Closer to the Original Curry Genius
For some reason there has been a flurry of Out of This World like effects recently. I am still a 30+ year performer of the classic by Paul Curry, and have looked at some of the new offerings. I was unimpressed with "A New World", since it uses a gimmicked deck and to me part of the beauty of the original was that you could do it anytime and anywhere with a borrowed deck.
So along comes Greg Rostami with his version called Cosmos. He offers a non-gimmicked version and a simple gimmicked version. There are times when you might want to perform the gimmicked version, but for the most part you should have no problems performing the impromptu version. What I like about Greg’s version is that it maintains the simiplicity of the original and at the same time enhances the fairness – with multiple shuffles, the ability to stop anywhere instead of going through the whole deck, and no pause in the middle to switch color cards. It does involve two people not one and is presented as a competition between them seeing who can get the most reds and blacks correct. This presentation works very well. There are no real moves, and just one simple piece of misdirection is required so mechanically it is almost as easy as the original. It does require a bit more nerve than the original – but if you follow Greg’s directions you’ll find it all very easy.
I am the first to admit that I have been happily performing Out of This World for so long that I am reluctant to change, but if I were to change this would be the version I would change too. I would like to see real printed instructions come with this effect, rather than just a video explanation – in fact one of the things that A New World does superbly is the instruction booklet that comes with the effect. But apart from the lack of printed directions this is a wonderful effect to have in your repotoire.
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