I have been working with Shawn Farquhar's Torn 2 Pieces (signed photo is torn up and restored in a mismade fashion). I first used a photo of my dog, then a photo of my daughter at her wedding. The effect lacked motivation for tearing up the pictures, and in fact I felt pretty wierd tearing up pictures of things I love.
A few days ago I came up with the idea of using a photo of Criss Angel. I googled for it and came up with a great photo of Criss without a shirt.
I now pull out the photo and talk about how Criss and I have quite a bit in common.
First, we're both magicians.
Second, we both have that long flowing hair! ( I actually don't have that much, and have a bald spot in the back)
Third, he is opening a new show at the Luxor this Halloween, and 20 some years ago I used to perform on Halloween for my grandma's old folks home.
Forth, we're both built.....just differently.

I then mention a few effects that Criss did on TV, and admit that I can't do them. As this goes on, I seem to get madder and more frustrated.

I now have the motivation to destroy the picture. I'm still working on this and need a funny line to explain the restoration of the photo in a mismade fashion.

Any input would be welcome!

Sammy

The hair line is funny... but explaining the restoration is the key part... without this, to be honest the rest of the patter is without context. come up with a good tie-up line and get back to us!

So you tell them you feel bad about poking fun at Criss and so you tell them you will put him back together. You restore the pieces but then when you reveal the image to them you say "back to normal" ... they see it all mixed up and will most likely tell you it's not normal ... to which you can reply ... it's Criss Angel ... this is pretty normal for him!

Cheers,

Shawn

ps Great idea using the pic of Criss ...

Thanks Shawn! I really like the idea of "back to normal". I will be trying it out tonight!
We sure enjoyed having you join us for "Magic in the Rockies" this year!

Saw Shawn lecture at the SCA glasgow, loved him and loved this effect. At the moment I am doing it with a full size playing card that I made up and print onto photo paper.
Have card selected ( force king diamonds) say that most people keep photos of their wife,children etc, but not me I love magic I keep a photo of my favourite playing card in my wallet. Ask what card was selected, open wallet to show a photo of the kd.
Take out photo and say that was a good magic trick I am now going to show you a great magic trick. have photo signed and continue as with torn 2 pieces effect.
cheers
den

Great idea, den. I haven't checked this thread for a while, but think your idea is great!
Sammy

Okay here is a trick I have been doing some time and its strong tell me what ya think and maybe I can share it. the effect you have a ring box in your pocket you take out a coin sign it one side and let the spec sign the other side, now table the coin so its in full view. remove the ring box and give it to the spectator to hold that's the last time you make contact with the box, now you vanish the signed coin and when the spectator opens the ring box wala there it is with both signatures on it. impossible I don't think so ive been performing it for over a year now.....if ya like it I will be glad to share it with you.

...you could always add some corn by saying the pic is now criss crossed! For even more laughs you could cross your eyes under the pretense of looking at the pic. You could use a pic of him wearing one of his many crosses and work that in too. Just my ramblings.

Long ago I would tear up my Draft Card and restore it --

and there may come a time again ...

Hi guys

David Penn and myself reviewed this on the latest Wizard Product Review. It got worker of the week. You can check out the show at the following link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_9WmuwKRzU

Hope you enjoy the review and find it useful

Craig

This looks pretty amazing! Can the photo be restored back to its original state? Also what skill level would this be rated? Thanks!

All I can say for this is wow what a geat concept it fit in your wallet it a great gift to give a way and can be done surrounded I performed this for the first time today and I got crazy reactions how pleasesed were they when I said they could have it this will be my can you do one more piece from now on.

it is pretty easy to learn you don't have to be a finger flicker to do this.

just a tip if anyone intrested I went to boots do get my photoes printed I got 200 photoes fo 10 pound which is 400 performaces which is great value.

I did use there instant kodac machisne I printed one but found I couldent tear it very well but the hour ones was perfect so I ordered 200 realy lookin forwood to doing this.


well done shawn what great concept and congratlations on winning the worker of the week on the wizards
product review

kind regards

kieron johnson

Just got this and am loving it. Its easy to prepare. Works well printing out the pics on a home printer with photo quality paper and is really easy to perform.

