I too am quite puzzled about that! It's a head scratcher for me. From what I had gathered, the gaff was something special, unique, impossible to find! Something that had to be specially manufactured. When I saw it, I thought! Oh my Lord! I could buy those by the gross from Hank Lee! Or I can make them up in a heartbeat myself as my card peeling technique is pretty darn good. In fact, I have made scads of them over the years. Takes me two minutes flat to whip one out. It is a puzzle to me why Richard had such a hard time obtaining something he could buy from any respectable magic shop. Just doesn't make sense. Something's fishy in Denmark.

But still the effect is killer, in my opinion, so overall I'm not disappointed, Just baffled.

I've never met or talked to Richard and maybe out of line for suggesting this, but perhaps the so called 'gaffs" weren't available because Richard is actually an international spy stationed in Canada and was on assignment and couldn't break his cover to go to a shop and get them?

Doesn't it strike you odd that he seems a little too good with this magic stuff? That perhaps years of training with weapons might be responsible for these finger flinging skills?

It has been mentioned mutliple times that USPCC is not currently printing these. I am not much of a card splitter so if anyone truly knows a dealer that has decks of these in stock let me know. I believe everyone is out of them. R/B decks are readily available I presume because much stock was on the shelf.

I was hoping for some special wiz-bang-hyper-sneaky gaff as ground breaking as Wow! My hopes were somewhat raised when he was having so much trouble getting the gaffs, but deep down, I knew. I knew what the gaff was. And I was right.

I also knew the demo video was strategically edited. I hoped it wasn't true, but I knew deep down it was.. And I was right.

I also knew deep down that Richard Sanders believed in this routine. That it was practical and effective. Audience tested. And I was right.

On my first DVD viewing this week I was a bit overwhelmed. He goes into tremendous detail on every step. So many options. Last night I dug in a little deeper and started studying the “extended routine”. I’m going to plow through it and get it down. It will be well worth the work.

Beware if you are relatively new to card magic. There are quite a few moves in this routine. However, all the sleights are well known to an experienced card worker, and Richard goes into great detail on every sleight with special learning sessions. Often necessity is the mother of invention. Virtually every sleight I do well, I leaned specifically to accomplish a killer effect. Such as this one.

One of the beauties of Identity is it’s flexibility. It can be adapted to different audience situations, for longer or shorter routines. As advertised, it is very practical for strolling and easily resets. The super secret not so wiz-bang gaff is durable. It’s not going to wear out quickly. Simplicity at it’s best. (Penguin was giving them away free with every order a while back)

Best of all it Identity goes to the jugular when it comes to magic. The routine has many visual magical moments. Lots of audience participation, and It uses the most powerful magic word in the universe. The spectators name.

I recommend this highly. In my opinion the only thing that could make this better would be a super session or printed cheat sheet that outlines the sequence of moves. The highly detailed explanations are wonderful, but make it cumbersome to get the overall routine down. I appreciate the nuances and would not want Richard to leave them out . But I got them the first time, those details makes it cumbersome to learn… So I started making my own cheat sheet, summarizing the moves and phases.

And Chris, I do have it on good authority that Richard Sanders is from another planet... the planet "Fooolyou" This is good stuff.

Hello All,

I got Identity on Monday. After viewing the demo video I was pretty sure what the gaff was ... but needed the routine (and THAT is what you are paying for). I was familiar with Mr. Stickman ... so that didn't surprise me either. This routine is FANTASTIC.

After many rehearsal sessions I put it into my restaurant act on Thursday and Friday. The reactions were INCREDIBLE. This DVD and routine is well worth the money and investment. I have had people swearing at me ... walking away from the table ... and having their mouths drop open ... AND ALL FOR GOOD REASONS.

Richard Sanders has done it again and if anyone is unhappy with the purchase ... just TRY it first and I think you'll be extremely happy!

Jason Christopher

I got my dvd today. At first I wasn't madly impressed because of the multiple wrist kills. But after storming the plot I found a sequence which eliminates them and gets the desired outcome. Bottom line, I am happy.

Best

John

You may want to try Ebay.

I still haven't gotten my copy of Identity yet. Starting to get Pee'd.


V.

To those of you that already have Identity, what kind of permanent marker do you use for the effect? Is the standard Sharpie permanent marker dark and bold enough, or are there other markers out there that you have found to work better with Identity?

Still waiting for my pre order (big SIGH!!)

If I were you I would just get any old/extra indifferent card I have laying around and try a black marker that you like most.

The regular sharpie should be good but I prefer to use the Chisel tip.

Richard says he's using a "Sharpie style" pen. That fly by me the first time I watched the DVD. It's not a Sharpie. The pen is all black and creates a nice bold stroke. I made my gaff with a regular Sharpie. I don't like it. Time to go back to Office Depot.
The chisel style Sharpie should work fine, as mentioned, but the one's I've got are a bit fat.

Thanks for the input guys

Richard, who must keep the same weird hours I do, just answered my query concerning the pen. That's decent customer service. He wrote that the pen is nothing special. Just a generic marker he bought from Staples in Canada.

I know it seems like a small point but I'm liking the regular Sharpie less and less for this. The lines are too thin. Might be hard to see in bad light which is my normal working environment. The problem with the chisel is that the pen itself is a bit akward.

He uses Marks-a-lot markers.

Does no one care about the misleading video editing? I know It's not unusual in the magic advertising world, but it's certainly a disappointing change from Mr. Sanders' prior product advertising.

I care, but I have decided on its own merits that the DVD is of value. I would have felt more respected and bought the product without the misleading editing. To me, the most egregious edit was the card change shown repeatedly on the demo but never quite shown the same way on the DVD. I suspect this change can only be done effectively (if at all) with the maxed out version set up. I e-mailed Richard with these concerns, I thought in a polite way, and received no reply. I see from above posts that he gets his email and when I have emailed him in the past about replacement gimmicks etc. he has responded. I have to assume he feels the DVD speaks for itself and may not want to get into a quotable, defensive discussion about the nuances of preview videos and ad copy. Some "protective" editing is to be expected. On Tagged, the "clean up" move is not shown start to finish on the demo but we knew one had to be there and I am very happy with this effect. With Identity, the advertising focus (demo video and cover art) on a move that may not be practical together with delay in the gimmicks (which I truly believe was unintentional and out of Richard's hands) may have led some to believe they were getting something revolutionary instead of evolutionary. Sorry for the long rant, obviously I need more friends

Socalesq,

Briefly. I don't care a whit. I'm very happy with what I received and the demo editing is a distant memory now...Time to get on with life

I have absolutely no idea why some of you think there was misleading video editing... He does not have to show the entire thing from start to finish. Nothing in his demo video is absent from the dvd and yes, he does teach the impossible looking change, exactly as it is on the demo, on the dvd. I don't feel cheated at all by the demo video.

This effect is brilliant. Candidate for best of 2009. Way to go Richard.

The impossible looking "Twirl Change Variation" is taught in the "Extras" section of the DVD.

Robert