Burnout

So the other day another magician gave me an effect and I took a look at it and decided to share what I thought with y'all.

The effect is called "Burnout", and it is a vanishing ink type trick. I did a bit of research and cannot find the creator of the effect, though it did become apparent that this effect is about three years old.

The effect is that you write something on a piece of paper, take a lighter to the paper and the words disappear (so will the paper if you're not careful!!!) You can also force words to appear by putting it in the freezer.

Now, the effect comes with three pages of instructions which have three separate effects on them, none of them providing any sort of performance tips or patter so I can only imagine that most people are out there saying "Hey watch this!" If you worked in a decent presentation, as well as changing up the trick entirely, then these tricks might be passable.

The first one is really my favorite and only needs a few minor tweaks. The spectator chooses a card and you reveal a prediction. The prediction is incorrect, then by applying heat, some of the letters disappear revealing the actual chosen card.

Now I like the premise of this, but the execution is sloppy. With just a little imagination we could have come up with a routine where you have them choose a card and the prediction is shown to be wrong. Upon discovering the prediction is incorrect, a burst of flame occurs and the prediction now reads the correct card. Amazing what a bit of flash paper can do to help an effect.

Enough of the effects. How is the actual prop? Well to be honest it is a commercially available pen (I don't know if it is anymore, but it was not produced just for this effect) and the ink in it is much lighter than other, normal pens. Comparing it to other pens, it is apparent that the inks are different. All in all though, it does work as advertised. You can make the ink vanish with a flame and reappear by chilling it.

Overall I think there is great potential in this idea, but until I have a creative breakthrough it will remain in my case.

~Cameron Rivers, www.kingstoyou.com