Next Meeting: 15 March 2025 | Theme: Annual General Meeting | Location: NLB Drama Center

COUNTERFEIT by Daniel Meadows

Let me tell you a story, a rather sad and pitiful one.  Once upon a time in a land far far away, there lives a very handsome man…me.  Haha, I’m just joking….the beginning of the story is a joke but the handsome man was real.

Anyway, let’s start the story.  I had a lot of annual leave left last year, so I made a trip to Bangkok, Thailand.  I was so excited, heard about all the exciting shows and food.  When I was there, I had a great time, everything was cheap, you can get everything there.   Food and entertainment was superb.  I did all the things that need to be done and some even twice.  Eventually, I had experienced everything and I still had plenty of time left in Bangkok.  I didn’t know what to do so I went MBK to do some shopping.

As you know, MBK is famous for fake stuff such as bags and branded watches.  As I wanted to kill some time, I decided to check out the pirated DVDs.  I was surprised by the range they had, some of the titles are still screening in cinemas.  There are very unique titles too, like this one “The Dragon with the girl tattoo”.  Pretty cool right and they even have this one “Romeo and Julian” haha…….

You must be wondering why I wrote the above story; well it’s the patter I’d use for this effect.  Counterfeit is an effect where by spectators choose two titles.  This two titles’ back matches while the rest of the titles have different backs.

The effect is simple and easy to understand but I find Meadows’ presentation too short.  The cards have very interesting titles on them and I feel the patter should work around these titles.  The titles should be milked as much as possible.  I even have one interesting title that would definitely be very funny; I’ll tell you that at the end of the review.  Though this is not a self working effect, the sleight needed is rather common and beginners should not have problem executing this sleight.

The DVD instructions are clear and everything needed is taught very clearly.  The cards are printed on good card stock and will last a long time.

I like the cards, this is what attracted me to this routine.  I even like the design of the print on the DVD, it’s just a “hand written” “counterfeit” on the DVD (I think it is printed and not hand written).   The only downside is the short duration of the performance but I’m sure this can be rectified by adding funny stories.  The cards make very good conversation topics.  Yeah, the title I’d probably be use if I am the creator of this effect would be “Saving Ryan’s privates”.

Rating:  7/10