TNR

When David Copperfield perform a torn and restored baseball card on his The Magic of David Copperfield XV special, I, like most magicians, was completely blown away. It was an impossibly visual restoration with many people (falsly) cited as a camera trick (it really did look that impossible).

Just after the show, an advert appeared in Genii magazine advertising the trick (called Torn Asunder) and stating that only a limited number of 25 sets would ever be sold and the price a mere $500!

Torn Assunder was devised by Chris Kenner with David Ouellet and also Don Wayne, David Copperfield and David Wiliamson helped with additonal routining ideas for the TV special. Now, how many of these 25 sets were sold I don't know, or indeed if the advert was placed in Genii merely to prove that the effect was not camera trickey. What I do understand is that the routine, although incredible to watch is almost completly impractical outside of the confines and control of a carefully produced television special.

Well, many years later and the incredibly clever Mathieu Binch sneds Chris Kenner a video tape of what appears to be a completely self contained, practical version of Torn Assunder. Not only does the card visualy fuse together with almost no 'hadling or hidden 'moves', but as soon as the final corner is fixed in place, the card is turned round to show a surprise climax of a transformation! Apparently Chris was completely fooled!

Released as one of the effects from Theory11, TNR is a beautifully released DVD (also available as a download) which features Chris Kenner, performing and then explaining in increidble detail how the effect works.

A card is chosen by a spectator and the magician 'fails' to find it. Displaying the wrong card, the magician ripps it into four pieces and then magically restores it (no moves, no covering, no funny business) the four corners are seen to visably fix in place. Finally, as soon as the card is fused together, the card is turned over to reveal that it has transformed into the chosen card!

Unlike the many sleight of hand versions of this effect, this variation relies on a very clever gimmick that Chris explaines how to build. It is a bit fiddly - but with practice it can be made in under less than 5 minutes. Becuase of the gimmick, all 'handling' is kept to a minimum and the corners really do appear to fuse together.

I hope it does not give the game away too much to say that the card transformation at the end is also part of the working of the gimmick and although some people may see this as an added complication to a very pure routine - I personally like the transformation because it eliminated that urgent need for the spectator to grab the restored card and try and pull it apart. Instead you now have an added 'beat' in which you ahouls be able to conceal a top change (or whatever) to make yourself clean that the end.

All in all this is probably the cleanest most visual restoration of a card that money can buy (and to be honest - it is not a lot of money at all) but it does have the disadvantage of not being impromtue or examinable.