"Above the Fold" booklet by Rich Aviles
Suggested Retail USD$25.00
Available direct from Rich Aviles
In a Blink: 10 Out of 10

"Above the Fold", a booklet by Rich Aviles, is a collection of creative, off-beat, and unique card material that is fun to read, a joy to perform, and devastating to the brain of many a spectator. In other words, this is some great stuff even if you're only partially a card person.

That's not hype. These routines are different, sometimes startling so. And, being different, some of these are close to being reputation makers. Okay, so what do you get for your hard-earned shekels? You learn twelve effects and seven moves and sleights, a fair amount given the price of the booklet.

Don't worry: I'm not going to go into a ton of detail here. At most, I'm just going to give you an idea of what you're getting. Since my advice to card workers is to get this book, any critique of individual material by me would just be redundant. Besides, as usual with this kind of collection, you'll find your own favorites anyway. Much better, then, just to explain things a little and move on.

Let's look at the moves first:

"Fax Machine" is a weird, animated color change…

Okay. Wait a sec. I take back what I said: some of these are going to need more than a little detail.

"Fax Machine" is a weird, animated color-change. A card is inserted into the front of the deck where it slowly inches its way into the deck as it comes out the back a completely different card. A huge discrepancy here, but it won't be mentioned by spectators because they won't have a clue what's happening anyway.
"Comic Change" is "Fax Machine" without the animation or the discrepancy.

"Riffle Revolve" is a neat way of reversing a card (or cards) on the bottom of a deck during a riffle shuffle.

"Ballerina Change" is a card change with a flourish that ends with the card changing with no cover.

"Replica Control" is a mean little change based on the old "card popping out of the fan" gag.

"Vanilla Extract" is a move for the "card-to-box" plot, essentially being a palm concealed and motivated by handling the box.

"Razor Burn Switch" is a sandwich switch based on Vernon, Marlo, and Kosky. Basically, a card is between two Jokers, the Two Jokers set-aside, and the card left changed to another card.

So much for the moves. And since I've gone this far, let's just go all the way: for my money, the "Ballerina Change", "Vanilla Extract", and "Razor Burn Switch" are worth the money right there; the rest is just icing on the cake. And we've still got the effects to look at.

"Pocket Protectors" has the spectator shuffling the deck and picking a card out at random. The performer then pulls two cards out of his pockets that have been there since the start. One matches the value, the other the suit, of the chosen card.

"Oops, I Did It Again" is a two-card transposition, with a back-fire sequence, then a repeat. Yes, it confused me too. Two cards change places, then change places again, then change places one more time.

"Middle Man" begins with a playing card outjogged in the middle of the deck. Two spectators pick cards, one from above the card and one from below it. When asked to reveal their cards, they name the same card which also happens to be the card sticking out of the deck.

"Bystander" is a hands-off do-it-yourself spectator-makes-a-sandwich effect. Once the performer hands the spectator the deck, the performer doesn't touch it again until after the climax.

"Subwich" begins with a two Jokers being shown and set aside. A card is chosen and placed outjogged in a packet set away from the Jokers. A card is found between the two Jokers and it is the selected card, the card in the packet having changed to be the mate of the selected cards. It's also between the other two cards of the same value.

"Speedo" has two cards chosen. One of the cards appears between the two Jokers and, with a wave, the two Jokers change to the other selected card.

"2 Legit" starts off with the production of the two Jokers and the selection of two cards. One at a time the Jokers change to the selected cards, then back to being Jokers again.

"Big Black Arrow" is a smartphone effect, with the drawing of a black arrow pointing to the chosen card and then sliding off the phone to appear on another selected card.

"Two Wrongs" has two wrong cards changing into two chosen cards.

"Asher Twitch" is "The Asher Twist", minus the angle issues.

"Troubleshooting: The Forgotten Card" is just a cute way of revealing a forced card, which is themed around the spectator forgetting their card.

"Troubleshooting: An Ending for Torn & Restored Card" is a fiendish way of finishing off any "three-quarters restored" by squeezing one of those thirds into the right position.

"D.I.Y. Fire Wallet" is a whoopee-cushion for magicians - don't expect more out of it that some laughs for yourself, which ain't bad at all.

Okay, so there are the effects, and you can put me down for "Pocket Protectors", "Oops! I Did It Again", "Bystander", "Asher Twitch", and "Troubleshooting: An Ending for Torn & Restored Card" as my favorite pieces (although I'll cop to absolutely loving "Pocket Protectors" and "Bystander").

Hopefully, that gives you a better idea of what's on the pages of Aviles' little work, because no matter the size of the page, the impact of some of these effects and the utility of some of his moves makes this book a must-have for serious card workers.

Only one caveat here and it's to skill level: nothing here is knuckle-breaking, though it's a step up from beginner's books. Think of this one as for advanced, or even those moving from the rank of beginner into more advanced material. The sleights are usually common enough to not cause any stress or strain for the average performer.

Let me wrap this up pretty much the way I started it: if you're into cards, go get Rich Aviles "Above the Fold" right now - that's pretty much the highest recommendation I can give this beauty.

"Above the Fold" by Rich Aviles
In a Blink: 10 Out of 10

Material:10
This booklet is loaded with five-star, first-class, knock-em-dead material. Strange, unique and offbeat, more than one of these pieces will find itself in many a worker's act. Yes, folks, the routines here are just that good.

Quality:10
Aviles writing is superb. Instructional, sure, but more than that: entertaining and engaging. Big thumbs up here.

Illustrations: 10
There are plenty of photos here and all well placed. Aviles made sure you'd have no problem learning his material.

Presentation: 10
This is what it's all about, and what it's about is weird in a great kinda way. His Aviles presentations are gorgeously off-beat.

Shane

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