Frozen in Time

THE BLURB:
A magician shows a picture of a pocketwatch which is sealed
inside a lucite block. The lucite block is kept in a
transparent plastic cover. A black spot on the plastic cover
hides the watch face so that no can see when the watch was
photographed. The magician asks a spectator to name any
hour. (This is not the magician's choice or a force.) Then
the lucite block is removed from the cover revealing that
the watch diplays the same hour as the spectator's choice.

Frozen in Time allows you to predict a randomly selected
time with nothing more complicated than a photograph. No
electronics, no complicated gimmicks.

Comes complete with picture in lucite block, transparent
cover and instruction sheet.

MY COMMENTS:
This has been around for awhile, but is only now available
to me. I've had many, many requests for this and, when you
see it, you'll know why. It's a beautifully made prop that
looks exactly like a special photograph that's been
protected in a special plexiglass frame. Of course, it's a
small frame, so this effect is really only suitable for
close-up or one-on-one performances. The effect, as
described above, is simple. Any hour is named and it's not
a force. The photograph in the frame is revealed to show a
pocket watch that displays the same hour.

Now, I can talk quite a bit about the wonderful quality of
the prop, how realistic that photo looks, or that, even
knowing the secret, you really can't tell that the
photograph is gimmicked (yet it is). Instead, I'm going to
address the question of why use this when one can use a real
watch that will accomplish the same effect. It's definitely
a valid question and one that must be understood that there
is a significant difference with advantages and
disadvantages to each. The advantage to using a watch is
that it's more authentic to use a watch in a watch effect.
The advantage to using an encased photo is that no layman
would ever suspect that you can do with the photograph what
you're really doing. In other words, the named time that
appears on the photograph is just impossible to an audience.
The only consideration to this is that you can't let anyone
else handle the lucite block, but you can let them touch the
protective plastic to see that it's solid, which is all
that's necessary.

This really is a beautiful prop that, though made by a
magician, could easily and powerfully be used by a
professional mentalist. Personally, I don't care for the
transparent cover, but it needs to be there and it does look
like it's use is protective. However, the black spot on the
cover that hides the watch is just totally unnecessary.
I've already removed mine. When I initially display the
photo in lucite block which inside the cover, I merely hold
my fingers to cover up the watch section on the photo.
Anyhow, besides the block and and the cover, you get a
single instruction sheet with the instructions. That's all
you need, because this imported effect from Masuda is so
very easy to do. I definitely recommend this for anyone who
does close-up effects.