Stand Up Monte by Garrett Thomas

Stand Up Monte

If you're a magician who has never see or heard of a monte routine, you must be living under a rock.  Garrett Thomas has created a fabulous version of the 3 card monte that is going to be a work horse routine for thousands of magicians for years to come.  Its many strengths are visual card magic, fun audience interaction and extreme practicality making it a joy to practice and perform.

Before I go too much further into the review I will point out that Garrett Thomas has 2 versions of this effect for sale.  There is a booklet version that sells for $15 and a DVD version that sells for $30.  More on each version later. 

Marketing Fluff

So here's the marketing fluffy stuff...

In The Hands Wildcard Effect that makes sense to real-world audiences. Garrett Thomas' Stand Up Monte includes eight or more transpositions or transformations.

Draw them in with an intriguing story about games, gambling, scams, hustlers and cons.

Then add the strength of magic that happens in the spectators hands, combined with the visual power of the classic Wildcard effect.

This easy to do routine happens All In The Hands, yours and the spectators, No Table Required. Best of all, it automatically resets.

Truly Audience Tested

This routine has been used professionally by Garrett for the last 15 years with over 15,000 performances! This effect has been an underground favorite with many of the top working magicians today.

All Necessary Tools Provided

So does it live up to the marketing hype.  Sure enuff!  My one minor criticism is that this is NOT a wildcard effect; its yet another 3 card monte effect in a market place that is full of monte effects.  The good news is that this effect is probably the new King of All Montes! 

Degree of Difficulty

Don't be afraid of this effect.  Like Skinner's Monte, there are no knuckle busting moves because it uses gaffed cards to do the dirty work (not the same gaff as Skinners though).  However, the routine is long and complex from a routine and patter standpoint.  If you work on this for several hours over the course of a week or two you'll be ready to perform for live people in no time.  As always, don't perform this beauty before you can do each phase without thinking or stumbling through the patter.

Teaching

There are two versions of the Stand Up Monte available for purchases.  I decided to go with the $30 DVD version.  I read that the $15 booklet version is hard to follow and requires extra time to digest what is going on.  So the decision on which version to buy boils down to how fast you wish to learn the effect.  I recommend the DVD because this is an effect you are going to use for years to come.  $30 is cheap for an effect that packs in so much magic.  You'll probably want to order the $15 version to replace the gaffed cards as yours wear out over time.
 
The teaching on the DVD is very good.  Thomas takes you through two performances that just kill the audiences.  I usually rate DVDs higher if there are real world performances for real people in real performance locations.  First Garret Thomas teaches you the two moves.  If you have been around cards for a while, you probably know both moves already.  Then he sits down and works though each phase.  You are repeating a move over and over again that really makes no sense.  Therefore, he walks you through the timing, subtleties and pschology to help you avoid any suspicion.  There are over the shoulder teaching and performances to enhance your education. 

One minor quibble.  I didn't see where he explains his "step" move that he uses in the finale.  It was easy to see what he was doing but I think he shoudl have explained.  Maybe he does in the over-the-shoulder sections that I didn't watch.

Quantity of Effects

This is a one-trick pony...well, its more like a one-trick stallion.  No points lost for lack of material.  You get a routine that can easily eat up 5 minutes of performance time. 

Quality of Effects

Stand Up Monte is a "worker" in every sense.  Its visual.  It is engaging.  It is instantly reset and takes very little pocket space.  Its "in-the-spectators-hand."  It is easy to place your own style on this trick.  As Thomas explains, this can be routined as a magic trick or a gambling demonstration.  If you perform walkaround style venues then this is a perfect trick to add to your inventory. 

Stand Up Monte comes with 6 cards.  Really, only two cards are gaffed cards and the rest are duplicates that are used in the routine.  The cards are high quality bicycle stock.  Actually, the are mandolin backed instead of the standard bicycle backed cards.  I don't think that is going to be a problem since you are not taking these cards from a deck and they look nearly identical to bikes anyway.  I practice with my cards from 2 weeks before I even noticed the mandolin design.

Production Quality

The production quality is good.  The video is clear, the lighting is great and the sound levels are fine.  The editing is great.  As Garrett explains each phase, the live performance of the phase is replayed so that you immediately see  what the phase should look like.

Overall: 10/10

Stand Up Monte is a dynamite effect.  This trick is so much fun that I enjoy practicing it as well as performing it.  The changes are super visual.  This effect is easy to adapt to your personal style.  I actually enjoy performing this on a close up mat and not in the hands of the spectator.  I added my own touches including the Olram Subtlety and the Rhumba Count to add some convincing displays that hide the gaffed cards.  I've also started using a new finale that another friend suggested which is a super visual change of all of the black cards to the red cards.  Have fun with this baby!