THE BLURB:
Imagine an effect that packs in to your wallet, taking up
very little room. An effect that packs such a punch when you
perform it that your spectators get goosebumps just thinking
about it. Imagine an effect that people talk about for years
to come.
'Heirloom' is all of this. It is a 'Mental/Magic' kind of
effect, suitable for casual performance, table-hopping,
strolling magic and more. It comes with a very strong
presentation that will captivate your audience and lead to a
shattering climax. It could possibly be the greatest
performance piece you ever own!
The 'Heirloom' is a old sepia photograph. Of your Great
Uncle Charlie - a superstitious old gambler. The photograph
clearly shows a prediction made by the spectator to be 100%
correct. And... it can always be examined.
'Heirloom' takes the whole concept right to the very edge;
the new ideas introduced will blow your audience away. The
presentation, which you are given in full, delivers an
emotionally charged moment of astonishment to your
spectators and shows no mercy!
This is the first and only time Kenton Knepper has
authorized his principle for use in an effect. You will fool
magicians who already know this principle with 'Heirloom'!
And what's more, just look at the quality of the work
involved. It is beautiful.
Heirloom includes high quality props and a full description
of the 'Kolossal Killer' principle and a completely scripted
presentation for the effect that will absolutely blow your
audience away.
MY COMMENTS:
As the ad suggests, this is a very elegant version of
Kolossal Killer that features a few changes. First, the
revelation is not done with playing cards, but with
"antique" pictures that have playing cards on them.
Secondly, Kenton added something to these cards to cover
just about every possible card named. If you're familiar
with Kolossal Killer, you know what I'm talking about.
Anyhow, that something is now contained in a separate
letter.
According to the blurb, "you will fool magicians who already
know this principle." Frankly, I doubt it. But I don't
think that any serious mentalist would buy this effect
strictly to be able to fool magicians. Interestingly, when
I first started hearing about this, I thought this was going
to be a magicians' version of a classic piece of mentalism.
Well, it is, since the written presentation calls for
explaining how the performer got into magic. Fortunately,
this version works very well and doesn't destroy any of the
psychological subtleties Kenton originally conceived.
Rather, it improves upon them. And you can certainly alter
the "how I got into magic" presentation.
In the forward by Kenton Knepper, Kenton points out that
"'Heirloom' is a specific effect, where my 'Original
Kolossal Killer' is open to many applications and
presentations." I don't think Heirloom is THAT limited.
With thought and creativity, this product can lend itself to
quite a bit of applications and presentations, as I
suggested above, but perhaps not as many as the original KK.
Heirloom comes poly-bagged with a 12-page instruction book,
a set of pictures, a printed copy of the letter, and a blank
copy of the stationary to write your own version of the
letter. Interestingly, unlike the use of playing cards, you
want these pictures to become worn and soiled, so they'd
look old. Even taping them together after repeated use will
make these look authentic, so the props will last you a long
time. However, if you don't like using cards of any sort or
if you still don't care for Kenton's method of covering some
of the named cards, then you probably won't care too much
for this version. Otherwise, this is a wonderful variation
that I would certainly recommend.
