The Boston Diaries

The ongoing saga of a programmer who doesn't live in Boston, nor does he even like Boston, but yet named his weblog/journal “The Boston Diaries.”

Go figure.

Sunday, August 16, 2015

It's not quite impressive when you know you can buy it at Amazon

I came across Jamie Raven's first performance on Britain's Got Talent, and I must say, the animated card trick (really, I can't describe it—you should see it for yourself) was very impressive. But, this being on YouTube at a nice resolution, it's all too easy to go through the trick frame-by-frame and figure out how it's done.

Yes, Bunny and I went through the trick frame-by-frame, and by carefully (mild spoilers here) noting what we could and could not see, it became apparent how he did the trick.

But it gets even less impressive when you realize you can buy the trick on Amazon.

His previous trick in that video, that of turning several £50 notes into sketches of the judges, in front of them, by waving the bills back and forth, is still impressive but only by the fact that I don't know how he did it.

This seems to be a trend with his tricks on Britain's Got Talent. On his last appearance on that show, for his first trick, he pulls out a deck of cards, asks Simon Cowell to name a card, then fans out the deck face up, with the card that Simon Cowell named, face down. Assuming Simon isn't in on the trick, it's mindblowing (much like his turning £50 notes into drawings).

But I found his final trick (pulling a signed card out of a lemon) obvious (nothing in his hands, indeed!). It's a nice trick, but really (mild spoiler), he takes a few seconds too long doing what should be a quick move.

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