"365" by Chris Congreave
Suggested Retail USD$28.75
Available from your favorite dealer
In a Blink: 4 Out of 10

"365", a new effect by Chris Congreave and released by Alakazam, takes a diary effect, mixes it with card-at-any-number, throws an obvious method at it, and comes away with what amounts to a mess even before terrible workmanship and so-so documentation get added.

The effect is confusing, but here goes:

A pocket diary is handed to a spectator who is asked to turn to a day that has some sort of meaning for them (birthday, anniversary, that sort of thing). They will see a "lucky number" written by their date. A deck of cards, which has been visible since the start, is removed from the case, shuffled if you want, and then the spectator takes it and counts down to their number. The card at their number matches your prior prediction which is held inside the diary.

Right off the bat, there's a problem there, but "365" has a number of problems besides the obvious.

Let's start with the method. For my money, I want either a really slick method (at least, one I wouldn't have thought of) or a really slick gimmick (because I'm a sucker for the tools of our Art). The method here goes in a slightly skewed direction -- you'll have to look through some old books to catch the gimmick in question being described -- but for no apparent reason other than to be different (and sell you a trick deck you don't have instead of one you do and, probably, keep in your version of the proverbial sock drawer). Yes, there is a piece of this that is pretty neat stuff, but for the most part? No, there's nothing new here and it's workings should be pretty obvious to any performer.

Practicality is the next problem. You're packing a special deck which likely cannot be used for many other effects due to its construction. You'll also need to carry around the pocket diary, too. You're also need a table for best results -- there's too much here to have a spectator hold all your stuff without their arms giving out at some point. Strolling work is going to be problematic since you'll have to be careful about any onlookers seeing the climax. There are other considerations -- you'll need to deal with some heat dispersal -- but those are the deal-breakers for many of us.

The routine itself is so non-linear in construction that it bogs down on itself. Use a diary... to get a date... to get a number... to get a card. Why not streamline it? Shoot, why use the diary? Even as a McGuffin, it fails: spectators see it as anachronistic from the start and the whole "numerology" thing is too forced here to be of any use other than a quickly thrown together ploy to advance the presentation.

I'll be honest: "365" seems to have been rushed out the door, if not propelled from the point of a gun. Along with a routine and a working that seem cobbled together, you can see this most in the documentation and the gaffed deck. Peter Nardi, who usually blows me away with the thoroughness and insightfulness of anything he explains, shows none of that care here: tab A goes into slot B and that's all there is to it. That was a disappointment.

Worse still, is the deck, which in my case was so badly constructed it was unusable. Luckily, I had other decks of the same construction so I could take "365" out for a spin, but for the money I would expect a deck that is not so badly crimped in the corners from the lousy packaging or possess burrs and gashes along its edges.

Put everything together and this is not Congreave's or Alakazam's most shining moment.

If there's a saving grace to this one at all, it's in the handling, which does look very clean. But for the price, and considering the drawbacks, well, let me just sum it up.

This one is not recommended.

"365" by Chris Congreave
In a Blink: 4 Out of 10

Practicality: 5
You'll need to carry around the gimmicked deck as well as the pocket diary and that's probably a bit of real estate too much. You'll also need a table for the best effect here. Repeating this with different outcomes in a no-no, and, while we're on the subject, there's a fair amount of heat on the one piece of this that can't be examined.

Workmanship: 1
Are you kidding me? The deck is, in a word, horrible. Some of it is just due to terrible packaging (which caused a number of the cards to be severely crimped) but some of it is just plain poor manufacturing. Between the two, this is just shoddy.

Documentation: 5
The documentation -- the DVD by the usually-thorough Peter Nardi -- seems rushed and contains none of the insightfulness Nardi brings to virtually everything he explains. Still, you'll have no trouble learning the basic routine here.

Effect: 5
This plays well enough for what it is, but won't have many gasping for breath or stooping to pick their jaws off the floor.

Presentation: 5
With no real heat dispersal and and a convoluted plot, the one thing going for this -- a clean handling -- gets too muddied along the way and weakens this one considerably.

Shane

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