Product Review: Mirrors by Diamond Jim Tyler

Diamond Jim is a long-time subscriber. I've reviewed many of his older items in past issues. Last week he was kind enough to send me two of his latest products to review: SentiMental Postcards and his new DVD entitled Mirrors. Today we'll take a look at Mirrors.

When I first looked at the DVD case which features a silver sticker about the size of a poker-faced card on it, I had flashbacks of an old Ed Hollins effect called Flipped Out which was a Twisting the Aces type effect ending with mirror backs on all the cards. Emerson & West later marketed the effect and it was a best seller for years.

Diamond Jim's approach is fresh and creative. His DVD is filled with many interesting applications for using mirrored back cards. The routines are quite well thought out, and they are relatively easy to learn with Jim teaching the required sleights. Most of the routines involve familiar counts and moves, and the experienced card man will not be challenged.

The DVD features six effects and 20 mirror stickers (19 in an envelope inside the DVD case and an extra one attached to the face of the DVD case). I was glad that he called attention to the extra one on the case during his DVD explanations. Jim includes some useful folk lore about mirrors which you can choose to incorporate into your own routines. He also includes a short brainstorming session where he quickly demonstrates several different applications for these mirrored cards.

The stickers are nice. They appear to be mylar and are very reflective. Jim spends time showing you the best way to apply them to playing cards. Some of the routines require "broken" mirrored cards and he shows you his technique for making these cards, too.

Most of these routines have their basis in familiar routines like Wild Card and Twisting the Aces, but they all include a mirror pay-off. Jim warns you to select a single routine to add to your show rather than use several mirror routines. The applications I liked most included "Broken" where a mirrored back card visually breaks when tapped against your finger, and "Superstitious" where a selected card appears to have either the only broken mirror in the pack (unlucky) or the only whole mirror in the pack (lucky).

I can see some cross-applications with Jim's ideas and Chance Wolf's Shattered which use mirrored paddles that smash and restore. Jim, himself, shows ways to incorporate the mirrors on the back of cards with Paul Harris' Twilight effect. The ideas are limitless.

I highly recommend Diamond Jim's Mirrors DVD. You can learn more about it at http://wwwdjtyler.com.

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