Almost everybody carries a smart phone. Magic with a cell phone is therefore modern day magic.
Here is the effect of Moving Home.
The performer displays his smart phone and draws attention to the Home button situated at the bottom of the phone. He presses the button and his phone’s screen lights up. Everybody knows that this button is used to start up a mobile phone.
He switches off the phone, and then proceeds to move the Home button sideways!
At this point everyone is amazed that the performer can move a button that should be fixed onto the cell phone.
Now, without even touching the button, he causes it to move across the screen all the way to the middle of the top of the phone, where the Receiver and the face-time Carmera are located! But can it function? The performer presses on this button and the screen lights up!
The phone is switched off, and the performer causes the button to move back by itself all the way across the screen to its original poistion at the bottom of the phone. He presses on the button, and the screen lights up!
At this point, the performer hands his phone out to the spectators for examination. Moving Home is the moving Home button effect of a smart phone.
You receive a well produced instructional DVD and a couple of materials for you to construct your own gimmick.
The good points of Moving Home are:
The effect is highly visual – not only does the fixed button move, it is shown to be operational at whichever point it is moved to on the phone.
It can be performed on different types and makes of cell phone. Once you understand the secret behind this effect, you can adapt it to any type of phone that meets certain characteristics. However, the gimmick has to be customised to that make and type of phone. The best way is to construct the gimmick for your own cell phone. When you find a spectator who has the same colour, model and make of cell phone as yours, you can actually borrow his or her phone for performance. This raises the effect to become magic with a borrowed object and increases the effectiveness of the trick greatly.
The phone can be given out for examination at the end of the performance. This is a strong point.
With the sophistication and abundance of apps on the mobile phone, it is fortunate that this effect cannot be attributed to the secret use of any of these apps or software. Credit for the magic therefore belongs solely to the performer. This is an important point.
Once set up, the effect is easy to perform and reset. This is therefore suitable for walkaround performance.
Points for consideration of Moving Home are:
Some arts and crafts skill are needed to construct the gimmick suitable for your cell phone. If this is a problem for you, you can get a DIY person to make the gaff for you.
There are some set-up and clean-up on your mobile phone to do, but nothing difficult. You need to practise in order to be able to perform the effect properly. Some audience management skill is also needed. Again, both are not difficult to accomplish.
As with most animation effects, you may have to pay attention to the lighting in your perofrming area, but nothing very critical.
Herman of SansMinds Creative Lab does a very good job in providing clear instructions in the DVD. He also covers the subject matter well. In the event your mobile phone poses some difficulty for the movement of the “button”, he suggests a “manual” way of doing it. You get the same effect except the button does not move by its own across the screen. You have to physically move the button with one of your fingers. This may diminish the impact somewhat, but the overall effect is still visual and powerful. (8/10 star rating)
