 Hey everybody, welcome back to Magic Brothodoxy, my name is David and this is a Magic Review. Hey, today I want to look at the Luber Lens. This is from Paul Harris Presents and Luber Fiedler. What it is, is it's an optical device. It allows you to present an illusion using a small credit card sized utility. You want to see what it looks like? This is the Luber Lens. Pull it out, because I'm always playing with new technology and stuff. And hold out your hand. Yeah, and this is only cool if you look at it. So you've got to get your head right over top of it. Spread your fingers, okay? I'm going to put the pen here. Now watch, this is a weird optical thing if I twist it. Doesn't that look wild? It's gone. Weird, right? Look at your fingers a little. You can still see the pen, right? Yeah. Now, I'm going to start twisting it back and forth. Twisting the pen. Yeah, look. Can you feel that? Yeah, kind of. Look. I'm going to try to, you can actually start twisting it to it. You see that? Yeah. Whoa. Whoa. Weird. Doesn't that look wild? Look at it. What the hell? If I go like this. Oh my God. What happens to the pen? Oh my God. You can, if Marcia lets you, you can keep it. Oh my God. That is so weird. Proud. All right. So that was Brogue Gilbert. That video clip, that's straight off the art of astonishment series. When you get the DVD from Penguin Magic, you'll get that segment of the art of astonishment on DVD along with your own lube or lens utility. Now on the DVD, you're going to get three tricks. You're going to get one with a pen, one with a straw, and one with a mash. The entire DVD is only about nine minutes long. What I like about it, what I like about the lube or lens is it's fun and it really does pack flat. Everything fits in your wallet. You carry it between some credit cards in the little pockets in your wallet and you're good to go, carry it with you everywhere and you're always able to offer just a really stunning illusion for your spectators. All right. So a couple of questions we always ask about all of our magic reviews. The first of which is what's in the box? What's in the box? Well, it depends on what you get. If you get the DVD, then you're going to spend about $15. You're going to get the DVD and you're going to get the lube or lens. If you just get the card itself as a replacement, say like your card gets scratched or lost or cracked, you can get a replacement card for $8, but it won't come with any instruction whatsoever. Is it what I thought? It is what it is. It's this. It's a plastic card. It looks just like that. There's nothing more to it, nothing less. If you just get the card as a replacement, this is all you'll get. You'll get this in a white envelope sleeve. Now if you get the DVD, then of course you'll get the instructions and you'll know how to use it. All right. So how are the angles on this? The angles on this are pretty specific. This is really a trick you're only going to do with maybe one or two people. And the viewing area for this is strictly overhead. So it's something that you're holding down and your spectators are looking at it this direction. And that's pretty much the only way you can do this. You don't want to do this surrounded or have people on the sides of you that you will definitely see what you're doing. Can it be inspected? Absolutely. It is what it is. It's just a clear plastic card. There's nothing to look for. All of the magic is done by you as the magician using other things that you're preparing. What's the overall quality and production value of the DVD? Like I said, it's straight from the Art of Establishment series. You've got some live performance shots. You've got some over-the-shoulder sitting at a table kind of prep shots. And then you're having Bro Gilbert in Bro Gilbert fashion explain how to use this effect. All right. So is it well-made? If you don't know, Lueber Fiedler, he's a chemical engineer. He's also an amateur magician and he currently lives in the Czech Republic. This is something that he fashioned and really there's no other way to make it. So is it well-made? This is the only way to make it. And so the other thing you'll have to do is you'll have to make some other items yourself. For instance, for your pen trick, you'll have to prepare a pen similar to this. For your mashbook trick, you'll have to go get those little disposable mashes and do some prep work there and then the straw effect, the same thing. There's some work that you'll have to do on your end. All right. So how much practice does it require? Not much at all. Most of the prep work you're doing on the side and even before you start the magic trick, you're already steps ahead. And so I think that a lot of your practice could be done in performance. You know, you just perform this for a couple of people until you kind of get the Mac of it and you'll be an expert in no time. How much setup and reset is there? There's probably any. I bought a big package of 20 disposable pens and I prepped them all at once. And now I've got 20 pens for the rest of the summer that I can do magic with and give away. Same with the box of matches. You just buy one of those big, huge boxes of matches from the grocery store and you just, you know, you start prepping a couple of them in advance and you're always good to go. All right. So what are some of the positives? Positives are you're leaving your spectator with a really cool souvenir almost every time. And that's how I would do it. And I think this is how Broga would recommend you do it also. You prep your pen and then at the end of the effect, you give it away and just keep giving them away. It's a great way to kind of mentally clock how many times I've ever done this trick. You know, I've prepped 20 pens. You know, it's now your responsibility. You're going to give 20 pens away. And then, you know, after that, you'll prep 20 more. And like I said, you're leaving your spectator with this really cool souvenir and that's one of the most powerful things you can do as a magician is to leave something with somebody so that they can take it and show it to somebody else who didn't see the trick. And then they explain it and then they say, well, who did that? And you'll say, oh, the great Gandini or whatever your stage name is and don't steal that copyright infringement. And that's just a wonderful opportunity for the story and the mystery of magic to continue even long after your performance is over. All right. So what are some of the negatives? Like we say with every magic trick, there's always negatives to something. And so these are just negatives. I see they don't have to be the negatives that you see. The first of which is, you know, again, like I said earlier, this is only great for like one or two spectators at most. So if you're used to working surrounded and you're used to being in those environments, maybe this is not the best for you. Like table hopping, you know, if you have six people at dinner, this is not going to work for everyone at the table. And so people will feel left out. And the best advantage, like I said, is over. And so really you kind of have to be standing and they have to be sitting. It's really a specific arena that you're making. And so that's not really a super negative. I mean, it's always easy to get yourself into those situations. But I'm just saying think about the magic that you do and if this style will work in your routine. All right. So who would like this? Anybody who does walk around, street magic, people that like to do little things like close-up magic with little ordinary items like pens and matchbooks and coins and paper billets and things like that. I think would love the Luber lens. All right. So is it worth your money? Like I said, you can get the replacement cards for $8. You can get the DVD for $15. It's totally within your wheelhouse. You can use this over and over and over again. I'm carrying it with me all summer, just giving pens away like crazy. All right. So that's my review for the Luber lens from Paul Harris Presents. And if you'd like to purchase your own, you should head on down to pinglinmagic.com.