Title: Holey ****! by Pete Firman and Anthony Owen
Medium: DVD
Arena: Close Up Card Magic
Available: Any shop, TVMagic.co.uk

The new trend in putting out individual routines on DVD rather than in a written description and including the cards needed in the DVD box continues with Holey Sh*t! from the fellows at TVMagic.co.uk. Like many of them this is shot in someones home, single camera, no bells and whistles….just a guy in a bad haircut and his trick. There is a difference though….this is a great trick. We’ll get to that shortly. The quality isn’t bad considering they set up a camera in Petes flat, that is the English way of saying an apartment, and filming it. The image is clear enough and the sound surprisingly good. Some of you out there can take lessons from these guys on proper sound by the way. In addition the editing is done well as it the menu authoring. Of the shot at home DVDs this one is one of the better ones I’ve seen.

The trick is presented by Pete Firman, let me tell you, he is one funny young man. He talks through the introduction, presentation, and instruction without an hick up and was entertaining the entire time. That is a plus in my book. I’d like to shake his hand because I admire intelligence and wit, then while I have his hand I’ll get him in a headlock and cut his hair! I’m kidding of course, maybe. The other fellow, Anthony, was behind the camera so he wasn’t seen, except his hand, or heard from during the DVD. The trick itself is based on the work of Alex Elmsley, Derek Dingle, and Richard Kaufman, and that is pronounced Kowfman for those keeping score not the way Pete pronounced it. Keep that in mind should you ever have the honor of meeting Richard. The routine is an ending, in this case, for a quick ambitious card routine. The card used in the routine is pulled from the deck and placed between two cards with large holes cut into them so you can clearly see the card front and back. With a flick the card vanishes from between the two cards and is found face up in the deck….tada!

When I first watched this presentation I just had no clue what had happened, it looked great. I ran over it again and it still looked great and I still had no clue what had happened. The deck is to the side, no move is made to it, I was stumped. This trick isn’t one you can do out of the box, you have to work on it a little bit to develop the knack to make the thing look good but it isn’t that difficult. I’ve no problem with that, not everything has to be ‘no sleights required! Do it for your friends immediately!’ you will want to practice before doing this one. The DVD does come with gaffed cards and they are beautifully made. I looked at the main gaffed card from half a foot away and didn’t notice how it was gaffed. Beautifully done. I’ll say this, it is clear who ever made these cards had a punch or something made to cut the gaffs because you don’t get that kind of precision with an x-acto blade. You may, after use, need to repair the gaffs and eventually replace them, they are paper cards remember and don’t last forever, and you will because this trick looks that good. Not only will the table guys and strolling guys like this the trick is going to be loved by the Street Assassins and Hallway Hit Men. Hey kids, you may get that strong reaction you’ve been pretending to get for real when you do this one!

That is about it. Well done DVD and really well made gaffs and a solid, commercial, card trick. This goes onto my list of favorite gaffed card routines, hats off to the guys at TV Magic.

I saw this about a year ago. While I thought it was a good idea, there are pros and cons that I don't recall being mentioned on the DVD (and aren't in your review).

I started using the original Holy P.O.D. as published in Richard's Almanac about 20 years ago. The big attraction for me was the visual vanish of the card (without it you might as well just do Elmsley's original Point of Departure). But I also felt that the vanish was so strong that having the card appear back in the deck weakened the effect. So I worked out a routine that used the Holy P.O.D. vanish and Elmsley's Between The Palms- essentially an unknown card is placed on the table at the beginning of the trick, then a signed card is vanished via Holy P.O.D and the card on the table is shown to be the vanished, signed card.

As mentioned, the basic idea as published in Richard's Alamanc is the drawback in that version (vs Holy ****) is that card has to be stolen back- which is a relatively minor drawback if no one suspects that the card was stolen.

Holy **** does eliminate the need to steal the card back, but sacrifices the ability to have the card signed- something I consider a pretty big con in a transposition like this. If you don't care about having the card signed then you might prefer Holy Sh*t. But either way, I recommend checking out the original before deciding which to use.

My favorite routine with the original Holy P.O.D. gimmick is a table hopping version that was published in Concertos for Pasteboard. This is a 2 phase effect where the card vanishes and reappears in the deck for the first phase, then the back of the card visually changes color in the 2nd phase. Instant reset, the card is signed, the spectator can keep the card and the and the steal-back requirement is eliminated in the 2nd.

As noted by MagicSanta, the trend in recent years is to put out a DVD with one trick and sell it for the price of a book. Maybe I'm just getting old, but I think there are too many overpriced one-trick DVDs floating around out there. I suppose that wouldn't be the case if people weren't buying them.

Holy **** sells for around $45. You can still find The Collected Almanac for around $60- 25% more than Holy **** but you get several hundred tricks instead of just one. Concertos for Pasteboard is still available for about $35.

I agree. if you are going to perform this trick, I would stick with the original. Far more convincing and as you mentioned, if you purchase the complete Almanac you get a bunch of other effects that will be of more value to the performing magician than most of the garbage that's out now.

Bob brings up some very good points. I want to point out that I have not read any of the books that the effect is based on. I would also suggest you check out the original, you may prefer it, as is often the case. I was going solely on the effect as it was and could not compare it to any similar effects.

The statement about the books vs a one trick pony should be seriously considered by people. The trick, in this case, is darn good though. I've seen too many coming out at the same price that were pretty darn bad.

I remember when this came out and I didn't think it looked good enough to buy it.

I just watched the video demo and the card vanish from between the two cards ( with the holes in them ) looked dramatic. It reappearing face up in the face down deck was a nice touch.

It comes with gimmicks, which I love to use when they do what sleight of hand can't.

But...I'm not ordering it ( again ). Why? I LOVE the Biddle Trick and I don't see this as leaving a stronger impression on the audience. Granted, the card visibly vanishes, but I'm not convinced the impact would be any greater. And the Biddle Trick has no force.


In this case, I'd rather go gaff-less.

The demo video was very coarse/grainy...

Apparently there's been a lot of renewed interest in this effect due to the recent release of my lecture DVD (which includes my new handling for this effect). Therefore I thought that you might be interested to know that as a result of the current strong US dollar against the UK pound Murphy's have recently lowered their wholesale price for this effect and that you should now be able to pick up the instructional DVD and gaffed cards from some of your favourite dealers for just $25.

Plus the DVD also now comes with my new handling which begins and ends with a regular ungimmicked Bicycle deck and allows the two holey cards and the selection used in the effect to be examined at the beginning and at the end. I’ve also added an additional non visual transposition phase to strengthen the visual nature of the vanish and structured the routine so that it can be performed in a walkaround situation without a table, with the key magic moments happening in the hands of the spectators. It is very quick and easy to reset, making it more suitable for situations where you maybe required to do multiple performances in quick succession (table-hopping, walkaround, trade shows, street magic etc).

Dealers who have existing stocks of Holey **** which do not include the new bonus routine should contact Murphy's to obtain a free PDF to print out for inclusion with their existing stocks and to pass on to previous purchasers with my compliments.

Anthony, thank you for this additional info. I have Holey ** and I really like it. The additional handling would be nice.