I have personally always been drawn towards contortion stunts. Anything you can perform using a piece of your body (PG appropriate of course) is simple amazing. Even the old pulling off your thumb gag Dad does all the time can look like a piece of Harry Potter magic in the right hands. Titan's Finger is no exception, other than the fact that anybody who knows how can do it too!

Check this out for yourself: http://www.penguinmagic.com/product.php?ID=2057


Points to remember:


*It's easy and painless

*There is NO palming, pulls, or anything to get rid of
*You will end COMPLETELY clean
*Works with ANY finger
The DVD: To begin, the DVD isn't entirely studio produced. That should be said up front. Titanas isn't perfectly fluent in English but that was overcome by the use to text. Most of the shots are covered from an over the shoulder type shot down on a table. Text appears where it is needed (although it's pretty simple to get what's going on) and doesn't get in the way. Also, the quality is the typical high and clear. The same applies to audio. He isn't muffled or fuzzy in the least. All in all I feel the DVD was well produced for what they had to work with.

The Method: When you first get this DVD, you will probably look at the gimmick and laugh. When you try it the first time, you will probably look at your finger in a daze. When you PERFORM it for the first time, you will relish in your ever-loving glory! I know I did! The concept could be considered a somewhat old one, but literally re-designed. It works almost flawlessly and could be carried with you every day to perform whenever you want to. One quick note to mention, you won't be able to do this effect perfectly straight out of the box. More than likely, because of the nature of your hands, you will have to train your finger a little before performing it. As an added bonus however, there is an impromptu handling taught on the DVD which only requires something very simple that you definitely have around the house. You don't get the exact effect, but it's close enough.

The Gimmick: One of the greatest advantages about Titan's Finger is the customizable gimmick. After rigorous study, the producers of this gimmick found 4 finger sizes to work with this gimmick. At first I was worried that it would be a cheap one size gimmick that might not work for me but I found out later that it actually works perfectly. There should be nothing to worry about. Just like the ad says, this is a high quality custom engineered gimmick by Mark Allen. And it is NOT a little mold of your finger (just to get that out of the way).

To give this DVD a final rating, I happily rate it a 4 out of 5. If you are simply too cool (or just born to perform) this halloween, Titan's Finger is a PERFECT addition to your repertoir of effects.

i didnt like this trick. yes it more or less did exactly what was described but here's my problem with it.

1- Gimmick comes on a small chain type thing. Presumably so u can easily carry it with u. This thing broke. Luckily i found it a day later on the road side. It really should of been a better chain, like a key fob or something.

2- Once you get the illusion of the nail on the other side of the finger, it really doesnt come off as easy as Titan makes it seem. It could just be my hands, i dont know.

3- It really doesnt look real. Doesnt look that real at all. Sure you perform how Titan does it, so they never are able to compare the nails together cause they only ever see one side of your hands at one time. However it just doesn't look that real. Also (once again it could just be my hands), the effect is not clear, you cant see that obviously that the nail has gone to the other side cause the appearance of the nail is quite subtle.

i rate the trick 6/10 (i appreciated that it was a interesting new method, and can be impromptu almost)

Keepitbottled does it only not look real to you, or the audiences you've performed it for?
I don't have the gimmick and do not know how it works, but sometimes it can be a question of us believing that it will not look real. The first trick I got was the vanishing silk with the TT, and I was SO scared when performing it the first time, because I couldn't believe that people wouldn't notice the TT! Noone ever noticed though. My point is, if you really seem to turn your finger around, your audience will not believe it, thus they will react very strongly when something merely looking like a nail appears where there is supposed to be nothing. It doesn't have to be perfect. If a nail appears after you apparently twisted your finger, will it not seem real to them?

Have you performed it many times? How were the reactions? Did you really play out the fact that you were turning your finger around?

Just some thoughts I had... Not to prove you wrong, but to try and help you get the most out of your purchased effect in the future!


-Widding

I've performed it twice for real audiences. Not very good reactions both times. And i'm not afraid of the TT lol, but this is different. I still believe it doesnt look real.

yeah you know the TT was just an example... Fair enough though, if you've tried it to your best and still don't like it there's nothing to do about it.


-Widding

I still get great reactions from sliding my thumb off my finger. As soon my audiences get wise to that I may have to upgrade.

The difference I see between this and a TT is that you're trying to direct their attention away from the TT. This is quite the opposite. This effect demands that you look at the gimmick, otherwise there is no effect.

I'm passing on this one.

From what I've heard about this effect, you never have anything in your hands. No gimmick to hide.

Good point DaveV... I just meant that sometimes audiences accept more than we think...
But then again we shouldn't count on that should we?


-Widding

Will an audience HONESTLY believe for more than 5 seconds that you truly twisted your finger around 180-degrees? I think that is underestimating our spectator's intelligence way too much. People work with their hands every day, so they certainly know what the front and back of the hand distinctly looks like. In my opinion (whatever that means to anyone lol), the spectator will definitely know that the finger did not twist around, but rather the fingernail somehow moved.

When this was released I remember everyone looking at the demo speculated, "It HAS to be a fake nail!" and then the people who owned the effect proudly responded, "Nope; there's nothing on your hands! You end completely clean! No fake nail!, etc." My point is that basically everyone immediately suspected that it was a fake nail. Sure, maybe this is a cleaner, cleverer method, but if the spectator even THINKS that it's a fake nail, who cares if you're clean? They're just going to think you are hiding the fake nail somewhere.

IMO this effect might have a strong/grossed out initial reaction, but I don't think afterwards it would take too long for a spectator to silently think, "Well, he probably just used a fake fingernail." I just see too many flaws with the effect for me to buy it.

Another good point


-Widding

Yes, true.