Shin Lim's 'Evolushin Of Magic' -- A Pro's Review

So let's be real with each other. We've all gotten a magic kit at one point or another. Maybe it was when we were first starting out, maybe it was when we saw the flashy advertising, maybe it was just because we had an extra twenty bucks and figured 'why not'. And most magic kits are the same kind of thing; a cheesy cardboard box filled with cheap gimmicks and a cheap deck of cards and a little booklet filled with cramped black-and-white images showing how to perform the '101 tricks' advertised on the box. They're usually good entry-level boxes, suitable for kids just learning but not offering the professional magician much of anything beyond maybe some happy nostalgia for their first Kit.

Of course, there's always exceptions to the rule; and those exceptions ought to be showcased when they come up.

Let's talk about Shin Lim. If you've never heard of this dude, let me educate you: He's one of the most talented magicians of our time. He's won multiple awards; the FISM, The AGT twice--the only magician as of this writing to ever do so--and he even brought home a Merlin award. Any way you measure him, he stacks up as a killer magician. I don't know what made him decide to team up with Murphy's Magic to create his own Magic Kit, but I'm here to tell you that I'm glad he did. The advertising says it's 'for beginners', but let me just be real: It's not only the best Magic Kit I've ever gotten my hands on, it's one that is of such quality that it can be used by beginners and pros alike. That alone makes it practically unique among its peers.

The kit is called "Shin Lim: Evolushin Of Magic", and retails for right around $50. When I first got the kit, I was honestly expecting it to be just another box full of cheap tricks and plastic props; but then I opened the thing, and the mind-blowing started. To begin with; the instruction booklet included with the box contains detailed step-by-step instructions to pull off around 100 card tricks, and the booklet is in full glossy color. That alone puts the Kit in a class by itself, as most of the other Kits I've run across have all had black-and-white instructions.

But that was just the start; The kit also includes 5 well-known utility devices that any professional magician would immediately recognize, as well as numerous packet tricks and even--to my delight--a pretty decent deck of cards. The deck is unfortunately Bridge-sized rather than Poker-sized, but probably that's because a Bridge deck would be easier for kids and their smaller hands to handle, so I can't complain too much. The cards are plastic-coated, but the finish is smooth and easy to work with. I could perform tricks with this deck no problem.

The Kit contains more than just tricks, too. It includes over 2 hours of video teaching by Shin Lim himself where he teaches the tricks by walking his wife Casey Kathleen through the needed steps. It's a cool little take on instruction videos because we actually get to see how a beginner learns the tricks, rather than just watching Shin himself look at the camera and demonstrate. It's a little touch, but it's pretty neat. There's also some bonus teaching from Blaise Sierra, a fairly well-known magician who has performed at the Magic Castle and has also appeared on Penn And Teller's 'Fool Us'.

Shin also includes some pointers on the Gimmicks included in the Kit and how they might be customized to make your own Gimmick so that the trick could be made to suit your individual style. He makes mention in one of his videos that one of the problems with magic is that when we're given a trick, we tend to take on the character of the magician who created the trick, rather than making it our own. In this Kit, Shin encourages us to not just do things the way he teaches us, but to take the trick and make it our own.

And even THAT isn't the end of it. Remember how in the cheap magic kits you got as a kid that once a trick broke, that was the end of it? Not so in Evolushin. The kit contains material to help you repair some of the utility items, so that if you accidentally snap one of them in half chances are there's a method of easily repairing it included in the Kit. It's that kind of forethought that really sets this kit above others I've seen.

Okay, so you can probably tell by now; I love this Kit. It's got great teaching in it for the beginning magician, it comes with all kinds of cool gimmicks and utilities in place of the usual cheap plastic junk, and it's obvious to me that Shin and Murphy's put some real thought into how this Kit could be useful not just for beginners but for the experienced pro. I can tell you right now; with the materials included in the Evolushin Magic Kit, any magician could pick up this box and perform a credible show almost immediately. And it would be a GOOD show. That's how cool this Kit is. For 50 bucks, I can't recommend it enough.

If you're a beginner just starting out in the magic world, or if you're a seasoned pro looking for a good Impromptu Show Kit, or just want a cool box full of cool stuff, you won't go wrong picking up Shin Lim's Evolushin Of Magic. It's just that good.

By:

MrBurnZZ