Magic Tricks

I only bought this trick because of the splintering sound when the toothpick is pulled out of the finger. Without that sound, it would be an OK trick, but I figured the creepy splintering sound would really sell the trick and freak people out.

Well, it's a fake, the sound was added in post-production. There's no sound when you do the trick as taught.

So, the trick itself may not really deserve one star, but I still give an automatic one-star review to any trick where the promo video blatantly misrepresents the product, including:
- cutting away from the performer for several seconds to give them time to do a move that everyone would see in a live performance ("Clutch", "Secure A Card")
- music to cover up noises made by the trick ("Pass Pass Silk", "Moebius")

to which I now have to add: putting in sound effects in post-production that look like they are part of the performance.

I've given plenty of five-star reviews to Penguin tricks that actually work the way they say they do (Psypher, Dresscode, Alarmed, Spreadwave, Rattled, and many others).

Marcus seems like a smart guy and a good performer and he does the trick quite well even with no sound. Sorry, this one star is just for the trickery in the video.

If someone is reading this review at a later date and the promo video has been replaced with one that doesn't have the fake sound effect added, then count this as more of a three-star review. The move is still quite difficult to do without flashing. But I will say that if you can do it, the trick actually looks better than it does in the video, because he's NOT pulling the toothpick out of his mouth -- one thing that you can't quite see in the video is that you can show the tapered end of the toothpick being held the whole time in your teeth, so it looks like it really is being pulled out of your finger.