taught on Paul Harris's true astonishment knows Steve is a great thinker, this seems like a direct evolution of that effect. This is MORE practical than that effect. I'm not sure if its stronger cause the Casanova is good, but simply doesnt require as big of a stack of cards, also you dont have to keep preparing cards, one time set up. Solid way to hand out business cards with a solid transpo. I will use this, i'm seriously considering using this to replace Freakey, cause my keys are starting to look worn-out and both are transpos, so sorta similar i guess. Also my pockets are running out of space lol. DVD is long. Too long, soooooo boring after a while lol barely watched it in one sitting. Also he gives enough gimmicks to make 1 full gimmick (mabey 1.5 gimmicks), but not enough to make two. And the dvd teaches basically two versions of the gimmicks and the rest of the tricks are variations on these two versions. He really should of included a little something extra so we can make both versions, and it would of hardly cost him anything.
Trick 8.5/10 (if he included the extra gimmick, 9/10)

Torn 2 Pieces by Shawn Farquhar
Saving the best to last. Simply the best trick of the lot. I saw this on Ellen and thought two things, 1- Must be a duplicate signature or 2- Handling must be difficult like some of the Piece by Piece restorations with cards or 3- Requires a Awkward switch. Wow i was wrong, That really is their signature (no dupes or anything like that), the handling is pretty easy and no awkward switch. You can personalize this with anything. Any photo! There's like a billion things you could do. Fits my style perfectly since i already do effects with photos. Let the spectator keep the photo, perfect give away. If your using your home computer and printer with photoshop the whole thing will take about 10 minutes to make. However if you make a bunch of them at once it would be faster (economy of scale). Photoshop template is cool, i use photoshop often and i thought it was a script or something, but no its just a simple template and even with my photoshop skill i'm glad i have the template. It would of taken me at least 15minutes just to make the thing, but the template you can do it in less than 2mins. I recommend going to the shop to print these photos. Since where i am it would cost me about 15cents for two performances, this is cheaper than Anniversary Waltz and way stronger.
Trick 10/10

A FINE REVIEW! Thank You for all the effort, good work, KIB.

Crap now I gotta buy Torn 2 Pieces. You guys are killing my finances!

Great reviews! Audio and Smoke sound great, as does Torn 2 Pieces. I'll be looking into these, thanks!

-JT

Lol i think your reviews are killing my finances not the other way around. But seriously i like Torn 2 Pieces.

*phew*! I just ordered torn 2 pieces and psypher 2 days ago. I'm glad I made some good purchases!!! I was sooooo close to order Imagine as well though.
I also picked up hijacked and the pandora system with beyond secrets as my bonus. can't wait!!

You wont be disappointed! Im also getting Beyond Secrets bonus with my other order which happens to be a 2nd Psypher pad and other things.

With Torn 2 Pieces could a mis-made photo be used to start with and then it is torn and restored?

I don't know if you can or not but why would you want to? I wouldn't want to start with some bizarre object and end with a normal looking, less interesting one. IMHO

The answer is yes. But it would make the trick worse in my opinion, but like why would you do that. Technically it wont make much sense. Since the edges are rough at the end.

In my opinion, it makes alot more sense to do it the other way around. You could explain that you have a great photo but when it came out of the printer, this is what it looked like...Then proceed to "correct" the photo in a magical way. Doesn't it make more sense to have something muddled up then use your magic to put it in order? It also gives a justification for the entire trick - why else would you rip a perfectly normal photograph? Especially - in Shawn's case - one of your young daughter?
I think doing it the other way around (correcting the photograph) changes it from being a quirky, strange trick into a piece of purpose driven magic.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this...

Rev.

Couldn't have said it better myself!

Well i disagree. It will make the trick worse. Because when someone sees something strange (like miss made photo) they will want to examine it. In which case using a normal handling for torn 2 pieces this cannot be done at the start (sure you could probably find another way, but it wont be the same trick anymore). Shawn's handling with the miss made photo at the end, this can be examined.

If you did it the other way around it becomes more of a like jigsaw puzzle effect, as opposed to a real kicker ending. Also the location of where they signed the photo if you did it the other way would be a problem (possible to work around, but overall the handling will be not as smooth).

However if you just start out with a photo, nobody will really want to examine it since its just a photo. Also the miss-made photo serves as a kicker ending. A real surprise. So you get two reactions out of the audience, 1- when it restores (Shawn's handling is so the face of the photo is not shown to the audience when its restored), and 2- When you turn it around and its miss-made (kicker!). Now if you did it the other way around you would only get 1-reaction (for the restoration). In addition its pointless to let them keep the photo, you would rather let them keep the more impossible looking object as a souvenir. Also the routine builds up better this way (it would be like doing the anniversary waltz in reverse, simply it would be less impressive, logically the trick structure would not build properly or logically). Try it both ways, you'll see that Shawn's way is the stronger effect. Even he says this effect was just a TNR photo originally, until he added the kicker ending and it became way more powerful.

So the way i see it. The trick is both worse in method and effect if you did it the other way. Sure its more "Justified", and it does explain why you a ripping it up in the first place, but still not as strong. If you are looking for justification Shawn says a idea where you use a photo of your ex-wife/ex-girlfriend, you look frustrated and hence you rip it all up. End with it miss made and say something like "see how she now looks weird, thats how she really looked to me". Lots of TNR routines aren't justified though, in which your correct, i'm not so convinced it has to be justified simply your motions have to be motivated rather than your actions be justified (woah, i'm not sure that made sense).

I feel that magicians can be their own worst enemies, thinking too much like magicians. Not everything has to be justified. You're a magician; you can do anything! You do it because you can.

Think about this with the mind of a layman: you give them a photo to freely sign. That photo is ripped into quarters (with the signature in full view at all times). The photo is then restored, but it's the wrong way around. That photo (still with their signature) is given to them to keep.

What an amazing souvenir! They're going to show that thing to everyone! Put your name and phone number on the back of it, and get some advertising mileage!

Who cares if magicians don't like the way something's done. Do the audience like it? It's like that advertising line everyone uses: a real magician fooler! Who cares if it fools magicians or not. We're not there to fool magicians; they're not our target audience.

Ok; rant over... I feel better now...

I agree with Revelation to a point. I think it makes sense to go from mis-made to made. edited, it might even be better that way. However, does it make sense to bend a fork with your mind? Or does it make sense to make coins penetrate into a bottle? It's magic, and in my opinion, a magical world doesn't need to make "sense".

Think "Through the Looking Glass".

-JT