 |
Introducing Branded, the Painless Card Blister by Tim Trono!
IMAGINE:
You show a painful looking blister on your thumb from your last attempt at this hazardous stunt. Someone selects a card and concentrates on it while gazing into the flame of your lighter. You pinch the flame and the bubbling blister magically morphs into the configuration of their card. In other words, the image of their thought appears fried into the flesh of your fingertips--seared into your sizzling skin - BRANDED!
This gimmick takes over where the other gimmicks left off. It’s now a very practical, easy, no-nonsense method that happens in the open, with nothing to hide! No more pocket management. No more public displays of affection. No more unwanted glances.
With Branded, you’ll leave the room in a blaze of glory!
$48.45
(You will be taken to the online magic shop where you can get it.)
In the magic community, you don't reproduce a trick unless you've made a change. Pyro Perception by Brent Walske hit the magic scene a number of years ago. Now there is a new DVD available for an effect called Branded by Tim Trono. We assumed it was the same effect reproduced, based on hearsay, until we contacted Tim Trono. Below, Tim gives us the truth of the matter. What do you think? Contact information is in the navigation bar.
David Christopher asked me to share my thoughts reference the concern that my new effect Branded is a rip off of Pyro Perception. The short of it is that Branded is a VERY different gimmick, a different effect, and thus a legitimate release as it takes it to the next level. This is how magic grows and improves. The unfortunate fact is that Ken Sands and Brent Walkse who put out Pyro Perception are apparently trying to stir some of their friends up without the facts, without acknowledging the TRUE history of this effect, without acknowledging or crediting anyone before them, without looking at and acknowledging the differences, etc. Much of the debate can be viewed in my posts on the magic Cafe - in particular look at pages 3 and 4.
Basically, in the early 1970's Jack Tillar created the standard blister trick which was published in Tarbell # 7. Branded is the only blister effect available authorized and commercially endorsed by Jack Tillar. In 1986 Eric Mason was the FIRST to release the card blister effect titled “Stigma". In 2002, Pyro Perception was released by Brent Walske and Ken Sands with no credit or permission.
I can cite hundreds of examples where an effect came out and a new and possibly better (sometimes not even better) method came out. Look at the many variations that have been released of 3 Fly (Kenner), of Easy Money (Patrick Page), of Linking Cards (Paul Harris), etc. etc. Let’s take one of these as an example. Patrick Page has Easy Money out. Fred Kaps changes the gimmick to make the change more visible and releases it as Flash Cash. Greg Wilson releases Hundy 500- same effect but in the opinion of many with all due respect to Patrick Page, it is better. Then Heiny 500 comes out and takes it up a step beyond Hundy 500, and then Extreme Burn comes out and takes it a step up beyond Heiny 500. Don’t you think when Heiny 500 came out it negatively effected sales of Hundy 500? Absolutely it did. Don’t you think when Extreme Burn came out it negatively affected sales of Heiny 500? Absolutely it did. I know Ken sells Heiny 500 and Hundy 500 in his shop. But I guess that is OK? But in the examples cited the creator felt (as do I) that the effects were taken to a new higher level. That’s how magic improves; period. Does it hurt the sales of the item prior… the unfortunate answer is yes. Will something better than Branded come out and eventually hurt the sales of Branded… most likely yes. But again, if the magic gets better than it is justifiable. I can sleep at night knowing I did my due diligence and gave historically accurate credit. I don’t know if Ken and Brent can; as they chose not to do the homework or to acknowledge anyone (even after the fact from my conversation with them when they acknowledged finding out about Eric Mason – their instructions still do not reflect Eric Mason or Jack Tillar). I know Greg Wilson was very disturbed that his friends Ken and Brent chose to ignore facts, chose not to look at the reality of the situation, tried to leverage their friendship to put pressure on me to drop this, etc. In my opinion, I wouldn't recommend anyone make assumptions without all of the facts and jump on Greg unless you know and consider some of the manipulative and quite frankly unethical behavior I unfortunately saw by Ken Sands. Quite frankly the decision to release Branded or not was not Greg’s however. Greg provided tremendous input and help and I am forever grateful. But this is my release and I looked at it over and over to ensure it was ethically correct in every facet – I was 100% comfortable to continue. In addition I shared this in great detail with some of my most ethically careful friends such as Paul Harris, Kenton Knepper, Jack Tillar, Michael Weber, Eric Maurin, etc. to see if I was being blind and they all felt it was a significant improvement and an ethically sounds decision to release it.
I hope that clarifies some of the concern. I can absolutely assure anyone reading this that if I felt the slightest bit of concern that I was "walking the line" ethically I would simply never ever have released Branded nor would Greg Wilson partake in the project. It's simply a much better way to do the effect (which goes back to Jack Tillar and Eric Mason and NOT Brent Walske and Ken Sands though they'd like you to believe that- I am happy to supply documentation to anyone on the originals) and quite frankly I (and even Jack Tillar) feel that the effect is changes by the idea of the morphing. It's simply too much for an audience to "buy" that you created a blister AND it was in the shape of a card. I used to use Pyro Perception but Branded is just MUCH MUCH stronger. You can make the blisters very openly and the morphing really SELLS the effect and makes it more believable.
I hope I have addressed any concerns. I am happy to have anyone send concerns, questions, etc. directly to me at timtrono@aol.com and I will be happy to engage in discussion with anyone. I hope readers will not jump onto the negative bandwagon without all of the FACTS. In my opinion this is a case of a creator wanting to harm a new creation that will negatively effects sales of theirs before it gets out the door.
|
|
Introducing Branded, the Painless Card Blister by Tim Trono!
IMAGINE:
You show a painful looking blister on your thumb from your last attempt at this hazardous stunt. Someone selects a card and concentrates on it while gazing into the flame of your lighter. You pinch the flame and the bubbling blister magically morphs into the configuration of their card. In other words, the image of their thought appears fried into the flesh of your fingertips--seared into your sizzling skin - BRANDED!
This gimmick takes over where the other gimmicks left off. It’s now a very practical, easy, no-nonsense method that happens in the open, with nothing to hide! No more pocket management. No more public displays of affection. No more unwanted glances.
With Branded, you’ll leave the room in a blaze of glory!
$48.45
(You will be taken to the online magic shop where you can get it.)
