This is a good point...I noticed the change is exactly the same...so how can the angle be any better?

I really like this effect. The dvd is of very good quality. There are several handlings and the teaching is easy to understand.

I am having trouble with the preset handling (learning the main move), where my bill will tend to shift or bill transforms upside down (maybe I'm viewing wrong?) but with time I believe I can learn it and work out my bugs.
Worth the investment!
Just my 2 cents..
Mack Magic

Greetings,
The angles of Skullkracker are much more user friendly due the the fact that your hands are closer together.
This just gives you better blocking. You can test this out by getting into the change position of both Skullkracker and any other version and have a friend walk around you letting you know when they reach a position where they can see the work.

Another main factor to consider is Skullkracker is not backlight sensitive. All of the other versions are impossible to perform if there is a light source behind you. The light sensitivity is bad enough with American currency, some international currency is made with thinner materials which makes the problem even worse.

Mack, it sounds like you may have made the original folds incorrectly or your starting position is not correct.

I think the folds have something to do with it; I'll try it again.
Thanks,
Mack

Using the idea of Bob Kohler from a previous post, I think this is perfect for an open, in-your-face switch of one bill for one exactly like it. It absolutely looks like nothing happened. I practiced this solidly for the week and decided to give it a trial run on Sunday, at the bar I work, for bill to impossible location.

I had the same issues listed by other posts: can't borrow the bill or have the bill signed, deceptiveness (e.g. does it fool laypeople or do they perceive a switch), routining.

Here's what I came up with: I borrowed a $20 bill (yes, you can borrow a bill). I asked for a "crisp" bill, just to play it safe. I then folded the bill right in front of them in the way necessary to switch it out during the Skullcracker move. This is only 3 folds and is a larger packet than the $100 bill switch. I had them sign the lower right hand quadrant of this folded packet. By the time I took the pen back I already had my $20 Skullcracker packet, to switch-in, in finger palm. I unfolded the bill to the folded-in-half arrangement all ready for the move. Bob Kohler has a great "show" (taught on the DVD) where you show the backside of the bill (I had fake initials on my bill to flash). As I swung back around on this big movement, I simply did the Skullcracker switch. No one suspected a thing.

The signed bill is delivered into right finger palm. I took a small pay envelope out of my right front pocket, leaving the signed bill next to the lemon. I openly placed the switched-in bill inside the envelope. Now what to do with this envelope/bill? My biggest problem (even in my stage act) is how do you present the destruction/vanish of the signed bill? For the bar, I just decided to lift up a large container that I had taped a sign that said "Magician's Tips" and dropped the envelope into it. This got a big laugh and I just placed the container on the floor behind the bar. I then did cups and balls under the guise of letting them try to win it back (I have a c&b routine that kind of follows a shell game premise). The potatoes appear - no money. I then dump the consolation prize out of my shoe (lemon) cut it open to reveal bill.

My only problem is that it was a little hard to get the bill in the lemon - a moment of futzing in my pocket, but nobody really knew what was going on. And by the time the c&b routine was over, and the lemon appeared, and the bill was found inside, they seemed to have forgotten that awkward moment (at least it was awkward internally for me).

I hope this gives people more food for thought. I don't like using a thumbtip to switch a bill for impossible location routines. The packet is just way too small. The Skullcracker switch works perfectly for this venue - I'm not sure about the stage setting - I'm still using the Scott Alexander method now. And the bill CAN be borrowed. Just make sure it's not a ratty bill that will hang up during the move. It was easy to borrow a $20 in the bar, not so sure about a $100 (at least in this setting). I'm sure I'm going to get requests to do this again . . .

Hi Doug
So complicated... I mean you can use the work from Fred Berthelot also from Kholer or any bill switch from Jonny Paul or Tom Mullica my Bill switch to do thid trick in a easiest way.
regards
arthur

Actually it's probably my writing that's complicated (in an attempt to be complete).

It's really quite easy: switch, load, reveal (later)

The Skullcracker switch allows the apparent same bill to stay visible from the time it is signed and dropped into the envelope and into the tip cup. Nothing seems to have happened, yet I was ready for the reveal later. Sure you can substitute a standard billet switch (when it's folded up), or even a standard utility switch (like for a coin), but we're talking about the Skullcracker switch. I found it immediately useful for this venue, for this trick. I'm not so sure yet for a bill "change" - haven't tried it yet in front of real people (the only ones that count).

