LED Astray
Type: close up, walk-around
Skill Level: 
Retail Price: $15 postpaid
Available from:
Mark Joerger
220 Boice Street S.
Salem, OR 97302-4407
Joerger@open.org
Effect: Three light emitting diodes are dumped out of a matchbox
onto the table, and the magi produces a small battery. The lights are touched
to the battery one at a time: two of them light green and are given to
the spectator to hold, the third lights red and is returned to the matchbox
by the spectator.
The spectator then places either of the green lights on top of the closed matchbox. The magi covers the box with an instant with his/her hand, and claims that the two lights have changed places! To prove his claim; the magi touches the exposed light to the battery and ... it's still green. Confused, the magi opens the box and tries the light inside....it's green too !!
The magi looks suspiciously at the spectator's hand, and openly removes
the light. When touched to the battery, it lights up a brilliant red.
Performance Time: about 3 minutes
Reset Time: none
Angles: 
Quality: Not much by way of props here...3 LED's, an empty matchbox
and a battery.
Dr. Mitch: Guess what ? I LIKED this. I started showing it to my test audiences (one of the benefits of having a steady influx of patients). They liked it. It is direct...simple to follow and has a nice magical ending. I patter it up ... speaking of David Copperfield and Claudia Schiffer. You need to take the time ... and explain things as you go. Say ... "OK, the green light is here and the red light is there." Remind the audience of the conditions before the transposition takes place. For the average lay audience I would highly recommend this. If, however, your audience is composed of electronic engineers...you will get no response. More than that I cannot say.
A little overpriced at $15, this is none the less a cute little effect. If you do table hopping, its perfect, a miniature metamorphosis you can carry in your pocket.
Mike Maione: Like many, if I am not fooled when a trick is demonstrated, I almost never believe the trick is any good. I know that's pretty stupid because knowing a lot of magic, I am harder to fool than the average lay person. And who's looking to fool magicians anyway? Still, you need to fool me at least a little to make me think the trick has value. LED Astray didn't puzzle me for even a fraction of a second. In fact, just reading the effect I knew exactly how it was done, and I'm neither an electrical engineer nor a refugee from Radio Shack. So, it's hard for me to like this trick.
Now, I admit I do know how to solder two wires together, and maybe that's a little more than the average Joe. So, I'll give you another reason I pass on this one. After the transposition, you can't give out the LED's and battery to the spectator to examine without running the risk of revealing the secret. Sure, good patter and presentation should stifle the spectator's urge to ask to try the LED for himself but you know there's always one who will cavil unless you let him try it for himself.
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