Episode 7 "The Turbo Tube"

More Review

On the DVD Mark Presley gives you several ideas how you can use the Turbo Tube. Holiday themed presentations and all. However this is again very trivial. Think change bag and you have all the many routines that you can do with it. But there is an aspect I didn't mention in the video. It is amazingly satisfying to do. But I guess that holds true for all sorts of apparatus.

So I did a routine using the Turbo Tube for my friends, which I call my my core group. I actually stuffed three colored silks into the tube, then shot them out and they were knotted together with one another. I honestly asked them what they thought of the trick. And I got an honest answer: "You love your toys don't ya!" So it came across as a toy. Well....

The second group was the "stranger" group. All see me doing magic for the first time. It was a stage show for children. Actually the perfect audience for it. I kept the colored silks in the tube and only prior to the trick I took them out leaving the tube on the table in the shade behind me. I did a few gags, miscalling the colors of the pieces of silk. Very standard stuff. Then I turned back with the pieces and stuffed them into the tube. I never made any mention that the tube should look empty. I just left the the way it was. And maybe that was for the better. As soon as the blendo shot out I ditched the tube. Was it deceptive? I couldn't tell, the laughter was so intense that the children obviously didn't care about the method, even though it was so obvious.

And the third group was a normal formal booking. A wedding. I told the audience in advance that the next bit is for review purposes as I was just testing a new thing. The reaction was a laugh when the confetti shot out. A laugh. No wow, no "how did you do that?" Just a laugh. So I decided, if I want a laugh, I might use it again.

Watch the demo:



Even More Review

Mark obviously put a lot of work into this. And I can imagine that to him the Turbo Tube is his baby. However sometimes a child looks good only to the parent. I tried to find reviews of the Turbo Tube online an all I found was this lonely statement entitled "Confetti Launcher":

"What attracted me to this product was the confetti launcher feature. You don't need any co2 cartridges. the silk or confetti goes anywhere from 5 feet to 10 feet depending on how you have the gimmick set up. You can't shoot handkerchiefs larger then 18 inches and even that's pushing it if you don't follow the exact institutions. The dvd video tutorial need to be more crisp, but I've seen a lot worse. Presley goes into great detail of the Turbo Tube. I was impressed by the design. It didn't look like your common sparkly birthday magic prop. It looked like professional.

The handkerchief that came with the effect wasn't silk, but a rayon material. It looked quite raggedy, but I guess it was supposed to judging on how it looked when I saw the dvd tutorial. Overall I'm pleased. It works and I think this will work well in my stages shows."

There you have it. One review that is split. Arguing that the shooting part is the feature that attracted him to buy it and then some lines about how it has disadvantages. This is pretty much how I feel.

The Turbo Tube is far away from being a main stream product. It has it's very specific use and can hardly be used outside of that. But it does it's job well. A piece of silk going airborne and then landing safely back on earth.