I was wondering if anyone has this. I am planning on buying it to end my competition routine but is it worth the price?
I will probably get his ambitious card video as well but have you had any experience on it?

The gimmick is very good - much better than trying to make one yourself, and is an absolutely eye-popping finale to an ambitious card routine. However, be warned that you will need to ring this gimmick in at some point in your routine. Daryls' routine is quite lengthy and goes through a lot of stuff before he gets to this which he secretly switched into play about halfway through. His video covers this in detail so if you wanted to you would be able to learn it BUT my feeling is that to use it you'd probably have to perform most if not all of Daryls routine yourself. If you don't mind doing that, fine, personally I think that there are few performers out there that could do the full routine justice. I own the gimmick but have never had the opportunity to put it into play.

Just my two cents worth!

Martino.

The gimmick is very impressive. The idea is very clever and very nice.=) i was shocked the first time i saw it.It's good stuff.

You will get the standing ovation by using this.But while spending on the gimmick,you can buy Daryl's video on ambitious card video.You will know the gimmick and construct it yourself.It is much better cos you can more information as well after watching the video.

thanks for all the tips. I already hae a time inwhich i can swap half a deck.
Are any other of Daryls videos any good?

All of Daryl's stuff is excellent, but it is aimed more at beginners to intermediate level magicians. If you do the Ambitious Card, I would highly recommend this tape/dvd. Not only do you learn his exact routine, but he goes over tons of other stuff that is used by other card men. You can easily develop a great routine with the help that Daryl offers.

I see no reason to buy Ultimate Ambition. To me this is nothing than a finale to fry well schooled magicians. To layman, I can't believe this does anything more than a standard double move. In fact, the handling is such that it looks almost a bit handsy and suspicious. If you're into the showmanship of the rope, I'd just do a standard ambitious handling where you leave the card sticking out, then wrap the deck with rope. There is one gimmick I do like but still don't use. It's the one where you put a sticker on the back of the ambitious card, stick card into deck, the audience sees the exact moment the card with sticker appears on the top.

I made the gimmick myself in less than half an hour from the description / explanation given on the Daryl video. I agree with Platt that it tends towards 'magic for magicians' and does not add a great deal to the performance of an ambitious card to laymen. The video is excellent btw.

Jay Sankey's AC finales "Top Card" and "Rubber Rise" are EQUALLY powerful to the "Ultimate Ambition", but beautifully gaffe-less. The latter is most like Daryl's gimmick in that the deck is wrapped. But Jay uses a rubber band instead of a rope, and the deck is wrapped on all four sides, whereas Daryl wraps the rope only across the deck's width. Both "Top Card" and "Rubber Rise" are taught on Sankey-tized, Vol. 1.

Jim

I'm concerned about using this effect as a finale to your "competition" routine. Does this mean you wish to perform it for other magicians? If so, you may not get the response you're looking for, because it's a very well known sequence. However, for laymen (and shouldn't we all be more concerned with pleasing them?) it will absolutely kill.

I have to respectfully disagree with those who don't believe that Ultimate Ambition can
"fry a layman." I have yet to be disappointed with the response I receive with this effect.

Two years ago, I first saw this routine when I saw Michael Close at the Monte Carlo in Las Vegas. I had worked at a magic shop for 3 years, and thought that I knew all the gimmicks there were. Michael was kind enough to point me in the right direction with this effect.

The reason I wanted to pursue this effect was that I was looking for a new ending for my Ambitious Card routine for the summertime. During my corporate strolling gigs, or winter restaurant work, I always wear a sport coat and end with the card to a Balducci-Kaps-Mullica wallet. I wanted a routine where I could do an ending while wearing a vest in the summertime. Daryl's gimmick was the perfect fit.

I spent the $21 to obtain the effect, practiced the handling a debuted it at my restaurant gig 3 nights later. Instead of a piece of rope, I used a rubberband and a borrowed bill. More often than not, the spectators let me keep the bill as a tip (usually 1's and 5's). Needless to say, I walked out that first Friday night with my $21 back in my pocket. Anytime a trick can pay for itself in one night, is worth it to me.

I have never had anything but surprise and gasps at the end of this routine.

Just my two cents worth.

Michael

Michael, I really like your idea of the rubber band and the dollar bill as the cover. When I first started using the gimmick, I wanted to get away from the rope and use rubberbands or ribbon. I couldn't find a suitable method better than rope.
Lately I have been using the Instantaneous Knot routine from Daryl's Foolerdoolers Volume one to set up a reason for having a piece of rope off to the side to later pick up as sort of a "I just thought of a way to make this more challanging" and do the finale of the Ambitious routine.

If you want to try something a bit different, but with a similiar effect, I have two suggestions.

Try Sankeys "Rubber band rise" where you wrap the deck in rubberbands and the card rises to the top. No gimmicks at all and can be done totally impromptu.

Or try Krenzels version from "Ingenuities" where you trap the cards in the box, cleanly put the card in the center and still have it rise to the top. Can also be down with an ungimmicked deck.