"Paul Vigil's Ladybug" by Paul Harris
Suggested Retail USD$99.00
Available from your favorite dealer
In a Blink: 8 Out of 10

"Paul Vigil's Ladybug", a marvelous piece of magic from Paul Harris, comes with some pretty hefty baggage but, if you can work around it and through it, you'll find yourself with a startling performance piece on your hands.

The effect is simple enough: a small pocket knife is opened and your finger pricked with it, causing a small drop of blood to form on the tip of the finger. The fingertip of your other hand is pressed on the drop of blood, removed, and the blood droplet has transformed into a living ladybug.

Now, at this point I'm usually pointing you over to the demo video, but to be honest it doesn't do this one justice. Oh, it'll give you an idea of things but doesn't show "Ladybug" in it's best light. That's a shame, too, considering just how stunning a piece of magic this is.

Of course most of its stunning power comes from the unusual nature of the trick. Outside of cheap horror movies, having blood turn to bugs is just not done and just not seen. That unusual nature of "Ladybug" gives it all the power in the world and defines memorable magic.

It's also its greatest hindrance. This is one which you're going to have to pick your audiences very, very carefully. Blood, bugs, knives... a bit for kids or for restaurant work this ain't. Considering how skittish some adults are with blood and the drawing thereof, you're not perfectly safe with a group of grown-ups, either. But when everything comes together in a perfect-storm-kinda way, "Ladybug" is something else.

Let's get to the details, starting with the good parts first.

First, the handling is very clean in appearance. Your hands are shown empty throughout the handling because they are (the beautifully gimmicked knife does all the work for you -- you only have to get things into position and do one little sneaky bit which is minor work at most). Second, nobody gets hurt here: you're unharmed, the bug's unharmed... your spectators' minds may be warped a bit, but they'll live. Third, the documentation, provided on DVD, is thorough and exhaustive: you'll come away with more knowledge about ladybugs (which you'll have to get yourself, but sources are given on the disc) and their handling than you'll ever want to know, plus you'll have more than a few variants to play with. You'll have no problem getting "Ladybug" to work for you. The props themselves are gorgeous; Kueppers outdid himself with this one. That knife and the extra somethings are beautifully made and do so much of the work for you it isn't funny.

Now the bad parts.

We've already talked about the biggest problem: finding an audience for it. But from a practicality standpoint, there are issues. The set-up, done in the comfortable surroundings of your living room, is one thing; trying to reset things under fire can take some time and definitely requires privacy. Also, you'll end up carrying more in your pockets than just a knife: you'll find yourself carrying a some containers around (think lip balm-sized tubes) which ends up being a bit too much for my tastes. For the most part, this functions best as a "one-off" routine where resets and repeatability are not factors.

Or you could just opt for another idea, which is ditching the bug entirely and turning the blood droplet into another small, bug-sized load. This is the option I took for a variety of reasons, some personal, most practical. Going this route -- changing the blood into a gemstone or a small heart (bought from a craft store as they, unfortunately, aren't supplied), as suggested in the instructions, eliminates most of the problems: you lose all but one of the containers, the reset time is almost non-existant, and you can probably eliminate the trip to the bathroom (I actually just reload while I'm fumbling around in my pocket for something else -- takes all of two seconds). With a little work, I even got rid of the other container, leaving me with just carrying a small pocket knife and a huge -- to use Harris' term -- piece of strange. For me, that's as practical and efficient and still and mindblowing as I can ask for.

I have to mention this, just for the sake of completeness: there's a version taught on the DVD called "Cut and Restored Finger". This eliminates the loads entirely and is simply you puncturing your fingers, showing the blood, and then healing your finger. Granted, it takes this into the realm of heaven for being practical, but it's a lousy effect. Don't go near it. Don't think about doing it for anyone. Put the extra work into this one and present it with the transformation intact; that's the real miracle here and the only way of doing "Ladybug".

The only other thing you'll want to think about is how to present this. As expected, the disc covers handlings and variations on the theme, but the presentations are all of the "Watch This" variety. That's all well and good when the trick can carry it -- and this one can -- but there's more there to give this one a more solid basis of performance than turning blood to a bug. No long story, no dulling preamble, is necessary (I hate to admit this, but my whole presentation is four sentences), but something is in order to make this more yours and less someone else's.

I have to admit I found myself adoring "Ladybug". While not caring for the "out of the box" version of things much, playing with it proved it to be flexible enough to banish the problems and leave the miracle intact.

And it's a miracle you'll find yourself resisting not to perform every time you have an audience to experience it.

"Paul Vigil's Ladybug" by Paul Harris
In a Blink: 8 Out of 10

Practicality: 5
The set-up can be a pain, carrying all the necessary things in your pockets takes more room than you think, resets will definitely require some time and privacy, and then there's the whole thing about just when and where you can perform it. Major blows abound for this one. If you opt for the non-bug version, then you can pretty much ignore everything I just said and concentrate on the when/where part of the problem.

Workmanship: 10
This was built by Roy Kueppers and that pretty much says it all. Everything looks great and this will last a lifetime with minimal care. Big thumbs up for you getting more than everything you need to pull this one off (except the load).

Documentation: 9
The documentation is a DVD and it is packed with information on routines, handlings, the gimmicks, working with bugs... "thorough" just begins to describe it. The only problem? Some of the text (under screens called "Tips") is not legible: lots of pausing and zooming to read those little tidbits.

Effect: 10
This one staggers people. I opted for the non-bug load (personal choice on that one) and found out that, no matter how you do it, "Ladybug" knocks them for a loop.

Presentation: 7
The provided presentation is the simple "Watch This" thing which translates to this being all about the shock value. "Ladybug" has that, and if you can work a presentation that is more than what you get into things, this becomes a serious piece of theater.


Shane