I think since the folding process is so important, that it should have been explained more slowly and each fold detailed step by step; it would have improved this from a learning standpoint. This is my only complaint from my first go at the DVD. Honestly, I'm not sure that this will replace my standard bill switch (Kevin King's Money Morph), but only time will tell. I love the two Bobs so use this or not I'm happy to have the knowlege in my video library.

Okay, I saw the DVD and I am not that impressed. I think this DVD is a little overhyped. Although good explained the change of the bill is almost exactly of the Juan 100 dollar bill switch.

I prefer the Juan 100 dollar bill swith much more because:

1. The bill changes completely open in stead of half open
2. The appearence and clean-up of the other bill happens lighting fast. So fast that I never suspected the real secret.

I hope this helps.

Patrick66,

Bob's handling has completely eliminated the back light problem of bill changes of this nature. No matter how visual the change of the bill is, if shadows are exposing the method then you are not amazing (fooling)your audience.

I don't own Juan or SkullKracker but it seems to me that the angles are better on Skull.

I feel fortunate to have seen Lonnie Chevrie's handling of the Juan Pablo change, the Juan Hundred Bill Switch, and Skullcracker. In truth, I have NEVER been fooled by the actual moment of the switch except once. To me, I ALWAYS saw the "moment." Now, would lay people see this? Probably. Would they know what it was? I doubt it. However, if the goal was to make for a truly open and invisible change, wouldn't that be worth striving for?

Well, I saw Bob Sheets perform two of the handlings from Skullcracker. The first looked fine, but I still had that "I saw it moment." The second one, however, looked flawless. I mean, he folded the bill in half, and when he opened it, it had changed. So, when it comes to all of these visual Bill Changes, right now, Skullcracker gets my vote. (And there was an informed layperson there when he did this. He never suspected, let alone detected, anything was about to happen and the moment of the change was a true surprise for him.)

Having said ALL of that, I still prefer the classic $100 bill switch. To me, it is that which occurs in the spectator's imagination which is most important and I feel that switch is more mysterious than any visual switch will ever be. WIth the latter there is no audience engagement, they either accept it, or do not.

But for those who DO want to pursue that type of switch, I think Skullcracker is the way to go.

Brad

I think we also take into account who released this and who's routine it is. Bob Kohler and Bob Sheets have been making their living performing magic for more years than I've been "playing with it". They now what works and what "GTFM".

Chris

For me, I think it's always stronger when you can borrow the bill you are about to change. Unfortunately, the $100 bill switch is not an easy method to use for a borrowed bill. It is also not really a "visual" change, but an after-the-fact change. However, I think Skullcracker is really a breeze to prepare the borrowed bill for the change. I'm just not convinced, as of yet, I want to use it for this effect. I actually prefer "no effect" in its use during the switch.

I think the most under-rated advance in visual changes goes to Joshua Jay's "Inflated Change" routine. One of the best advances to the $1/$5 change I've yet seen.

Bob performed it to me at FISM.

I have to tell you something guys:

if you don't see the effect live you havent seen anything!

there is no compare when you watch it from TV. watching it from TV is great. watching it live is unbelievable. it looks 70% better than the clip.

this is unbelievable and much much better than the classical bill switch.

Off course it looks better in person. But that would be the same for the Juan 100 dollar bill switch. I still think the latter is much better. Like I said, the get-ready and the clean-up are that fast that a magician never suspects the TT in those first moments.

And a layperson should never suspect one ever.

Okay, I just did this as a "change" last night (a $1 to a $20) for 3 people and they were all floored - didn't have a clue to what I did. I guess I'll reconsider what I was thinking about this as a change . . .

In this video Bob gives a tip for making bills 'crisp' by starching and ironing them. This process *may* cause bills to show up as 'counterfit' when cashiers use thier counterfit detecting pens on them. I just tried to spend a starched and ironed twenty and the store would not accept it because it failed the pen test (even though the watermark and foil strip were on/in the bill). This kind of sucks for me because I starched and ironed a Hundy 500 gimmick...

Skullcracker is supposed to be and is better with angles due to the fact that the hands are closer together.