Only issue I have is I don't have Photoshop and couldn't get the necessary items to show in Gimp to be able to use my own photos on my Windows 7 machine so until I figure out what's wrong I'm going to be using pictures of Shawn's daughter and passing them off as my biggest fan.

Apart from this minor technical issue I highly rate this as an effect and can't wait for my next gig to try it out. In terms of pocket space, all you need is the picture in your wallet and your regular Sharpie and you have a minor miracle.

No, it cannot be restored, but then again why would you want to? You just performed a miracle and you then give the photo to the spectator as a souvenir. Aside from making whatever photos you wish to use it is extremely easy. All that's really left is how you may wish to present it.

I have the same problem. I happen to have a very sophisticated photo editing program called Jasc Paint Shop Pro 9 for some time but I've never learned how to use it and the instruction manual alone is 480 pages! However it looks nothing at all like Adobe Photoshop which Shawn demonstrates. So with that I installed Gimp but, again it works nothing like that shown by Shawn on the DVD and the complete template does not show up on it! However it does with Jasc, but as said I have NO idea what I'm doing albeit I know that it can be done. I really have some ideas as to photos but unless I take some kind of course on this program I'm stuck!

Also, I have some concerns about showing someone a small photo of say; my granddaughter, pet, etc. The reason being is that in all of the years someone (or me) has shown someone a small photo (or any photo for that matter) their first instinct is take the small photo to look at, and I've always done the same thing. One does not simply hold up a small wallet size photo without giving it to the person to take a look at! For example; Shawn included a 2" X 2 1/2" photo of his daughter (very cute by the way). If you plucked that photo out of your wallet and showed it to someone their very first instinct would be to reach out for it so as to take a closer look at it, and rightfully so. However.....you can't! Any ideas on this? Perhaps keep the photo in some type of plastic sleeve, and or the photo sleeve of your wallet and then remove it and proceed with the effect?

That is why I'm leaning toward making a photo of a card as more than likely no one would want to reach out and take a look at. Unless the photo is somewhat large there is no way you can simply grasp onto a very small photo (which would mean that you are covering a small section of it)without someone wanting to take the photo to take a closer look at it which is only natural. Other than that, the working of this effect is absolute genius!

I have to say Torn 2 Pieces is one of the best effects I have seen in a long time this went into my working set the next day.

I have in the last couple of days found the perfect photo and made up over 50 of these (that is how much I like it)

And as Craig says it is very easy to do, which is a bonus.

And in the UK Kodak are doing buy one get one free on the photo paper.

GREAT!

Lee.

Although I love the effect it looks as though I'm stuck with the few templates Shawn supplied with the DVD which is a real bummer. I have Jasc Paint Shop Pro which seems to support the PSD template files, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to work it out. Although Gimp supposedly supports PSD picture files it seems as though it doesn't as the template does not show up completely, so for all practical purposes it is useless. I changed the template to a JPEG file, but then it looses its layered functionality so again....useless. I'm not about to spend $600.00 for Adobe Photoshop, and I have no desire to use the templates/pictures that are included with the DVD so it looks as though I'll never be using this effect. Totally LOVE the effect and all too easy to do, but it's a shame I can't use it.

Same here, great effect but I can't get the template to show up in gimp.

Now downloading trial version of Adobe photoshop CS5 extended! I'll post my success rate with it soon

Some trial versions of programs either have a time limit, or are limited to the number of times you use it. Either way, good luck as Adobe CS5 Extended has a retail price of $1,000! But, by all means lets hear how it works out. Now that I know how the template should look I can more or less hack my way through it on Jasc and another program, but God Almighty it takes hours to just set up one photo as I absolutely refuse to use the photos included on the DVD.

Am I to take it that those that are using this effect have Adobe Photoshop, or are you satisfied with using the photos included on the DVD? As for Gimp.....it should be called Limp as its totally useless with PSD images and will NOT work as shown on the DVD. Maybe Mac's are different as that is what Shawn is using but I can't see how. As I previously mentioned I really love this effect, but I'm really disappointed that if one wishes to make their own photos that they will then be forced to have Adobe Photoshop which is $600.00 minimum!